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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Small and medium business | Business Central, N... / Can you mix Trial and ...
Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Answered

Can you mix Trial and Paid Licence in Business Central

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Posted on by Gavin 2,372

Hi,

We rarely use Business Central trials to start a customers experience with Business Central but we are thinking of changing this. While considering this its prompted a query I can't find the answer to so I'm wondering if you can help :). 

If you sign up for a Business Central Trial you get trial licences you can assign to users. This is great as lots of different users can explore Business Central for free :) However when you licence one user, and log in with this user, it changes to a paid subscription. My question is do the trial licences still work at this point? I'm just thinking it would be great if they would during the build phase when the customer still isn't really using Business Central other than playing with functionality. 

I know you can't mix essential and premium licences in one environment, but can you have trial licences as well as essential/premium licences. (even for a limited period)

Thanks

Gavin

  • Suggested answer
    S.Kawamura Profile Picture
    S.Kawamura 1,520 on at
    RE: Can you mix Trial and Paid Licence in Business Central

    Sorry, I misunderstood your question a bit.

    If the question is whether a paid license and a free trial license can be used at the same time, the answer may be no as Kim suggested. At least my experience has been purchasing and using a paid license AFTER the free trial ends.

    I think it is appropriate to pay for the license if the project has been started. However, if you just want to *play* with it, I think it is fine to use the free trial.
    I think it would be good to use two separate tenants, one to play with using the free trial and the other to set it up in earnest in the project. (I bet Microsoft won't say "We don't allow that".)

    S.Kawamura

  • Gavin Profile Picture
    Gavin 2,372 on at
    RE: Can you mix Trial and Paid Licence in Business Central

    Hi,

    Sorry I found the information below using the link from Yun and to me it suggests, although not categorically, that the trial licences will no longer work as soon as you log into a trial environment with a licenced user. (as Kim suggested earlier)

    pastedimage1651066548963v1.png

    It seems a shame as Microsoft are keen to have partners get end users into BC as soon as possible however some projects last months so its not economical to licence 10 or 20 users immediately during the initial phases. However if there were a way they could still play around with basic functionality like finance, fixed assets etc it would really help.

    Thanks

    Gavin

  • Gavin Profile Picture
    Gavin 2,372 on at
    RE: Can you mix Trial and Paid Licence in Business Central

    Hi,

    Just to expand on this comment if I may :)

    "The other way is a to ask a partner to sign up for a free trial, With the former method, a license named "Dynamics 365 Business Central for IWs" is added to the tenant."

    Let's say we (the partner) signs up a client for a trial and go ahead and assign 5 users with a "Dynamics 365 Business Central for IWs" (its my understanding you get 10000 of these licences) and they happily log in and test Business Central. Then 2 weeks later they decide they like Business Central and buy one essentials user licence to get things started. Will other users still assigned a "Dynamics 365 Business Central for IWs" licence be able to log in and carry on testing and playing with Business Central.

    The thinking behind this is when a project starts you don't want to licence lots of users as the client won't be live for a number of months. You may licence one of two users during the build phase, however ideally you want as many users as possible to be able to log in and test during this time. If you could still access using a "Dynamics 365 Business Central for IWs" licence for the 4/8/12 weeks this would be ideal. However my feeling is those licences will no longer work as soon as you buy one essential (or premium) licence. (as Kim suggests)

    Thanks again

    Gavin

  • Gavin Profile Picture
    Gavin 2,372 on at
    RE: Can you mix Trial and Paid Licence in Business Central

    Thanks all. Appreciate the feedback :)

  • Suggested answer
    YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    YUN ZHU 78,989 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at
    RE: Can you mix Trial and Paid Licence in Business Central

    Hi, just add some info.

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/across-preview

  • Suggested answer
    S.Kawamura Profile Picture
    S.Kawamura 1,520 on at
    RE: Can you mix Trial and Paid Licence in Business Central

    HI,

    To conclude first, it is possible to use both Trial and Premium(or Essential) licenses. It would be a good idea to first sign up for a trial and assign a trial license to a user to experience BC, and if the user likes BC, switch to a paid plan before the trial period (maximum of 3 months) ends. I think this is the scenario MS envisions.

    ＞”However when you licence one user, and log in with this user, it changes to a paid subscription.”
    I didn't encountered such situation in this comment.

    As far as I know, there are two ways to apply for a free trial. One is to sign up for a free trial by yourself. The other way is a to ask a partner to sign up for a free trial, With the former method, a license named "Dynamics 365 Business Central for IWs" is added to the tenant. The latter method assigns "Dynamics 365 Business Central Premium(or Essential)".
    In my experience, in none of these cases have I been charged for assigning the license.

    I hope this helps you.

    S.Kawamura

  • Suggested answer
    Dallefeld Profile Picture
    Dallefeld 173 User Group Leader on at
    RE: Can you mix Trial and Paid Licence in Business Central

    You cannot have both trial and paid against one database.

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