Budgeting for the ongoing running of Business Central

Many people budget for the implementation but forget the ongoing running costs. Business Central online has fixed items every year, and others come and go with need. This article is a template, not a price list. It shows which items you should include, where to find the figures, and which questions make the budget more reliable. You fill in the amounts yourselves from quotes and Microsoft's licensing guide.

Licences

Licences are normally the largest fixed item and are charged per user per period. Count the users by type: Essentials, Premium, Team Members and any devices. Find prices in Microsoft's current licensing guide and from your reseller.

Remember any extra production environments and extra database capacity, which Microsoft Learn mentions as possible items. Check in the admin center how much capacity you use.

Plan for growth too. If you hire more people, they need licences, and if someone leaves, the licence should be removed. Ask how a change in the number of users is charged in the middle of a period.

Remember to check which currency the price is in and whether the reseller can change it along the way. Ask how a price change from Microsoft is passed on, and with what notice.

Support and upgrades

Support can be an hourly rate, a prepaid block or a subscription. See the article on the models. Budget from your own case history, not a guess. Also include internal time for the super user.

Microsoft updates twice a year, and you can set the update window per environment. Testing and any fixes to customisations take time, and that must be budgeted. Set aside time and money for testing in a sandbox before each major update, especially if you have your own extensions.

If you use a prepaid block or hours, make a budget with three scenarios: low, normal and high usage. Then you can see how much the budget swings. Watch usage every quarter and adjust if it deviates.

Include the hours your own employees spend on testing and training in connection with updates, even if they do not appear on an invoice.

Apps and customisations

Apps from AppSource typically have a licence per user or per company. Customisations have maintenance. Write them all into a list with supplier, price, renewal date and notice period.

Remember that apps are also updated, and that some publishers change prices or terms. Ask to be told in good time before a renewal, and read the terms when they change.

The template

Use these lines in a spreadsheet, and enter amounts and quantities per year:

Add a column with the source of each figure, for example a quote, an invoice or Microsoft's licensing guide. Then next year's budget can be updated quickly, and others can understand how the figures were found.

Licences per type: number of users times price
Extra environments and database capacity
Apps and their licences
Support: agreed model or expected usage
Testing and fixes at updates
Maintenance of your own customisations
Training of new employees
Minor changes and improvements
Buffer for unforeseen needs

Review the budget every year

Set a fixed date to review the user list and the licences. Remove users who no longer work for you, and check whether the licence type still fits. See the article on licence types. Check renewal and termination dates so you do not commit by accident.

Use the year's usage to improve next year's budget. See which items were over or under, and find the reason. If you improve the process every year, the budget becomes more accurate.

At Addverk

Our prices for services are on the page about services and prices. Use the template to compare on equal terms.