Employee barcodes are unique for each Business Central company instance, they are not unique across the environment.

To use the same badge across Business Central companies, copy the employee barcode mappings into each company. Each Shop Floor interface looks up barcodes only in its connected company.

Before you begin

Create the corresponding Shop Floor Employees in each company. Keep these values consistent:

• Employee No. and Badge ID.
• Barcode entry MapID, Type, and MapValue.

Can an employee use the same badge in multiple companies?

With an administrative task to copy the barcode entries between the companies as described in this article then yes, without this task there is no information that can be added into a barcode that would allow the same badge to be used in multiple companies.

How to copy employee barcode entries between companies

Barcode entries can be copied in three easy different ways:

a) Using the Import Export Power Tool with the table 23044149 “SFI Barcode Entry” configured, filtered to the “Type” of “Resource.

b) Using a Configuration Package with the table 23044149 “SFI Barcode Entry” configured, filtered to the “Type” of “Resource.

c) Using built-in actions on the Shop Floor Barcode Entries page to import and export.

The below are steps on how to transfer entries using the Shop Floor Barcode Entries page.

1. In the source company, print or preview Shop Floor Employee Badges for the required employees. This creates their barcode entries if necessary.
2. Search for Shop Floor Barcode Entries.
3. Locate the employee entries. Employee badge entries display Resource in the Type column. Select an entry and choose Shop Floor Employee to confirm the associated employee.
4. Choose Transfer Barcodes > Export Barcodes. On the request page, filter Type to Resource and use MapID or MapValue filters to restrict the export as needed. Save the file.
5. Switch to the destination company. Confirm that the corresponding Shop Floor Employees exist with matching No. and Badge ID values.
6. Open Shop Floor Barcode Entries in the destination company. Check whether any incoming MapID is already used, including by other barcode types.
7. After resolving any conflicts, choose Transfer Barcodes > Caution – Import Barcodes, review the warnings, and import the file.
8. Compare Full Barcode between companies and scan the badge in each company’s Shop Floor interface. Confirm that it identifies the intended employee.

All approaches require checking destination identifiers for conflicts. Filtering to employee entries does not prevent those entries from overwriting identifiers used by other barcode types.

Important: Importing replaces existing entries with matching MapID values. This can invalidate previously printed badges or other barcode labels, or make them refer to different records. Export the destination entries before making changes and review conflicts before importing.

Existing companies and ongoing maintenance

For a small number of employees, an administrator with the required permissions can maintain individual mappings on Shop Floor Barcode Entries, preserving the source MapID, Type, and MapValue. Check for conflicting IDs before adding or changing an entry.

For ongoing use across companies, establish one company as the source for badge mappings and coordinate changes to employee numbers, badge IDs, and barcode entries. The export/import process is a manual transfer; it does not keep companies synchronized automatically.

Related Articles

• Printing Barcodes in Shop Floor Insight
• Developer guide to Custom Shop Floor Insight badges and Printing Shop Floor Insight employee badges outside of Business Central
• Configure Shop Floor Employees in Shop Floor Insight