Resources for Help and Support for Dynamics 365 Business Central
As a Business Central partner, you have access to resources that can help you support your Business Central customers, and you have access to resources that can help you be more productive as a partner.
This page outlines the resources available to you.
Product Help
The functionality in the default version of Business Central is described on the learn.microsoft.com site as described in the following table.
| Name | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Business functionality docs | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central | Use this library to learn about business functionality. |
| Development and administration docs | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/ | Use this content to learn how to extend, customize, and administrate Business Central. |
AL developer documentation
In the Development in AL section, you find descriptions of processes such as compilation and debugging, and conceptual information about object types such as tables and events.
The reference documentation of the AL language publishes under the AL Programming umbrella. This content is partly generated automatically from code, but some of the reference content is maintained by hand. Use the following landing pages to quickly find the reference content that you need:
- Methods
- Properties
- Triggers
- Objects
Product versions and Help versions
In general, the Business Central content on the learn.microsoft.com site reflects the latest version of Business Central online with limited support for earlier versions.
If you support Business Central on-premises, your solution might be one or two versions older than the latest version. This means that the content in the business functionality documentation might describe functionality that your users do not have access to. For a better experience, we recommend that you take a copy of our content at the time when that reflected the version that your on-premises solution is based on and deploy that to your own website.
The source repo, dynamics365smb-docs, contains packages of Markdown files for major versions and snapshots of the docs for the previous minor version.
For example, go to https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/dynamics365smb-docs/releases to get the release that you need for your solution.
Learn more at the On-premises deployments section in the Configure the Help Experience article.
Customize and extend the user assistance
If you customize or extend Business Central, you are expected to also customize the user assistance so that users will have access to content that can help them get started, get unblocked, and learn more. Learn more at User assistance model and Configure the help experience.
Dynamics 365 implementation guidance
Microsoft also provides content that can help you get started as a consultant, and you can find resources to help your implementation project. The Dynamics 365 guidance hub hosts non-product-specific implementation guidance, including descriptions of business processes. Learn more at What is Dynamics 365 guidance?.
Support
As a Business Central reselling partner, you are an administrator of your customers' Business Central tenants, and you are the first line of support. You can customize the support experience, and you have access to information that can help you troubleshoot any issues that your customers report.
Learn more at Technical Support.
Training
You and your customers can find free eLearning content on the Microsoft Learn landing page for Business Central with suggested collections for getting started, managing financials, and extending Business Central.
The Learn site also includes role-specific learning paths for developers, administrators, and functional consultants.
Additionally, partners in the Business Central community offer training and books.
Resources
As a partner, you can keep on top of current and upcoming capabilities, and you can share Microsoft's roadmap with your prospects, for example. This section provides links to places to keep track of for people who are new to Business Central as well as for people who have been working with the product for years.
This article provides information about the following types of resources:
- How to get started as a partner
- Where to learn about current and upcoming capabilities
- How to make a feature request
- Where to find blog posts
- Where to find communities
- Where to file bugs and issues
- Where to contribute to code or docs
- Where to ask non-product related questions
Get set up as a partner
If you are not already a Microsoft partner, your company must get set up, and so must you as an employee. Learn more at Get Started as a Reseller of Business Central Online and Get Started with Building Apps.
Learn about current or upcoming capabilities
You can learn about current and coming capabilities through a number of different resources as outlined in the following table.
| Name | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Release plans | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/release-plans/ | Get an overview of upcoming and recently released capabilities in Business Central and other Dynamics 365 apps. |
| Business functionality | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/across-business-functionality | Use this content to learn about business functionality in the default version of Business Central. |
| Development in the AL language | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer | Use this content to learn how to extend and customize Business Central using the native AL language. |
| Administrative tasks | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/ | Use this content to learn how to administer Business Central online. |
| Development in the AL language | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer | Use this content to learn how to extend and customize Business Central. |
| Security in Business Central | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/security/ | Use this content to help you understand and improve the security of Business Central. |
| Compliance | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/compliance/compliance-overview | Use this content to learn about compliance in relation to Business Central. |
| Performance | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/performance | Use this content to learn how to extend and customize Business Central. |
| Integrating with Business Central using web services | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/webservices/ | Use this content to learn how to integrate Business Central with other products by using web services. |
| Migrate to Business Central online | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/upgrade/upgrading-to-business-central-online | Use this content to learn how you can move an on-premises solution to Business Central online. |
| Features not implemented in on-premises deployments | learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/features-not-implemented-on-premises | Use this content to learn which capabilities in Business Central online are not available in Business Central on-premises deployments. |
| Free eLearning | /learn/dynamics365/business-central | Free Business Central collections and learning paths on Microsoft Learn |
Share an idea about a new feature you'd like to have
On the Dynamics 365 Ideas site, you can provide suggestions for new feature and capabilities. Your input goes directly to Business Central's engineering backlog for investigation and prioritization.
Make sure to search through the list of submitted suggestions, as chances are that someone already submitted something similar and might have already received votes. Vote if an idea already has been submitted to get it prioritized on the team's backlog.
Business Central blog posts
The Dynamics 365 blog is where Microsoft publishes announcements, updates, and tips and tricks, including for Business Central.
| Name | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Business Central on the Dynamics 365 blog | https://www.microsoft.com/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/product/dynamics-365-business-central/ | Use this blog to learn about opportunities, processes, and tools for the Business Central partner community. Some older blog posts are still available on the Community site for partners or the Community blog. |
Business Central communities
On the Dynamics 365 Community site, you have access to the Business Central Forum. You can use this forum to submit a question and learn from other Business Central community members. MVPs, partners, and Microsoft employees participate in the conversations.
You can also join the BCUG/NAVUG User Group for Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics NAV, which is a user-led, user-driven community of more than 26,000 users, partners, and MVPs.
Summary of where to file bugs and issues
As a partner, you have different support channels depending on what type of issue you want support for. The following list outlines the various channels.
| Issue type | Site |
|---|---|
| Submit support request on behalf of your Business Central online customers | Start at the Business Central administration center where you can easily submit a support request in the Power Platform admin center. In the Business Central administration center, select the environment in which the issues has been found. Then, from the top menu, choose Support and New Support Request. This will redirect you to the Power Platform admin center where the request will be made. |
| Report bug in a preview or beta version | The MS Collaborate site |
| Collaboration on the AL language and developer experience | The AL Developer Preview GitHub repo |
| As an ISV, report an issue in production code, such as a problem with Microsoft's application, upgrade, or telemetry | The Partner Center Support site - choose the Marketplace Offers category, and then choose the relevant category in the Problem type field, such as Dynamics 365 Business Central Development > Core Application issues. You'll be asked to check resources and then to provide issue details. |
| Report bug in supported in-market versions of Business Central on-premises | The Support for business site |
Important
To submit support requests on behalf of your customer, you must be a delegated admin on the customer tenant. Your company must also have the Advanced or Premier support plan. For more information, see the Escalating support issues to Microsoft section.
Learn more at Technical Support for Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Engage with us on GitHub
GitHub brings together communities of developers and other contributors to discover, share, and build software. Here are some useful repositories for Business Central:
Microsoft AL
For collaboration on the AL development environment in Visual Studio Code, use the GitHub repo here: https://github.com/microsoft/al
Microsoft AL application add-ons
There are a couple of ways to engage with us in the https://github.com/microsoft/ALAppExtensions repo:
- You can grab the code and contribute to the published apps.
- If you're building your own app and need something specific from us, such as an event, you can help improve the general extensibility of the business logic.
BcContainerHelper
Use this repo to collaborate around the source code and the scripts of BcContainerHelper PowerShell module for Business Central: https://github.com/Microsoft/NavContainerHelper
Business Central Tech Samples
Find Microsoft's prototypes, experiments to test performance, and other examples of what Microsoft's engineers get up to apart from shipping production code, in the https://github.com/microsoft/BCTech repo.
Documentation
The product Help and developer and administration content is based on GitHub as well, and you can collaborate and extend the docs. The GitHub repos are:
- Product Help (English US): https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/dynamics365smb-docs
- Developer and administration content: https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/dynamics365smb-devitpro-pb
Learn more at Contribute to the Help.
Non-product related questions
On occasion, as a partner, you will run into questions that are not directly related to the product. The following list outlines how to get answers to those questions.
| For questions related to | Contact |
|---|---|
| Problems with listing or publishing apps to AppSource due to Commercial Marketplace issues | The Partner Center Support site - choose the Marketplace offers category, and then choose the relevant category in the Problem type field, such as Availability > Dynamics 365 Business Central offer. |
| Licensing or PSBC agreements | Email MBS Orders or MBS Agreements, respectively |
| Microsoft Partner Network, Partner Center, Cloud Solution Provider program | The Partner Center Support site |
| Payments, credit terms, checks, wire, or similar | Email MBS Accounting |
| Technical issues with PSBC, PartnerSource, or Order Central | Email IT MBS Support |
| Incentives | Email CSA Team |
| Cloud Solution Provider incentives | Email Online Channel Incentives Support |
| CSA/Ocina escalations | Email NAOC Channel Incentives Escalations |
| Volume licensing | The Call logging tool on Microsoft Partner Self Serve site or email Online Licensing |
Trials
Giving prospects access to a pre-configured trial of Business Central is an elegant way to introduce them to Business Central. You can use the standard trial provided by Microsoft, or you can prepare your own including relevant extensions.
Learn more at Preparing Demonstration Environments.
See also
Technical Support
Configuring the Help Experience
Migrate Legacy Help
User Assistance Model
Feedback
Coming soon: Throughout 2024 we will be phasing out GitHub Issues as the feedback mechanism for content and replacing it with a new feedback system. For more information see: https://aka.ms/ContentUserFeedback.
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