WMS Express supports the ability to print item labels while receiving. The item label is a report in Business Central. To do this, WMS Express simply passes the print request to Business Central and Business Central then executes the report, using it’s standard capabilities to complete the printing.

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

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. WMS Express 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 WMS Express.

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, connect it to PrintNode, and enable item label printing while receiving in WMS Express.

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 WMS Express 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. In the Receiving FastTab, change the Print On Qty. Change setting to “Yes.”
7. Close the page.
8. Next, from the WMS Express main landing page on your handhelds, press ☰ Menu > Reload Config.

Item labels will now print when receiving in WMS Express.

Complete the following steps to print an item label while receiving in WMS Express.

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 “23045000.”
4. For the Printer Type, choose “Label Printer.”
5. From the WMS Express home screen on your handheld, open the Receive application.
6. Scan or select a receiving document. The document page will open.
7. Scan or select an item (depending on your warehouse configuration you may need to scan a bin first). The quantity dialog will open and a Label Quantity field will be visible in addition to the standard Quantity and Unit of Measure fields.
8. Enter the quantity to receive and the number of labels to print, then press OK.
9. The Qty. to Receive for the item will be updated and 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 WMS Express 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 WMS Express (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, WMS Express 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.