Discover key strategies for customizing your Dynamics 365 Business Central solution to create a uniquely tailored experience than fits your business's needs.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a versatile ERP solution that offers tools to streamline operations, enhance productivity, and help you make data-driven decisions. While Business Central provides and exceptional out-of-the-box experience, its true value lies in its adaptability.
While there are some basic elements of personalization that can be done by users of any skill level, such as the creation and personalization of role-specific dashboards, many of the more beneficial customizations will require the expertise of a coder. But, understanding the possibilities for customization can help you determine if Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the right solution for you.
In this guide, we'll walk you through the essential strategies for harnessing the full potential of your Business Central solution through customization.
Data Model Customization
Customizing data models in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a fundamental aspect of tailoring the system to your unique business processes. You can create custom tables to store specific data relevant to your operations, such as industry-specific information or proprietary metrics.
The ability to add, modify, or remove fields in existing tables provides the flexibility needed to capture essential data points and align them with your specific reporting and analytics requirements. This level of customization ensures Business Central accurately reflects your business operations and allows for efficient data tracking and analysis.
Business Logic Customization
Customizing business logic in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a powerful means of tailoring the system to your unique workflows and processes. There are three primary methods for customizing business logic:
⚙️Application Language (AL) Code: With AL code customization, you can create entirely new functionality or modify existing logic within the system to meet specific needs. This level of customization can help you automate tasks, add specialized calculations, and integrate with external systems seamlessly.
⚙️Triggers and Events: defining triggers and events ensures that the system reacts to data updates, validations, or user actions automatically. This enhances efficiency, reduces manual intervention, and guarantees that tasks are executed consistently.
⚙️Custom Workflows: Workflows enable the automation and orchestration of complex, multi-step processes within Business Central. You can design custom workflows to match your organization’s unique approval processes, document routing, or other task sequences. This not only streamlines operations but also improves data accuracy and compliance by enforcing standardized procedures.
Customizing Reports and Documents in Business Central
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides the flexibility to create custom reports or modify existing ones, allowing you to generate documents such as invoices, purchase orders, and financial statements that reflect your organization’s unique style and content needs.
The ability to customize reports and documents in Business Central goes beyond aesthetics; it’s about creating documents that are informative, compliant, and visually appealing, ultimately enhancing your business’s professionalism and customer satisfaction.
Customizing Security Permissions
By customizing security permissions in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can create a granular access control system that restricts user access to specific data and functionalities based on roles and responsibilities. Security roles determine what actions users can perform within the system, while permissions specify which objects, such as tables, pages, or reports, they can access.
In addition to standard roles and permissions, you will also need to customize your data-level security policies. These policies allow you to restrict access to specific data based on filters or rules, ensuring that sensitive information is only visible to authorized personnel.
Web Services Customization
Custom web services can be created to expose specific data or functionalities to external systems, partners, or customers, allowing for seamless data exchange. These web services can be tailored to match your organization’s unique requirements, making it easier to connect Business Central with other software solutions, e-commerce platforms, or third-party applications.
Scheduled tasks customization is equally valuable for automating routine web service processes within Business Central. These tasks can be configured to execute at predefined intervals or in response to specific triggers, such as data changes or system events. By customizing scheduled tasks, you can ensure that critical operations occur consistently and on schedule.
Customizing with Apps and Extensions
Customizing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with apps and extensions is a powerful way to extend the system’s functionality without altering the core codebase. AppSource, Microsoft’s marketplace for business applications, offers a wide range of pre-built apps and extensions that can be easily integrated into Business Central.
In addition to the library of pre-built, industry specific apps available through AppSource, you can also create a custom extension using Power Apps. Custom extensions are particularly valuable when you need to address highly specialized or industry-specific requirements that off-the-shelf apps may not cover. Thanks to Microsoft Power Apps, you can now create custom extension without the need for extensive coding knowledge.
For more on Microsoft Power Apps:
Customization Through API Integration
Customizing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central through integration with Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, allows you to create custom connectors that facilitate real-time data import and export. By configuring these processes, you can ensure that data is accurately and efficiently transferred to and from the system.
API integration customization requires the following:
⚙️Data Mapping: Data mapping defines how data from external sources aligns with the structure of the system’s database. Mapping data fields and values correctly results in accurate information transfers and synchronicity between systems.
⚙️Validation Rules: Validation rules ensure that incoming and outgoing data meet predefined standards. These rules help maintain data accuracy and consistency and prevent incorrect or irrelevant data from entering or leaving the system.
⚙️Workflow Automation: In order to orchestrate complex, multi-step processes, you need to incorporate automated workflows. Similar to business logic workflows, you can set specific API events to trigger actions and automate integrated tasks.
Whether it’s bulk imports of sales orders, periodic exports of financial data for reporting, or integrating with third-party logistics providers, customized API integration ensures your Business Central solution aligns precisely with your data management needs.
UI Extensions
Customizing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central using UI extensions allows you to tailor your user interface in a way that goes beyond standard personalization. By using page extensions, you can add custom fields, actions, or controls to existing pages within Business Central. For example, you can create a page extension to display relevant customer records, streamlining the workflow for sales representatives.
You can also use control add-ins to embed custom controls directly into Business Central pages including interactive charts, maps, data visualization tools, and more. For instance, a control add-in can provide graphical representations of sales trends or geographical locations of customers, offering a more intuitive and insightful view of business data.
Localization and Language Support
Customizing localization and language support in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is essential for organizations operating in diverse regions and catering to a global audience. Business Central offers extensive customization options to adapt the system to different languages, regional requirements, and compliance standards.
Your business can create custom language packs or customize existing translations to ensure that the user interface and reports are presented in the preferred language of the users. This is particularly valuable when dealing with multinational teams or customers who require localized content.
Customizing localization goes beyond language translation. It includes adapting the system to comply with regional regulations, taxation rules, and reporting standards. You can customize tax setups, currency configurations, and reporting templates to meet the specific financial and regulatory requirements of each country or region where they operate.
Themes and Branding
Customizing themes and branding in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is an effective way to create a cohesive and professional visual identity for your organization within the system. You can customize themes by adjusting color schemes, fonts, and other visual elements to match your corporate branding guidelines.
You can also include custom branding on reports and documents generated by Business Central. You can incorporate your company’s logo, apply custom headers and footers, and format documents to align with your brand’s visual identity.
Questions About Customization? Ask the Experts at Kwixand!
Kwixand Solutions is a Microsoft Partner with a team of certified Business Central experts ready to help you make the most out of your Dynamics 365 software. Get in touch today to set up a FREE 1-day assessment with our team so we can show you exactly how Business Central can help your business streamline processes, avoid errors, and make data-driven decisions. Set yourself up for success with the help of a dedicated ERP partner like Kwixand Solutions.
