Business Central is Microsoft's ERP for small and mid-sized companies, and its pull is the ecosystem: Outlook, Excel, Teams and Power BI. What it does not remove is the partner implementation and the per-user tiers. Tellency trades the ecosystem for a system configured for your business and live in weeks.
Business Central is a mature product with a large partner channel. The comparison below is about fit for a Canadian or US business that wants one system for operations and finance without running an implementation project.
| Consideration | Tellency | Dynamics 365 Business Central |
|---|---|---|
| How it is priced | One per-user subscription from $79 per user per month covering the modules your business uses. Implementation quoted as a fixed project. | Per-user licences in tiers: Essentials covers finance, sales, inventory and projects; Premium adds manufacturing and service management. Team Member licences give read-mostly access. Partner implementation is quoted separately. |
| How it is implemented | Tellency configures your dedicated instance, migrates your data, trains the team and runs a parallel month-end. Typical go-live is one to four weeks. | Implemented by a Microsoft partner. Timelines depend on the partner and scope, and extensions add development time. |
| Customization | Configuration first, without code. Deeper changes are made by Tellency on your instance and carried forward. | Extensions built in AL by partners, plus a marketplace of ISV apps. Flexible, with development and app subscription costs. |
| Ecosystem | Documents export to Excel; the mobile apps and browser cover day-to-day use. No dependency on a particular productivity suite. | Deep integration with Microsoft 365, Teams, Power BI and Power Platform. The strongest reason to choose it for a Microsoft-centred office. |
| Canadian and US tax | GST/HST/PST/QST by place of supply and US state and local sales tax by jurisdiction, configured at implementation, returns produced from the ledger. | Canadian and US localizations are available. Jurisdiction-level sales tax automation is typically added through a connected tax service. |
| Retail POS and e-commerce | POS, online ordering and inventory on one ledger, included. | Point of sale and e-commerce come from ISV apps in the marketplace, licensed separately. |
| AI in the books | AI proposes postings, matches documents and drafts entries; a person approves every ledger write and every amount traces to a source document. | Copilot features are being added across Business Central for drafting, analysis and reconciliation assistance. |
| Who it suits | Businesses that want operations and finance on one ledger, configured for their provinces or states, live in weeks, with no partner project to manage. | Businesses committed to the Microsoft stack, with a partner relationship and a preference for a broad ISV ecosystem. |
Microsoft and Dynamics 365 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Descriptions of Business Central reflect how the product is generally licensed and deployed as of September 2026 and are provided for comparison. Confirm current licensing with Microsoft or a partner.
The decision usually comes down to three questions: how much you value the Microsoft ecosystem, who will run the implementation, and whether tiered licensing fits how your people actually work.
If your team lives in Outlook, Teams and Excel and you already use Power BI, Business Central's integration is real and valuable. Weigh it against what it costs to get there: a partner project, extensions for anything non-standard, and ISV apps for point of sale or e-commerce. Tellency's position is that an ERP should arrive working, export cleanly to Excel, and not require a second ecosystem to be useful.
Business Central's Essentials and Premium tiers, plus Team Member licences, mean deciding who needs which licence and revisiting it as roles change. A manufacturer needs Premium for everyone touching production. Tellency is one per-user price that covers the modules your business uses, with roles controlling what each person sees.
Business Central is implemented by partners, and the experience depends heavily on the partner you choose. Tellency implements its own product: the same team that built it configures your instance, migrates your data and commits to a go-live week. When something needs changing later, you call Tellency, not a reseller.
Both systems handle Canadian and US localizations. The difference is again in who does the setup and who maintains it. Tellency configures GST/HST/PST/QST by place of supply, US state and local sales tax by jurisdiction, and provincial or state payroll as part of implementation, and produces the returns from the ledger.
If you are a Microsoft-first organisation with a trusted partner, need a specific ISV app that only exists on that platform, or plan to build extensively on Power Platform, Business Central is a sound choice. If you want operations and finance on one ledger in weeks without a partner project, and you sell in Canada or the US, Tellency was built for you.
Send us a trial balance and a product list. We will show you Tellency set up for your provinces or states and tell you the week you would be closing month-end in it.
