When people are exploring Microsoft Business Central, the same questions tend to pop up again and again. It’s a powerful system, and buyers want clarity before making the jump. That’s why Steven Nettleship our head of business central, has put together a helpful Q&A, these are the top 20 questions that Steven gets asked when businesses are starting their ERP journey.
1. What is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central?
“Business Central is essentially an all‑in‑one cloud system that brings together your finance, operations, supply chain, sales, service, and reporting into one place. Instead of having lots of disconnected systems or spreadsheets, everything runs off a single, real‑time data source. It gives you full visibility across the business and fits neatly into the Microsoft ecosystem, working seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Azure.”
For example, if a customer places an order, the finance team sees it instantly, stock levels update automatically, and the warehouse knows exactly what to ship. Everything stays in sync without manual updates.”
2. Is Business Central suitable for SMEs?
“Yes, absolutely. Business Central is built specifically for small and midsized businesses. It solves common issues like using too many separate systems or relying heavily on spreadsheets. It’s highly scalable and easy for teams to adopt, which makes it ideal for businesses that are growing or going through change.”
I’ll give you an example:
A manufacturing company with around 35 employees moved to Business Central because they were managing stock in spreadsheets and constantly running into errors. After switching, they stopped overselling, reduced stockouts, and saved hours every week because everything was automated.”
3. Is Business Central secure and GDPR compliant?
“Yes. It runs on Microsoft Azure, so you get enterprise‑grade security by default encryption, secure identity management, MFA, conditional access, and role‑based permissions. It also has built‑in tools to help you stay compliant with GDPR, such as data classification, retention policies, and ways to handle data subject requests.”
A practical example:
If an employee leaves your company, you can immediately remove their access across every Microsoft system including Business Central through Azure AD. That’s a big help for GDPR and security.”
4. What differentiates Business Central from other ERP systems?
“One of the biggest advantages is how deeply it integrates with the wider Microsoft ecosystem things like Microsoft 365, Teams, Power BI, Power Automate, and Dynamics 365 Sales. It’s cloud‑first, updated regularly, and offers powerful AI capabilities. Overall, it provides a unified environment that’s hard for other ERPs to match.”
For example, your sales team can create quotes directly inside Outlook using Business Central data, without logging into the ERP. Most other systems don’t offer that depth of integration.”
5. What can Business Central do?
“Business Central covers a wide range of operational needs: financials, inventory, warehousing, supply chain, reporting, automation, and even project management. What’s nice is that everything sits inside a single system, so your data stays consistent and processes flow smoothly between departments.”
For instance, if you purchase stock, it automatically updates inventory, creates financial postings, and feeds into demand forecasting. You don’t have to enter the same information in multiple places the system does it for you.”
6. Is Business Central easy to use?
“Yes, it’s designed to feel familiar, especially if you already use Microsoft tools. It has clean dashboards, role‑based views, and a modern layout. People usually find it easy to pick up, and there’s built‑in guidance to help new users get comfortable quickly.”
One example:
Most new users start with the ‘Role Centre’ basically a personalised homepage. A finance manager might see cash flow indicators and overdue invoices, while a warehouse worker sees picking lists. People see what they need, which makes onboarding much easier.”
7. Can Business Central integrate with Outlook, Excel, and Teams?
“Yes, and the integrations are very practical. From Outlook you can interact with customer and vendor data without leaving your inbox. You can edit data directly in Excel using a live connection. And through Teams, you can share and collaborate on Business Central records in real time.”
Here’s a real example:
A salesperson receives an email asking for a quote. Without leaving Outlook, they can check the customer’s credit limit, their past orders, and even create the quote all in a side panel powered by Business Central.
Or, if you want to adjust 200 product prices, you can open the list in Excel, edit everything, and publish it straight back into the system.”
8. Does Business Central support ecommerce integration, such as Shopify?
“It does. There’s a Microsoft‑built Shopify connector that syncs products, stock, orders, and customer information in real time and it supports multiple stores. It’s included with the SaaS version at no extra cost. If you’re using other ecommerce platforms, those can be integrated as well through APIs or third‑party connectors.”
For example:
If someone buys a product on your Shopify store, the order appears instantly in Business Central, stock reduces automatically, and the warehouse gets the pick instruction. No one needs to manually re‑key anything.
Other ecommerce platforms can be connected too using APIs or add‑ons.”
9. How does Business Central fit into the Microsoft ecosystem?
“Business Central essentially acts as the operational backbone of the Microsoft cloud. It ties into Microsoft 365 for collaboration, Power BI for analytics, Power Platform for automation and apps, Dynamics 365 Sales for CRM, and Azure for identity and security. It creates a very cohesive experience across the organisation.”
For example, you can create a Power Automate workflow that automatically emails customers when an order ships. Or you can push Business Central financial data straight into Power BI for real‑time dashboards.”
10. How customisable is Business Central?
“Business Central is highly customisable, but the level of customisation depends on what you need.
Users can make many changes themselves, while more advanced changes still require a developer.
What users can do without a developer is limited, but they can personalise pages to suit their needs. Things like Moving, hiding, or resizing fields, columns, and actions, Adding fields that already exist in the underlying table but are hidden from the view by default, create personal or team views, adjusting layouts and dashboards
Basically if a field already exists in the database, users can often bring it into view without any development.
However what users cannot do is create brand‑new fields. Microsoft and partner documentation confirms that personalisation only exposes existing fields, to add a new custom field, developers must use table and page extensions written in AL.
There are third‑party add‑ons that allow non‑technical creation of new fields, but this is not built into standard Business Central”
As an example
A wholesale company wanted to display a ‘Pallet Type’ field on their sales orders. The field already existed in the system’s underlying table, but wasn’t visible on the page. Using Business Central’s personalisation tools, they added the existing field themselves in minutes no development required.
However, if that field hadn’t existed, they would have needed a developer (or an add‑on) to create it first.
11. Does Business Central work with Power BI?
“Yes. Power BI connects directly to Business Central, giving you interactive dashboards and real‑time reporting. You can even embed Power BI visuals inside the system and use prebuilt content packs to get insights quickly.”
For example:
A finance director might use Power BI to track revenue, margin, cash flow, and budgets, all updated in real time from Business Central. Those same visuals can appear right inside the ERP, so users don’t have to switch between tools.”
12. Can Business Central support forecasting and planning?
“Yes. It includes forecasting tools powered by machine learning things like demand forecasting, cashflow prediction, and identifying customers who might pay late. These features help improve planning and support more informed decision‑making.”
For example:
A distributor used the demand forecast to predict the next three months of sales. It identified seasonal trends they’d been missing and helped them reduce over‑ordering by about 15%.”
13. Why move from spreadsheets to Business Central?
“Spreadsheets are great for certain tasks but become risky as the business grows errors, version confusion, limited collaboration, and data inconsistency. Business Central centralises everything so your data stays accurate, secure, and available to the right people. It also automates processes that otherwise would be manual.”
One example:
A business discovered that a single spreadsheet error caused them to overstock thousands of pounds worth of goods. After switching to Business Central, stock levels were controlled centrally and updated automatically, eliminating that risk.”
14. How quickly can Business Central be implemented?
“The system is designed for fast deployment. Cloud provisioning is instant, and role‑based setup tools help get things running quickly. Many organisations get the core features live within a matter of weeks. And you can expand gradually as your needs evolve.”
For example:
A services company went live in six weeks with finance, timesheets, billing, and basic reporting. Later, they added project accounting and approvals meaning they could start small and grow at their own pace.”
15. Is Business Central scalable?
“Yes, very. It’s built to grow with your business. It can handle more transactions, more users, multiple entities, and multiple countries. And if you need more advanced features like manufacturing or service management they’re available as part of the same platform. Azure also scales automatically behind the scenes.”
For example:
A company that started with 10 users expanded to over 80 as they opened new sites. Because Business Central handles multiple warehouses, currencies, and legal entities, they didn’t need to switch systems they simply expanded their setup.”
16. What happens after go‑live?
“After go‑live, the focus usually shifts to training, optimisation, and support. Microsoft releases regular updates, and partners help with fine‑tuning processes, solving issues, and ensuring you’re getting the most out of the system.”
For example:
A business might go live with basic financials, then later optimise bank reconciliation, automate approvals, or add barcode scanning in the warehouse once the team is comfortable.”
17. Does Business Central use AI?
“Yes. Business Central has AI built in through Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Agents. They can help with things like document processing, forecasting, anomaly detection, and natural‑language insights. Copilot Agents can even run autonomous tasks for example, monitoring stock levels or generating messages automatically.”
For example:
Copilot can read a supplier invoice, extract the details, and draft a purchase invoice automatically. Or it can predict which customers are likely to pay late so your credit controller can follow up proactively.”
18. What devices can Business Central run on?
“It’s very flexible. You can use it on any modern web browser, whether you’re on a laptop, desktop, tablet, or mobile. There’s also a dedicated app for iOS and Android, so you can work on the go.”
For example:
Warehouse staff often use tablets to process picks and put‑aways, while managers can approve purchase orders on their phone when they’re travelling.”
19. What’s the difference between Business Central Cloud and On‑Premise?
“The cloud version (SaaS) gives you automatic updates, access to AI features, lower IT overhead, and Azure‑level security. It’s the version Microsoft is investing in the most.
The on‑premise version gives you full control of the infrastructure and deeper technical customisation, but it requires more maintenance, manual updates, and doesn’t include many of the cloud‑only features. For most organisations today, the SaaS version is the better long‑term option.”
A real example:
A company on an older on‑premise version was spending thousands each year on server maintenance and manual upgrades. When they moved to SaaS, those costs disappeared and they gained new features instantly.”
20. Why move to Business Central SaaS?
“Moving to the SaaS version gives you a modern, secure, always‑up‑to‑date ERP with strong integration capabilities, built‑in automation, AI‑driven processes, and seamless scalability. It reduces costs, simplifies IT management, and ensures you always have access to the latest features.”
For example:
A retailer using SaaS can expand from one store to five without worrying about infrastructure they just add new locations in the system, and everything updates automatically.”
Final Thoughts
Business Central is more than an ERP it’s a modern, intelligent business management platform built on the world’s leading cloud ecosystem. Whether you’re replacing spreadsheets, modernising processes, or preparing your organisation for an AI‑powered future, Business Central gives you the structure, intelligence, and flexibility to grow with confidence.
With Frontline Consultancy as your long‑term partner, you’re supported every step of the way from implementation, to optimisation, to continuous innovation. You’re never on the journey alone.
Contact us today to start your Microsoft Business Central journey.
Book a call – Frontline Consultancy and Business Services Ltd
Q&A written by Steven Nettleship – Head of Microsoft Business Central
