How to Create New and Test Companies in Business Central
Posted on: November 11, 2020 | By: Guy Logan | Microsoft Dynamics Business Central
Business Central allows users to create sandbox environments, non-production environments where businesses can freely test, explore, and develop services without disturbing work processes and data. Although sandbox environments are a great way to run test scenarios and test new functionalities, they do not always function as exact replicas of production environments. Therefore, if your business needs to run test scenarios, it may be more useful to create a test company within the production environment. Below, we will explain the company creation process in Business Central.
Creating a New Company
When adding a new or test company to Business Central, the “Create New Company” assisted setup guide can help you get started. The setup wizard can be accessed through either the Companies page or the lookup in the Company field under My Settings. The setup wizard offers three templates and a blank option:
- Evaluation – Sample Data: This option creates a company that is similar to the demonstration company with sample data and setup data.
- Production – Setup Data Only: This option creates a company that is similar to My Company, with setup data but without sample data. This selection allows you to import your own business data, such as customers, items, and vendors.
- Advanced Evaluation – Complete Sample Data: This option creates a company with setup data and complete sample data for all features, including Manufacturing and Service Management.
- Create New – No Data: This option creates a blank company without setup data. Choose this template if you want to set everything up from scratch. In that case, you can also use the “Company Setup” assisted setup guide to get started with essential setup data.
Copying a Company
On the Companies page, you can use the Copy action to create a second company based on the contents of an existing company. It is important to run this process after-hours, as the copying will lock down the existing company. When naming the new company, be sure that other users will be able to distinguish between the test company and the production company.
Next steps
Logan Consulting has helped many businesses transform their business using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and other similar services. If you are interested in Business Central or want to find out how Logan Consulting can help you optimize your business, contact us today.