Set up a company with configuration tools
When setting up a new company in Business Central, there are several similar tasks to complete. Each company needs a chart of accounts, number series, payment terms, and so on. But you also need to take care of, for example, the sales and purchases setup. With configuration tools, you can create packages with setup data that you can apply to new companies. You can also prepare typical master data tables like customers for data migration from Excel.
Configuration tools help Microsoft partners create, set up, and initialize new installations of Business Central. Configuration tools can increase the speed and quality of those implementation steps.
Some configuration tools include the following components:
Configuration Worksheet
Configuration Packages
Configuration Questionnaires
Configuration Templates
Configuration tools can be used in various situations:
To configure an add-on solution
To prepare a demo
For mass deployment
When switching from trial to production
To configure a subsidiary
For example, you can use configuration tools for a basic configuration in Business Central, but if you also have manufacturing clients, you can create a package with manufacturing related tables and setup.
After you set up a default company, you can start to assemble the different elements of the configuration package. Most important is the overview of tables that you need when you set up a new company.
Required tables include the following tables:
Those tables that contain default data records that are the same for each company, for example, country or region codes.
Those tables that contain default setup that is the same for each company, for example, source code setup.
Area setup tables, for example, Sales & Receivables Setup.
Supplementary setup tables, for example, posting groups, payment terms.
Those tables that require data migration.
Those tables that help in posting opening balances.
These tables are listed in the Configuration Worksheet before being assigned to the Configuration Package.
The Configuration Worksheet page contains the following fields:
Line Type: Specifies the type of the configuration package line. The line can be one of the following types:
Area
Group
Table
Table ID: Specifies the ID of the table that you want to use for the line type. After you select a table ID from the list of objects in the lookup table, the name of the table is automatically filled in the Name field.
Page ID and Page Name: Primary page through which the database records can be viewed directly from the worksheet by clicking Database Data on the Actions tab in the ribbon. These fields are only filled in for selected W1 tables. For other tables, the user should select the page manually.
No. of Records: The number of database records. Other settings determine whether these records are included in the configuration package.
Licensed Table and Licensed Page: Indicates whether the table and page are included in the license.
Reference: Contains text to provide more information about the table, or a URL linking to more detailed information.
Promoted Table: Specifies whether the table is promoted. Select the check box to promote the table in the configuration worksheet. You can use this designation as a signal that this table requires more attention.
Responsible ID: Specifies the ID of the Business Central user who is responsible for the configuration worksheet.
Status: Specifies the status of the table in the configuration worksheet. You can use the status information, which you provide, to help you in planning and tracking your work.
In progress
Completed
Ignored
Blocked
You can enter configuration worksheet lines manually or you can use the Get Tables function in the ribbon. This function provides the following options:
Include with Data Only: select if you only want to include those tables that contain database records.
Include Related Tables: select if you want to include all tables that are related to the list of tables. Not all related tables can be found by using the Get Related Tables function:
It can't find tables linked by a conditional table relation. For example, on the Sales Line, the No. field is linked to several different tables, depending on the Type of the line.
It can't find tables linked on a basis of a filter. For example, TableRelation: Location WHERE (Code= FIELD("Location Code")).
Include Dimension Tables: select if you want to include the dimension tables that contain the dimension details of the database records from the filtered tables.
Include Licensed Table Only: select if you want to eliminate those tables that can't be used because of license restrictions.
The following video demonstrates how to use the configuration worksheet.
After assembling all required tables in the Configuration Worksheet, you now have to attach the lines to a Configuration Package.
On the Configuration Worksheet, you can select all the lines that you want to combine into one package. The Assign Package function then opens the Config. Packages page, from where new packages can be created.
The Config. Package Card page contains the following fields:
Code and Package Name identify the package.
Product Version: specify the version of the product that you're configuring. You can use this field to help differentiate among various versions of a solution. You can enter no more than 80 characters, both numbers and letters.
Language ID: specify the ID of the Windows language to use for the configuration package.
Processing Order: specify the order in which multiple configuration packages need to be imported to configure a new company.
Exclude Config. Tables: specifies whether to exclude configuration tables (Worksheet lines, Configuration Filters, Questionnaires, and Templates) from the package. Select the check box to exclude these types of tables.
For all selected lines on the configuration worksheet, the Package Code field is now filled in with the code of the newly created package, and a checkmark is placed in the Package Exists field. The package now contains all the necessary tables, but can be additionally modified as follows:
Limit the number of fields to be exported with the package.
Determine whether to validate the fields before applying the value, when configuring a new company.
Determine the processing order of the fields.
Filter the table data to be exported with the package.
Connect configuration templates to be used when applying data into the new company.
Removing a table from the worksheet doesn't automatically delete the table from the package. Also, removing a table from the package doesn't automatically delete the table from the worksheet. However, the connection to the package is lost, and the Package Code field on the worksheet line is empty again.
The following video demonstrates how to use the configuration package.
As demonstrated in the video, a configuration package can include multiple tables. By default, all the table fields are included when you insert a table in a configuration package. You can check the list of fields by selecting a table, and then select Table > Fields. The following image shows an example of the customer table fields.
The list includes fields of different types, like code fields, text fields, decimal fields, and BLOB fields. These BLOB fields allow you to import multiple text lines (for example, the Work Description field on a sales header).
By selecting Include Field, you can specify which fields should be included in the Excel template you can export from the Configuration Package Card page.
To apply a configuration package to a new company, you must first export the package from your default company. The configuration package is exported as a .rapidstart or .Excel file and contains the following items:
Configuration worksheet
Configuration package card
Table data as filtered on the configuration package
Configuration questionnaires, regardless of whether the related table is added to the configuration package
Configuration templates, regardless of whether the template was linked to the master table on the configuration package