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Hire Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central consultants

In short

Hire a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central consultant from MS Dynamics Guys to support an agreed functional workstream. The role can cover finance setup, posting groups, dimensions, inventory processes, migration validation, user acceptance testing (UAT) and training. Your finance or project lead directs the work and signs off decisions. We define the responsibilities with your business and delivery leads before work starts. If a requirement needs custom code in AL, the Business Central programming language, we explain where a developer is also required.

Discuss a Business Central consultant See Business Central implementation

When a Business Central consultant from MS Dynamics Guys fits

The role suits Business Central teams with a project or a live system but no functional owner. Some teams call this role a Business Central implementation specialist. The consultant turns finance and operations decisions into setup, tests and trained users. Typical situations:

Situations where the role fits

Go-live is planned, but nobody on your side can check your partner's posting setup or write the test plan.
You are leaving Dynamics GP, Dynamics NAV, QuickBooks or spreadsheets, and someone must prove that balances and open entries arrived intact.
Business Central is live, but at month-end the inventory value in the general ledger does not match the inventory reports.
You are adding a company, a location or a process area, and the posting setup and dimensions must grow without breaking existing reports.
Users will soon start on a new process, and they have no test scripts or task guides yet.

When another role or service fits better

Most of the backlog is code: extensions, reports or integrations. Hire a Business Central developer for that work.
You want a provider to answer for the result: a written review of whether Business Central fits, or the whole go-live. Ask for a Business Central fit review or a Business Central implementation project instead of a hire.
You want posting and reconciliation questions handled as a support service with agreed response targets, not by a person you direct. See Business Central support.
The open question is tax, legal or statutory. Those rules come from your accountant or a local adviser; a consultant then configures and tests them.
Nobody on your side can make finance decisions or sign off tests. Without that person, a consultant can only prepare options.
Your company runs Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance or Supply Chain Management. Those apps need their own consultants: see Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance consultants and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management consultants.

Work a Business Central consultant can own

The consultant can run each of these workstreams for you. Each one usually starts with a process workshop that includes the people who do the work. The decisions in the right-hand column stay with your people, whoever does the setup.

Business Central consultant workstreams, deliverables and the decisions your team keeps
Workstream	Consultant's tasks	Deliverable	Decided by your team
Finance setup	Sets up the general ledger (G/L) structure, account categories, accounting periods, number series and the financial reports finance reads each month	A setup record: each setting, why it was chosen and who approved it	Your finance lead: the account structure and the reports management needs
Posting groups	Designs general business and general product posting groups, the general posting setup, customer, vendor, inventory and bank account posting groups, and the tax posting groups for value-added tax (VAT) or sales tax, then test-posts every combination in use	A posting matrix with one test posting per combination	Your accountant: tax treatment and the account each combination posts to
Dimensions	Proposes the two global dimensions, the shortcut dimensions, default dimensions and any blocked combinations	A dimension plan linked to the reports managers read	Your finance lead. Choose with care: changing a global dimension later means updating all entries posted with it, which can take a long time and lock tables
Inventory processes	Sets up locations, item templates, costing methods and the inventory posting setup, and writes the period-end routine: cost adjustment, cost posting, reconciliation	A period-end checklist that finance can run without the consultant	Your accountant: the costing method for each item, before the item's first transaction. After that, Business Central blocks the change, and the fix is to replace the item with a new one
Migration validation	Compares migrated master data, opening balances and open customer, vendor and item entries with reports from the old system, and logs each difference with an owner	Reconciliation workpapers and a difference log per trial load	Your data owners fix source records; your finance lead signs the final reconciliation
UAT	Writes role-based test scripts with your process owners, prepares test data in a sandbox, records repeatable scripts with the page scripting tool and keeps the defect list	Test scripts, results per tester and a defect log	Your process owners run the tests and decide whether each process passes
Training	Writes task guides for your own setup, trains key users and points other users to Microsoft's free self-paced modules for standard tasks	Task guides per role and a training record	Your managers: who is trained, and when

Migration validation checks data that someone else mapped and loaded: your team, your partner or a data migration engineer. If the consultant should also load master data into a new company with configuration packages, name that task in the role brief.

Two things change the work. First, Business Central online receives two major updates each year, and each one can add or change setup options. Ask the consultant to read Microsoft's release plan for your areas and to retest key processes before production is updated. An on-premises installation receives the same changes later, in cumulative updates that you or your partner install. Second, tax and statutory features depend on your country or region. Microsoft provides them for some markets, and partners publish localization apps for other markets in Microsoft Marketplace. Name your version, deployment and country in the role brief.

Setup, an app or AL code: where the consultant's work stops

AL is the programming language for Business Central extensions. A good consultant knows which requests setup can meet and which need AL, and says so before anyone builds.

Common Business Central requirements: what setup can do, and when AL code is needed
Requirement	What setup can do	When AL code is needed
Revenue from one customer group must post to its own accounts	A new general business posting group with its general posting setup lines	Not needed
Managers want profit by department and region	Dimensions with default values, and financial reports that finance builds without a developer	Only for data that Business Central does not record
Purchases above a limit need a manager's approval	An approval workflow with approval users and amount limits, or a Microsoft Power Automate approval flow	Only for approval logic that neither the standard workflows nor a Power Automate approval flow can cover
Invoices need a different look or extra text	A Word or Excel report layout, maintained by users with permission	A report extension, when the layout needs data the report does not supply
Orders need a field that does not exist yet	Personalization can show, hide and move existing fields, but it cannot create a field	A table extension adds the field, a page extension shows it on the order, and AL code enforces any rule that uses it
A calculation must run every time an invoice posts	No standard setting adds custom logic to posting	An event subscriber in an AL extension

Consultants from MS Dynamics Guys check standard setup, installed extensions and Microsoft Marketplace apps before asking for code. When a requirement needs AL, the consultant writes it down with its acceptance test. A developer then builds it: someone on your team, your partner or a developer you add.

If you need that developer as well, MS Dynamics Guys can add one to the same workstream: see hiring Business Central developers.

Can a consultant from MS Dynamics Guys own our Business Central configuration and UAT workstream?

Yes, for the work, not for the decisions. The consultant owns the setup tasks, the test plan and the defect list. Your people keep the decisions and the sign-off, and your lead answers for the result. Write down these four controls before the first setup change:

Approval. Your finance lead approves each posting group, dimension rule and costing method before it reaches production.
Testing. Your process owners run the test scripts and decide whether each process passes. The consultant prepares the data and supports them.
Access. Your administrator creates a named user for the consultant and assigns a Business Central license. The license sets limits that no permission set can lift, in sandboxes too. For example, a user with an Essentials license cannot sign in to a company that uses the Premium experience. The user gets full setup permission sets in a sandbox and narrower ones in production. On the last day, your administrator sets the user's status to Disabled and removes the license. Business Central keeps every reference to the user, so past changes still show who made them.
One change path. The consultant tries each setup change in a sandbox first. Your change process decides when it reaches production. Turn on the Change Log for the posting group and posting setup tables, so each change a user makes shows who made it and when.

If a partner also works on the system, write down which setup areas each team owns. Then two teams do not change the same posting setup. The consultant reports against the test plan: scripts passed, defects open and decisions waiting.

How we test Business Central consultants on posting, costing and setup versus code

The exercises test how a candidate reasons about posting, costs and evidence, not memory of menu paths. A reviewer from MS Dynamics Guys checks each exercise and asks the candidate to explain their choices. You receive a written summary of the results before your interview.

Business Central consultant skills, the exercise that tests each one and the evidence it produces
Skill	Exercise and review	Evidence it produces
Posting logic	Open Find entries on a posted sales invoice, explain each ledger entry and name the setup behind each account	A written trace from every entry to its setup
Dimensions	Plan the two global dimensions and the defaults for a reporting need we describe. Then explain why accounts that the Post Inventory Cost to G/L batch job uses must not use Code Mandatory or Same Code.	A short dimension plan with reasons
Inventory costing	Choose a costing method for two different items and explain the period-end order: cost adjustment, cost posting, then reconciliation	A period-end checklist
Migration validation	Compare an old trial balance and open-entry lists with migrated data, and plan how each difference gets an owner	A reconciliation checklist
Testing and training	Turn a process description into a role-based test script, then explain the task to a user who is new to Business Central	One test script and a one-page task guide
Setup or code	Sort a list of requirements into setup, a Marketplace app or an AL extension, with the reason for each	A sorted list your developers can check

Example first work package: reconcile month-end inventory

Illustrative example, not a client case or a delivery-time promise

A distributor runs Business Central online. Each month-end, the inventory account in the general ledger disagrees with the Inventory Valuation report, and finance spends days on manual adjustments. The company adds a consultant with one bounded first task: make the month-end inventory figures reconcile.

Scope. The inventory posting setup for each location and inventory posting group, the cost adjustment and cost posting settings, and the last closed period.
Artifacts. A list of differences with their causes, setup changes approved by the finance lead, and a period-end checklist tested in a sandbox copy of production.
Acceptance. The finance lead runs the checklist in the sandbox. Every difference that the Inventory - G/L Reconciliation page shows for the test period has a written cause. One person in finance can repeat the routine alone.

The example shows the shape of a first task. It is not a client case, and it sets no timeline. To scope a first task like this one, describe your month-end gap and your Business Central version.

Engagement options for Business Central functional work

Your finance lead signs off the posting setup in every model. The model decides who plans the work and who answers when a trial migration or a test cycle fails.

Business Central functional capacity by engagement model: who plans the work and who acts when a trial migration or test cycle fails
Model	Who plans the consultant's work	When a trial migration or test cycle fails	Choose it when
One consultant in your team (staff augmentation)	Your finance or project lead, through your plan and meetings	Your lead decides the next step, such as one more trial load. The consultant logs each difference or defect with an owner. MS Dynamics Guys answers for the consultant's skills, availability and replacement, not for the result.	You can direct the work, and only the functional role is missing

Hours, overlap with your working day, minimum term, notice and replacement are agreed in writing for each engagement. Staff augmentation versus project delivery shows who pays in each model when work takes longer than planned, such as one more trial migration.

How work starts

Each step ends with something you can check before the next one. The steps follow the hiring route from role brief to shortlist and add checks for Business Central.

Your role brief
Describe your Business Central version, online or on-premises, your country and the companies and processes in scope. Add what is already set up, who directs the work, the hours and overlap you need and the expected duration.
Scope check: setup, code or both
We check whether the gap is functional work, AL code or both, and tell you plainly whether we can staff the role.
Profiles after the exercises
You see profiles only for candidates who passed the exercises above, each with a written summary of the results.
Interview with your finance lead
Bring a posted document from your own company and ask the candidate to explain its entries. Choose one without personal or confidential data. You decide who joins.
Agreement in writing
Hours, overlap, term, notice, replacement and confidentiality are agreed before the start date. The agreement also says who owns the setup record, the test scripts and the task guides. It names who approves setup changes in production.
Sandbox first
Your administrator creates the named account, as the Access control above describes. The consultant starts in a sandbox copy of production and reads the current posting setup, dimensions and open entries before changing anything.
First deliverable accepted
A small, real task, such as a reviewed posting matrix or one passed test script, accepted by your lead before larger work starts.

What you can verify before a consultant starts

This page shows no client names, reviews or case studies. If we publish any later, each will have the client's written permission.

You can verify the method instead: the written assessment summary for each candidate, and your own interview with a posted document from your company. Read how we assess specialists for the full method, who reviews each result and what an assessment cannot show.

The table below is an original demonstration that MS Dynamics Guys wrote from Microsoft's documented posting logic. It shows the standard we expect in the posting trace exercise. It is not a client case and not a candidate's answer.

Demonstration: the entries one posted sales invoice for a stocked item creates, and the setup that decides each account
Entry	Where it lands	What decides it
Customer ledger entry for the invoice total	Receivables account	The customer posting group on the invoice: the one on the customer card, or an allowed alternative chosen on the document
Revenue for the item line	Sales account	General posting setup: the customer's general business posting group with the item's general product posting group
Sales tax or VAT, if the invoice carries it	Tax accounts	The tax setup of your country version, as your accountant specifies it
Item ledger entry and value entry	Inventory ledger: the quantity and its cost	The posting itself; the cost can still change when the Adjust Cost - Item Entries batch job runs
Cost of goods sold (COGS)	COGS account	General posting setup; posted at once with Automatic Cost Posting, or later by the Post Inventory Cost to G/L batch job
The lower inventory value	Inventory account	Inventory posting setup: the item's inventory posting group with the location on the line
Dimension values on each G/L entry	Every entry above	The dimensions on the invoice when it posts: defaults from the customer, item and location, ranked by the default dimension priorities, unless a user changed them before posting

A strong candidate also explains the reconciliation. Without Automatic Cost Posting, the sale's cost stays in value entries until the batch job runs. The Inventory - G/L Reconciliation page shows that gap, and its warnings explain the cause. Our assessment checks that a candidate can find such a gap and name its cause.

Questions about hiring a Business Central consultant

Who signs off the posting setup and the migrated balances?

Your finance lead, with your accountant for tax settings. The consultant prepares the evidence: one test posting per posting combination in use, and reconciliations of the trial balance and open entries with the old system. Setup reaches production only after that sign-off.

Can one consultant cover finance and inventory, or do we need two?

Often one person covers finance, sales, purchasing and inventory costing. Warehouse handling with bins and directed put-away and pick, and manufacturing in the Premium experience, are specialist areas. Tell us which areas are in scope, and we assess candidates on those areas. When the scope is wide, two consultants with a written split can be easier to staff than one person who must cover everything.

Will the consultant be available during our month-end close and go-live?

Only if that is agreed in advance. Name your close days, your cutover window and your time zone in the role brief. Then list the close tasks that need the consultant, such as the cost adjustment, the cost posting and the reconciliation check. Working hours, overlap with your team and any weekend cutover support are written into the agreement. We do not promise availability that has not been agreed.

Can our testers rerun the consultant's test scripts after each Microsoft update?

Yes, if the consultant records them with the page scripting tool. Each recording is saved as a file in your workspace. A replay repeats every recorded action, postings included, so run it in a sandbox. Before a major update reaches production, your administrator can copy production to a sandbox and update that sandbox first. Your testers then replay the scripts there. Recording needs the PAGESCRIPTING - REC permission set, and replaying needs PAGESCRIPTING - PLAY. Ownership of the recordings, the setup record and the guides is set in the written agreement.

Can our finance team run the close without the consultant?

That is the aim of the handover, and you can test it before the consultant leaves. Ask one person in finance to run a period-end close from the consultant's checklist while the consultant only watches. The setup record explains each setting, and the difference log shows which differences are still open. If the consultant leaves before go-live or the year-end close, a replacement or your own team starts from those documents. Replacement terms are agreed in writing before the engagement starts.

What makes a Business Central consultant engagement larger or smaller?

The scope decides how many hours and weeks the work takes: the companies, process areas and trial migrations in it. Each extra company holds its own posting setup and dimensions, and each needs its own tests. Warehouse handling or manufacturing adds specialist work, and each trial migration adds a reconciliation round. This site publishes no rates: the rate basis is set in writing for each engagement. Business Central licenses are a separate purchase through a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner, and the consultant's own user needs one too.

Can the consultant validate a migration from Dynamics GP?

Yes, on the Business Central side. The consultant compares what arrived with reports from Dynamics GP: the trial balance, open receivables and payables, and inventory quantities and values. Each difference gets an owner and a fix.

Microsoft's cloud migration to Business Central online supports Dynamics GP 2015 and later. You choose what moves on the GP Company Migration Configuration page in Business Central. Examples are the oldest historical year, active records only, and which GP account segments become the two global dimensions. Those choices shape your posting groups and dimensions, so the consultant reviews them with someone who knows your GP data. Years marked as historical in Dynamics GP arrive open in Business Central and must be closed there.

MS Dynamics Guys can add a GP specialist to the same workstream: see Dynamics GP migration experts.

Describe the Business Central consultant role

Name the work that is waiting, such as a posting setup to review, a trial migration to reconcile or a test cycle to prepare. Add your Business Central version, the companies in scope and who will direct and sign off the work. We confirm whether we can staff the role before any introduction.