What a Business Central project costs and how long it takes: the factors that matter
“How much will it cost?” and “how long will it take?” are almost always the first two questions when a company starts looking at Business Central. They are fair questions, but a serious answer only comes once someone understands how you work. Two companies with the same turnover can have very different projects, because what matters is not size but the complexity of processes, data and integrations.
Rather than chasing a number, it pays to understand the factors behind it. That way you can read a proposal with a critical eye and see where you actually have room to choose.
Licences
Business Central in the cloud is paid for through a monthly subscription per user. There are different licence types depending on how each person uses the system: people who work every day in finance, purchasing, sales or the warehouse need a full licence, while those who only look up data, approve documents or carry out simple tasks can use lighter licences.
Price lists and terms change over time, so always check current pricing on Microsoft’s website or with your partner. What you can do straight away is count the people involved and work out what role each will really have in the system: that is the basis for estimating this item.
Users and companies
The number of users doesn’t only affect licences. More people means more roles to configure, more permissions to define and more training to organise.
The number of companies you run matters too. If your group has several legal entities, each one has to be set up with its own chart of accounts, master data and compliance requirements. If those companies frequently trade goods or services with each other, intercompany transactions need designing as well.
Process complexity
This is often the biggest factor. A trading company with a straightforward sales and purchasing cycle needs very different work from one running make-to-order production, multiple warehouses, lots and serial numbers, complex price lists or multi-level approval rules.
The right question isn’t “what can Business Central do?” but “how much of my process can follow the standard?”. Every time you accept the way the system is designed to work, you save on configuration, development and future maintenance.
Data migration
How much history you bring over, and the state your data is in, has a big impact on time and cost. Migrating open entries, inventory and opening balances is a very different job from transferring years of detailed transactions.
The quality of your starting data also makes a difference. Duplicate records, inconsistent codes and information scattered across spreadsheets all need cleaning up before migration. If your own team handles that work, the project gets lighter.
Extensions and integrations
Business Central covers a lot out of the box, but every company has a few specific needs. Customisations are built as extensions developed in AL, which have to be designed, tested and maintained over time, including when Microsoft releases new updates.
The same goes for integrations with e-commerce, production software, banks, couriers or other systems. Every connection has a development cost and a maintenance cost. Before asking for a customisation, ask yourself whether the benefit justifies both.
Italian localisation and e-invoicing
In Italy you never go live without proper localisation: electronic invoicing through the SDI exchange system, VAT registers and settlements, periodic filings and the other tax requirements. The solution you choose for these, and how it fits your workflows, needs to be considered from the start, not sorted out at the end of the project.
Training
A new system needs people who know how to use it. Training should be organised by role, with exercises based on the company’s real cases, and its weight depends on how many people are involved and how much their way of working changes compared with the previous system.
Your own team’s time
This is the item almost nobody puts in the budget, yet it is decisive. Key people need to take part in the analysis, check migrated data, test the system and make decisions. If they have no time to give the project, timelines stretch, even with the best consultant.
Name an internal project lead with the authority to decide, and plan for the people involved to reduce their day-to-day workload a little, especially during testing and in the weeks around go-live.
Support after go-live
The project doesn’t end on the go-live date. The first few weeks need closer support, fixes and small adjustments. Then come Microsoft’s regular updates, new requirements and user requests. Planning for ongoing support keeps you from treating every question as an emergency.
How to keep the project under control
You can’t remove uncertainty entirely, but you can reduce it a great deal with a few choices of method:
- work in phases: analysis, configuration, migration, testing, training and go-live, with a checkpoint at the end of each;
- start with the essentials: put the core processes live first and add the rest later, once users already know the system;
- put the scope in writing: what is included, what isn’t, and how new requests that come up during the project will be handled;
- favour the standard: every customisation should have a clear reason;
- make decisions quickly: questions left open for weeks are one of the most common causes of delay.
A project with a clear scope and a lean first release is more predictable, and lets you see concrete results sooner.
Let’s talk
Every serious estimate starts from how you work today. If you want to understand which of these factors weigh most in your case and how to shape a sustainable project, get in touch: we’ll talk it through, with no obligation.