Warehouse Insight supports the ability to execute Business Central reports from your handhelds. To do this, Warehouse Insight simply passes the print request to Business Central and the available Business Central capabilities complete the printing.

Warehouse Insight does not support connecting directly to your printers via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or mobile data. All print requests from Warehouse Insight are passed to (and handled by) Business Central.

This article will guide you through the steps required to enable printing from Warehouse Insight.

Because Business Central online is a cloud service, it cannot reach local printers connected to users’ machines. However, it can connect to cloud-enabled printers. Warehouse Insight uses a third-party service called PrintNode to connect local printers to the cloud.

The following describes how to set up PrintNode and configure Business Central online to enable printing from Warehouse Insight.

Complete the following steps to set up PrintNode.

1. Go to www.printnode.com and create an account.
2. Select a free or paid plan depending on your printing needs.
3. Download and install the PrintNode Desktop Client on the computer(s) that have access to the printers you want to use. The PrintNode Desktop Client will list the available printers and you can choose which ones to make available to the PrintNode service in the cloud.
4. On the PrintNode website, go to the API Keys tab and create an API Key. Make note of it as you will need to enter it in Business Central in the following section.

After you’ve set up your PrintNode account and generated a PrintNode API Key, complete the following steps to configure Business Central and connect it to PrintNode.

1. Go to the Insight Works PrintNode Setup page and enter your PrintNode API Key.
2. Go to the Insight Works PrintNode Printers page and then select New > Get Printers.
3. Make note of the Printer Name for the printer(s) you want to use.
4. Go to the Warehouse Insight Device Configurations page and open the configuration for the handheld you want to print from.
5. In the General FastTab, enter the Printer Name in either the Label Printer Name or Regular Printer Name field, depending on the type of printer. You must enter the Printer Name exactly as it appears in the PrintNode Printers page.
6. Close the page.
7. Next, from the Warehouse Insight main landing page on your handhelds, press ☰ Menu > Reload Config.

You will now be able to print from Warehouse Insight.

Complete the following steps to print an item label from Warehouse Insight.

1. In Business Central, go to the Insight Works Report Selection page.
2. Change the Usage to “Item Label”.
3. For the Report ID, enter “23044900”.
4. For the Printer Type, choose “Label Printer”.
5. Next, from the Warehouse Insight main landing page on your handheld, open the Item Inquiry application.
6. Scan or select an item. The item card will open.
7. Press ☰ Menu > Print. A prompt will appear to enter the number of labels to print.
8. Enter the number of labels then press OK.
9. A message “Document is queued to print.” will appear and the print request will be sent to Business Central.

The following describes common printing issues and possible causes.

The “Document is queued to print.” message in Warehouse Insight is a generic message that indicates the print request was sent to Business Central. It does not indicate whether the print was successful. If your label is not printing, please log into the PrintNode website and go to the Print Something tab to view the print history for an indication of why the print failed.

Common causes of a print failure include:

• The PrintNode Desktop Client not running on the computer with access to the printers.
• The printer being offline or the print queue being paused.
• The Printer Name being entered incorrectly on the Device Configuration in Business Central.

If the report is not rendered properly when printing from Warehouse Insight (e.g., incorrect label orientation, faded text, unexpectedly printing across multiple pages etc.), it is indicative of a PrintNode or printer configuration issue. As a reminder, Warehouse Insight simply passes the print request to Business Central and Business Central then executes the print using it’s standard capabilities, leveraging the PrintNode API. Please refer to the Troubleshooting section of the PrintNode FAQ for common rendering (and other) issues and solutions.

The following describes the high-level steps required to install your printer(s) and configure Business Central to enable printing from Warehouse Insight.

Complete the following high-level steps to install and configure the printer. For further assistance, please contact your IT department or Business Central partner.

1. Using the Business Central Server service account, sign in to the server where Business Central Server is installed.
2. Install the printer.
3. Configure the Printing Preferences and Printing Defaults for the printer.

After you’ve installed and configured your printers, complete the following steps to configure Business Central to enable printing from Warehouse Insight.

1. In Business Central, go to the Printer Management page.
2. Make note of the Printer ID for the printer(s) you want to use.
3. Go to the Warehouse Insight Device Configurations page and open the configuration for the handheld you want to print from.
4. In the General FastTab, enter the Printer ID in either the Label Printer Name or Regular Printer Name field, depending on the type of printer. You must enter the Printer ID exactly as it appears in the Printer Management page.
5. Close the page.
6. Next, from the Warehouse Insight main landing page on your handheld, press ☰ Menu > Reload Config.

You will now be able to print from Warehouse Insight.

Complete the following steps to print an item label from Warehouse Insight

1. In Business Central, go to the Report Selection – Insight Works page. In older versions of Warehouse Insight this page may also be called Report Selection – WMDM or Report Selection – IWX.
2. Change the Usage to “Item Label”.
3. For the Report ID, enter “23044900” (or “23044511” in BC14 or NAV C/AL environments).
4. For the Printer Type, choose “Label Printer”.
5. From the Warehouse Insight main landing page on your handheld, open the Item Inquiry application.
6. Scan or select an item. The item card will open.
7. Press ☰ Menu > Print. A prompt will appear to enter the number of labels to print.
8. Enter the number of labels to print then press OK.
9. A message “Document is queued to print.” will appear and the print request will be sent to Business Central.

The following describes common printing issues and possible causes.

The “Document is queued to print.” message in Warehouse Insight is a generic message that indicates the print request was sent to Business Central. It does not indicate whether the print was successful. If your label is not printing, please check the Windows Event Viewer Application logs on the server where Business Central Server is installed. Look for an entry of type “Error” that relates to the print request and review the details for an explanation of why the print failed.

Figure 1 – Windows Event Viewer

Common causes of a print failure include:

• The printer not being correctly installed per the instructions above.
• The printer being offline or the print queue being paused.
• The Printer ID being entered incorrectly on the Device Configuration in Business Central.

If the report is not rendered properly when printing from Warehouse Insight (e.g., incorrect label orientation, faded text, unexpectedly printing across multiple pages etc.), it is indicative of a Business Central or printer configuration issue. As a reminder, Warehouse Insight simply passes the print request to Business Central and Business Central then executes the print using it’s standard capabilities. Common causes of incorrect rendering include:

• The printer not being correctly installed per the instructions above. This includes installing the printer on the same server as Business Central Server, and configuring the Printing Defaults and Printing Preferences for the printer while signed into the server using the Business Central Server service account.
• The report layout dimensions or orientation not matching the printer settings.