You already know the different licence types in Business Central. The question that comes right after is a different one: how many of each do you actually need? It's the stage where most money gets lost, in both directions: companies that contract too many full licences «just in case», and companies that come up short and end up expanding in a rush halfway through the project.
Here's the method we use with our clients to count properly, without relying on guesswork.
The underlying mistake: counting by department, not by person
It's tempting to think «the sales team needs a full licence» and multiply by headcount. But within the same department there are almost always mixed profiles: the sales manager who invoices and manages orders (full licence) and the field salesperson who only checks stock and approves discounts from their phone (Team Member). Counting by department inflates the bill needlessly.
The method: four columns per person
Make a list of everyone who's going to touch the ERP in some way, and for each one answer this:
| Person | Do they create or post documents? | Shared, shift-based role? | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchasing manager | Yes, creates purchase orders | No | Full |
| Field salesperson | No, only views and approves | No | Team Member |
| Warehouse operator (3 shifts, 1 terminal) | Yes, posts goods in/out | Yes | Device |
| Management | No, only approves and reports | No | Team Member |
| External accountant | No, only views | No | External accountant (free) |
With this table filled in for your whole team, you have — literally — the exact number of licences of each type you need to contract. There's no intermediate step or estimate involved: it's a straight sum.
Three signs you're counting wrong
- More than half your team comes out as a full licence. In most SMEs, somewhere between 40% and 60% of the people who touch the ERP fit Team Member. If your ratio is very different, go row by row: it's easy to tick «creates documents» out of habit without actually checking.
- You're counting licences by computer, not by person. Business Central is licensed by named user (Device is the exception). If two people share the same desk in different shifts, they need two licences, not one.
- You haven't counted shared, shift-based roles separately. A warehouse terminal or POS used by several operators across different shifts almost always works out cheaper with a Device licence than by adding a named licence for every operator who touches that terminal.
What to do with the borderline cases
If someone is only going to create documents occasionally (covering for someone on leave once a year, say), it's not worth keeping them on a full licence all year round. Since it's a monthly subscription, you can upgrade their licence just for the time they need it and downgrade it again afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
Can I start with fewer licences and add more later?
Yes, and it's what we recommend in most projects: start with a count that matches the first month's reality, don't over-provision from day one out of fear of coming up short. Business Central is a monthly subscription, so adding a licence when a real need comes up takes minutes, not weeks, and doesn't require any change to the rest of the system. The alternative — contracting licences «just in case» — has a real, ongoing cost: every full licence nobody uses day to day is money paid month after month with no return. We prefer reviewing the count three months after go-live, once it's clear who really uses the ERP and how, and adjusting then with real data instead of initial estimates.
Do the free external accountant licences count in this total?
They don't cost anything, so you don't add them to the monthly spend, but it's worth noting them separately in your count because Microsoft caps free external accountant licences at 3 per company. If your accountancy firm works with several people who each need independent access to your data — whoever handles the bookkeeping and whoever files the tax returns, say — that cap of 3 can fall short, and from the fourth person onward you'd need a regular Team Member licence, which does have a cost. It's worth confirming with your accountancy firm how many people actually need access before assuming the 3 free ones cover the whole external team.
What if I don't yet know who's going to use the ERP day to day?
That's common in projects starting from scratch or coming from a very different system, where it's not yet clear how tasks will be split in the new ERP. In that case, we size the count together with our clients during the initial analysis phase, before any licence is contracted: we review the company's current processes, identify who's involved in each one, and translate that into real roles inside Business Central. It's a natural part of the implementation process, not something you have to work out alone or guess in advance. If you're also wondering about the total project cost, we cover that in our article on how much it costs to migrate to Business Central.
In summary
Counting licences properly isn't complicated, but it does mean looking person by person, not by department or gut feeling. The four-column table gives you the exact figure without guessing, and it avoids both overpaying and coming up short halfway through the project.
If you'd rather we did it with you, take a look at our Business Central implementation service or tell us how many people will touch the ERP and we'll send back the exact count, no strings attached.