In this Areopa Academy webinar — the 103rd in the series — Søren Friis Alexandersen, Product Manager in the Business Central engineering team at Microsoft, runs through 45 practical settings and tips in roughly 45 minutes. Moderated by Luc van Vugt, the session covers a broad mix of finance, inventory, administration, and user-experience features. Whether you are new to Business Central or a seasoned practitioner, there is something here worth revisiting.
Posting and Job Queue
Tip 1 — Background Posting. On many setup pages (Sales & Receivables Setup, Purchases & Payables Setup, etc.) you can enable background posting. When active, document posting is handed off to the Job Queue, freeing the UI immediately so users can keep working. Results such as a posted invoice PDF appear in the report inbox.
Tip 2 — Job Queue Failure Notifications. Run the Job Queue Notification assisted setup to designate administrators who receive alerts — either as in-product notifications or as Business Events you can consume in Power Automate. The setup wizard includes a direct link to a Power Automate template as a starting point. Administrators assigned the notification role can see all job queues across the company from their Role Center, making it easier to spot and restart stuck or failed entries.
📖 Docs: Clean up data with retention policies — learn how to define automated cleanup schedules per table to keep database size under control.
Shopify Integration
Tip 3 — Connect a Shopify Store. Install the Business Central app from within Shopify (a few clicks), then run the Connect Your Shopify Store assisted setup inside BC. After entering your Shopify URL and accepting the terms, BC and Shopify are linked. From there you configure what synchronises — products, orders, customers — and in which direction.
Tip 4 — Troubleshoot Shopify Synchronisation in the Foreground. When diagnosing sync problems, disable the automatic background sync and use the manual action buttons (Sync Products, Sync Orders, etc.) directly on the Shopify shop page. Errors surface in the UI rather than in background logs, making it much easier to identify what is going wrong.
Environment and Company Management
Tip 5 — Company Badge. On the Company Information page, configure a short badge (up to six characters) with a background colour. Badges appear in the company switcher so users can immediately identify which environment and company they are in. Square badges indicate sandbox environments; round badges indicate production — a quick visual check before making changes.
Tip 6 — Retention Policies. The database grows over time, sometimes more quickly for certain tables such as the Job Queue Log Entry or Change Log Entry. Retention Policies let you automate data cleanup: define which table to target, optionally filter by field values (for example, keep error entries for one week but delete successful entries after two days), and a Job Queue entry handles the deletion automatically. Use the Data Administration page to review table sizes and growth percentages to prioritise what to clean up.
Tip 36 — Environment Lifecycle Notifications. In the Business Central Admin Center, add yourself and other key contacts as notification recipients so you are emailed about scheduled updates and other environment lifecycle events before they happen.
Tip 37 — Control Update Timing. Also in the Admin Center, you can specify both the maintenance window (the time of day updates are allowed to run) and the exact date for the next update. This prevents updates from occurring at inconvenient times.
Tip 42 — Copy Production to Sandbox. To get a fresh sandbox based on the current production environment, go to the environment list in the Admin Center, choose Copy, give it a name, and set the environment type to Sandbox. The service creates the copy in the background.
Tip 41 — App Update Cadence. By default, AppSource apps are updated alongside major BC updates. If you want installed apps to update with every minor release as well, you can change this setting in the Admin Center under the environment’s extension management area.
Microsoft 365 Integration
Tip 7 — OneDrive Integration. Run the Connect Your Files to the Cloud assisted setup and enable the Use with System Features option. Once active, actions such as Edit in Excel and Attach as PDF open files directly in the browser via OneDrive rather than downloading them locally — a noticeably smoother experience for end users.
Tip 8 — Deploy the Excel Add-in for All Users. Instead of asking each user to deploy the Business Central Excel add-in individually, use the Excel Add-in Centralized Deployment wizard. It guides you to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (search for Microsoft Dynamics Office Add-in), where you deploy it to the entire organisation. Note: you need Microsoft 365 admin rights, not just BC admin rights. Choose Centralized Deployment in the BC wizard once done to avoid conflicts with individual deployments.
Inventory and Purchasing
Tip 9 — Over-Receiving Items. BC allows over-receipt by default (10% company-wide if nothing is configured). You can create Over-Receipt Codes with specific percentage tolerances and assign them to individual items or vendors. When both a vendor tolerance and an item tolerance are set, the most restrictive setting applies.
Tip 10 — Block Item Variants Granularly. On an item’s variants, you can block a specific variant for sales, for purchases, or altogether. Blocked variants are filtered out of the relevant lookups, preventing them from being added to new documents. Note: the block only applies to new lines — variants already on open documents are not affected.
Tip 12 — Expected Cost Posting. If you need to know your inventory value at the time goods are physically received (before the invoice arrives), enable Expected Cost Posting to G/L on the Inventory Setup. Costs are posted to interim accounts at receipt and settled when the invoice is posted. Read the design details documentation before enabling this, as the initial enabling process can take several hours on environments with large data volumes.
Tip 23 — Prevent Negative Inventory. On Inventory Setup, the Prevent Negative Inventory field stops users from posting transactions that would bring stock below zero. If specific items are allowed to go negative (for example, in a drop-ship scenario), you can override this at the item level — the more permissive setting wins.
Tip 14 — Remainder Quantity on Purchase Orders. After a partial receipt, BC defaults to pre-filling the Qty. to Receive field with the remaining quantity. If you prefer users to enter the quantity explicitly each time, set the Default Qty. to Receive field on Purchases & Payables Setup to blank.
Finance and Accounting
Tip 11 — Responsibility Centers. Assign users a Responsibility Center filter on the User Setup page. Sales orders created by that user inherit the responsibility center automatically, which can in turn default the Location Code. Users then only see the filtered subset of documents relevant to their area.
Tip 13 — Substitute Posting Groups On-the-Fly. Enable Allow Multiple Posting Groups on the Sales & Receivables Setup (and equivalents for purchases and service). Then, on individual customers, enable the same option and define alternative posting groups. At document entry time, a user with the appropriate permissions can switch the posting group on a specific order — useful for tracking revenue or receivables into different G/L accounts based on business circumstances.
Tip 17 — Automate Reminders / Dunning Letters. The Accounts Receivable Administrator Role Center includes three automation tasks for the reminder workflow: Create Reminders, Issue Reminders, and Send Reminders. Each can be scheduled independently (weekly, monthly, or a custom cron schedule). Set up reminder terms with escalating email text for each reminder level — from polite first notice to firmer final demand.
Tip 18 — G/L Account Currency Revaluation. A highly requested feature that tracks the source currency code and amount on G/L entries, enabling currency revaluation at the account level. At the time of the webinar, this was still in Feature Management and required manual activation; it was scheduled to be enabled by default from October 2025. Revaluation is performed per currency across all transactions — not transaction by transaction.
Tip 28 — Allocation Accounts. Define an allocation account (for example, Software Licenses) with a fixed split across subsidiaries or departments. When that allocation account is used on a purchase invoice line or journal line, the total amount is distributed to the configured G/L accounts at posting time. You can also expand the journal line before posting to see and confirm the split.
📖 Docs: Allocate revenue and costs to multiple G/L accounts — covers fixed and variable allocation account setup and how to use them on documents and journals.
Tip 30 — Suggest Balancing Amount in Journals. On the journal batch settings (three-dot menu → Edit List of Batches), enable Suggest Balancing Amount. When you enter a debit amount on one line, BC automatically creates the corresponding credit line when you move to a new document number — eliminating a repetitive manual step for simple journal entries.
Tip 31 — Deferral Templates. Define deferral templates to spread revenue or expense recognition across future periods. You can also control the allowed posting window for deferrals separately from regular posting — both at company level on the General Ledger Setup and at user level on the User Setup.
Tip 32 — Block Deletion of G/L Accounts. On General Ledger Setup, the Block Deletion of G/L Accounts field and the Check G/L Account Deletion After date work together to prevent deleting accounts that have transactions within a defined retention window. G/L accounts used in any posting group setup table cannot be deleted regardless of the date setting.
Tip 33 — Credit Memo Posting Side. The Mark Credit Memos as Corrections field on General Ledger Setup determines whether credit memos are posted on the credit side (standard) or the debit side of the customer account — a regulatory requirement in some countries.
Tip 34 — Local Currency Setup. The local currency is defined on General Ledger Setup and should not be added to the Currencies list. If the local currency (for example, USD) exists in the Currencies list, ledger entries that should have a blank currency code will instead carry the currency code, causing confusion in reporting and reconciliation.
Tip 38 — Create an Excel Layout for Any Report. Run a report and choose Send To → Microsoft Excel Document (Data Only). This produces a workbook with a Data tab. Add a new tab with charts and formulas referencing the data tab. Upload this workbook as a new report layout (format: Excel, available to all) in the Report Layouts page. When the report is next run with this layout, BC refreshes the data tab and all graphs update automatically — no AL code required.
Administration and Security
Tip 22 — Application Insights Telemetry. Business Central emits rich telemetry that you can route to Azure Application Insights. In the BC Admin Center, open the environment details and enter the Application Insights connection string (from your Azure Application Insights resource). Once connected, you can use the BC Telemetry Power BI app to analyse which pages users visit, which reports they run, error rates, and much more. For partners, this data can also inform consultative conversations about underused features.
📖 Docs: Turn sending telemetry to Application Insights on or off — step-by-step guide to connecting a BC environment to Azure Application Insights.
Tip 39 — Monitor Sensitive Fields. Use the Monitor Field Change Setup assisted setup guide to designate specific fields (such as vendor bank account numbers or company information fields) for monitoring. When a monitored field is changed, a notification email is sent showing the before value, the new value, the timestamp, and the user who made the change. This is distinct from the Change Log, which is broader in scope.
📖 Docs: Audit changes to your setup — covers both the Change Log and the sensitive field monitoring features.
Tip 19 — Manage Copilot Features. The Copilot & AI Capabilities page in BC lists all available AI features for the environment. Administrators can activate or deactivate individual capabilities from this single page.
User Experience and Productivity
Tip 15 — Share Error Details. Many error dialogs now include a Share Details action that copies the full error context to the clipboard. Paste it into a Teams message to a colleague or a Microsoft support case — much faster than describing or screenshotting the error manually.
Tip 16 — Enforce Location Code. On Inventory Setup, enable Location Mandatory to require users to select a location code on every transaction. This prevents blank-location entries that create reconciliation problems later.
Tip 20 — Share Report Settings. After setting up a complex report filter, save it as a named report setting and toggle Share with All Users. The saved setting then appears for any user who runs that report — they can select it from the Use Default Values From field without recreating the filter.
Tip 21 — Upload Multiple Attachments at Once. The Document Attachment FactBox now supports multi-file upload by selecting or dragging multiple files at once. Søren also recommends removing the older Attachments FactBox area via personalisation or role customisation to avoid confusion between the two.
Tip 24 — Checklists for Onboarding. The Welcome Banner checklist can include links to pages inside BC, external URLs, documentation, or videos. Use the Checklist Administration page to define which checklists appear and who sees them (by role or by specific user). Extending the checklist with custom pages requires a developer, but the built-in options cover many common onboarding tasks.
Tip 25 — Troubleshoot Connectivity. If BC appears slow or intermittently unavailable, append /connectivity to the BC URL (or use the shortlink aka.ms/bccp) to load the connectivity check page. It runs a series of tests against service health, authentication, and network routing — useful for ruling out local network issues before raising a support case.
Tip 26 — Role Explorer. The Role Explorer (accessible from the burger menu) lets users browse the full structure of functionality available in BC. Use Explore More Roles, then expand all sections and search with the filter — use Ctrl+Down to jump between highlighted results without scrolling through a long page.
Tip 27 — Microsoft AppSource Apps Page. The Extension Marketplace page has been replaced by the Microsoft AppSource Apps page — a native BC list page. You can filter by app name, category, or publisher, and use the Copilot analysis assist feature to build custom views (for example, all banking apps with ratings).
Tip 29 — Browser Tab Groups (Microsoft Edge). Not a BC feature, but a practical tip: drag browser tabs onto each other in Edge to create collapsible tab groups with colour coding. Useful for grouping tabs by BC environment or company when working with multiple sessions simultaneously.
Tip 35 — Real-time Data Check on Journals. On General Ledger Setup, enable the Data Check option. A FactBox appears on journal pages and performs posting checks in real time as you type — similar to Preview Posting but without needing to run it explicitly.
Tip 40 — Customise Company Data Search Scope. The Tell Me / Search Company Data function searches across several tables by default. On the search results page, use Where to Search to restrict the scope to specific tables per role (for example, Customers, Sales Quotes, and Sales Invoices only for a Sales Processor). This reduces database load and speeds up search results.
Tip 43 — Add Any Table Field to a Page. Through role customisation (not just personalisation), administrators can add any field from the underlying table to a page — without developer involvement. Go to Customise Pages in the profile settings, open the target page, and drag fields from the All Fields panel on the right into the page layout.
Tip 44 — Import Master Data via Excel. Open a list page such as Customers in Excel (Edit in Excel), fill in or paste your data rows, then publish back to BC. Note that customer templates are bypassed when using this method — any default values from templates need to be applied separately.
Tip 45 — Jump to Entity with Ctrl+Alt+Down. When your cursor is on a lookup field (such as an item number on a sales line), pressing Ctrl+Alt+Down immediately opens the related card (the Item Card in this case). This works for any related entity field throughout BC and is consistently one of the most appreciated keyboard shortcuts in sessions like this.
This post was drafted with AI assistance based on the webinar transcript and video content.