Exact Synergy and Exact Globe · TIPP Studio 1.5.0
TIPP Studio Manual
TIPP Studio lets you build automation jobs for Exact Globe and Exact Synergy without writing an integration. A job starts on an event, such as a schedule, an arriving mail, a webhook or a new row in a database, and then runs its steps: create a Globe transaction, log a request in Synergy, render an SSRS report, send a mail and more.
TIPP Studio 1.5.0 · Contents
Contents
- What TIPP Studio does
- Before you start
- Basic setup, step by step
- Your first event, explained
- Use cases
- Monitoring and troubleshooting
- Where to go next
- 1Install TIPP Studio and the runner service
- 2Connect the databases and the TIPP Transactions service
- 3Check the licence
- 4Add SQL, SSRS and mail connections
- 5Build your first job
TIPP Studio 1.5.0 · Section 1
1. What TIPP Studio does
TIPP Studio is a Windows application for building and running automation jobs against Exact Globe and Exact Synergy. It is designed so people who are not developers can build their own integrations.
A job is a short list of steps
Every step reads from a source, usually a query, and delivers to a target: a Globe or Synergy transaction, an external API, an SSRS report, a file, a mail or a database table. The target runs once for every row of the source. After each step you decide what happens next: continue, jump to another step or end the job.
An event starts the job
In TIPP Studio an event is called a trigger, set under “Runs when” in the job settings. A job can run by hand, on a schedule, when a database trigger fires, when another program calls the API, when a mail arrives, when a file is dropped in a folder, or when an external party calls a webhook.
Transactions go through the TIPP Transactions service
Steps that create or change data in Exact Globe or Exact Synergy send it to the TIPP Transactions service (the TIPP Engine). That service checks the fields, posts the transaction and logs every call with the job and step it came from.
It keeps running when nobody is logged in
The desktop application is where you build and monitor jobs. The background service, TIPP Studio Runner, runs the schedules and triggers. You can close the application without stopping your jobs.
The main screens are in the sidebar: Jobs (the home screen), Monitor (every run and its steps), Settings (one screen with all connections and options) and Help (a quick guide and what is new per version).
TIPP Studio 1.5.0 · Section 2
2. Before you start
TIPP Studio is installed separately from TIPP itself, with its own installer, the TIPP Studio Deployment Kit. Before you start, check that you have:
- A Windows server with .NET Framework 4.7.2, and an administrator account to run the installer. This can be the server that runs the TIPP Transactions service or another server.
- The TIPP Transactions service installed and running. It ships with the TIPP deployment kit. Job priority needs TIPP Engine 1.2.1.6 or later; older engines ignore it.
- The TIPP database on SQL Server. TIPP Studio stores its jobs, runs, connections and shared settings there and creates its own tables when they are missing.
- An activated TIPP licence of type PRO in your live Synergy database. TIPP Studio uses the same licence as the other TIPP products. There is no separate licence file and no job limit. Without a PRO licence, jobs do not run.
- A Windows service account for the background service, with rights on the TIPP database and read rights on the licence in the live Synergy database. With Windows authentication on SQL Server, do not use Local System: it presents the machine account, which usually has no database rights, and schedules then silently never fire.
- For mail: a Microsoft 365 app registration with the Microsoft Graph application permission Mail.Send (plus Mail.ReadWrite when jobs also read mail) and admin consent, or an SMTP server.
- For reports: the address of your SSRS ReportServer and an account that may render the reports.
Build and test every job on a test or staging environment first. Synergy steps have a Live and Test switch, and mail steps should send to a test inbox until the job is ready.
TIPP Studio 1.5.0 · Section 3
3. Basic setup, step by step
These steps are done once per server by an administrator. All settings live under Settings, one screen with a section list on the left: General settings, SQL connections, External connections, AI providers, SSRS report servers, Mail, TIPP Engine (service) and License.
2.1 Install TIPP Studio
1.
Copy the whole TIPP Studio Deployment Kit folder to the server. Close TIPP Studio if it is open, including its icon in the notification area.
Run TIPP.Studio.Installer.exe from the kit folder as administrator. Do not run the copy inside the installed program folder; that one is only for uninstalling.
2.
Choose the Install location (by default C:\Program Files\TIPP Studio). Leave Install and start the background runner service (recommended) ticked.
Enter the service account as DOMAIN\user with its password, or leave it empty for Local System. Enter the live Synergy database (SQL server and database name), which holds the licence. Leave both empty to set them later under General settings.
Click Install. The installer checks the account first: its password, access to the TIPP Studio data folder, and SQL access to the TIPP database and the licence. Problems show in the installer log; fix them and run the installer again.
3.
Open TIPP Studio from the Start Menu. On a server that already runs the TIPP Transactions service, the database pointers are picked up automatically. Otherwise set them in the next step.
2.2 Connect the databases
1.
Open Settings → General settings. Under TIPP database, enter the SQL Server and Database, choose the Authentication, click Test connection, then Save & reconnect. TIPP Studio creates its tables when they are missing.
Under Live Synergy database, enter the database that holds the TIPP licence and test it. Without this connection every run is refused as “Not licensed”.
2.
Under Globe databases, enter the SQL server, click Load databases and tick the Exact Globe company databases that jobs may write to. The login here is only used to list the databases; the TIPP Transactions service connects with its own account.
2.3 Connect the TIPP Transactions service
1.
Still on General settings, under TIPP Transactions service, enter the Service URL and the API key (X-API-Key) the service accepts. Click Test /api/health. The answer shows the service version and the divisions it has loaded.
2.
Under Endpoint catalog, check that the catalog is loaded. It lists every object and operation a step can send to Globe and Synergy and comes from the running service. TIPP Studio checks for updates every night; click Check for updates now right after a service update.
3.
Open Settings → TIPP Engine (service). These are the settings the TIPP Transactions service reads when it starts: the HTTP port, its API key, the Globe BIN folder, the Entity Service URL, and the Live Service URL for Exact Synergy. Fill in the Test Service URL under Test environment when you have a separate Synergy test environment; steps set to Test then use it.
Click Save settings, then Restart service and Check running service to confirm the service uses the new values. Restarting needs TIPP Studio to run as administrator on the server that hosts the service.
2.4 Keep jobs running in the background
1.
On General settings, under Background service, check the status reads that the service is running and handles schedules, the trigger queue and the API. If it is not installed, click Install service, enter the account and click Check & install.
2.
If other software or webhooks should start jobs, go to HTTP trigger API, tick Enable the API listener on this machine, choose the Port (9485 by default) and click Generate for an API key. HTTPS needs a certificate bound to that port; plain HTTP needs none.
Click Save all settings at the bottom of the page. The two database connections at the top are saved on this machine; everything else is saved in the TIPP database and shared.
2.5 Check the licence
1.
Open Settings → License. The status should read LICENSED with License type PRO. Click Check again after TICE-IT has activated or renewed your licence.
From one month before the end date the status bar, the Jobs page and the License page warn. Jobs keep running for one month after the end date; after that every run is refused until the licence is renewed.
2.6 Add SQL connections
1.
Open Settings → SQL connections and click New. Give the connection a clear Name, such as “Globe staging” or “Synergy staging”, enter the SQL Server, the Authentication and a Default database.
Select the connection and click Test. The list on the right shows every database on that server, with a tick where TIPP Studio can use it.
2.7 Add an SSRS report server
1.
Open Settings → SSRS report servers and click New server. Enter a Name and the Report server URL, which is the ReportServer address, for example http://server/ReportServer. Choose the Authentication and a Default format, such as PDF.
Click Test connection. You should see that the SSRS server is reachable.
2.8 Set up mail
1.
Open Settings → Mail and click New provider. Name it Default: every mail step, mail trigger and failure notification without its own provider uses the provider called Default.
Under Send via choose Microsoft 365 with the Graph API for Microsoft 365 mailboxes, and enter the Tenant ID, Client ID and Client secret of the app registration. Choose SMTP for relays and other mail servers; add an IMAP host only when jobs also read mail.
Enter the From address and From display name. Under Send a test mail to, enter your test inbox and click Send test, then Save.
2.
Optional: under Mail templates, select Default and click Design… to set the logo, accent colour, header and footer. Each mail step drops its own text and rows into the space between header and footer. Use a small logo, as it travels inside every mail.
TIPP Studio 1.5.0 · Section 4
4. Your first event, explained
Your first job sends the open sales orders as an Excel file every weekday morning. It uses the ready-made job Scheduled export by e-mail, so you see the three parts of every job: the event that starts it, the steps and what happens after each step.
1.
Open Jobs and click New job. Choose Start from a ready-made job and pick Scheduled export by e-mail. A ready-made job comes with its trigger and steps in place; steps that still need something carry a warning badge until you complete them.
2.
The event. Right-click the job and choose Job settings…. Give it a Name and, if you like, a Group such as “Nightly reports”. Keep Priority on Low for schedules, imports and syncs.
Under Runs when, tick On a schedule, choose Daily, set Run at (HH:mm): to 07:00 and tick Monday to Friday. The server’s clock decides, not the PC you work on.
Other events you can tick here are A database trigger fires, Another program calls the API, A mail arrives, A file is dropped in a folder and An external party calls a webhook. The use cases below show three of them.
3.
The steps. Double-click the job to open its steps. Steps run top to bottom.
Step 1, “Save the rows as an Excel file”, has a SQL query as its Source. Choose the Connection and Database, adjust the query and click ▶ Run / preview. Every column of the result becomes a token, such as %src.OrderNumber%, that later fields can use. When a source returns the same column name twice, the first column keeps that name and each later one is named ItemCode_2, ItemCode_3 and so on. Those names are the same in the source preview, the token list and the run. File and Excel sources with a repeated header follow the same rule. A job that used to pick up the later column should map the _2 name instead, for example %src.ItemCode_2%.
4.
The Target of step 1 saves the rows as an Excel file named OpenOrders_%Today%.xlsx. Its path lands in the variable ExportFile.
5.
Step 2, “Mail the file”, is an E-mail step. Set To to your test inbox for now, check the Subject, and see that Attachments holds %ExportFile%. The From a step ▾ button inserts a file that an earlier step produced.
6.
After this step. Each step says where the run goes On success and On failure: Continue with next step, Go to step…, or end the job as success or as failed. Retry runs a failed step again a number of times, with a delay in between, before the failure route is followed.
The Variables panel on the right lists every token you can use. Click one to insert it where you type.
7.
Click Save & close. On the Jobs page, right-click the job and choose ▶ Run now to test it. Then open Monitor to follow the run, and check your test inbox.
When it works, set the real recipients and make sure the job is active (right-click, Enable / disable).
TIPP Studio 1.5.0 · Section 5
5. Use cases
Each use case is a realistic job you can rebuild on a staging environment. Field names in the mapping grid come from the endpoint catalog of your TIPP Transactions service, so they may differ slightly on your installation.
5.1 Create a Globe sales order when a webshop order arrives
The situation
Your webshop sends every new order to a URL. You want a sales order in Exact Globe straight away, with the webshop order lines as order lines, and the webshop should hear whether it worked.
How to set it up
1.
Click New job, choose Start from a ready-made job and pick Webhook → one Globe+ transaction.
2.
Open Job settings…. Under An external party calls a webhook, enter a Hook name: such as webshop-orders and click Generate for the Hook key:. The hook URL appears once the name is entered; give the URL and key to your webshop. The webshop sends the key in the X-Hook-Key header. Optionally set a Signing secret: so every call must be signed.
Set Respond: to After the run finished so the webshop waits for the outcome, and set Priority: to High, because someone waits for the answer. In Lines are at:, enter where the order lines sit in the webshop’s message, for example lines. The lines then arrive together in %Lines%.
The webhook URL is answered by the HTTP trigger API, so make sure it is switched on (step 2.4).
3.
Under Trigger payload → variables, map the order fields to variables, for example orderNumber, customerCode and reference. Every step can then use them as %OrderNumber%, %CustomerCode% and %Reference%.
4.
Open the step “Create the transaction”. Its Source is JSON from a variable with %Lines%, so every webshop line is a row. Its Target is Globe+ transaction.
Under Object, pick the Globe route and the sales orders object from the catalog (for example entityservices and salesorders), then the Operation add. Pick the Database: the Globe company the order belongs to. Under Returned code, type NewOrder to keep the new order number. Keep Send as on All rows → one document: the whole message becomes one order and every row a line.
5.
Under Map fields, bold fields are required. Switch on Required only to see what Globe needs first. Map the customer code field to %CustomerCode% and the reference field to %Reference%. Under Line fields, map the item code and quantity to the matching %src.…% columns of the webshop lines. Auto-map fills empty fields whose name matches a source column. If a required field is mapped but comes out empty for a source row, that row is refused before the call is sent. The run detail names the field, its mapping and the values the source row holds. With Continue — Partial success the other rows still run. This check uses the required-field information from the endpoint catalog, so it applies when the catalog is available.
6.
Click ▶ Run now. Because this job normally starts from a webhook, TIPP Studio asks for a Test payload. Paste a sample order for a demo customer and click Run with payload. Check the run in Monitor and the order in Exact Globe.
What you see
Monitor shows the run as Success. The new order number is available as %NewOrder% and as %LastEntityCode%, so a next step can use it, for example to send a confirmation. With Respond set to After the run finished, the webshop receives the outcome of the run.
Good to know
- If an order arrives in a staging table instead of a webhook, start from SQL query → Globe+ transactions: every few minutes it creates one transaction per new row and then marks the rows as processed.
- If a row fails: with Stop the step, a retry sends the whole list again, so rows Globe already accepted would be posted twice. The other option continues with the remaining rows and ends the step as Partial.
5.2 Log a Synergy request when a customer mails the service desk
The situation
Customers mail your service mailbox. You want every mail logged as a request in Exact Synergy, on the right customer account, so it is followed up in the normal Synergy workflow.
How to set it up
1.
Make sure the mail provider can read mail: Microsoft 365 with the Mail.ReadWrite permission, or SMTP with an IMAP host. Then create a Blank job and open Job settings….
Under Runs when, tick A mail arrives. Enter the service Mailbox:, keep Folder: on Inbox and set Check every to, for example, 120 seconds. Under After start:, choose Move it to a folder… and enter Inbox/Logged. Each mail starts its own run, and is only moved after its run has started.
The mail’s details are ready as %MailSubject%, %MailBody%, %MailFrom% and %MailFromName%, and its first saved attachment as %Trigger.file%.
2.
Click ＋ Add step and choose Run SQL. Set Do what to Run a query → first value, choose your Synergy connection and write a query that returns the account ID of the contact whose email address is %MailFrom%. Put the token in quotes in the query. Set Result → var to AccountID.
3.
Add a step Branch on a condition. Set Left to %AccountID% and the operator to IsEmpty. If TRUE (an unknown sender), go to a step that forwards the mail to a colleague, or end the job as failed so the failure mail warns you. If FALSE, continue with the next step.
4.
Click ＋ Add step and, under Send data to Exact, choose Send ONE transaction with fixed values. Under Object, pick synergy and request, and the Operation add. Synergy steps have no database to pick; set Environment to Test while you try the job and to Live when it is ready.
5.
Under Map fields, map Description to %MailSubject%, AccountID to %AccountID%, StartDate to %Today%, RequestType to the number of the request type your service desk uses, and MessageRequestComments to %MailBody%. The TIPP Transactions service stores that text as the request’s comments.
6.
Under E-mail when the job fails, enter the service desk lead’s address. Send a test mail from a demo contact to the mailbox, then check Monitor and the new request in Exact Synergy.
What you see
A new request in Exact Synergy for every customer mail, on the customer’s account, with the mail text as comments. The mail moves to Inbox/Logged.
Good to know
- Values that come from outside, such as a mail subject, are made safe where they land. In a query, put such a token in quotes.
- The catalog also offers a document attachment object for Synergy, which can attach a file such as %Trigger.file% to an existing request.
5.3 Email the customer an order confirmation PDF
The situation
When a sales order is entered, the customer should get an order confirmation by mail, with your own SSRS order confirmation report attached as a PDF.
How to set it up
1.
Create a Blank job and save it once. In Job settings…, tick A database trigger fires and click SQL example…. TIPP Studio shows a ready-made trigger script that starts this job, addressed by its own GUID, whenever a row is inserted. Ask your database administrator to adapt it so it passes the order number, and to run it. The caller needs no rights in the TIPP database, and no database is marked as trusted.
Under Trigger payload → variables, map the order number field to OrderNumber.
2.
Add a Run SQL step with Run a query → first value that returns the email address for order confirmations of the customer on order %OrderNumber%. Set Result → var to CustomerEmail.
3.
Add a step Render an SSRS report. Pick the Report server, set Format to PDF and enter the Report path of your order confirmation report. Under Report parameters, enter the parameter’s exact name from the report on the left and %OrderNumber% on the right. Under Save as (blank = auto), enter OrderConfirmation_%OrderNumber%. Keep Path → var on ReportFile.
Without a folder in Save as, the file is saved in a folder per run under the TIPP Studio data folder, and %ReportFile% always holds its full path.
4.
Add a step Send an e-mail. Set To to %CustomerEmail% and the Subject to “Your order %OrderNumber%”. Set Format to Mail template for a designed mail and write a short Body. Under Attachments, click From a step ▾ and pick %ReportFile%. A missing file fails the step, so the customer never gets a mail without the PDF.
Click Preview mail… to see the finished mail.
5.
While testing, set To to your test inbox instead of %CustomerEmail%. Run the job with ▶ Run now and a test payload holding a demo order number. Check the mail and the run detail, then switch To back to %CustomerEmail%.
What you see
Shortly after an order is entered, the customer receives the confirmation with the PDF. The run detail shows where the report was saved and how long it took to render.
Good to know
- For a weekly overview per customer instead, use one mail step with a query as its source and Send as set to One mail per key with the customer as key: each customer gets one mail with just their rows.
- The SSRS report can also be a target per row: a query lists the orders and the report is rendered once for every row.
TIPP Studio 1.5.0 · Section 6
6. Monitoring and troubleshooting
Follow your runs
Open Monitor. Every run has its own run id, its job, its trigger, its start time and its duration. Filter by Job and Status: Running, Success, Partial, Failed or Cancelled. Select a run to see its steps, and a step to see its full detail. Tick Auto-refresh (5s) to watch a run live, and use Cancel selected run to stop a run that is still running.
Partial means a step with several rows sent at least one row and refused others; the refused rows are listed in the step detail. Under E-mail when the job fails in the job settings, enter who should hear about a failed run.
Every call to the TIPP Transactions service is also logged by that service with the source “TIPP Studio – job – step”, so you can trace a Globe or Synergy transaction back to the job that made it.
Common messages
- “Not licensed”
- The live Synergy database is not set or not reachable, or the licence is not of type PRO. Check Settings → General settings and Settings → License, or contact TICE-IT.
- The status bar shows “License missing” or the License page shows “NOT LICENSED”
- Same cause as above. Click Check again after the database connection is fixed.
- “TIPP Studio could not reach the TIPP database”
- Check the TIPP database under General settings and click Save & reconnect.
- “Is the TIPP Transactions service running? Is the service URL correct (General settings)?”
- Shown after a failed health check. Check the service is started and the Service URL and API key match the service.
- Schedules and triggers never fire
- The background service probably runs as Local System and has no rights on SQL Server. Reinstall the service with a service account, or use SQL authentication.
- “… is already running (enable ‘allow concurrent runs’ to permit this).”
- The previous run of the job has not finished. Wait, or tick Allow concurrent runs in the job settings when parallel runs are safe.
- “SSRS server ‘…’ does not exist (SSRS servers page).”
- The step names a report server that is not under Settings → SSRS report servers, for example after an import. Add it with the same name or pick another.
- A mail step refuses to send because its template does not exist
- The mail template was renamed or deleted. Pick another template on the step.
- “Field ‘…’ is required, but its mapping … is empty for this row — the row was not sent.”
- A required Globe+ field was mapped, but its value was empty for that source row. TIPP Studio refuses the row before the call is sent. The run detail names the field, its mapping and the values the source row holds. With Continue — Partial success the other rows still run. Check the mapping and the source data for that row.
- A blue “i” badge on a step
- The job was made before version 1.4.0 and runs in compatibility mode. The badge explains the fix, usually putting a token in quotes. The job becomes strict once it is saved with nothing left to fix.
- Imported jobs do not run
- Imported jobs arrive disabled. Create the connections the import warned about, then enable the jobs.
Move jobs and check the installation
Use Export… on the Jobs page to save one job or all jobs as a .tippjobs file and Import… to load them on another server. Connections and the mail provider are referenced by name and never exported. The Help page shows the installed version and what changed per release. The heading is “TIPP Studio 1.5.0 — quick guide”. Under What’s new, version 1.5.0 describes two fixes: when a source returns the same column name twice, the first column keeps the name and later ones are named with a _2 suffix; and a Globe+ call is not sent when a required field is mapped but empty for a row.
TIPP Studio 1.5.0 · Section 7
7. Where to go next
New to TIPP?
The TIPP user manual walks you from licence to your first real case in Exact Synergy.
Installing TIPP itself?
The installation manual covers the TIPP deployment kit, including the TIPP Transactions service that TIPP Studio sends its transactions to.
Need a screen detail?
The Knowledgebase explains every TIPP page in Synergy. Inside TIPP Studio, the Help page has a quick guide to jobs, steps, tokens and triggers.
Questions about TIPP Studio?
Visit the TIPP page, or email tipp@tice-it.com.
TIPP resources
Some of this content was drafted with the help of AI. We aim to keep it accurate, but it may contain errors or become outdated as Exact Synergy and TIPP change. It is general guidance, not advice for your specific setup, so test changes in a non-production environment first. Spotted a mistake? Let us know at tipp@tice-it.com.