This article answers some of the questions you may have about working with Microsoft Teams and Business Central.
How do I sign in to the Business Central app in Teams?
After installing the app, you'll be asked to sign in the first time you use it, when you paste a Business Central link into Teams chat, or choose the Details action on a card in Teams. Depending on your Teams client, you may have to enter the credentials you use to access Business Central.
How do I sign out of the Business Central app in Teams?
To sign out of the identity in Teams you used to connect to Business Central, go to any chat compose box, right-click the Business Central icon underneath, then choose Settings. When the window appears, check your currently signed in identity and then choose Sign out.
Does the app for Teams connect to Business Central on-premises?
No. The Business Central app for Teams only works with Business Central online. There are no plans to support Business Central deployment types—such as on-premises, hybrid cloud, or private cloud—that Microsoft doesn't host or manage directly.
Does the app work with multiple companies and environments?
Yes. To search for contacts in a different company, go to Settings. When the Business Central app expands a link into a card, the link must contain the environment and company names for the app to match the record to the right company. You can paste links to any companies and environments you have access to within your organization and from the Business Central account you used to sign in. Participants in the chat will see the card. But they can't view the card details unless they have permissions to the company or environment where that record is stored.
In which countries or regions is the Business Central app available?
The Business Central app for Teams isn't restricted by country or region. The app is available in all markets currently supported by the Teams marketplace.
Does the Business Central app work with any localization of Business Central?
Yes. The app is intended to work with any localization of Business Central, whether that localization is offered directly from Microsoft or through a partner. Learn more at Country/regional availability and supported languages.
Which languages does the Business Central app support?
Two things determine the language used for cards and card details in Teams:
- Your language in Teams, which you can see from your account settings in Teams.
- Your language in Business Central, which you can see in the Business Central Web client (learn more in Change Basic Setting - Language).
The following table explains how the experience differs for message authors and recipients, depending on language settings and availability of languages.
| Who |
Card |
Card details |
| Message author |
Displays in the language that's specified for you in Teams. If Business Central doesn't offer that same language, the card is displayed in English. |
Displayed in the language that's specified for you in Business Central, which may include languages from language apps provided by partners. |
| Message recipient |
Displays in the language of the message author. |
Displays in the language that's specified for you in Business Central. |
Get a list of supported languages for Business Central in Supported languages.
Does the Business Central app work with industry solutions?
Yes. But only some features of the app work with Embed apps:
- The app works with links based on the *.bc.dynamics.com pattern that's typically used with Embed apps.
- Contact search isn't available for Embed apps that replace the base application from Microsoft.
Learn more about emdeb apps in Embed apps.
Does Business Central work with the Teams mobile app?
Yes. The Business Central app can be installed from the Teams desktop app or browser, or by an administrator for all users. Once installed, the Business Central app is automatically available in Teams for iOS and Android. On mobile devices, you can only view cards sent by others, access details, or pop out the card to the full experience in the Business Central mobile app. You can't paste links that expand into cards when composing messages or searching for contacts. Learn more about minimum requirements for mobile in Minimum Requirements for Using Business Central.
Is the Business Central app for Teams the same as the Business Central app for iOS and Android?
No. The app for Teams is an add-in to Microsoft Teams and exclusively designed for collaboration within Teams. Alternatively, the Business Central mobile app delivers a rich experience for you to work with Business Central data on your mobile devices.
Mobile users are encouraged to install both the mobile app and the app for Teams to get the most out of Business Central. With both installed, you can choose the Pop out action on a card in Teams to open the card details in the Business Central mobile app. Learn more about installing the Business Central and Teams mobile apps in:
Does the Business Central app work in all Teams clients?
No. The Business Central app for Teams isn't supported when installed as a package for macOS or Linux. On those platforms, you access Teams using a supported browser instead.
Learn more about minimum requirements in Minimum Requirements for Using Business Central.
Learn more about the choice of Teams clients and how to install them at Get clients for Microsoft Teams in the Teams documentation.
Which Teams client is best for Business Central?
There are only minor differences and limitations between Teams clients that may affect your experience with the Business Central app for Teams. When choosing a Teams client, consider:
- The camera and location can't be accessed from the details window in the Teams desktop app.
- Phone numbers can't be activated from the details window in Teams for iOS, Android, or in the browser.
- Using Microsoft Edge with Teams in the browser lets you easily work across multiple identities and accounts by signing in to Teams from different profiles. Learn more about using profiles in Microsoft Edge at Sign in and create multiple profiles in Microsoft Edge in Microsoft Support.
What is the best way for me to demonstrate Business Central and Microsoft Teams to prospective customers?
If you're a reselling partner, you might want to have an environment that you can show prospects as part of pre-sales demonstrations. To avoid affecting Microsoft Teams in your organization, you can get a Microsoft 365 demo account at https://aka.ms/CDX. This account gives you full control of an independent Azure organization that includes Microsoft Teams and Business Central. Learn more at Preparing Demonstration Environments of Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Does the Business Central app for Teams cater to my customization and personalization?
The Business Central app for Teams can display cards for links to customer pages and tables in Business Central, such as those pages and tables originating from your own custom extensions or from AppSource.
The fields shown on a card in Teams can also be affected by Business Central customizations installed for your organization. Cards don't consider any role-specific customizations or user personalization. However, the card details window shows record details as you would see them in Business Central, including extensions, role customizations, and user personalization.
When you search for contacts, the fields matched in the Contacts table and fields shown in the search results aren't affected by any customization or personalization.
How do the permissions required by the app affect my privacy?
Before installing the Business Central app for Teams, you can review the minimum permissions required for the app to function. By installing the app, you give the app permission to receive the messages and data you provide to it and you give Teams permission to store and process those messages.
Also, some Business Central features require opening external links or access to your camera or geographic location. So suppose you wanted to capture a photo of a purchase invoice for processing. The Business Central app doesn't use these capabilities without your consent and they're only used by specific features in the Details window. When you use one of these features for the first time, Teams displays a dialog box asking you to grant access to the required device capabilities.
In Teams desktop, you review and adjust app permissions from the Settings window. Select your profile picture at the top of the app, select Settings > Permissions, then select the Business Central app.
For Teams in the browser and Teams for iOS or Android, you can review or adjust permissions from your browser or device settings.
Note
Exactly which Business Central features prompt you for permissions depends on the add-on apps and customizations applied to the Business Central environment you connect to.
Where can I learn about my privacy?
You can learn about how Microsoft handles your data in the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
Contact your administrator to learn how your organization handles the privacy of your data.
How do I uninstall the Business Central app for Teams?
To remove the app that you installed for yourself, go to any chat compose box, find the Business Central icon underneath, right-click the icon and choose Uninstall.
Will Microsoft continue to improve the Business Central app for Teams?
At Microsoft, we're constantly listening to feedback from our diverse user community and acting upon the top suggestions. To learn about what's next for the Business Central app for Teams, see the Dynamics 365 release plan.
If you want to participate in improving the app for Teams, or have an idea that would help simplify your work or collaborative experiences in Teams, add an idea or vote for existing ideas at https://aka.ms/BusinessCentralIdeas.
Where can I find Teams integration inside the Business Central web client?
To learn about the functionality in the web client that links to Teams, see Share Records and Page Links in Microsoft Teams.
Who can see the content of a tab?
Any person in your chat or channel who has:
- The Business Central app for Teams installed.
- Either a Business Central license or has been granted access to Business Central using their Microsoft 365 license.
- Permissions to view the data on the page.
Where does the recommended content come from?
The recommended content that you can choose from in the Tab content option on a tab is based on your Role Center. The recommend content only includes list pages, like Customers, Sales Orders, and Vendors - not individuals card page alike a specific customer or vendor.
Specifically, recommended content includes:
- Actions in the top navigation menu of the role center
- Any list pages you've bookmarked.
- If a list page offers different views, including any views you created, you also get to choose from those views
You can add list pages to the recommended content by adding bookmarks. You can also remove recommended content by deleting bookmarks. Learn more in Bookmark a Page or Report on Your Role Center.
If you switch the environment or company on the tab option, the recommended content will changed based on the Role Center and bookmarks for the environment and company you switch to.
When I create a tab, does it grant permissions to the people in the channel or chat?
No. Creating tabs doesn't affect permissions, and users must already have permission to that data when they access the tab.
Can I chat alongside a tab?
Yes. Use the chat icon to start the conversation. This chat thread is then associated with the tab.
If I remove a tab from a chat or channel, is any Business Central data deleted?
No.
Can I safely rename a tab?
Yes. The contents of the tab are unrelated to the actual name of the tab. Rename at will!
I need to work across tasks in different windows. Can I do this?
Yes. You can pop out the tab to its own browser window to show the Business Central web client.
Can I add or pin tab in Team meetings?
No. The Business Central app for Teams doesn't support tabs in meetings.
Not supported.
When I do things in the tab, like navigate, resort, apply a filter, or search, do others see my changes?
No. Only field changes or running actions affect how others see the contents of the tab.
Does the tab content refresh automatically? If not, how do I refresh it?
The content doesn't refresh automatically, and these currently no refresh button. The best way to refresh the content to make sure it's up to data, leave the tab and then come back.
Does this show lists and records from my customizations and add-ons?
Yes.
When I add a tab, will people see it in my language?
No. Each user views the tab contents in the language, region, and timezone settings from Business Central.
Can I have multiple tabs pointing to different content?
Yes.
Can I also add tabs to chat with a single person?
Yes, as long as the chat isn't a draft (that is, a message hasn't been sent to initiate that chat) and the other person has the Business Central app installed too.
Can I switch companies within a tab?
No.
Is this different than using Teams' generic ability to create a tab that hosts a website?
Yes. We don't recommend that you use approach. In many cases, it doesn't work for Business Central.
Which tables does the app search in?
When searching for contacts from the Business Central app for Teams, your search terms are matched against records in the Contacts table in Business Central.
As you type your search terms in the search box, the terms are matched against most fields in the Contacts table. The fields include, for example, the No., Name, Address, Phone No. or Mobile Phone No., and Email fields.
Search terms aren't matched against any custom fields added to the Contacts table by apps and extensions.
Do search results include companies and persons?
Yes. In Business Central, contacts can be of type Company or type Person, where one or more persons may be associated with a company. In the search results, companies and persons have different icons.
Yes. Some contacts may represent customers or vendors, or both. Other contacts with no defined business relation typically represent prospective customers. Contacts with other business relations, including any custom relations you've configured in Business Central, will also be displayed in the search results.
Yes. You can look up contact information, history of interaction, and related documents for your customer or vendor during a Teams meeting or call while the meeting is happening, without leaving Teams.
In fact, you can look up contact details from anywhere in Teams by using the command box. You can, for example, look up contact details from the Teams calendar to help you set up meetings.
The details window for a contact displays interaction log entries. The interaction log entries provide the history of interactions that your organization has had with the specific contact. The interactions may include emails you've exchanged, calls you've received, or documents you've sent.
For interactions to be displayed, Business Central must be configured to track interactions. To learn more about logging interactions, see Record Interactions With Contacts.
How do I register a Teams call or meeting as an interaction?
From the details window for a contact, find the Create Interaction action, and choose from the incoming or outgoing calls as interaction templates. You can also create your own custom interaction templates specifically for use with Teams conversations.
Business Central has limited integration to Teams calling capabilities. It isn't possible to instantly start a VOIP call from the contact card or contact details window. However, when you view the contact details in the Teams desktop app, you can select the phone number field to dial that number if Teams is set up as your default dialing app on your device. To dial landlines or mobile phone numbers using PSTN, the traditional phone system, Teams requires that you have the Microsoft 365 Business Voice app. To learn more, see What is Microsoft 365 Business Voice?.
How do I view recent documents for a customer or vendor?
Business Central typically relates a contact with a customer or vendor record that in turn is related to business transaction records, such as sales quotes or purchase invoices. To view related documents for a contact, go to the details window for the contact, choose the Business Relation field value or use the actions to navigate to the associated customer or vendor. On the customer or vendor page, expand the FactBox pane to reveal statistics for various documents that you can drill down into. Your experience may differ based on your customizations and personalization.
You can enter search criteria using almost any unicode characters. However, Business Central reserves the following symbols for other uses: =, ., *, and @. Using these symbols in your search terms may not return the expected results. If you don't see the expected results, enclose the symbols in your search terms in single quotes, for example, Contoso'='2.
The Business Central app for Teams can search for customers, vendors, and other contacts in one company at a time.
To search for contacts stored in a different Business Central company, open Settings, then change the environment and company from there.
Yes. Contacts stored in Business Central represent business contacts available to your organization. They're contacts with which you have an established and well-defined business relationship, or contacts that represent prospective customers. These contacts are typically external contacts. In comparison, the contacts shown in the Teams Calling contacts list are your own contacts. These contacts aren't necessarily shared with others in your organization, and they typically represent contacts internal to your organization.
No. Contacts stored in Business Central remain separate from your contacts stored in Teams.
There are currently no plans to synchronize the two lists together.
Contact search requires that you've installed the Business Central app for Teams version 1.0.4 or later, and you're connecting to Business Central environments of version 18 or later.
Can I search from my mobile device?
Contact search isn't available from Teams for iOS and Teams for Android at this time.
To search for contacts, you need object-level permission to the Contacts table within the Business Central company being searched. To view the details window for a contact, you need at least read permission to the Contact page within the Business Central company, and any other related objects.
Yes. You can also look up contacts and contact details if you have a delegated admin role in an organization.
Yes. Searching for contacts from Teams is based on Business Central v2.0 APIs and subject to any API limits that manage usage. Learn more about the limits in Current API Limits.
Why does it sometimes ask me to set up the app?
After you sign in to the Business Central app for Teams for the first time, the app will attempt to determine your preferred company in Business Central. If the app can't determine the company, you might have to go to the Settings and choose the company you wish to search in. This situation happens, for example, if you have access to multiple companies across environments in your organization. In this case, you'll have to choose a company before you can start searching.
The app may also ask you to visit the Settings if you don't have a Business Central subscription, there are no Business Central environments, or your account doesn't have a Business Central license.
I'd like to search for items or records from other tables. Can I do this from Teams?
Searching in other tables isn't possible at this time. The Business Central app for Teams searches only in the Business Central contacts list, which may include vendors, customers, and other contacts.
If you'd like to see the search capabilities evolve to include other tables, we encourage our community to add an idea or vote for existing ideas at https://aka.ms/BusinessCentralIdeas.
Which types of links does the app support?
The Business Central app for Teams reacts to most Business Central Web client links. When the link refers to a single record on a page, the card will display fields for that record. The supported page types include:
- Card pages, such as the Item card
- Document pages, such as the Sales Order document
- ListPlus pages that represent a single record composed of other records, such as a Bank Account Reconciliation statement
- Simple list pages where a record doesn't offer the ability to drill down into a separate details page, such as the Zip codes list
When pasting a link to the root Web client Url, such as https://businesscentral.dynamics.com, the card instead displays information to help new users get started with accessing Business Central.
How do I delete a card I sent to a chat?
You can't delete a card that you've already sent to chat. But you can delete the entire message that the card is a part of.
As the message author, you can delete any messages you sent to chats with a person, group, or channel—unless your administrator has set up policies that prevent deleting messages. If you moderate a channel as a channel owner, your administrator may have also granted you permission to delete any messages in the channel, including those messages sent by other users.
Deleting a message that contains a card doesn't delete or affect any data in Business Central.
No. The field values on a card in Teams, including any images, are based on the data available when that card was sent to the chat. Business Central cards don't automatically refresh in Teams.
Why don't cards show more information instead of just the page name and details button?
An administrator may have configured the Teams integration so that cards don't show data about records. For more information, see Show or hide record data on cards.
Will others see my card if they don't have the Business Central app for Teams?
When you compose and send a message to chat that includes a card, all users will see the card—even if they haven't installed the Business Central app for Teams.
How do I find out which company a card in Teams belongs to?
If you work across Business Central companies, talk to your administrator about enabling a company badge for each company. When enabled, this eye-catching hint appears in any details window inside Teams, and displays the company and environment that record belongs to. To learn how to set up company badge, see Display a company badge.
Business Central automatically saves changes you make to any field as soon as you leave the field. To leave a field, click/tap anywhere outside the field or use the Tab key to move to the next field. When data appears in a dialog within the details window, you may need to choose the OK button to have Business Central save your changes.
If I choose to view details for a card, will other users see my details window?
No. While everyone in the chat or meeting can view the card itself, the details window only appears for you on your device when you choose Details. Other users must choose Details if they would like to view the details window on their device.
Can I start a Teams call from the details window in Teams?
Yes. If you're using the Teams desktop app, start a call by choosing the linked number in a phone number field, like the Mobile Phone No. field on the Contact card. Teams must be your designated dialing app.
To call local or international landlines and mobile phones, Teams requires that you have a Business Voice license for enterprise calling. Also, you must set up Teams as your call solution. To learn more, see Plan your Teams voice solution in the Teams documentation.
Can I print documents from the details window in Teams?
Yes. You print reports and other documents using standard Business Central printing functionality and any cloud-enabled printer configured in the Printer Management page in Business Central. You can't print from Teams to local printers known to your client device, such as printers that you'd typically print to from your browser. For this reason, you can't print from the report preview window, but only from the main report request page, directly to your cloud printers.
For more information about setting up cloud printers, see Set Up Printers.
Can I access the camera from the details window in Teams?
Yes. Any Business Central features in the details window that use the camera are available on all Teams clients.
Can I access my location from the details window in Teams?
If you're using functionality in Business Central that accesses your current location coordinates, such as with maps, you must use Teams in the browser or the Teams mobile app. Location isn't available when using the Teams desktop app.
How do I open the details in a new window?
Popping out the details window as a separate window is useful for multi-tasking or for being able to work with business data while still being able to use Teams chat and other Teams functions. To open details in its own window, choose Open in browser from the ellipse menu (...) in the upper right corner of the window.
Can I share cards with users outside my organization?
Yes. When you compose and send a message that includes a card, all recipients in the chat will see the card—even if they're guests or external to your organization. Guests can also open the details window if they've been granted permissions to access that data in Business Central.
Is the experience any different for users that are guests?
Yes. Inviting guest users from outside your organization to participate in chat or a channel gives them a similar, but not identical experience compared to users within your organization. When a guest receives a message that includes a card, they can view it. Guests can also open the details page if they have permission to access that data in Business Central and assigned a Business Central license within your organization.
Choosing the details link on any Business Central card will sign you in to the environment from which the card was shared, assuming you have permission to the environment.
Guest users aren't allowed to use contact search because it's bound to the original tenant and we don't currently support such a delegated scenario.
When a guest composes a message, links to their Business Central or yours won't expand into cards.
To learn about other similarities and differences between guests and team members, go to Guest experience in Teams in the Teams documentation.
How does a guest user install the Business Central app?
Guests don't have access to the app marketplace to install apps themselves. However, the app can be automatically installed for them based on your organization's policies. Another way for a guest user to install the Business Central app is when they receive a chat message that includes a Business Central card. In this case, the user chooses the Details button or the menu on the card, then installs the Business Central app for use with your organization. After installing the app, a user doesn't automatically receive any permissions to access data from your Business Central.
Does Share to Teams send a compact card?
Yes. The link will automatically expand into a card if you have the Business Central app for Teams installed.
Will recipients receive the message from me or from a Business Central service account?
When you use Share to Teams, the message is sent to a person, group, or channel, similar to if you had sent the message yourself from within Microsoft Teams. Recipients see the message from you on their preferred Teams client, and can react and respond as they normally would to a message from you.
Is Share to Teams available in Business Central on premises?
No. Similar to the Business Central app for Teams, this feature is only available for the web client in Business Central online. There are no plans to support Business Central deployment types—like on-premises, hybrid cloud, or private cloud—that Microsoft doesn't host or manage directly.
Does Share to Teams grant permissions to recipients?
No. When you share with a person, group, or channel, permissions are unaffected. Users who already have permission to view the page and data targeted by the link can do so. Users who don't have permission to view that page and data, or don't have a Business Central license, are shown an error message.
Must I have the Teams desktop app installed to use Share to Teams?
No. All you need is a valid account that has access to Microsoft Teams.
Is Share to Teams available in all Business Central clients?
At this time, Share to Teams is available in the desktop web client, in the details window in Teams, and when opening a page in a new window from the Outlook add-in.
Where do I find Share to Teams in Business Central?
The Share to Teams action can be found in the Share menu on all pages, such as card and document pages, list or worksheet pages, including custom pages. The action isn't available on dialog boxes or pages shown as dialog boxes, such as lookup pages or wizards.