Set Up Business Central Access in Teams with Microsoft 365 Licenses

Note

Note:
Azure Active Directory is now Microsoft Entra ID. Learn more.

Administrators must complete multiple activities before users can access Business Central with their Microsoft 365 license. The steps below represent the minimum setup required to get started. To learn more about access with Microsoft 365 licenses, go to Business Central Access with Microsoft 365 Licenses.

Guidelines

Setting up access with Microsoft 365 licenses involves the following tasks:

Step Task Required
1 Configure which Business Central data the Microsoft 365 licensed users have permission to view check mark
2 Enable access with Microsoft 365 licenses on the Business Central environment check mark
3 Assign security group to the environment
4 Deploy the Business Central app for Teams to users check mark
5 Test the setup
Tip

Tip:
Except for the last task, you can complete the tasks in any order. You can do tasks separately, as described in the sections that follow or use the Access with Microsoft 365 licenses assisted setup guide to walk you through them.

To run the assisted setup, do the following steps:

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Assisted Setup, and then choose the related link.
  2. On the Assisted Setup page, go to the Do more with Business Central section and select Access with Microsoft 365 licenses.
  3. Follow the instructions.

Configure permissions

Business Central is secure by design and minimizes risk by granting no permissions to Microsoft 365 users out of the box. Administrators must configure object permissions that determine which tables, pages and reports can be accessed in Teams with only a Microsoft 365 license. These permissions are the starting permissions assigned when a user signs in for the first time with their Microsoft 365 license.

To configure starting permissions:

  1. In Business Central, search for License Configuration.
  2. Select the Microsoft 365 license.
  3. At the top of the Microsoft 365 license page, select the edit icon Edit icon, then turn on Customize permissions.
  4. In the Custom Permission Sets section, add the appropriate permission sets and choose whether they're applicable to a single company or all companies within the environment.

With this configuration, users with only a Microsoft 365 license are added to the Users list when they access Business Central for the first time. For more information about users, go to Creating Users According to Licenses.

Note

Note:
When synchronizing the users list in Business Central with users in Microsoft 365, only users that have a Business Central license are added to Business Central's users list. For more administrative control over permissions and profiles, you can assign a security group to the environment. When environments are secured using a security group and enable access with Microsoft 365 licenses, the Update users from Microsoft 365 action in the Users page will also include users that only have a Microsoft 365 license. To learn about securing environments, see Manage access using Microsoft Entra groups in the developer and IT pro help.

Tip

Tip:
Looking for a quicker way to get started when trying out this feature on a sandbox or evaluation company? Assign the D365 Read permission set, which grants permission to most objects.

When working with multiple environments, license configuration must be applied to each environment and can be different on each environment.

Learn more at Assign Permissions to Users and Groups and Composing Permission Sets.

Enable access with Microsoft 365 licenses

Access with Microsoft 365 licenses is off by default. Access must be enabled for each environment independently, giving administrators control and allowing for staged rollout across the organization. You turn on access by using the Business Central admin center:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Settings Settings. > Admin Center.
  2. In the admin center, select Environments, then select the environment on which you want to change license access.
  3. On the Environment details page, select Modify for the Access with Microsoft 365 licenses setting.
  4. In the Microsoft 365 licenses pane, turn on the switch.
  5. Select Save when done and accept the confirmation. The change comes into effect immediately.

Choose who gets access by using security group

Note

Note:
Azure Active Directory is now Microsoft Entra ID. Learn more.

In the Business Center admin center, an environment can be assigned to one or more security groups to control access. You can assign a Microsoft Entra group to the environment. By assigning a Microsoft Entra group to an environment, only direct and indirect members of the group are granted access to the environment. Indirect members are users in another group, which itself is a member of the group assigned to the environment. Although all licensed users in Microsoft Entra ID will be added to the environment when it's synchronized with Microsoft 365, only group members can sign in. Learn more in Manage access using Microsoft Entra groups in the developer and IT pro help.

People in the security group must also have an applicable Microsoft 365 license to access Business Central from within Microsoft Teams. Get a list of applicable licenses in Business Central access with Microsoft 365 licenses.

Deploy the Business Central app for Teams

For Business Central license holders to share data in Teams, and for Microsoft 365 license holders to access that data, each must have the Business Central app for Teams installed. Although users can install the app by themselves, it's recommended that administrators use centralized deployment. Centralized deployment lets you roll out the app to a broader audience across the organization and minimize individual user effort. Learn more in Installing the Business Central app by using Centralized Deployment.

Note

Note:
If you have run centralized deployment before and only deployed the app to the security group of licensed Business Central users, you'll need to run it again to deploy to additional groups or the whole organization, depending on how you are configuring access.

Tip

Tip:
Looking for a quicker way to get started when trying out this feature? Test users can install the app at aka.ms/BCgetTeamsApp.

Test your setup

To verify that your setup is ready for production, the following steps will help you build the confidence that everything works as it should.

  1. Create or identify two test users (A and B).

    • Test user A must have a Business Central license and Microsoft 365 license with access to Teams.
    • Test user B must have only a Microsoft 365 license with access to Teams.

  2. Sign in to the Business Central web client as test user A.

    1. Open a record that test user B should have access to, such as an Item card in the appropriate company and environment.
    2. Select Share !Share to other apps action on pages. > Share to Teams to bring up the Share to Teams window.
    3. In the Share to field, add test user B as the recipient.
    4. Wait for the link to expand to a card and select Share.

  3. Sign into Microsoft Teams as test user B.

    1. Select Chat and open the conversation with test user A.
    2. In the message sent by test user A, select the Details button on the card. If the Business Central client is displayed and is read-only, your setup was successful.
Tip

Tip:
Something went wrong? Learn more in Business Central troubleshooting.

See also

Overview of Business Central Access with Microsoft 365 licenses
Business Central and Microsoft Teams Integration