Multi-company setup in Business Central

Business Central is built to run multiple companies inside a single environment. Each company has its own chart of accounts, ledger, posting groups, and configuration, while sharing the same database, users, and (optionally) master data. For groups of five to fifty legal entities of similar shape, the multi-company model is a sweet spot between the simplicity of a single-tenant SMB ERP and the cost of Dynamics 365 Finance.

What a company is

A company in Business Central is a self-contained accounting unit — typically a single legal entity. Companies inside one environment can be of completely different shapes (different currencies, fiscal years, dimensions, posting groups) or near-identical (perhaps just a different country localization).

Company vs environment: the first decision

Before creating anything, decide whether the entities belong in one environment as multiple companies or in separate environments. One environment means shared users, shared extensions, one update schedule, and easy intercompany — the right default for a group under common management. Separate environments make sense when entities have genuinely different governance: a subsidiary being groomed for sale, an acquisition still running its own partner and customisations, or data-residency requirements pinning a country's books to a specific Azure region. The trade-off is real: extensions install per environment, so five environments means five deployment targets, five sets of sandbox refreshes, and five update windows. (The mechanics are covered in Business Central environments.) A useful heuristic: if the entities will ever consolidate or trade with each other, start in one environment; splitting later is a migration, not a setting.

Shared and per-company data

By default, every table is per-company. A handful of system tables (users, permission sets, profiles, exchange rates, the Object Designer) are shared across the environment. Master data management (an out-of-the-box feature) lets you nominate one company as the source of items, customers, vendors, etc. and synchronise to subscriber companies, so you don't maintain the same item card in five companies.

Decide the master-data ownership question early and in writing: which company owns the item master, whether subscribers may extend records locally, and what happens when a subscriber needs an item the source company doesn't stock. Groups that skip this end up with five diverging item catalogues within a year — the exact problem multi-company was supposed to prevent. The same discipline applies to the chart of accounts and dimension values: identical structures across companies make consolidation and intercompany mapping nearly free, while "each country did its own thing" makes both a permanent mapping-maintenance job. See dimensions design for how to standardise that layer group-wide.

Intercompany

Two companies linked as Intercompany Partners can post intercompany sales and purchase documents that auto-create their counterparty in the other company. Intercompany journals push GL entries across companies, and IC payments settle balances. Mapping tables (chart of accounts, dimensions) reconcile differences in account structures.

Consolidation

A dedicated Consolidation company aggregates results from multiple subsidiaries. Source companies export their trial balances on a schedule; the consolidation company applies currency translation, eliminations, and adjustments to produce group financials. For very complex consolidations (CPM-grade), customers typically integrate to a third-party tool.

User access across companies

Users see each company they have permission for. Switching is a single click in the company switcher. Permissions can be scoped per company.

Localizations

Each company can run its own country localization, so a single environment can hold a Swedish AB, a Norwegian AS, and a German GmbH each with the right VAT, statutory reporting, and bank file formats.

Cross-company reporting

Statutory reporting is per company, but management wants group views without waiting for a formal consolidation run. The realistic options: the built-in company hub for a light overview, financial reports run per company and combined in Excel, or — the answer most groups land on — Power BI reading all companies through the API, since the standard BC APIs are company-scoped and a report can union them. Build the group P&L in Power BI early; it takes pressure off the consolidation cycle and exposes mapping problems while they're still small.

Practical setup order

For a new group rollout, the sequence that avoids rework: standardise the chart of accounts and dimensions on paper first; build one template company with the agreed configuration; copy it per entity (RapidStart configuration packages, or the newer copy-company tooling) and apply each country's localization; wire up master data management from the nominated source company; then set up intercompany partners and mappings last, once account structures are final. Groups that create companies ad hoc and harmonise afterwards pay for it during every close — see month-end close for what that cycle already contains without adding reconciliation of inconsistent structures.

Licensing

Multi-company doesn't change licensing; it's the number of unique users across all companies that drives cost. A user who works in three companies is one licence. The one caveat: all full users across all companies in the tenant share the Essentials-or-Premium decision, so a single manufacturing entity in the group puts every full user group-wide on Premium — factor that into the environment-split decision above. Details in Business Central licensing and pricing.