Minimum requirements for using Continia Expense Management (on-premises)
This article describes the minimum requirements and recommendations for using Expense Management in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises. These minimum requirements are different from the ones relating to the online version of Business Central. For information about the online requirements see, Minimum requirements for using Continia Expense Management (online).
Important
As Expense Management is an integrated part of Business Central, the minimum requirements for Business Central also apply to Expense Management.
Browsers
We recommend using one of the following web browsers with the latest updates applied:
- Google Chrome
- Mozilla Firefox
- Apple Safari
- Microsoft Edge
Using Internet Explorer can cause errors and rendering issues. If Internet Explorer is the only option, you must update it to the latest version.
Screen resolution
The screen resolution must be at least 1440 × 900, as lower resolutions make it difficult to use the Expense Management document viewer properly. We recommend using a screen resolution of 1680 × 1050 or higher.
Note
Zooming in your browser or changing your display’s scale and layout settings may disturb your viewing experience, as this isn’t fully supported.
Mobile devices
Expense Management covers several applications that you can access via web browsers or as mobile apps, see Become familiar with Expense Management. It is also used differently depending on user role and device:
- The Continia Expense App (mobile app) — used by expense users
- The Continia Expense Portal (web portal) — used by expense users
- The Continia Web Approval Portal (web portal) — used by approvers
- Business Central (web client and mobile app) — used by approvers and bookkeepers (see info on limitations when using the mobile app below under Business Central)
The Expense App — is a dedicated mobile app that's fully supported on mobile devices.
The Expense Portal — you can access it on mobile devices. However, we do not recommend this as it's not optimized for mobile.
Tip
When you use mobile devices to submit expenses, we recommend using the dedicated mobile Expense App instead.
The Web Approval Portal — is a dedicated Continia client, so the use of this lies outside of Business Central. It is fully supported on mobile devices.
Business Central — is generally optimized for mobile and easily accessible on mobile devices, but the look and feel is different from when you use it on a computer. Most Expense Management features in Business Central work on mobile devices. However, this isn’t officially supported, which means that not all functionality is available in the mobile version of Business Central.
Dynamics NAV Web client requirements
Expense Management only supports the Dynamics NAV Web client from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 or later.
Continia Expense App
The Expense App is compatible with any Android or iOS device that meets the following software requirements:
Android:
Versions supported: 9.0 or later. Install the app on your device.
iPhone:
Versions supported: iOS 14 or later. Install the app on your device.
Continia Web Approval Portal
See Pre-requisites to use the Continia Web Approval Portal (on-premises), to understand the requirements for using the Continia Web Approval Portal with Business Central on-premises.
Firewall requirements
The firewall must allow outgoing traffic on ports 80 and 443 (HTTPS) from the computer that performs the Continia Expense Management activation and downloads the Expense Management configuration and document files. For classic NAV clients, this is the computer that you’re using. For NAV RTC, it’s the computer running the NAV Service Tier.
To take full advantage of Expense Management during setup and daily use, you must have access to the internet. You may also have to configure the following firewall settings to activate Expense Management and ensure that your setup is secure. However, this is often not necessary.
Important
If you allow all outgoing traffic from your clients and servers, you don't have to configure any firewall settings for outgoing traffic. However, if your policies for outgoing network traffic are restricted in any way, you must configure your firewall to allow the traffic below.
Note
All Continia resources are hosted in a Microsoft Azure environment. This means the IP addresses associated with each of the following domain names are subject to change at Microsoft’s discretion. If the IP addresses do change, you can prevent a sudden stop of all internet-related functionality by allowing URL filtering rather than IP filtering.
Settings for clients and servers
From all NAV/Business Central clients and servers, you must allow outgoing traffic to the following addresses on the specified ports:
| Address | Port(s) | Direction | Environment |
|---|---|---|---|
| auth.continiaonline.com | 443 | Outgoing | Production |
| demoauth.continiaonline.com | 443 | Outgoing | Test |
| license.continiaonline.com | 443 | Outgoing | Production |
| demolicense.continiaonline.com | 443 | Outgoing | Test |
| codownloads.blob.core.windows.net | 80, 443 | Outgoing | Both |
| cem.continiaonline.com | 443 | Outgoing | Production |
| democem.continiaonline.com | 443 | Outgoing | Test |
| notification.continiaonline.com | 443 | Outgoing | Production |
| demonotification.continiaonline.com | 443 | Outgoing | Test |
Settings for sending emails
To send emails to expense users and approvers, you must allow outgoing traffic to the following server on the specified port:
| Address | Port(s) | Direction | Environment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your email server | 25 (unsecured SMTP) as standard, but can be others | Outgoing | N/A |
Settings for using the Continia Web Approval Portal
When using the Continia Web Approval Portal hosted by Continia Software (www.continiaonline.com), you must allow incoming traffic from the following addresses and ports to the NAV/Business Central Web Services server:
| Address | Port(s) | Direction | Environment |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUN IP: 23.102.56.117 (Ireland, covering Northern Europe) | SOAP service (default: 7047) | Incoming | Production |
| USC IP: 13.89.38.96 (Iowa, covering Central US) | SOAP service (default: 7047) | Incoming | Production |
| AUE IP: 23.101.213.2 (New South Wales, covering East Australia) | SOAP service (default: 7047) | Incoming | Production |
| DEMO IP: 40.118.71.119 | SOAP service (default: 7047) | Incoming | Test |
Important
For all of the above firewall settings, ensure no proxy server or antivirus software is blocking your internet access, and always consult your IT department to ensure this is in accordance with company rules and regulations.
Add-in requirements
The minimum required version of .NET Framework for add-ins is version 4.
Anyone with a limited or Team Member license can use the drag-and-drop functionality. However, it only works when you use a limited/Team Member license from Expense Management version 6.00 Service Pack 2 or later.
Click Once requirements
If you use Click Once to distribute Microsoft Dynamics NAV or Business Central to clients, the Expense Management client components must be included in the Click Once basic image.
Archive file server
Expense Management stores all files that are related to imported documents in an archive directory. You must format this directory as Windows (NTFS).
For this archive directory, you must set the security permissions listed below. This applies to all users when classic versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV are used, and for the service account when a service tier is used.
- Modify
- Read & execute
- List folder contents
- Read
- Write
If you’re using a classic version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the selected directory is a network-shared folder, this folder must be accessible to all users.
Note
For Azure Blob storage to work, you must configure the Dynamics NAV/Business Central service tier to use the TLS 1.2 security protocol.
Azure Blob Storage
For newer versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV/Business Central (NAV 2013 or later), Expense Management supports archiving of document files using Azure Blob Storage. For more information on Azure Blob Storage, including details on pricing and configuration, see Azure Blob Storage (Microsoft article).
Caution
It's crucial that Expense Management has full read/write/delete access to the relevant blob container. Configuring access policies with time-based retention isn't supported, and neither are immutability and legal hold.
For Azure Blob storage to work, the Dynamics NAV/Business Central service tier must be configured to use the TLS 1.2 security protocol. For further setup details, see Setting up Azure Blob Storage.
Important
Continia strongly recommends that you enable blob soft delete for your Azure Blob Storage accounts, as this allows you to restore any documents or files that were deleted or overwritten by accident.
Continia has no further minimum requirements for the use of Azure Blob Storage to store Document Capture files. For specific questions or requests regarding Azure. including setup, subscription types, and general architecture, refer to Microsoft's documentation.
Related information
Minimum requirements for using Continia Expense Management (online)
Overview of Business functionality
Pre-requisites for using Continia Web Approval Portal (on-premises)
Business Central website