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SAP Business ByDesign connection setup

SAP Business ByDesign connection setup

This guide walks you through connecting a SAP Business ByDesign tenant to LinkyFlow so you can list its projects and tasks, create and update them, and release, start or revoke the start of a task — from Excel, the web app, or an AI assistant through MCP.

Requirements

  • A SAP Business ByDesign tenant, for example https://my123456.sapbydesign.com
  • A business user on that tenant holding the Project Management work centre — LinkyFlow signs in as that user with its username and password
  • LinkyFlow's custom OData service uploaded into the tenant — Step 1 below

Step 1 — Upload the OData service into your tenant

LinkyFlow reads and writes your projects through a custom OData service that you create on your tenant from a file. You do this once per tenant, with a user allowed to manage OData services.

  • lfproject.xml — projects and tasks, and code lists. Default service name: lfproject.
  1. Download lfproject.xml from the link above.
  2. In SAP Business ByDesign, open the work center Application and User Management, view OData Services.
  3. Show the Custom OData Services and upload the downloaded file.
  4. Check that the service appears in the list, and note its name. It is lfproject unless you renamed it — the name is what LinkyFlow calls.

To release, start or revoke the start of a task from LinkyFlow, the service also needs the task's lifecycle actions. Open the service in the same view and, on the Task node, add the actions Release, Start Processing and Revoke Start Processing. Without them the connection works for everything else, and those three actions are simply not offered.

The file is SAP's own sample service, from SAP-samples/byd-api-samples, published under the Apache License 2.0.

Finance — the lf_all service

To read journal entries and create them (a forgotten rent or insurance entry, for example), upload LinkyFlow's finance service the same way. Its default name is lf_all; it covers journal entry vouchers (SAP's AccountingEntry) with their lines, and the actions to simulate, post and cancel an entry. The business user needs the General Ledger work centre. A journal entry created from LinkyFlow is Not Posted until it is posted; the lines must balance, and LinkyFlow checks it before sending anything.

Analytics reports — nothing to upload

SAP's standard and custom reports (trial balance, VAT items, open items…) are read directly, read-only: there is no file to upload. Which reports a connection can run is decided by the user's work centres in SAP — LinkyFlow lists exactly those. Open the connection's page (Connections → View) to see them, search them, and refresh the list after changing the user's work centres.

Step 2 — Add the connection in LinkyFlow

  1. In Excel or the web app, open Connections → Add connection.
  2. Choose SAP Business ByDesign from the provider list.
  3. Enter the Tenant URL — the host only, https://my123456.sapbydesign.com, nothing after it.
  4. Enter the Username and the Password of the business user.
  5. In each OData service field, enter the name the service has on your tenant. Leave it empty if you kept the default name (lfproject, lf_all).
  6. Give the connection a friendly alias and save.

LinkyFlow verifies the connection with read-only requests to the tenant: one per service — it reads the service's description under the name you gave and works out, from it, what the service offers — and one for the list of the user's analytics services. It never writes anything to check. Reading is proven; whether the user may write is reported as maybe, because SAP does not say — the first successful write proves it. A tenant used only for its reports, with no service uploaded, is a working connection.

See what a connection gives access to

Connections → View opens the connection's page: its details, its rights one by one, each OData service with the operations it serves on your tenant (and what is missing for the others), and the analytics reports the user can run, searchable. The same answer is what an AI assistant gets when it asks what it can do with the connection.

If the service is incomplete, not found, or not the right one

  • Connected, with some operations not in your service: the connection works. The connection form lists what your service does not offer — typically the task actions — and what to add to it. Add them in OData Services, then sync the connection: they appear.
  • No custom OData service "…" on this tenant: nothing answers under that name. Upload the file (Step 1), or correct the name in the connection, then sync it.
  • The tenant's "…" service has none of what LinkyFlow reads: another service answers under that name. Correct the name in the connection.

When the password changes

SAP locks a user after a few wrong passwords, so LinkyFlow never retries a refused sign-in. The first time the tenant rejects the password, the connection is marked in error and every later call — a sheet refresh, an assistant's question, a health check — is refused by LinkyFlow itself without contacting SAP. To resume, open the connection, enter the new password (the username and tenant stay as they are) and save. LinkyFlow verifies the new password once, and the connection is active again.

Step 3 — Load your first query

  1. Insert a LinkyFlow query and pick the SAP Business ByDesign provider.
  2. Choose Projects, select your connection in the Link field, and run it — the newest projects load first.
  3. Choose Tasks and filter on a project to see its tasks, each with the lifecycle actions it allows right now.

The Actions pane offers Release Task, Start Task and Revoke Task Start on a task, only when its status allows it. Every action answers the task as SAP holds it after the change.

Codes (project type, priority, status, calendar…) are SAP's own. The Code lists query lists the valid values of each one.

Reports and journal entries with an AI assistant

Through MCP, an assistant can search the reports (Reports), read what a report needs (Report Fields — company, set of books, period, written PPPYYYY: 0082026 is August 2026) and run it (Report Rows), then create the journal entry you ask for. For example: "Compare my account balances of last month with this month, find the recurring entry I forgot and create it." The entry is created Not Posted; the assistant posts it only when you say so, and never reverses one — cancelling a posted entry stays yours, from the Actions pane or SAP.

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