Business Central modules and what each one does

How Business Central modules are organized

People say modules out of habit. Older ERP systems sold each area separately. In Business Central every area is part of one app. All areas share the same customers, vendors, items and ledgers. The Role Explorer shows all areas and the pages inside each. Open it from the menu icon on the home page.

What a user can open depends on two things. One is the license assigned to them. The other is their permission sets. A company therefore decides area by area what to set up and when. For example, many go live with finance, sales, purchasing and inventory first. They add warehousing, projects or production in later phases.

Finance, sales and purchasing

Finance is the base. It holds the chart of accounts, journals, dimensions, budgets and bank accounts. It also holds receivables, payables, fixed assets, currencies and financial reports. Every other area posts into it through posting groups. So its setup comes first and needs care.

Next, sales covers quotes, orders, shipments, invoices, returns, prices and discounts. Purchasing mirrors it with quotes, orders, receipts, invoices and vendor returns. It also adds worksheets that suggest what to buy. Then approval workflows can sit on documents in both areas before release.

Inventory, warehouse and assembly in Business Central modules

Next, inventory manages items, variants, units of measure, locations and transfers. It also covers costing methods, lot or serial tracking, counts and adjustments. Planning tools use reorder rules and demand forecasts. They propose purchase or transfer orders when stock runs short.

Then warehouse management adds bins, put-aways, picks and movements. You can switch it on per location. So a small store stays simple, and a main warehouse runs full tasks. Assembly builds kits or simple finished goods from a list of parts.

Projects, relationships and people

Projects, called Jobs in earlier versions, tracks budgets and tasks. It also tracks resource usage, time sheets and invoicing. Resources can be people or machines with their own costs and prices. It suits contractors, agencies and any firm that needs cost and revenue by engagement.

Also, relationship management holds contacts, calls and deals for the sales team. A basic human resources area keeps employee records and absences. A payroll provider or an add-on handles payroll. These smaller areas help because they share data with all else.

Business Central modules that need Premium

Finally, manufacturing requires the Premium license. It includes production bills of materials, routings, work centers and capacity planning. It also has production orders and planning worksheets that work out material needs. Firms that only kit products can usually stay on Essentials. They use assembly orders.

However, service management is the other Premium area. It handles service items, orders and contracts. It suits firms that repair or maintain equipment. If you are unsure which license you need, our consultants can go through your tasks with you. They will point to the specific pages involved.

Business Central modules: frequent questions

Can we buy Business Central modules separately?

No. Licenses are per user, not per module. Essentials users get finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, warehousing and projects. Premium users get all of that plus production and service tools. Within your license you decide which areas to set up and use. So the real choice is about setup and timing, not about separate purchases.

Which modules should we implement first?

Finance always comes first, because everything posts to it. Most firms add sales, purchasing and inventory together. They depend on each other. Warehousing, projects and production often follow once the core is steady and staff are comfortable. That order keeps the first phase small.

Is there a payroll module?

The standard product keeps employee records. It does not run payroll in the United States. Firms connect a payroll provider or install a payroll add-on. The resulting journal then posts to the general ledger. We help choose and set up that connection. So payroll sits beside the other Business Central modules, not inside them.

Is CRM one of the modules?

A light version is. Relationship management covers contacts, calls and deals. Firms that need fuller pipeline management connect Dynamics 365 Sales or another CRM. Our comparison of Business Central and Dynamics 365 Sales explains where the line falls. Read it before you decide if the built-in tools are enough.

What if we need something no module covers?

There are three options. You can set up what exists in a new way. You can install an add-on from Microsoft's marketplace. Or you can have an AL extension written. We look at them in that order. The first is the cheapest to maintain. Most gaps close with the first or second option. Custom work comes last.

Go deeper into each of the Business Central modules

Each of the main areas has its own page on this site. Start with the ones closest to your business. Or compare the two license levels before deciding what to set up. Either way, keep your list of Business Central modules close as you read. It makes later talks about scope and training simpler. For the product detail, see Business functionality overview, on Microsoft Learn.