See what it will cost you to purchase and implement Microsoft Business Central in 2021
Partners don't want this page to exist. I've you've evaluated ERPs before, you know how difficult it is to find a clear answer to:
What will this project cost?
Most partners want to hide this answer. We are quite different from most partners. Here we want to outline what costs are included in a full implementation. With 25 years of working with Microsoft Business Central, we've seen it all.
The cost of Business Central can be broken into a couple pieces:
Licenses for Microsoft Business Central are broken into two categories, Essential & Premium. To understand the differences, we recommend referring to this licensing guide.
The simple delineation we follow, is that if you do assembly, manufacturing, or advanced service, then you likely need Premium License. Otherwise, Essentials is all you need.
Pricing for the two are:
Once you've decided on a license type, you should group your users into two categories. Those that need to add data to Business Central, and those that simply need to view data only.
Those that only need to view data (and perhaps update data), can get a Team Member license that is only $10 / user / month.
Getting Microsoft Business Central implemented for your company will generally follow the same flow, regardless of Partner used. However, pricing can vary wildly between them. One partner could quote you $100,000, while another $30,000. Below is our pricing guide for implementations so you can go into discussions with a partner better equipped.
Project components:
Before a project starts, we spend significant time with you to understand your business and exactly how Business Central will be used. This gives our team a clear understanding of what will be required for your project, which allows us to provide clearer pricing.
That being said, the first part of the project involves deep dives into each relevant domain to clarify and make decisions about how parts will work. This is the GAP analysis.
Depending on the complexity of your business, GAP analysis is typically a few hours of discussion.
At our hourly rate it is typically in the $500-$1,500 range.
Once the licenses are purchased, our team begins getting your Business Central environments configured. There is at least one test environment, and one production environment. Your team will be able to access the test environment throughout the project.
The time required for configuration will depend on the complexity of the project. A simple implementation project will typically require $10,000-$20,000 in services at this stage.
What is being done?
If you are here, then you likely have important data in the system that you are currently using. Getting this data into Business Central is a critical part of the project.
The important decisions early on will be on what data is needed for you to conduct business, such as customer, vendor, or products data. There is other information that may just be useful for reference. Your team needs to look up details on old invoices or quotes. For useful, but non-essential data, our team has a simple and cheaper method for importing to save your team the time and money on a full functional data import.
The total cost for a basic implementation is typically $2,000-$4,000.
Training is a large variable part of any project. The number of users and the complexity of your needs determine how much training is required.
Over 25 year of training teams, we've found that the most effective method involves initial on-site training sessions, followed by topic specific virtual training. With Covid-19 conditions, this has been shifted to mostly online to accomodate.
The pricing here assumes an 100% online training. The sessions typically required are:
Average cost of a standard implemenation = $5,000
The project is ready to go live! The day your team officially switches to Business Central is a day that can be fairly stressful. Our team has been through many go-lives so we align the project and the planning to minimize the stress on this important day.
This is done by being an integral part of the go-live day. We are with you for the entirety of the day and have staff on standby to answer questions and resolve any issues that can arise. Getting you through the first week is very important. Once past the first week, your team will begin to feel comfortable on your own.
Through the first month after go-live our team is ready and available for quick meetings and any questions your team has.
Average cost of go-live and first months support: $5,000
Once the project is live, support for your team and future adjustments to Business Central is handled on as-used basis. No required support packages.
Let's put it all together. A full start-to-finish project price can look as follows:
Everything above is simply an estimate, but it is real. We hand out project proposals that align to the above many times each year. The complexity of the project will always dictate the costs required.
A trusted guide
Remove any doubt. We've been helping companies like yours for over 20 years. We will give you a clear view of Business Central as your ERP.
