Welcome to Business Central
Business Central is Microsoft's cloud ERP for small and medium businesses. Before you configure anything, let's understand what you're working with — the ecosystem, the navigation, and the CRONUS demo company.
What is Business Central?
Think of Business Central as the operating system for a small business.
Your phone has one place where contacts, calendar, photos, and messages all connect. Business Central does the same for a company — finances, sales, purchasing, inventory, and reporting all live in one place, talking to each other.
When Raj at Summit Distribution sells a widget, the inventory count drops, the customer gets invoiced, and the finance team sees the revenue — all automatically, from one system. No more spreadsheets that don’t match.
Why Business Central? The SMB sweet spot
Business Central fills a very specific gap:
| Too Small | The Sweet Spot | Too Big |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets and QuickBooks | Business Central | Dynamics 365 Finance + Supply Chain |
| Manual invoicing | Automated workflows | Custom ERP with dedicated teams |
| No audit trail | Full GL with dimensions | Multi-entity consolidations |
| 1-10 employees | 10-300 employees | 300+ employees |
Exam context: The MB-800 exam focuses on Business Central for SMBs. You’ll configure — not develop — the application. You need to know the “what” and “how” of setup, not the AL programming language.
Business Central vs other Dynamics 365 apps
| Feature | Business Central | D365 Finance + Supply Chain |
|---|---|---|
| Target audience | SMBs (10-300 employees) | Mid-market to enterprise (300+) |
| Deployment | SaaS (primary) or on-premises | SaaS only |
| Licensing | Essentials or Premium per user | Complex tier-based licensing |
| Complexity | Configure and go | Requires implementation partner and months of setup |
| Manufacturing | Basic (Premium licence) | Advanced (MRP, production scheduling) |
| Integration | Power Platform, M365 | Power Platform, M365, Dataverse-native |
| Exam | MB-800 | MB-300 / MB-310 / MB-330 |
Where does Business Central fit in the Dynamics 365 family?
Dynamics 365 is a suite of business applications. Business Central is the all-in-one ERP for SMBs. Other apps specialise:
| App | Focus |
|---|---|
| Business Central | ERP for SMBs — finance, sales, purchasing, inventory |
| D365 Finance | Enterprise financial management |
| D365 Supply Chain | Enterprise supply chain and manufacturing |
| D365 Sales | CRM — pipeline, opportunities, forecasting |
| D365 Field Service | On-site service management |
| D365 Customer Service | Help desk, case management |
Business Central can integrate with D365 Sales and D365 Field Service for SMBs that need CRM alongside ERP. The exam may test your awareness of these integration points.
Navigating Business Central
When Sam logs into Business Central for the first time at Nordic Manufacturing, he sees his Role Centre — a personalised dashboard based on his role.
Role Centres — your personalised home page
Every user gets a Role Centre tailored to their job:
- Business Manager — KPIs, cash flow, overdue invoices
- Accountant — Chart of accounts, journals, bank reconciliation
- Sales Order Processor — Open orders, shipments, customer balances
- Purchasing Agent — Purchase orders, vendor invoices, receipts
Role Centres show cues (coloured tiles with counts like “5 Overdue Invoices”), action tiles (quick links to common tasks), charts, and insights powered by data analysis.
Exam tip: Role Centres vs pages
The exam distinguishes between:
- Role Centre — the home page a user sees after login (based on their profile)
- List pages — searchable tables of records (customers, vendors, items)
- Card pages — detail view of a single record (one customer, one item)
- Document pages — transactional documents (sales orders, purchase invoices)
Know the difference. “Where does Sam go to see all overdue purchase orders?” — that’s the Role Centre cues, not a list page.
The Tell Me search bar
The fastest way to find anything in Business Central is Tell Me (the search icon or Alt+Q). Type what you want to do:
- “Create sales order” → opens the sales order page
- “Chart of accounts” → opens the GL account list
- “Set up dimensions” → opens the Dimensions setup page
Sam doesn’t memorise menu paths. He uses Tell Me for everything. On the exam, if a question says “the quickest way to navigate to X,” Tell Me is often the answer.
The CRONUS demonstration company
Every Business Central environment comes with CRONUS International Ltd — a fully populated demo company with sample data. It’s your sandbox for learning.
CRONUS includes:
- A chart of accounts with balances
- Customers, vendors, and items with transaction history
- Dimensions, posting groups, and number series already configured
- Sample sales orders, purchase orders, and journal entries
Why CRONUS matters for the exam
The exam expects you to know what a “configured” Business Central looks like. CRONUS is the reference. When Priya sets up a new company for a client, she often starts by looking at how CRONUS is configured — then adapts it.
Don’t skip exploring CRONUS. Open the chart of accounts, look at the posting groups, examine how dimensions are set up. Half the exam is about configuring these elements, and CRONUS shows the “correct” baseline.
Business Central licensing
Two main licence types:
| Licence | What’s Included | Who It’s For |
|---|---|---|
| Essentials | Finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, project management, warehouse, CRM | Most SMB users |
| Premium | Everything in Essentials + Manufacturing + Service Management | Manufacturing and service companies |
Additional licence types:
- Team Member — limited read/approve access (much cheaper)
- Device — shared device licence for warehouse terminals or shop floor kiosks
- External Accountant — free licence for the company’s external accountant
Olivia at Coastal Traders uses an Essentials licence. Raj at Summit Distribution also uses Essentials because they don’t manufacture — they distribute. Nordic Manufacturing needs Premium because Sam’s shop floor runs production orders.
Key terminology you’ll see throughout this course
Knowledge check
Priya is implementing Business Central for a distribution company with 60 employees. They handle purchasing, sales, inventory, and basic warehouse operations but no manufacturing. Which licence should she recommend?
Sam needs to quickly find the Dimensions setup page in Business Central. What's the fastest way?
Next up: Now that you know what Business Central is, let’s create and configure your first company.