Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials Annual Subscription (12 Months)
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials Annual Subscription (CFQ7TTC0LH34:0001) - Local Support
Microsoft's Cloud ERP for Small and Mid-Sized Organisations
Business Central Essentials is the standard full-user licence for Microsoft's small and mid-market enterprise resource planning system. One named user, one licence, with access to the finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, supply planning, project and warehouse functionality that most organisations run their business on. Microsoft publishes it as a full user licence rather than a limited one, so an Essentials user is not restricted in the way a Team Members or Device user is.
What the Licence Covers
Microsoft lists the Essentials functional areas, in its own naming, as unlimited users, customization and extensibility, multiple environments, multiple companies, finance management, sales and marketing, fulfillment and delivery, purchasing and payables, inventory, supply planning and availability, project management, and warehouse management. Two areas are excluded and only appear in the Premium tier: service order management and manufacturing. If you run a service desk with work orders, or a production line, Premium is the tier to look at.
What Comes With the Subscription Before Any Add-On
Every Business Central subscription starts with a fixed allocation before any add-on: Microsoft states that "The Premium and Essential subscription types give each Business Central customer one production environment and three sandbox environments free of extra charge", together with a database baseline of "up to 80 GB plus an allowance per licensed Essentials or Premium user". Additional production environments and additional capacity are separate purchases, and we list both.
Two Releases a Year, and an Enforced Update Window
Business Central is under the Modern Lifecycle Policy, which puts an obligation on you as well as on Microsoft: customers "must stay current as per the servicing and system requirements published". Microsoft ships two major updates a year, on the first workday of April and October, with monthly minor updates in between. Each major version has a five-month update period, then a one-month grace period, after which the update is enforced and extensions that block it may be automatically uninstalled. Plan your customisation testing around that cycle.
Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials Annual Subscription Datasheet — Licensing and Specifications
Functional Areas
| Unlimited users | Included |
| Customization and extensibility | Included |
| Multiple environments | Included |
| Multiple companies | Included |
| Finance management | Included |
| Sales and marketing | Included |
| Fulfillment and delivery | Included |
| Purchasing and payables | Included |
| Inventory | Included |
| Supply planning and availability | Included |
| Project management | Included |
| Warehouse management | Included |
| Service order management | Premium only |
| Manufacturing | Premium only |
Licensing
| Licence type | Full user licence, assigned to a named user |
| Minimum purchase | Not published by Microsoft. Business Central does not appear in the Product Terms purchasing-minimums table, unlike Dynamics 365 Finance and Commerce |
| Term | Twelve months as sold by SourceIT |
What the Subscription Includes Before Add-Ons
| Production environments | One |
| Sandbox environments | Three |
| Database capacity baseline | "up to 80 GB plus an allowance per licensed Essentials or Premium user" |
| Per-user storage accrual | Two Microsoft sources disagree. The Managing capacity page gives 2 GB per Essentials user and 3 GB per Premium user; the September 2026 Licensing Guide gives 3 GB per Essentials user and 5 GB per Premium user. Confirm at order |
| Companies per environment | 300 |
| Database size per environment | 3 TB total compressed data |
Data Residency for a Singapore Tenant
| Singapore availability | Listed by Microsoft as Available, localised by Partner, base app W1, environment abbreviation SG |
| Azure geography | Asia Pacific |
| What Microsoft commits to | "Microsoft stores customer data at rest in the selected Azure geographic location within the customer-selected macro region geography", and for Asia-Pacific "Your data resides within the Asia-Pacific region" |
| What Microsoft does NOT commit to | In-country storage in Singapore for a standard subscription. Microsoft ties datacentre-level pinning to Advanced Data Residency criteria: "If you're a customer who meets ADR criteria, your Dynamics 365 and Power Platform data is stored at rest within your selected datacenter region" |
| Finding your region | "Administrators can use the Dynamics 365 Business Central admin center to find the Azure region that their environments are in" |
What Microsoft Does Not Publish for This Product
The following are commonly asked about but are not stated on any current official Microsoft source for this product, so SourceIT does not quote them: a minimum seat count, a per-version end of support date for Business Central online, an explicit statement that Business Central was formerly Dynamics NAV or Navision and a mapping between the commerce SKU identifier and this product. We would rather leave a field blank than print a figure we cannot substantiate.
Lifecycle, End of Support and Entitlement
SourceIT sells this as a twelve-month subscription with a GST invoice in Singapore. The subscription is a right to use the service for the term, not a perpetual licence: when the term ends the entitlement ends unless it is renewed.
Microsoft's lifecycle listing places Business Central under the Modern Lifecycle Policy, with a start date of 1 November 2016 and a retirement date shown as "In Support". The Modern Lifecycle Policy carries an obligation on the customer as well as on Microsoft: "Customers must stay current as per the servicing and system requirements published for the product or service", and Microsoft commits to "a minimum of 12 months' notification prior to ending support if no successor product or service is offered". In practice that means roughly six months on any given major version before the update is enforced. Note that Microsoft frames this as an update enforcement timeline rather than a support-ends date, and publishes no per-version end-of-support date for Business Central online. Separate Fixed-policy dates exist for Business Central on-premises and do not apply to this subscription.
Talk to our team before the renewal date rather than after it. Seat counts, mid-term changes and co-terming with the rest of your Microsoft estate are all easier to arrange in advance, and we can quote the alternatives if a bundle would work out better for you.
Published Lifecycle Dates
| Lifecycle policy | Modern Lifecycle Policy |
| Start date | 1 November 2016 |
| Retirement date | "In Support" — none published |
| Major updates | Two a year, released on the first workday of April and October (release waves 1 and 2) |
| Minor updates | Monthly, in every month except April and October |
| Update period | Five calendar months from general availability. April releases run to early September; October releases to early March |
| Grace period | One further month, after which the update cannot be rescheduled |
| Enforced update period | Begins after the grace period. Extensions that block the update may be automatically uninstalled |
| Restoring an older version | "It's not possible to restore an environment to a version that is in its Grace or Enforced update period after an update to a later version has succeeded" |
Support and Entitlement Position
This is a software subscription, not hardware. It carries no hardware warranty, and any warranty term you see on a hardware listing does not apply here. What you are buying is a twelve-month right to use the service, together with SourceIT's local support in Singapore. Microsoft's own condition is that technical and billing support for a subscription bought through a partner runs through that partner, so for this subscription that means us: raise the ticket with SourceIT and we escalate to Microsoft where it needs to go. Renewal, seat changes and co-terming are handled on your SourceIT account. Ask our team for the current entitlement position in writing with your quotation.
Compatibility, Deployment and System Requirements
There is one behaviour that surprises organisations running both tiers in one tenant, and Microsoft documents it: "A user with a Premium license can sign in to a company where the Experience field is set to Essentials... but can't use Premium features in that company. Users with an Essentials license can't sign in to a company where the Experience field is set to Premium." If you plan a mixed estate, set the Experience field deliberately rather than discovering it at go-live.
On data residency, Microsoft is more forthcoming for Business Central than for most of its security products, and the distinction is worth getting right. Singapore is listed as Available with an Azure geography of Asia Pacific, and Microsoft's commitment for that macro region is that "Your data resides within the Asia-Pacific region". What Microsoft does not promise on a standard subscription is storage in the Singapore datacentre specifically — that is tied to Advanced Data Residency criteria. If in-country storage is a regulatory requirement for you, raise it with us before you order and we will get the position confirmed.
If you are coming from Dynamics NAV, the route to the cloud is not direct and Microsoft says so: "Because Dynamics NAV versions before version 14 can't migrate directly to the cloud, you must first upgrade to Business Central on-premises." Supported starting points are NAV 2009 SP1 and R2, NAV 2013 and 2013 R2, and NAV 2015 through 2018, each routed through Business Central version 14 on-premises and then a current on-premises version before reaching online. Tell us which NAV version you are on and we will scope the path properly.
Licence Scope and Deployment Notes
| Licence type | Full user, named |
| Excluded functional areas | Service order management and manufacturing — both Premium only |
| Mixed tiers in one tenant | An Essentials user cannot sign in to a company whose Experience field is set to Premium |
| Environments included | One production, three sandbox |
| Azure geography for Singapore | Asia Pacific |
Official Microsoft Sources & Downloads
- Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing
- Licensing in Business Central (Microsoft Learn)
- Create users according to licences in Business Central (Microsoft Learn)
- Managing capacity in Business Central (Microsoft Learn)
- Production and sandbox environments in Business Central (Microsoft Learn)
- Managing production and sandbox environments (Microsoft Learn)
- Operational limits for Business Central online (Microsoft Learn)
- Dynamics 365 Business Central lifecycle (Microsoft Learn)
- Business Central update rollout timeline (Microsoft Learn)
- Business Central country availability and Azure geography (Microsoft Learn)
- Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, September 2026 (PDF)
- Microsoft Product Terms for Dynamics 365
- Business Central licensing documents (Microsoft Licensing)
- Modern Lifecycle Policy (Microsoft Learn)
Where a figure appears on this page it is quoted from one of these Microsoft pages; where Microsoft publishes nothing, this page says so rather than filling the gap. Supplied by SourceIT in Singapore with a GST invoice and local support. For a written quotation, current stock position or delivery lead time, contact our team.
Frequently Asked Questions — Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials Annual Subscription
What is the difference between Essentials and Premium?
Two functional areas. Microsoft's licensing guide states it exactly: "Business Central Premium includes all license capabilities of Essentials, plus Service Order Management and Manufacturing." That is the whole delta — there is no third module. If you do not run work orders or a production line, Essentials is usually the right tier.
How many environments and how much storage do we get?
Microsoft states that Essentials and Premium subscriptions each come with "one production environment and three sandbox environments free of extra charge", and a database baseline of "up to 80 GB plus an allowance per licensed Essentials or Premium user". Note that Microsoft's two sources disagree on the per-user accrual — the capacity page says 2 GB for Essentials and 3 GB for Premium, the September 2026 licensing guide says 3 GB and 5 GB. We will confirm the figure that applies to your order in writing.
Can we mix Essentials and Premium users?
Yes, but understand the Experience field first. Microsoft documents that a Premium user can sign in to a company set to the Essentials experience, though without Premium features there, while "Users with an Essentials license can't sign in to a company where the Experience field is set to Premium". Set that field deliberately during implementation rather than discovering it at go-live.
Is there a minimum number of licences?
Microsoft publishes none for Business Central. It does not appear in the Product Terms purchasing-minimums table, unlike Dynamics 365 Finance and Commerce which carry twenty-licence minimums. Practical minimums come from the purchasing programme, so ask our team what applies on the route we would quote you.
Where is our data stored?
Microsoft lists Singapore as available with an Azure geography of Asia Pacific, and commits that "Your data resides within the Asia-Pacific region". It does not promise storage in the Singapore datacentre specifically on a standard subscription — datacentre-level pinning is tied to Advanced Data Residency criteria. If in-country storage is a regulatory requirement, tell us before you order.
