Understanding Business Central environment types

When you move your ERP to the cloud with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you unlock a world of flexibility and control. But to get the most from your investment, it’s important to understand how environments work and how to manage them effectively. 
 
At TVT, we help businesses navigate the ins and outs of Business Central environments, so you can focus on what matters: running your business. 

What is Microsoft Entra ID? 

Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory/Azure AD) is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management service. It’s the gateway to all your Microsoft cloud services, including Business Central. Every Business Central subscription is tied to a Microsoft Entra ID tenant, which defines your users and their access rights. 
 
Key point: Users from one Microsoft Entra ID tenant cannot access environments belonging to another tenant. 

 

Types of Business Central environments 

Every Microsoft Entra ID tenant with a Business Central Online subscription receives: 

• 1 Production environment: Your live, day-to-day business system. Backed up automatically by Microsoft for peace of mind.  
• 3 Sandbox environments: Safe, isolated spaces for testing, training, and development—without risking your live data. 

If you need more than one production environment, you can purchase additional environments through your Microsoft partner. Each new production environment comes with three more sandboxes and extra database capacity.  

 

Companies within environments 

Each environment can contain multiple companies; each representing a legal entity or business unit with its own accounting requirements. All licensed users in your Microsoft Entra ID tenant can access all companies within each environment. 

 

Managing Your Business Central environments 

The Business Central Admin Centre is your control hub. Here, you can: 

• View all production and sandbox environments 
• Access technical details (region, version, URL)
• Create database exports (backups) 
• Open support tickets with Microsoft 
• Configure update settings 
• Rename, delete, or refresh environments 
• View and manage active sessions 
• Manage installed apps 

Access is restricted to internal tenant administrators (Global admin or Dynamics 365 Admin roles) and delegated partner admins (admin agent, helpdesk agent). 

 

Enhanced security with GDAP 

Since April 2022, Microsoft has introduced Granular Delegated Admin Privileges (GDAP). This gives partners time-bound, least-privileged access to your environments, thus improving security and control. 

Why choose TVT?

At TVT, we’re experts in helping businesses get the most from Business Central. Whether you’re setting up new environments, managing users, or planning for growth, our team is here to support you every step of the way. 
 
Ready to optimise your Business Central setup? Contact TVT today to find out how we can help.