The official Business Central Licensing Guide is a great resource. However, we’ve found that, given the shift from on-premises to cloud-based subscription licensing, there are new concepts in this document that our clients often want further explanation on.
With the news that new NAV licenses will no longer be available, many customers are also wondering what this means for them moving forward. If you’re in that position, or already considering adopting Business Central in your company, refer to the following Q&A for a detailed understanding of the new licensing scheme.
Still considering the move to the cloud? Compare the cost of Business Central with NAV On-Premise.
Business Central Licensing 101
We’ve provided the details below but let’s start with a brief an introduction…or the quick 101 summary of Business Central Licensing:
• There are two types of licenses: Essentials ($89.60 CAD/user/month) and Premium ($128 CAD/user/month), each offering different functionality
• There are two types of users: Full and Additional users (i.e. Team licenses who require mostly read-only or approval access)
• External users who aren’t performing business processes on behalf of the organization can access the system
Q: What’s included with the Essentials License vs a Premium License?
A: Essentials has:
• Financial Management
• Customer Relationship Management
• Project Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Human Resources Management
• Warehouse Management
Premium includes all of these, plus:
• Service Management
• Manufacturing
NOTE: You must either select Essentials or Premium licenses – you cannot have both.
Q: Team licenses are cheaper! Can everyone be on them?
A: No. These are really designed to be read-only licenses. “The Dynamics 365 Business Central Team Members subscription is a named user subscription designed for users who are not tied to a particular function, but who require basic Dynamics 365 Business Central functionality.”
ln addition, to have team licenses you must license at least one Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials or Dynamics 365 Business Central Premium user.
Q: What exactly can you do with a team license?
Users of this licenses get full read access as well as some write access. They can:
• Use PowerApps to access D365 Business Central
• Update existing data. This could include customer records, vendor records, or item records
• Approve/reject tasks in a workflow
• Create, edit or delete a quote OR personal information
• Enter a time sheet for jobs
Having this option is particularly valuable when it comes to approval areas. There are a number of areas in Business Central that a team member could have an impact on but never enter, edit, or delete those documents or master records. If you are a manager, you could approve items entered into the system by a user. You can see all the data and only take action on workflows and timesheets, for example.
Q: Can multiple users use the same license?
A: No – with the subscription license, each license must have a named user.
Q: Who counts as external users?
A: Your customers and suppliers.
External users cannot use any clients provided by the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Application Programming Interface (API), such as the Windows client, the Web client, the Windows, the iPad or iPhone app, or the Android application.
Learn More About Our Subscription Pricing for Business Central
We have launched a subscription-based model for the set-up, subscription and ongoing support for a Business Central Solution. The model flattens out the capital costs of a major upgrade project and bundles in the subscription of Business Central and ongoing Support Desk and Proactive Support Services.
