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Overview
The Dynamics 365 Business Central Team Member licence is a low-cost, limited licence for people who need to read data across Business Central and make small updates, but who do not process transactions. Team Members can read all your data, edit existing records, approve workflows, create quotes and enter timesheets. They cannot post transactions, create customers or vendors, or work in your finance modules.
So what can a Team Member actually do?
A Team Member licence grants a defined set of use rights. Under one, your users can:
- Read all the data in your Business Central. You can narrow that further with permission sets, but the licence itself does not restrict reading.
- Update existing records such as customers, vendors and items. They cannot create new ones.
- Update editable fields on existing entries — the Due Date on a customer ledger entry, for instance.
- Approve or reject tasks assigned to them in an approval workflow.
- Create, edit and delete sales quotes and purchase quotes. Quotes only, though — not orders or invoices.
- Enter and edit timesheets against Projects (the module Microsoft renamed from Jobs).
- Create, edit and delete their own personal information.
- Use the Power Apps and Power Automate rights that come with any Dynamics 365 licence.
And what can they not do?
This is the question that really decides whether a Team Member licence will work for one of your people. A Team Member cannot:
- Post any transaction — no sales invoices, purchase invoices, journals or payments.
- Convert a quote into an order. They can build the quote; someone with an Essentials licence has to convert it.
- Create new master records. Editing an existing customer is fine; adding a new one is not.
- Work inside the finance, manufacturing, service management or warehouse modules. They can read the data those modules hold, but they cannot transact in them.
One thing that catches people out: entitlements always beat permissions in Business Central. If you grant a Team Member the SUPER permission set, the platform still holds them to Team Member use rights. You can’t configure your way around the licence.
Team Member, Essentials, or free Microsoft 365 access?
Since 2023, Microsoft has let employees who only have a Microsoft 365 licence read Business Central records shared with them in Microsoft Teams, at no extra cost. That changed the maths for your read-only users, and in our experience it’s the single most common thing UK businesses get wrong when they size their licences.
| Capability | Microsoft 365 licence | Team Member | Essentials |
|---|---|---|---|
| Read Business Central data | In Teams only | Yes, anywhere | Yes, anywhere |
| Business Central web client | No | Yes | Yes |
| Business Central mobile app | No | Yes | Yes |
| Role centre and reports | No | Yes | Yes |
| Edit existing records | No | Yes | Yes |
| Approve workflows | No | Yes | Yes |
| Create quotes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Post transactions | No | No | Yes |
| Create customers, vendors, items | No | No | Yes |
| Additional cost | None | Low | Full |
Here’s the practical rule. If one of your people only ever needs to glance at a record a colleague has shared into a Teams chat, their existing Microsoft 365 licence is enough. The moment they need to open Business Central itself — to run a report, look at a role centre, or approve something — they need a Team Member licence.
When should you use a Team Member licence?
Across our implementations for UK manufacturers, distributors and food producers, three patterns come up again and again. You’ll probably recognise at least one of them in your own team.
The approver
A manager who approves purchase requisitions or sales quotes above a threshold, but never raises or posts a document. Approval workflows sit comfortably within Team Member rights, and this is usually the clearest case for the licence.
The timesheet submitter
Field engineers or project staff who record time against Projects each week and need to see nothing else. Timesheet entry is explicitly included in Team Member use rights.
The reporting viewer
A director or board member who signs in to view a role centre and run reports. Watch this one, because it has narrowed: if they’re happy reading shared records inside Teams, their Microsoft 365 licence already covers it. They need a Team Member licence only because they want the Business Central interface.
The 15-table limit on customisations
One constraint catches people out. The Team Members application may be customised with a maximum of 15 additional tables. That covers custom tables introduced by per-tenant extensions and by third-party apps.
Microsoft does not currently enforce that limit in the software, so you can exceed it without ever seeing an error. It’s still a licensing condition, and Microsoft has said it will be enforced. If you run a heavily extended Business Central environment with a lot of Team Members, it’s worth auditing your tables before that becomes a compliance problem rather than after.
How much does a Team Member licence cost?
Team Member is the cheapest paid Business Central licence — a fraction of the Essentials price per user, per month, billed annually. Microsoft reviews Dynamics 365 pricing twice a year, so we don’t publish figures here that will go stale. Check the Business Central pricing page for current list prices, or talk to us and we’ll tell you your actual cost under a CSP agreement.
There’s a free option worth knowing about too. The External Accountant licence carries broadly similar rights to Essentials and is meant for your accountant or bookkeeper. It costs nothing and does not consume one of your paid seats.
How do you buy Team Member licences?
Business Central licences can only be bought through the Cloud Solution Provider programme, which means through a Microsoft partner. You can’t buy Business Central directly from Microsoft on a credit card the way you can with Microsoft 365. Licences are assigned per named user, not shared, so two of your part-time staff sharing one login is not allowed.
FAQs
Can a Team Member create a sales order?
No. A Team Member can create, edit and delete a sales quote, but converting that quote into a sales order needs an Essentials or Premium licence. It’s the single most common misunderstanding about the licence.
Can a Team Member post a purchase invoice?
No. Team Members cannot post any transaction. They can approve a purchase document through a workflow if it’s assigned to them, but the posting itself needs a full user.
Is the Business Central Team Member licence the same as the Dynamics 365 Team Members licence?
No, and the naming causes real confusion. The Dynamics 365 Team Members licence applies to Sales, Customer Service and Field Service. The Business Central Team Member licence is a separate product with its own use rights. Neither has anything to do with being a member of a Microsoft Teams team.
Can I give a Team Member more access with permission sets?
No. Business Central applies the intersection of licence entitlements and assigned permissions, and entitlements take priority. Granting SUPER to a Team Member will not extend what they can do.
Do I need a Team Member licence for someone who only reads data?
Not necessarily. If they only need to view records shared into a Microsoft Teams chat or channel, a supported Microsoft 365 licence covers that at no extra cost. They need a Team Member licence to sign in to the Business Central web client, use the mobile app, or open a role centre.
Ready to sort out your licence mix?
Getting the Team Member and Essentials split right is usually worth several thousand pounds a year to a mid-sized business, and it’s easy to get wrong in either direction. If you’d like a second opinion on how your users are licensed, talk to our team and we’ll go through it with you. We’re here to help you every step of the way.
