This article is part of the In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Administration), how do I… series and of the wider In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, how do I… series which I am posting as I familiarise myself with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
There is typically three main ways that configuring a new company in Business Central is accomplished. I’m not so much talking about the creation of the first company, but if you’re configuring a multi-company system and want to ease setup of the many companies required.
The three ways, which I have used and/or seen used are:
- Configuration Packages.
- Template, which is sometimes called a Gold Build.
- Master Data Management.
With the configuration package approach, the first company is populated and configuration packages used to export and import data between one company and another. This option is maximum flexibility as you can choose which configuguration packages are used. It is also sometimes used to provide a basic configuration of the first company being created.
The template approach is where one company is configured as a template with the settings and any common master data, but no transactional data whatsoever. When a new company is needed, this company is copied to a new one and settings unique to the new company (such as the Local Currency) are configured.
Master data Management is the newest of these options, introduced in release 2023 Wave 1, it allows tables and fields to be synchronised between companies. It can be used for both the initial setup and the ongoing syncing of data (such as if a unified chart of accounts is in use). This feature, despite it’s name, allows the syncing of both setup and master data.
There is no one-size fits all approach and they all have potential downsides.
The template approach can sometimes fail if the template is not kept up-to-date; master data can fail, quite horribly, if the wrong tables and fields are synchronised (never sync the id fields for example).
I’d be interested in hearing which approach, and why, people use if anyone would like to share.