The 3 most important questions and answers for a new Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central consultant.

Background

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central products market share is rapidly growing. That also means that the demand for skilled consultants also are growing. So if you want to get into the ERP consulting business I think you should consider starting your career working with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. So in this post I try to give some advice that I hope you will be useful both for people who have just started their career working with Business Central, and for people who want a career with in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central world.

1. What background should I have if i want to become a Business Central consultant?

Employers will often look to hire experienced consultants. But everyone needs to start somewhere and having new blood coming into the channels is always valuable. This means there will always be opening for people that are new to the consulting business. But there are some skills and some background that I think will make it easier for you,

Accounting

No matter how we twist and turn it – at the end of the day an important aspect of an ERP solution like Business Central will always be accounting. You should understand that most of the data we enter into the system and most of the procedures we perform in the system, eventually will end up as a financial transaction or influence a financial transaction, So I think that having a background in accounting is a great background for someone who wants to become a Business Central consultant.

System user / Super user background

Being an experienced ERP system user is also a valuable background for a functional consultant. When working with Business Central having user experience from Dynamics NAV or Business Central is of course the most valuable user experience. But experience from other system is also considered valuable by many employers. When Business Central is implemented in a new business there is always a lot of internal resources involved. So if you have experience from being a part of a project team that implemented Dynamics NAV or Business Central in a company you worked for this can be a great experience as well.

Know your business processes

If you have domain knowledge with in one or more of the business processed that Business Central supports you can be a great asset for your employer. If you for example knows a lot about logistics, manufacturing or professional service projects or e-commerce that knowledge could be worth gold for a consulting business. Solid business process knowledge and experience will make it easier for you to learn the functionality in any ERP system – including Business Central.

2. What is the best way to learn Business Central for a new functional consultant?

This is a question where you different people for sure will have different opinions. It also comes down to your personal preference when it comes to learning. Some like self studies, others prefer instructor led training and some like to have a mentor they can follow to learn from their experience. So find your way and create your learning plan. 

Start to learn the basics

My recommendation will be that the first thing you should learn is the basic flow and key concepts in Business Central. Understand what modules are in the application, what they are used for and how they are all integrated. For example you can study what happens when you start entering a quote in Business Central and follow the flow until your quote ends up as a posted sales invoice and a batch of general ledger entries and possible item ledger entries. 
Another important thing is to learn efficient ways of entering date in the system. Learn shortcuts, learn how you can apply filters and how you can personalize your pages to be most efficient for what you want to do. 

Use Microsoft learn

Get to know the community

There is a great community around the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central product. There are lots of professionals that publish great content on blogs, in community forums, on YouTube and on other social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. If you are working for a Microsoft Partner organization you will also have access to Yammer.

Personally I am very active in the official Microsoft Dynamics Community forums. There you can ask questions, follow discussions and share opinions about all the Microsoft Dynamics products including Dynamics NAV and Business Central. And it is all completely free. 

The Business Central content available other is a lot. Luckily there are some sites that can give you a great overview over what is available.  The aka.ms/bcall site is a great overview over all official Microsoft content that is available. If you want a broader overview of what is available around the whole community then you should look at Steve Endows list of Business Central resources. 

Find your self a mentor

Being the new in the business is hard. So it is important that you try to team up with someone that is more experienced. If you can find someone willing to be your mentor that will be of great value to you. Ask a more experienced colleague, a blogger, or someone in the community that you feel deliver quality content and ask them for advice. I think you will be surprised how many of them that will say yes to help you and share their experience with you. 

3. Should I get certified?

The short answer to that is – Y E S – you should get certified. In my experience certifications is becoming more and more important. It gives you more credibility as an individual. It also means a lot for many Microsoft Dynamics partner to have as many certified people as possible in their company. Currently there are only one certification available for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The MB-800 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant exam.

But as I have mentioned earlier there are a lot of other technologies that are important in a modern Business Central project. So any Power platform certification is also considered to be very relevant for todays Business Central consultants. If you want to work more on the technical side of Business Central, there are also lots of relevant Azure certifications that can be relevant to you.

Where do I go from here?

Make sure to never stop learning and never stop being curious. If you are presented with an opportunity to take part in something you have not done before – take that opportunity. And as you grown in your role -remember that someone invested in you so when you were new in the game. So when someone asks you for advice or help – assist them if you can.

Please feel free to comment below or look me up on any of the social platforms or in the forums if you want my advice around your road to become a great functional Business Central consultant.,