Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials Pricing: A Comprehensive Guide

When it comes to Dynamics 365 Business Central, pricing can seem complex and overwhelming, especially for new users. In this article, we'll break down the essential details you need to know about pricing in Business Central.

One of the key factors that influence pricing is entitlements, licenses, and user groups. To understand how these work together, check out the Effective Permissions page on the User page. For example, even if a user has SUPER permissions assigned by an administrator, their Team Member license will still only grant access to objects defined by the Team Member entitlements.

In Business Central, entitlements always take priority over permissions. When a user logs in, the service applies the intersection of the entitlements associated with their service plan (or Azure AD role) and the permissions defined for that user.

User groups play a crucial role in assigning licenses or making users members of specific Azure AD roles. Based on this mapping, the service determines which user group is assigned to a user by default when they log in to Business Central for the first time.

The User Group Plan table stores the mapping between service plans and user groups. Entitlements are permissions that describe which objects in Business Central a user is entitled to use according to their Azure Active Directory role or the license they purchased from Microsoft.

For more information about the different types of licenses and how licensing works in Business Central, check out the Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, available for download.

When a user purchases an Essential license and tries to sign in to Business Central, we retrieve their service plan (in this case, Essential) from Azure AD. Entitlements are grouped in the Entitlement Set table, and each entitlement set is associated with one of the four Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) service plans.

Instead of permissions being generated based on licenses, they're generated based on entitlements. Behind the scenes, the Entitlements table defines license permissions per object.

If an administrator is the first person to sign in after a license was applied to their tenant and users, the 30-day trial will continue until it expires. However, for businesses looking to convert their 30-day trial company into their actual production company, the first user who signs in after the license was applied must be a user with this license assigned.

Finally, Business Central online doesn't use classic Dynamics NAV license files (.flf). Instead, licenses are applied directly to your tenant and users. This means that when the 30-day trial ends, any trial-related notifications will disappear, allowing you to continue using Business Central for work.

In conclusion, understanding pricing in Dynamics 365 Business Central requires a basic knowledge of entitlements, licenses, and user groups. By grasping these concepts, you'll be well on your way to making informed decisions about your business's technology needs.

Dynamics 365 business central essentials pricing