Business management solutions like Dynamics 365 Business Central are essential for small to medium-sized businesses like yours. The software helps optimise operations and drives efficiency across your business, enabling faster and smarter work.
Here's what you need to know about Business Central before you start that journey – and how to avoid the mistakes that drain bank balances and destroy credibility.
Overview of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Business Central evolved from Dynamics NAV in 2018. NAV had been around since the mid-1980s as an on-premise solution. Microsoft killed mainstream NAV support in 2023 and rebuilt it as a cloud-first system.
Since launch, Business Central has had major upgrades, especially in the 2025 Wave 1 update, including enhanced integration, AI automation, and improved user experience.
It's designed for businesses who need to manage financials, sales, service, and operations more efficiently than their current system allows.
Why Your Current System is Holding You Back
Your finance team is probably dealing with these issues right now:
- Week 4 board meetings since it takes forever to close your books
- Excel everywhere because your ERP can't produce the reports you need
- Manual processes that should have been automated years ago
- Poor visibility into cash flow, WIP, and real-time performance
- Integration headaches between systems that don't talk to each other
Business Central eliminates these problems by giving your finance team real-time data, automated reporting, and proper integration across your business.
What Business Central Does for Finance Teams
This overview of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central covers the key capabilities that matter most to your business:
Real-Time Financial Reporting No more waiting until month-end. Your finance team gets current information when they need it, not three weeks later. Automated generation of accurate financial reports means less manual work and fewer errors.
Cash Flow Management Proactive cash management instead of reactive scrambling. You'll know where you stand today, not where you were last month. Real-time data gives you effective cash flow oversight.
Automated Month-End Close Reduce the time it takes to close your books from weeks to days. Get your board meetings back to week 2 or 3. Streamlined invoicing and payment processes improve cash management.
Power BI Integration Advanced analytics that actually help with decision-making. No more guessing what the numbers mean. Built-in reporting tools show what's actually happening in your business.
Proper Audit Trail Everything tracked, nothing hidden in spreadsheets. General ledger management with customisable report structures. Automated bank reconciliation eliminates manual headaches.
Beyond Finance: What Else Business Central Handles
Operations and Supply Chain If you move physical products, Business Central provides proper stock control that reduces carrying costs and optimises inventory levels. Automated order fulfilment ensures timely delivery. Vendor management happens in one system instead of separate spreadsheets.
Sales and Service Management Customer relationship management keeps interactions tracked and managed properly. Sales order management automates processes that currently eat up time. Service management ensures customer support is timely and effective.
Project Management For businesses that run projects: effective resource allocation, accurate job costing, and proper time and expense tracking. Monitor project progress and make adjustments as needed.
Integration Capabilities Business Central's strength is integration. Native connection with Office, Teams, Excel, Outlook. APIs and web services connect with non-Microsoft applications. Links with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce.
AI and Automation Microsoft Copilot auto-generates product descriptions and predicts late payments. Process automation reduces manual tasks across various business functions. AI-powered recommendations and analytics help with decision-making.
The Partner Decision: More Important Than Product Choice
Here's what most businesses get wrong: they assume the software does the work. It doesn't. Your success depends entirely on implementation partner choice.
Here's how to get it right:
- Meet the Real Team
Don't just meet the salesperson. You need to meet the project manager, lead consultant, and support person who'll actually work on your project. Do they feel connected as a team? Are you comfortable with each other? If not, look elsewhere.
- Demand the Right Process
There are two approaches to ERP implementation:
The Traditional Approach (wrong): Specify everything endlessly before starting. Your team defines requirements based on existing systems and processes – the ones you're trying to replace. This is self-defeating.
The Right Approach: Get hands-on with Business Central early. Work with your partner to confirm standard application processes meet your business needs. Subject any customisation to a high ROI bar. This minimises upfront costs and lifetime maintenance costs.
If a partner proposes the traditional approach, look elsewhere.
- Check Customer Satisfaction
Ask for their NPS score. If they don't measure it or won't share it, that tells you everything. Industry average is around 30. Good is 40+. Great is 60+.
What You Should Expect to Spend
Stop starting with a number you invented before engaging with a partner. That's a mistake.
Upfront Costs
These are defined by:
- Your business complexity
- Your team's willingness to adopt standard processes
- The extent of customisations you approve as "essential"
Your partner will quote man-days at day rates. Don't squeeze too hard on rates – they'll put juniors on your project and save experienced people for clients who pay properly.
Put your best person on the project – not just someone who can be made available.
Running Costs
Software Subscription: Licence costs depend on user numbers. Work with your partner to optimise "lite" or "limited" licences for certain job roles. Buy licences at vendor period-end for better deals.
Professional Services: Every 6-12 months you'll need system updates. Your partner should explain changes, explore new features, test customisations, and implement required changes.
Training: Over 3-5 years, people move on and take system knowledge with them. Training is never "one and done" – skills erode and need refreshing.
Support: The quality of support determines ROI on your investment. If your people don't get quick, helpful answers, your business goes slow. If choosing between partners comes down to one issue, optimise for this.
How to Implement Business Central Successfully
1) Clean Your Data FirstThink of this as a spring clean. Poor data will undermine Business Central's effectiveness. Clean and validate everything before migration – it'll save you headaches down the line.
2) Adopt Standard Processes Where Possible
Every customisation adds cost and complexity. Challenge requests for bespoke features – most are recreating old problems in a new system. Business Central's standard processes are designed to work efficiently.
3) Plan a Phased Rollout
Start with core modules and expand gradually. This reduces disruptions to your business and helps your team adapt incrementally. Your partner should guide you on the best deployment approach for your situation.
4) Invest in Proper Training
Your team won't magically know how to use the new system. Although Business Central has automatic updates, your team doesn't. Training investment and change management are essential for adoption.
5) Plan for Ongoing Support
The project doesn't end at go-live. Establish a support structure that includes troubleshooting, updates, and continuous improvement. Make sure you have contingency budget for post-implementation support.
Why Business Central Implementations Fail
Three main reasons:
- Wrong partner choice – picked on price, not capability
- Over-customisation – recreated old problems in new system
- Poor change management – didn't train people properly
A well-executed Business Central implementation transforms your business by liberating people from inefficient processes and providing great data for better decision-making.
A poorly executed implementation drains bank balances, destroys professional credibility, and kills staff morale.
The difference between the two is found in partner choice and the quality of collaboration you establish with them.
Getting Started with Business Central
Business Central isn't something you can buy directly from Microsoft and expect to work. You need a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) – an IT partner who knows what they're doing.
Comprehensive Pre-Implementation Planning
Getting a new ERP system is no small task. Before you even think about deployment, you need to nail down three things:
Define clear goals: Stop being vague about what you want to achieve. "Better reporting" isn't a goal – "streamline financial operations" is. Identify what you actually need, not what looks impressive in a demo.
Assess current processes: Before you can see Business Central's benefits, you need to understand how broken your current setup is. Document workflows across departments. Find the inefficiencies and areas where people are wasting time. This isn't about justifying the purchase – you've already decided you need something better.
Align stakeholders: Get buy-in from the people who'll actually use the system. Their input matters more than what the board thinks sounds good. If your key users aren't on board, your project will fail regardless of how much you spend.
Choose the Right Business Central Partner
There are dozens of Microsoft Partners in the UK claiming they can implement Business Central. Most of them shouldn't be trusted with your project.
When looking for the right people to manage your Business Central implementation, consider these factors:
Breadth of capability: Business Central's great strength is integration with Microsoft's ecosystem. You need a partner who can help you take advantage of Office 365, Power Platform, and Azure – not just install the software and disappear.
Great support: Find out how their customers actually feel. Ask for their NPS score. If they don't measure NPS, look elsewhere. If their score is less than 40, look elsewhere. The industry average is around 30 – you want someone significantly better.
Skills depth: Great support comes down to having enough people on the support desk who actually know Business Central inside and out. Ask how many certified consultants they have. Go meet them. If they can't arrange this, they probably don't have the depth you need.
Training and adoption: Your team won't magically understand the new system. The right partner provides comprehensive training and change management support. At TSG, our customers get free access to TSG Academy – hundreds of resources, weekly live sessions, and ongoing learning support.
Clean Your Data
Think of getting Business Central as a spring clean for your business data. You can't dump years of messy, inconsistent data into a new system and expect miracles.
Clean and validate your data before migration. This means standardising customer records, cleaning up product catalogues, and ensuring financial data is accurate. Poor data quality will undermine everything Business Central is capable of doing for you.
Adopt a Phased Rollout
Don't try to implement everything at once. That's a recipe for chaos and user resistance.
Start with core modules – typically financials – and expand gradually. This approach reduces business disruption and helps your team adapt without being overwhelmed. Your goals and improvement priorities should drive the rollout sequence.
The phased approach also lets you prove value early, which builds momentum and support for later phases.
Invest in Training
Business Central gets regular updates and new features. Your team doesn't automatically absorb this knowledge.
Training isn't a one-time event at go-live. It's an ongoing investment in getting value from your system. People leave, new staff join, features change. Without proper training, user satisfaction declines and calls to replace the system start emerging within a few years.
Plan for Post-Go-Live Support
Implementation doesn't end when the system goes live. You need ongoing support for troubleshooting, updates, optimisation, and user questions.
Establish clear support arrangements with your partner. Make sure you understand response times, escalation procedures, and how updates will be managed. Budget for this – it's not optional if you want long-term success.
Working with TSG
Our NPS score is 86 (industry average is 30). We're fully Microsoft certified and have been implementing Business Central since it launched.
We don't just implement and disappear. We provide:
- Ongoing support and maintenance
- Regular training through TSG Academy
- Help evolving the solution as your business grows
- Access to Microsoft funding options that can offset implementation costs
TSG Academy gives you access to hundreds of resources to master Business Central and your entire Microsoft stack – exclusively for TSG clients.
The Bottom Line
Business Central can transform your finance operations and give you the real-time visibility you need to run your business properly. It handles everything from financial management to operations, sales, and service management in one integrated system.
But your success depends entirely on choosing the right implementation partner. The cheapest option usually becomes the most expensive mistake.
Focus on finding a partner with proven expertise, proper support capabilities, and customers who'll actually recommend them. Get hands-on with the system early, adopt standard processes where possible, and invest in proper training.
Come meet our people. Make up your own mind.
Eager to learn more about Business Central? Read Everything You Need to Know About Dynamics 365 Business Central
