Welcome to Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Dynamics NAV is a business management solution for small and mid-sized organizations that automates and streamlines business processes and helps you manage your business. Signing up is easy, and you can migrate existing business data from your legacy system. When you sign up for the Dynamics NAV preview you get access to a demonstration company. The demonstration company contains sample data, but you can create your own sales documents, for example, or set up a bank account.
Get to know Dynamics NAV
In Dynamics NAV, some things will be familiar to you, and other things might be unfamiliar. In the demonstration company, visual guides explain core functionality, and help you try out daily tasks like creating a sales invoice and viewing a report. If you leave a guide, for example, to explore Dynamics NAV on your own, but want to return to it, go back to the Home page and launch the Getting Started tour.
For some quick, nice-to-know tricks, see:
For more information, see Working with Dynamics NAV.
When you're ready to do some heavier lifting, and want to look at some of the business processes that Dynamics NAV supports, see Business Functionality. For an overview of current capabilities and what is coming, take a look at our roadmap at roadmap.dynamics.com.
The Home pages
Home pages use a role-centric design to give you fast access to the business process and intelligence tools that you need to do your job. For example, an accountant can monitor payments and approvals, and view finance performance charts. Check out the various Home pages by choosing the Settings icon 
in the top right corner, choosing My Settings, and then the Role Center to explore. Sign in again to apply the change. For more information, see Changing the Role Center.
Each Home page provides a Setup and Extensions button. Here you have access to a list of assisted setup that can help you get started by setting selected areas up quickly. If an area is not covered by an assisted setup, choose the Manual Setup action to access setup windows where you can fill in setup fields for all areas manually. For more information, see also Setting Up Dynamics NAV.
| Assisted Setup | Description |
|---|---|
| Migrate Business Data | Lets you import your existing company data such as vendors, customers, and items from Excel or Quickbooks. |
| Set Up My Company | Creates a new trial company for you to enter data and try out Dynamics NAV. If you went through the Getting Started tour this is probably already Completed. |
| Set Up Cash Flow Forecast | Sets up the Cash Flow Forecast chart, so you can view the predicted movement of cash in and out of your business. The chart is available on the Accountant Role Center. |
| Set Up Approval Workflows | Sets up the ability to automatically notify an approver when a user tries to create or change certain values on documents, journal lines, or cards, such as an amount above a specified limit. |
| Set Up a Customer Approval Workflow | Sets up the ability to automatically notify an approver when a user tries to create or change a customer card. |
| Set Up Email | Gets you ready for sending email messages directly from, for example, sales orders or contacts in Dynamics NAV. |
| Set Up Email Logging | Sets up the capability to log email correspondence in Dynamics NAV to follow up on interactions. |
| Set Up Outlook for Dynamics NAV | Sets up the ability to use and launch Dynamics NAV from Outlook. |
| Set Up Reporting | Sets up data sets that you can use to build powerful reports using Excel or Power BI, for example. |
| Set Up an Item Approval Workflow | Sets up the ability to send a notification to an approver when a user changes or creates an item. |
| Set Up a Payment Approval Workflow | Sets up the ability to send a notification to an approver when a user sends payment journal lines for approval. |
| Set Up the Dynamics NAV Connector | Sets up a connection to Dynamics 365 for Sales, which allows you to synchronise data such as contacts and sales order information. |
| Set Up VAT | Gets you started with default tax groups and assigning tax area codes that you can assign to customers and vendors in order to automatically calculate VAT in sales or purchase documents. |
Trying things out in your own company
Thinking about subscribing? You can easily change from the demonstration company, and create and work in a company of your own. This is a great way to start toward a subscription. Setups for finances are provided; you just need to create or import your customers, vendors, and the products or services that you sell. After that, you're ready to post invoices and use business intelligence tools to analyse your business. You can use your company for free for a 30-day trial period. If you subscribe to Dynamics NAV during that time, you're already up and running. You can continue with the work you did during the trial.
To create a company to try things out, go to the My Settings menu in the top right corner, and change the company to My Company. Sign out of Dynamics NAV and then sign in again to apply the change. An assisted setup guide will help you provide basic information about your company. When that's done, explore the Home page and find the Assisted Setup action.
See Also
Working with Dynamics NAV
Setting Up Dynamics NAV
Finance
Customizing Dynamics NAV Using Extensions
Using Dynamics NAV as my Business Inbox in Outlook
Getting Dynamics NAV on Your Mobile Device