Business Central FAQ: straight answers before you buy.

Business Central is Microsoft's ERP application for small and mid-sized companies. It covers finance, purchasing, sales, inventory, warehousing, projects and, in the Premium edition, manufacturing and service management. It grew out of Dynamics NAV and is now primarily sold as a cloud service.

No, but the cloud is where Microsoft puts its focus. Business Central online runs as a Microsoft-hosted service, and an on-premises version is still available for companies with a specific reason to host it themselves. Our comparison of cloud and on-premises sets out the trade-offs.

Microsoft ships two major release waves each year, in spring and fall, plus smaller monthly updates. Online customers are updated automatically within a window they can schedule. Extensions written the modern way survive these updates without rework in most cases.

Yes, and that is one of its strongest points for Microsoft 365 users. You can open customer and vendor records inside Outlook, edit lists in Excel and push them back, and share record links in Teams. Power BI and Power Automate connect to it through standard connectors.

Copilot is Microsoft's set of AI assistance features inside Business Central online. Examples include drafting item descriptions, suggesting bank reconciliation matches and helping with sales line entry. Which features you see depends on your region, language and the settings your administrator turns on.

Premium includes everything in Essentials plus manufacturing and service management. If you do not produce goods or run a service department with contracts and service orders, Essentials usually covers you. Our Essentials vs Premium page goes into the details.

No. Team Members licenses give lighter access for people who mainly read data, approve documents or make limited edits. Full users are those who post transactions day to day. Getting this split right is one of the easiest ways to avoid overspending.

Business Central subscriptions are sold through Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider partners. Microsoft publishes current list prices on its Business Central pricing page, and they do change, so check there or ask for a CSP quote rather than relying on an old figure. We do not quote license prices on this site.

Yes. Microsoft offers a free trial of Business Central online with demo data. A trial is useful for getting a feel for the screens, although it will not show your own processes until someone configures them.

Usually, yes. Implementation services, any AppSource apps you add, third-party connectors and your own team's time all sit outside the Microsoft subscription. Our pricing page explains how we scope and quote the services part.

It runs from discovery and a written scope through design, configuration, data migration, testing, training and go-live. Each phase ends with something you can check, such as a signed scope, a tested migration or a user acceptance sign-off. Our process page lists the deliverables phase by phase.

Yes, through extensions written in Microsoft's AL language. Unlike older Dynamics NAV, the base code is not modified, which is why upgrades are far less painful. We look for standard features and AppSource apps first and only build where a genuine gap remains.

More than most buyers expect, especially from finance and whoever owns the data. Key users attend workshops, check migrated records and run acceptance tests. We agree those responsibilities in the scope so you can plan around them.

Mostly remotely, with on-site days when they clearly help. Video workshops and screen sharing cover the majority of the work. A warehouse walk-through or a room of users being trained are the typical reasons to travel.

It handles sales tax through tax areas, groups and jurisdictions, and many companies add a tax calculation service for multi-state selling. It does not include a full US payroll engine. Most US companies keep their payroll provider and post payroll journals into Business Central.

Yes, and it is one of the most common moves we see. Customers, vendors, items, open invoices and opening balances transfer cleanly. Detailed transaction history is often kept in the old file or summarized, since bringing it all across rarely pays off.

Plan your move rather than wait for pressure. Microsoft has announced the end of GP's support lifecycle and provides migration tooling from GP to Business Central online. The work is less about the tool and more about deciding what to redesign versus carry over.

It can be either, depending on how heavily customized your NAV system is. A lightly modified NAV database can often move through Microsoft's upgrade path, while a heavily customized one usually benefits from a fresh setup with data brought across. We assess your code before recommending a route.

Usually less than you think. Open items, balances and a limited window of summarized history cover most reporting needs. Full detail can stay in an archive or read-only copy of the old system for audit questions.

We stay close through the first month end, which is where most questions surface. After that, clients can move to an ongoing support arrangement for questions, fixes, updates and small changes. It is a separate agreement, so you only take it if it suits you.

Senior consultants who do the work. The people in your discovery sessions are the people who configure and support the system, not a sales layer that hands off to someone else. That keeps context from getting lost between phases.

Our office is in Phoenix, Arizona, and we work with companies across the US. Arizona stays on Mountain Standard Time all year, and we schedule sessions and cutovers around your local business hours wherever you are.

Yes. We start with an honest assessment of where the project stands, what works and what needs redoing. Our page on rescuing stalled implementations describes that approach.