Breaking down D365 Business Central: Here are answers to the 10 most frequently asked questions.
Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Business Central is a powerful cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution tailored for small to mid-sized businesses. Named the best overall cloud ERP solution of 2024 by Forbes Advisor, this comprehensive business management platform seamlessly integrates sales, services, finance, and operations, providing a unified experience for companies.
Plus, with the introduction of Microsoft Copilot, an everyday AI companion, Business Central provides companies with an edge through AI-powered innovations that enhance efficiency and streamline processes in new ways.
If you’re evaluating Business Central as a potential cloud ERP solution, we’ve compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions we get asked about Business Central, along with detailed answers to help you in your research.
Understanding Dynamics 365 Business Central
Business Central is part of Dynamics 365, Microsoft’s suite of intelligent business applications that seamlessly integrate ERP capabilities. Hosted on Azure in a SaaS model, Business Central is primarily cloud-based and very adaptable.
With powerful finance and accounting capabilities at its core, Business Central offers robust functionality in the following areas right out of the box:
Financial management
Business intelligence
Sales management
Supply chain management
Project management
Service management
Warehouse management
Manufacturing
Application compliance
As part of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem, it is extremely easy to extend the capabilities of Business Central as your business grows. For example, companies wanting more robust sales management and CRM functionality can easily integrate Business Central with Dynamics 365 Sales, allowing for that continued unified experience across different applications.
D365 Business Central FAQ
1️⃣ What Are the Benefits of Business Central for My Organization?
Business Central connects and optimizes operations across your entire organization so teams are empowered to collaborate effectively, optimize processes, and drive growth. In the 2023 Total Economic Impact study commissioned by Forrester, small and mid-sized businesses have reported:
172% ROI with Business Central over 3 years
7 months payback on investment
Up to 18% increase in productivity for financial and operational staff
The benefits of Business Central include lower costs, improved financial visibility and efficiencies, multi-department integration, along with advanced capabilities in project management, finance, supply chain and manufacturing. It provides businesses with enterprise level data security and features to ensure regulatory compliance. With seamless integrations to products such as Microsoft 365 and Power Platform, the unified experience makes it easier for businesses to tackle unique challenges and scale as their business grows.
2️⃣ Should I Transition to Business Central in the Cloud?
Business Central is a cloud-based ERP, operating on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. In this model, the solution is hosted and managed by Microsoft on their servers and customers can access the platform from any device, as long as they are connected to the internet. You can also purchase Business Central as an on-premises solution (hosted and maintained on your own servers) or host it on your own private cloud environment.
Thanks to the convenience of accessing your business data in the cloud while on the go, cloud ERP implementations have become the new normal. Cloud ERP implementations can also save time, resources, and bypass many of the challenges that often arise from on-premises implementations.
3️⃣ What’s the Difference Between Dynamics Nav and D365 Business Central?
Dynamics NAV (formerly known as Microsoft Navision) was a leading on-premises ERP software for small and medium-sized businesses and is the predecessor of Dynamics 365 Business Central. Rewritten for the cloud, NAV evolved into the cloud-based Business Central which launched in 2018. Business Central still has most of its base code from NAV, however with significant improvements to functionality and ease of use.
If your business is still using Dynamics NAV, you may need to upgrade to Business Central at some point. Microsoft has already ended mainstream support for most versions of NAV, while extended support for Dynamics NAV version 2018 will only continue up to the beginning of 2028. After the end of mainstream and extended support, the system does not receive security patches or updates it needs to keep it up and running smoothly, without any security issues.
4️⃣ What AI Capabilities Does Business Central Offer?
Business Central now comes equipped with Dynamics 365 Copilot, a dedicated AI assistant, that offers new ways to streamline workflows and automate tedious tasks. Using large language models (LLMs) along with your business data, Copilot AI develops a distinctive knowledge model tailored to your company, integrating your system data and prompts to deliver responses that are more beneficial and accurate.
As your everyday AI companion, Copilot in Business Central can help:
Simplify reporting and analysis by transforming raw data into clear views and filters based on your simple text instructions
Create product descriptions tailored to your preferred tone, format, and length
Simplify the sales order process by suggesting line items from your product catalog through simple prompts
Automate workflows more easily as Copilot can help create Power Automate flows using natural language
Streamline bank reconciliation easier by analyzing bank statements imported into the system and matching transactions and proposing entries for transactions not matched
Create cash flow analysis to help monitor your company’s cash position
🔎 Learn more: Using AI in Dynamics 365 Business Central
5️⃣ What Type of Industries Can Business Central Support?
Dynamics 365 Business Central is a comprehensive and flexible solution that is well suited to small and mid-sized companies across numerous industries, including:
Finance
Service and project-based businesses
Retail and e-commerce,
Manufacturing and distribution
Transport and logistics
Non-profits
Business Central allows for multi-departmental integration and is an adaptable solution that you can customize and extend as required. Your Dynamics 365 Partner will also help you customize your Business Central solution with industry-specific add-ons.
🔎 Learn more: Is Dynamics 365 Business Central Right For My Industry?
6️⃣ Is D365 Business Central Suitable for Small Businesses?
For small businesses that have outgrown their accounting software like QuickBooks and are in the market for a new ERP, Business Central is a solid choice. For one, it offers advanced ERP capabilities at a low price point and with the subscription-based model, you can get up and running on a monthly fee, without requiring a hefty investment upfront. Its adaptability as a platform also means that you can either use it straight out of the box or further customize and extend your solution to meet your needs as your business grows.
To make the digital transformation journey easier for small businesses, Kwixand Solutions offers fixed-priced implementations for Business Central. These are lean implementations with a fixed fee and timeframe for small or mid-sized companies that want to constrain the budget and risks of implementation.
🔎 Learn more: Is Business Central Right for Your Small Business?
7️⃣ How Can I Customize My Business Central Solution?
While personalizing your user interface is possible for most end-users, significant changes to your Business Central solution will require coding. Some examples of customizations include:
Data model customizations to capture data specific to your operations
Business logic customizations to tailor the system to your unique workflows and processes
API integration customizations to facilitate real-time data import and export
You can also extend the capabilities of Business Central through third-party apps and extensions so that changes can be made without affecting the base code. Microsoft AppSource offers a wide range of pre-built applications available for purchase – many of which offer a free trial. You can also leverage the low-code Microsoft Power Apps platform to custom-build your own application.
🔎 Learn more: How to Customize Your Business Central Solution
8️⃣ How Does Business Central Integrate With Microsoft 365?
D365 Business Central is fully integrated with Microsoft 365 so you can navigate between the platform and business apps using the app launcher.
You can easily manage your business interactions through the integration between Outlook and Business Central. For instance, you can create new sales quotes, sales orders, and invoices right within Outlook through this integration. Similarly with the Microsoft Teams integration, users can quickly share details with team members and respond faster to queries.
The Excel and Business Central integration allows you to view or edit Business Central data in Excel, support analytical reporting and if you use G/L budgets you can export a budget to Excel for further processing and import it back into the system.
9️⃣ How Does Pricing Work for D365 Business Central?
There are two Business Central plans to pick from – Essentials and Premium. Both plans offer unlimited users, multiple environments and companies, customization and extensibility and comprehensive business management for finance, sales, and operations. Premium provides extra capabilities for manufacturing and service management.
Whichever plan you select, you are charged on a subscription per user per month basis. These are ‘full users’ – typically employees within finance, sales, and customer service teams who require access to most of the functionality. There is also an option to add additional team members to your plan – these are additional users who use the system on a high level basis only, to check reports or perform data entry.
🔎 Learn more: Business Central: Essentials vs. Premium Licensing
🔟 How Can I Get D365 Business Central?
You can sign up for a free trial to explore Business Central for 30 days and extend the trial period if you need more time to explore the features. When you’re ready to buy Business Central, you’ll need to reach out to a Dynamics 365 Partner who specializes in Business Central implementations. Based on your organizational needs and resources, your solutions partner will work with you to implement the solution, offer training and support, and help you with any custom integrations or development you might require.
Take the Next Step with Kwixand Solutions
If you’re looking to make the move to Business Central, our Business Central consultants are here to help. With Kwixand Solutions, you get a team of experts with over 50+ years of combined experience helping businesses digitally transform and achieve their business goals.
Schedule a free Business Central needs assessment today to get started. This no-obligation assessment will help you identify gaps in your business processes and include an in-depth plan to address those challenges through a combination of tailored solutions and business process optimization.
