Set Up Printers

Printing documents and reports from Business Central is an important task for business users. Users will typically want to send print jobs directly to one of your organization's printers—no matter which Business Central client or app they're using. Because Business Central online is a cloud service, it can't directly reach local printers connected to users' devices, but it can connect to cloud-enabled printers.

To support your print needs, Business Central offers the following features:

Feature	Description	Web client	Mobile app	App for Teams
Universal Print	Universal Print is a printer management solution available as a cloud service from Microsoft. With this feature, you can set up your printers in Universal Print, then register them for use in Business Central. This feature requires a Universal print subscription and the Universal Print Integration extension
Email Print	This feature lets you set up email-enabled printers. Business Central then sends print jobs to a printer using the printer's email address. This feature requires email-enabled printers, and the Send to Email Printer extension.
Browser printing	Print jobs are handled by the print functionality of the user's browser. If a cloud printer isn't installed and set up, or if an installed printer fails, then printing will default to the printing options for the browser. The Printer field on the report request page will display (Handled by the browser).

Note

Business Central also supports custom printer extensions that add even more print features. So if any custom printer extensions are installed, you're application may include print features that aren't described in this article.

Set up Universal Print

Universal Print is a Microsoft 365 subscription-based service that runs entirely on Microsoft Azure. It gives you centralized printer management through the Universal Print portal. Business Central makes printers set up in Universal Print available to client users through the Universal Print Integration extension.

The complete setup requires you work in both Microsoft Azure, using the Azure portal, and in Business Central.

Supported printers

Business Central supports the same printers as Universal Print, which can be either Universal Print–compatible or non-compatible printers. Non-compatible printers can't communicate with Universal Print directly, so they require extra connector software, which is provided by Universal Print. Some older printers may not be supported.

Prerequisites

For Business Central

• Business Central 2021 release wave 1 or later

• Universal Print Integration extension is installed

  This extension is published and installed by default as part of Business Central online and on-premises. You can verify whether it's installed on the Extension Management page. For more information, see Installing and Uninstalling Extensions in Business Central.

• Business Central on-premises:

  • Azure Active Directory (AD) or NavUserPassword authentication is configured

  • An application for Business Central is registered in your Azure AD tenant and Business Central

    Like other Azure services that work with Business Central, Universal Print requires an app registration for Business Central in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). The app registration provides authentication and authorization services between Business Central and Universal Print.

    Your deployment may already be using an app registration for other Azure services, like Power BI. If so, then use the existing app registration for Universal Print as well, instead of adding a new one. The only thing you'll need to do, in this case, is modify the app registration to include the relevant print permissions for Microsoft Graph API.

    To registered an app an set the proper permissions, follow the steps described in Register an application in Azure Active Directory.

For Universal Print

• A Universal Print subscription/license for your organization.

  For more information, see License Universal Print.

• You have the Printer Management and Global Administrator roles in Azure.

  To manage Universal Print, your account must have Printer Management and Global Administrator roles in Azure AD. These roles are only needed for managing Universal Print. They aren't required by users to use the printers from Business Central.

Set up Universal Print and add printers in Microsoft Azure

Before you can start managing Universal Print printers in Business Central, there are several tasks you'll need to go through to get Universal Print up and running in Azure with the printers you want use.

For detailed instructions on how to get set up, see Get started: Set up Universal Print in the Universal Print documentation. Here's an overview of the steps you'll need to complete. Most of these steps are done in the Azure portal.

1. Assign Universal Print licenses to yourself and other users.

   How you assign the license depends on whether you're integrating with Business Central online or on-premises.

   • With Business Central online, you assign licenses by using the Microsoft 365 admin center.

     For more information, see Microsoft Admin Center Help - Assign licenses to users.

   • With Business Central on-premises, you assign licenses in your Azure tenant using the Azure portal.

     For more information, see Azure Directory - Assign or remove licenses in the Azure Active Directory portal.

2. Install the Universal Print connector for registering printers that can't communicate with Universal Print directly.

   Most in-market printers can't communicate with Universal Print directly. You'll have to install the Universal Print connector for these printers. For more information, see Installing the Universal Print Connector.

3. Register your printers in Universal Print.

   Registering a printer makes Universal Printer aware of the Printer.

   • For printers that can communicate directly with Universal Print, follow the steps provided by the printer manufacturer.

   • For other printers, register the printers by using the Universal Print connector.

     For more information, see Printer registration.

4. Change printer properties (optional)

   After a printer is registered, you can view and modify printer properties, like default preferences.

   For more information, see Manage printer metadata settings.

5. Give users permission to the printers.

   For more information, see Printer Permissions.

6. Share the printers.

   Any printer that you want to use in Business Central will have to be shared in Universal Print.

   For more information, see Share a Printer.

7. Enable document conversion.

   Universal Print renders content for print in XPS format. Some legacy in-market printers don't support XPS content rendering—in many cases, only PDF format. Printing to these printers will fail unless Universal Print is set up to convert documents to the printer-supported format.

   For more information, see Document Conversion Overview.

   Tip

   If none of your printers require PDF content rendering format, we recommend that you don't enable document conversion because it might affect the print output quality.

Now, you're ready to add the printers to Business Central, set up default printers for reports, and print.

Add Universal Printer printers to Business Central

After printers are set up and shared in Universal print, you're ready to them to Business Central for use. There are two ways to add Universal Print printers. You can add the printers all at once or individually, one at a time.

Adding printers individually let's you set up the same Universal Print printer in Business Central more than once. Then, for each added printer, you can change the print settings, like paper tray, size, and orientation. This way, you can set up printers for different reports and documents that have special output requirements.

1. Choose the icon, enter Printer Management, and then select the related link.

2. Select Universal Print, and then choose one of the following options:

   • Add all Universal Print printers to add all printers that aren't already added. You can use this option even if there are already printers added.

   • Add a Universal Print printer to add a specific printer.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions.

   • If you chose Add all Universal Print printers, then the Add Universal Print Printers setup starts.

   • If you chose to Add a Universal Print printer, then the Universal Printer Settings page appears. Fill in the Name field, the select ... next to the Print Share in Universal Print field to select the Universal Print printer. Fill in the remaining fields as needed. Hover over a field to read a short description..

   These actions verify your Azure AD setup (for on-premises), check that your have Universal Print license, and then finally adding the printers.

   Note

   For on-premises, if this is the first time connecting to Universal Print, the AZURE ACTIVE DIRECTORY SERVICE PERMISSIONS page appears and you'll be prompted to give consent to Azure Services. You only have to do give consent once.

After a printer has been added, you can view and change its settings from the Printer Management. Just select the printer, then choose Edit printer settings.

Set up Email Print

Prerequisites

• Business Central 2020 release wave 1 or later

• Send to Email Printer extension is installed

  This extension is installed by default. For information about installing extensions, see

• Email functionality is set up.

  For more information, see Set Up Email.

Add an email printer

The Printer Management page shows you the printers that are currently set up. The page also gives you access the Settings page for each printer to edit an existing setup or set up a new printer.

1. Choose the icon, enter Printer Management, and then select the related link.

2. Select Email Print, and then choose Add an email printer.

3. On the Email Printer Settings page, fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.

   Note

   You must manually select the appropriate paper size for a printer as no local printer or user settings can be stored.

   Beware that the Email Printer extension is set to A4 paper size by default, which isn't suited in North America, for example.

Privacy Notice

If you use the Email Printer extension, then all or some print jobs will be sent to the email address configured for the printer. We strongly recommend that a unique email ID is tied to a printer device using only the official services provided by the hardware manufacturer, such as HP ePrint, KonicaMinolta EveryonePrint, or Epson Email Print.

Take all necessary privacy precautions, including ensuring that the email printing solution has properly configured permissions, privacy settings, and retention policies. It is your responsibility to provide a correct, verified, and operational email address. For more information, see Microsoft Privacy Statement.

Set up default printers

There are a couple ways to set up printers that will be used by default for print jobs. A default printer is useful if you work with different reports that require different printers because of their placement in the company or their output capabilities.

Set a printer as a default printer for all print jobs

The Printer Management page lets you set up a printer as a default printer for all print jobs. You can specify the printer as default for you only or for all users.

1. Choose the icon, enter Printer Management, and then select the related link.

   Tip

   You can also open the Printer Management page from the Printer Selections page by choosing Printer Management.

2. On the Printer Management page, select a printer from the list, choose Manage, then choose Set as my default printer or Set as default printer for all users.

Note

Setting a default printer from the Printer Management will add an entry in the Printer Selections.

Set a default printer for specific reports

The Printer Selections page let's you specify the printer that a report will use by default. Default printers are set on a user-account basis. You can set a default printer for just yourself, another user, or all users.

Important

For Business Central on-premises, the Printer Selections page can only be used for cloud printers defined by printer extensions, like Email Print and Universal Print printers. It can't be used for local printers.

1. Choose the icon, enter Printer Selections, and then select the related link. Instead, from the Printer Management page, select a printer, and then choose the Printer Selections action.
2. Choose the New action to add a printer selection for a specific report.
3. Fill in the fields as necessary.

The specified report is now set up to print to the selected printer by default.

Note

When you print the report in question, you can select a different using the Print field on the request page.

Note

If you do not set a report up for a specific printer on the Printer Selections page, then it will be printed to the default printer of the company, as defined from the Printer Management page.

You or the administrator can also use the Printer Selections page to define other variations of printing for users and reports. The following table describes the combination of values to specify different printing setup for a report.

To	Set the following values
Print a report to a specific printer for all users	Specify values in the Report ID and Printer Name fields and leave the User ID field blank.
Print all reports to a specific printer for a specific user	Specify values in the User ID and Printer Name fields and leave the Report ID field blank. This entry does the same as the Set as my default printer action on the Print Management page.
Set the default printer for all reports for all users	Specify a value in the Printer Name field and leave the User ID and Report ID fields blank. This entry does the same as the Set as default printer for all users action on the Print Management page.
Print a specific report to the user's default printer	Specify a value in the Report ID field and leave the Printer Name and User ID fields blank.
Print a specific report to a specific printer for a specific user	Specify values in all three fields.

Note

More specific printer selections take precedence over a more general printer selections. For example, a printer selection that has values in the User ID, Report ID, and Printer Name fields takes precedence over a printer selection that has blank entries in the User ID or Report ID fields.

Sizing Print Jobs

Cloud printing is designed for documents of a reasonable size. Most cloud services, including PrintNode and HP ePrint, have a limit of 10 MB per job. If you need to print larger reports, you may have to split them in multiple printouts.

See Also

Printing a Report
Working with Business Central
Run Batch Jobs
Send Documents by Email

Note

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