Create new companies in Business Central
In Business Central, the container for business data that belongs to a business unit or legal entity is referred to as a company. When you sign up for Business Central, you're given a demonstration company and an empty company, My Company. Switching between the companies is easy: just go to My Settings and move to the other company. But you can also create new companies in Business Central depending on your business needs.
Note
To create a new company, you must be assigned to the Super permission set.
When you create a new company, an assisted setup guide helps you get the basics in place. Then, you can import data from your legacy system or another company in Business Central.
Tip
Take free e-learning content about the Business Central user interface in Microsoft training.
Choose the right template
If you decide to add a company to your Business Central, you can use the Create New Company assisted setup guide to get started. The setup guide is available from the Companies page and from the lookup in the Company field on the My Settings page.
The setup guide offers three templates and a blank option:
- Evaluation - Sample Data
Create a company that's similar to the demonstration company with sample data and setup data. This type of company is available to you without switching to a 30-day trial period, which the other types do. - Advanced Evaluation - Complete Sample Data Create a company with the Advanced functionality scope, which has everything you need to evaluate the product for companies with advanced processes. This type of company is available to you without switching to a 30-day trial period, which the other types do.
- Production - Setup Data Only
Create a company that's similar to My Company, with setup data such as a chart of accounts, payment methods, and financial report definitions, but without sample data. You can use this company for a 30-day trial period. - Create New - No Data
Create a blank company without setup data. You can use this company for a 30-day trial period.
If you want to get started easily with a new company, choose Production - Setup Data Only and then import your own business data, such as customers, items, and vendors. Choose the New template if you want to set up everything from scratch. In that case, you can use the Company Setup assisted setup guide to help you get started with essential setup data.
Note
When you create a new company, it takes a few minutes before you can access it in Business Central. The setup status on the Companies page shows when the new company is ready for you. Then, you can switch to the new company by using My Settings.
During your 30 day trial, you can create any number of new companies, but they're only available during your trial. For more information, contact your Business Central partner. See also the Dynamics 365 Business Central trial FAQ article.
Your administrator can learn more about trials and subscriptions here.
Copy 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. Copying a company is useful, for example, when you want to test a company without disrupting production data.
Important
Don't use the Copy action to take a backup of a company. To take a backup, start by exporting the database as a .bacpac file. For more information, see Exporting Databases in the development and administration help.
Note
When you copy a company that's using an SMTP email account to send emails, the password for the account isn't included. You'll need to re-enter the password on the SMTP Account page in the new company.
Note
When you copy a company in an environment where Dataverse or Sales integration is enabled, Business Central clears the following settings while copying to the target company:
- Dataverse and Dynamics Connection Settings to ensure that integration correctly re-initiates in the target company.
- Integration records to ensure that the target company doesn't point to records that are coupled in the source company.
- Integration synchronization jobs to stop synchronization background jobs.
- Synchronization errors, it they exist, because they point to errors in the source company and would just be considered noise in the target company.
Set up the company
When you sign in to a new company, the Company Setup assisted setup guide helps you get started. The guide asks for information about your business, such as the address, bank details, and inventory costing method. This information forms the basis for many areas in Business Central so you won't have to set them up manually.
For example, Business Central includes your company address in invoices and other documents and your bank information in payments. The costing method is used to calculate prices and inventory valuation.
After the basics are in place, you can set up the remaining core areas. Then, you're ready to add business data, such as customers and vendors. For more information, see Set Up Business Central.
Companies and environments
Business Central users sometimes support more than one department or suborganization within a business unit. For example, a business might have sales offices in different cities and multiple countries/regions, so it has created a separate business unit for each office. The offices that are in the same country/region are set up as separate companies in a shared environment. Other offices are created as companies in separate environments because they are geographically based in other countries/regions.
What's a company?
Think of a company as a container that holds information about a legal entity. Using the example above, the business has a sales office in Seattle and another in New York, so it creates a company in Business Central for each office so that it can manage operations for each office separately.
What's an environment?
Companies in Business Central online exist in what are referred to as environments. There are two types of environments, Production and Sandbox. In short, production environments contain live business data, and sandbox environments are used as a safe place to test things like new business processes or features. For more information, see Types of environments (in English only). If you have access to a company, you have access to the environment it's in. If you have access to more than one company, and those companies are in different environments, when you sign in to Business Central you must specify the environment that you want to work in. Environments are particular to a given country/region, so if your organization works in multiple countries/regions, you need separate environments for each country/region. For more information, see Environments and companies (in English only).
For more information, see Switching to Another Company or Environment. For more information about environments, see Understanding the Infrastructure of Business Central Online (in English only).
Changing a company's name
After you create a company, you can't change its name. You can, however, change its Display Name, which is text that shows for the company throughout the application.
Tip
You can rename a company if you're using Business Central on-premises.
Add Contoso Coffee
The Contoso Coffee app provides demonstration data to help you explore the advanced capabilities of Business Central. Find the app in AppSource, and install it in an empty company, for example a company in a sandbox environment. For more information, see Introduction to Contoso Coffee Demo Data.
See also
Customizing Business Central
Setting Up Business Central
Importing Business Data from Other Finance Systems
Change Basic Settings
Getting Ready for Doing Business
Understanding the Infrastructure of Business Central Online (English only)