Top 19 Dynamics Business Central Questions

Business Central (often shortened to BC) is Microsoft’s cloud-based ERP for small to mid-sized organizations. It manages finance, inventory, production, job costing, purchasing, warehousing, service management, reporting, and workflows — all inside a single platform.

Unlike legacy systems, Business Central receives continuous updates, integrates deeply with Office 365, Teams, and Power BI, and supports remote access from any device.

For many companies, especially manufacturers, BC becomes the operational backbone of the entire business.

Curious about how Business Central compares to some of it’s competitors? Read our comparison articles:

– NetSuite vs Business Central
– Odoo vs Business Central
– SAP Business One vs Business Central

Although Microsoft promotes BC as a cloud SaaS ERP, it can still be deployed:

– In the cloud (most common)
– On-premise (local servers)
– Hybrid (mix of both)

Cloud deployment is the default option for 95%+ of new implementations because it reduces IT costs, simplifies updates, and improves security. On-premise installations are generally reserved for highly regulated industries or companies with strict data-residency requirements.

An ERP system (like Business Central) is an integrated database-driven software that includes accounting, inventory management, purchasing, sales, manufacturing, project accounting, human resources, and other modules. All modules of an ERP system share common master records such as customers, contacts, vendors, general ledger, etc.

Business Central is a native Cloud-Based ERP system. It’s actually one of the best cloud manufacturing ERP systems on the market for small to medium sized organizations. It was derived through a rewrite of the Dynamics NAV software, which offered web and .NET based clients but lacked key features of cloud software.

Business Central is available as either a Cloud-Based and hosted solution from Microsoft, or alternatively as a self-hosted on-premise solution by taking advantage of the dual-use rights available to subscribers.

Business Central is technically the upgraded version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Business Central versions continue from the last official NAV Version (version 2018 was technically Dynamics NAV 11.0).

Dynamics 365 is the brand while Business Central is the product that is part of that brand. Dynamics 365 is a broader group of products that includes Finance and Operations, Sales, Customer Service as well as Business Central.

Business Central includes a full suite of modules. The full list is available on the Microsoft Business Central home page by downloading the Licensing Guide.

Business Central is a strong Manufacturing ERP when compared to most generic ERP systems in the market today. Business Central inherited the strong manufacturing capabilities of Dynamics NAV. It has been designed to be easily extended with apps that are available in an online app store called AppSource. When combined with AppSource apps, Business Central is a top-tier Manufacturing ERP. You can read more about this in Sabre’s blog on Dynamics Business Central manufacturing features.

Business Central is much harder to learn than basic accounting systems such as Quickbooks and Sage 50. This is primarily because it can do so much more than those systems. When used as a one-to-one replacement for a light accounting system, it is relatively easy to transition, but that’s rarely the case.

Customers who aren’t familiar with ERP systems using it more broadly would find it very difficult to learn on their own. A typical Business Central consultant requires about 2000 hours of training to be able to work on a project by themselves. Most customers hire consultants – referred to as Business Central partners – to help them learn and use the system correctly.

Although the system can be hard to learn and configure by yourself, it is not hard to use once it is properly set up and ready to go. A new employee at an existing Business Central user can learn the software and start using it in a day or less. Customers used to older ERP systems often say Dynamics Business Central is much easier to use than their previous product.

Dynamics 365 Field Service can integrate with Business Central, but not natively out of the box. Microsoft provides an optional Field Service Integration app that connects the two systems through Dataverse. With this integration, work orders, resources, items, inventory, and service data can sync between Field Service and Business Central for financials, costing, and invoicing.

However, many mid-market service companies find the integration too complex or heavy for their needs. Business Central’s own Service Management module, combined with add-on solutions like ExpandIT, often delivers a simpler, more affordable, and easier-to-maintain field service experience, without needing the full Dynamics 365 Field Service platform.

Although Business Central has some CRM capabilities, it is not a CRM system. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales is a full CRM system – and integrates tightly with Business Central.

Business Central is an ERP system, which means it is used for a number of different functions in your business. Functional roles that use Business Central as their primary software would include Purchasing and Procurement; Supply Chain; Warehouse staff; Manufacturing staff; Accounting; Sales and Marketing; Order Entry to name a few.

Very simple implementations of the financial modules alone are marketed at about $5000 USD for an implementation. More complex implementations such as manufacturing range from $30,000 at the low end to nearly a million in very large situations.

Sabre publishes a price list and is very forthcoming with our costs, which range up to about $100,000 in fixed fees and somewhat more in variable costs.

You must purchase the same type of full user license for all users of Business Central.

A Dynamics Business Central Team Member user is very limited by comparison to the Full Users. Team Members are essentially a read-only user license with a few additional features and capabilities.

The most important capability of a Team Member is to run custom applications. Team Members are given read and write access to as many as 15 custom tables in a session. Custom tables are defined as tables not created by Microsoft.

In addition, Microsoft allows Team Members to read and write from tables like Time Sheets, Sales Quotes, Contacts, etc.

Finally, Team Members can edit any record already created by a Full User. So a Team Member could update a customer’s address, or change the date on a Sales Order.

Microsoft uses a per-user, per-month subscription model:
– Essentials: Usually ~$80 USD/user/month
– Premium: Usually ~$110 USD/user/month (includes Manufacturing & Service Management)
– Team Member: ~$10 USD/user/month (light/limited access)

The license you choose depends on whether you need manufacturing or service modules. Every full user in the same environment must use the same license type.
Your total cost also includes implementation, support, training, and any needed add-ons

USD Pricing can be found at Microsoft on the Business Central pricing page.
Canadian pricing can be found on the Business Central Canadian pricing page.

Business Central has a strong cost accounting module available in all versions. For customers looking for Job Costing for production, the Premium edition of Dynamics Business Central includes production management which has strong production costing capabilities.

Business Central does not have a native eCommerce capability. There are numerous addon products that will connect Business Central with existing eCommerce solutions like wooCommerce and Shopify. There are also strong Dynamics-specific eCommerce solutions such as k-ecommerce and Sana eCommerce.

The difference is simple:

– Essentials = everything except manufacturing and service
= Premium = everything in Essentials plus manufacturing + service management

If you need production orders, routings, work/machine centers, capacity planning, or maintenance/service workflows — you need Premium.

If you don’t manufacture or service equipment, Essentials is usually enough.

Microsoft updates BC twice per year with major releases and monthly with minor patches. Cloud users get updates automatically. On-premise users must still apply updates manually.

Automatic updates mean staying current is far easier than with NAV or GP.

Yes. BC uses Azure’s enterprise-grade security, including:

– Encryption
– Multi-factor authentication
– Role-based access control
– Redundancy & failover
– Compliance with major standards

For most SMBs, BC is more secure than an on-premise ERP running on aging servers.