Creating Companies in Business Central
Learn the four company creation types, permission requirements, and when to use evaluation vs production environments.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the four company creation options in BC
- Know the SUPER permission requirement for company creation
- Differentiate evaluation, production, and blank company setups
Overview
When you sign up for Business Central, you receive default environments to get started — typically a demonstration company (CRONUS) and an empty company ("My Company"). Understanding how to create and manage companies is a core administrative task for functional consultants.
Environments
In Business Central online, companies live inside environments (Production, Sandbox). Sandbox environments are for testing; Production environments hold live business data.
Permission Requirements
To create a new company, the user must be assigned to the Super permission set. Without this permission set, the Create Company option will not be available.
Company Creation Types
When creating a new company, you have four main options depending on your data needs:
1. Evaluation — Sample Data
Includes sample data for testing and demonstration. Ideal for learning BC features, training new users, or evaluating the product before go-live.
2. Advanced Evaluation — Complete Sample Data
Provides comprehensive sample data covering manufacturing and service management scenarios. Use this when you need to explore Premium-tier modules without configuring data from scratch.
3. Production — Setup Data Only
Contains only basic setup data (posting groups, number series, etc.) — no master data or transactions. Ready for data migration from a legacy system or another ERP.
4. Create New — No Data
A completely blank company. You set up everything from scratch: chart of accounts, posting groups, number series, dimensions, and all master data.
Consultant Tip
For client implementations, always use Production — Setup Data Only or Create New — No Data. Never go live with evaluation sample data.
Comparison Table
| Type | Sample Data | Manufacturing | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluation | Basic | No | Learning, demos |
| Advanced Evaluation | Complete | Yes | Premium module demos |
| Production — Setup Only | Setup only | Setup only | Implementations |
| Create New — No Data | None | None | Full custom setup |
Key Revision Points (MB-800)
- Differentiate between all 4 company creation types
- Know the prerequisite permission: SUPER permission set
- Understand that evaluation companies are not suitable for production use