Change basic settings

Use the My Settings page to manage basic settings for your Business Central. The changes you make only affect your workspace, not the workspaces of other users.

Tip

Take free e-learning content about the Business Central user interface in Microsoft training.

Role

The role determines the home page, a starting screen that is designed for the needs of a specific role in an organization. Depending on your role, the home page, or role center, gives you an overview of the business, your department, or your personal tasks. It also helps you navigate to your daily tasks and find work that is assigned to you.

  • At the top, the navigation allows you to switch between customers, vendors, items, and other important lists of information. Similarly, actions allow you to initiate tasks, such as create a new sales invoice, directly from the home page.

  • In the center, you find the Activities area, which shows current data and can be selected to view more detailed information. Key performance indicators (KPIs) can be set up to display a selected chart for a visual representation of, for example, cash flow or income and expenses. You can also build up a list of favorite customers on the home page for business accounts that you do business with often or need to pay special attention to.

Change the role

The default role is Business Manager, but you can select another role to use a role center that fits your needs better.

  1. In the top right corner, choose the Settings icon Settings., and then choose the My Settings action.
  2. On the My Settings page, in the Role field, select the role that you want to use by default. For example, select Accountant.
  3. Choose OK.

Company

A company functions as a container for data in Business Central. There can be multiple companies in a database, but only one can be selected at a time. The default company is called CRONUS and contains demonstration data only.

The Company field shows the company you're currently working in, and you can use it to switch to another company. The company name is always displayed at the upper-left corner and works as an action that you can choose to go back to the Role Center.

Tip

You can also change the company by using the company switcher (Crtl+O). For more information about about this feature and other ways to change company or environment, see Switching to Another Company or Environment.

The default company is called CRONUS and contains demonstration data only. You can create a new company with custom data. For more information, see Creating New Companies.

Work date

The most commonly used work date is today's date. You might have to temporarily change the work date to be able to perform tasks, such as completing transactions for a date that isn't today.

Tip

In all date fields, type t to quickly enter today's date, and type w to quickly enter the work date, which is the value in the Work Date field on the My Settings page.

Important

After you change the work date, if you sign out or switch to another company, the work data reverts to the default work date. So the next time you sign in or switch back to the original company, you may have to set the work date again.

Work date indication

The work date is critical on pages that can be edited. Whenever the work date isn't set to today's date on an editable page, then two types of indicators appear on the page:

  • A reminder appears at the top of the page that tells you what the work date is set to. The reminder provides a direct link to the work date setting on the My Settings page so you change the date if you want. From the reminder, you can also choose to dismiss the reminder for the rest of your session. Unless you change the work date to "today," the reminder will appear the next time you sign in.

  • If you dismiss the reminder, the work date appears in the title of the page.

If the work date isn't set to the current day (today), then on all pages where you can edit data, the current work date appears in the upper-left corner.

Region

The Region setting determines how dates, times, numbers, and currencies are shown or formatted. It also determines what character is used as the decimal separator when using a numeric keyboard to enter data. Learn more at Entering Data.

Language

Changes the display language. This field appears only when there's more than one language to choose from.

When you sign up for Business Central, your administrator or your browser settings determine the initial language. The language that you set is used on all devices that you sign in from, such as a phone or tablet.

You can install more languages for Business Central from AppSource. While all supported display languages are shown in the list, the administrator must install the relevant language app to the tenant before users can switch to the new language in Business Central.

Note

On the Allowed Languages page, administrators can modify the list of languages that shows when people select their language and region. Administrators can show only the languages for which they know a language app is installed. Keeping the list of languages short and accurate makes it easier for people to choose a supported language.

Time zone

Defines the time zone where you're located. When you first sign into Business Central, the time zone is set based on your company's address. Change it if it doesn't fit your physical location.

Notifications

Choose the Change when I receive notifications link to manage the notifications that you get about certain events or status changes. For example, such as when you're about to invoice a customer who has an overdue balance, or the available inventory is lower than the quantity you're about to sell. Learn more at Managing Notifications.

Teaching tips

Some pages display a teaching tip with a short introduction to the page. Switch off teaching tips if you are not interested in seeing these short introductions when you open the relevant pages. If you switch off teaching tips, you can still open the teaching tip for a specific page by choosing the page title in the top left corner.

See also

Work with Business Central
Change Which Features are Displayed
Creating New Companies

Find free e-learning modules for Business Central here