Overview of Tasks to Set Up Business Central
Business Central includes standard configurations for most business processes, but you can change the configuration to suit the needs of your organization. The Business Central quick start articles help you take the first steps into making Business Central your own. This article provides an overview of how you can configure Business Central for your organization.
For example, the chart of accounts is prefilled with posting accounts that are ready for use. You can, of course, change the chart of accounts to suit your needs. Learn more at Finance.
From the 
menu, you can access assisted setup guides to help you configure certain scenarios and add features to Business Central. Learn more about how to access all assisted and manual setup pages at Getting Ready to Do Business.
Note
The Get started checklist can help you set up key information.
In addition to the assisted setup guides, some general functionality and specific business processes can be set up manually. The following table lists some of functionality you can set up manually.
| To | See |
|---|---|
| Set up payment methods, currencies, and the chart of accounts, and define rules and defaults for managing financial transactions. | Setting Up Finance |
| Set up your own and your vendors' bank accounts and enable services for importing and exporting bank files. | Setting Up Banking |
| Configure the rules and values that define your company's sales policies, register new customers, and set up how you communicate with customers. | Setting Up Sales |
| Configure the rules and values that define your company's purchasing policies, register new vendors, and prioritize your vendors for payment processing. | Setting Up Purchasing |
| Configure the rules and values that define the company's inventory policies, set up locations if you keep inventory in multiple warehouses, and categorize your items to improve searching and sorting. | Setting Up Inventory |
| Specify default reports to use with different document types. | Report Selection for Documents |
| Set up resources, time sheets, and projects to manage projects. | Setting Up Project Management |
| Configure how to insure, maintain, and depreciate fixed assets and set up how you record the costs of fixed assets in your company books. | Setting Up Fixed Assets |
| Define the general rules and values for warehouse processes and specific handling at each location. | Setting Up Warehouse Management |
| Prepare production bills of materials (BOMs) and routings to define how end items are produced, and prepare machine or work centers to perform the required operations. | Setting Up Manufacturing |
| Establish standard services, symptoms, and fault codes and set up the service items, resources, and documentation needed to provide service to your customers. | Setting Up Service Management |
| Read best practices for setting up items for inventory costing and supply planning. | Setting Up Complex Application Areas Using Best Practices |
| Improve the quality of implementation and shorten deployment time by using a toolset for setting up a new company using wizards, templates, worksheets, and customer questionnaires. | Setting Up a Company With RapidStart Services |
| Transfer customers, vendors, inventory, and bank accounts information from another system into Business Central | Importing Business Data from Other Finance Systems. |
| Use Business Central Outlook add-ins to see financial data related to customers and vendors or create and send financial documents, such as quotes and invoices. | Use Business Central as Your Business Inbox in Outlook |
| Get insights into your Business Central data with Power BI and the Business Central content packs. | Enabling Your Business Data for Power BI |
| Use your Business Central data as part of a workflow in Power Automate. | Use Business Central in an Automated Workflow |
| Make your Business Central data available as a data source in Power Apps. | Connecting to Your Business Central Data to Build a Business App Using Power Apps |
| Use dedicated Quickbooks migration guides. | Changing from a QuickBooks App to Business Central |
| Access your Business Central data from your mobile device. | Getting Business Central on Your Mobile Device |
| Do bulk invoicing of appointments created in Microsoft Bookings. | Bulk Invoicing for Microsoft Bookings |
| Set up an SMTP server to enable email communication in and out of Business Central | Set Up Email Manually or Using the Assisted Setup |
| Set up unique identification codes for records, such as cards, documents, and journal lines, to track them in the system. | Create Number Series |
| Set up and assign a base calendar to your company and its business partners, such as customers, vendors, or locations. Delivery and receipt dates on future sales order, purchase order, transfer order, and production order lines are then calculated according to the calendar's specified working days. | Set Up Base Calendars |
Some areas require you to be an administrator in your Business Central subscription. Learn more at Administration.
Note
As an administrator, you can set up a new company in Business Central with RapidStart Services, which is a tool designed to shorten deployment times, improve quality of implementation, introduce a repeatable approach to implementations, and enhance productivity by automating and simplifying recurring tasks. Learn more at Setting Up a Company With RapidStart Services.
Set up apps
On top of the core capabilities in Business Central, Microsoft adds some aps that are listed in the Extension Management page. Starting in October 2022, each app provides a link to launch its setup page - just choose the Set up action.
You can also add capabilities to your Business Central by adding AppSource apps. Learn more at Customizing Business Central Online Using Extensions.
See also
Company Information Overview
Administration
Finance
Sales
Purchasing
Inventory
Project Management
Fixed Assets
Assembly Management
Manufacturing
Warehouse Management Overview
Work with Business Central
Creating New Companies in Business Central
Getting Ready to Do Business
Business Central Quick Starts