# Business Central Team Member License: What It Allows and Limits

> What a Dynamics 365 Business Central Team Member license lets a user do, where it stops, how it compares with Microsoft 365 read access, and how to assign and check it.

Source: https://www.epifive.com/blog/business-central-team-member-license-what-it-allows · Published 2026-10-26 · EpiFive

## Key takeaways

- A Team Member license lets a named user read data, update existing records, approve workflow tasks, manage quotes, and edit their own time sheets for approval.
- Entitlements always outrank permissions, so a Team Member with the SUPER permission set can still only use objects in the Team Member entitlements.
- Microsoft's licensing guidance says the Team Member module may be customized with at most 15 additional tables.
- Microsoft 365 licenses give read-only access in Teams only, while Team Member adds limited write access and Essentials or Premium give full write access.
- Check a user's real access on the Effective Permissions page, reached from the Users page, before you buy licenses on assumptions.

A Dynamics 365 Business Central Team Member license is a lower-cost named-user license for people who mostly look at data and handle light tasks. It lets the user read data, update existing records, approve or reject workflow tasks, manage quotes, edit personal information and edit job time sheets for approval, but not run full accounting, sales or purchasing processes. This article lists what is allowed, where the limits are, and how to check a user before you assign the license.

## Who this is for

This is for business owners, finance managers and IT administrators who are working out which Business Central users need a full Essentials or Premium license and which can use something cheaper. By the end you should be able to sort your staff into three groups (read only, limited write, full), know how to assign the license, and know how to confirm what a user can really do.

The license terms are in Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide and Product Terms, and they change. This article reflects Microsoft's pages as checked on 26 October 2026. Confirm purchasing details and prices with your Microsoft partner, since Microsoft's Learn page states that Business Central licenses can only be purchased through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. For prices of the full licenses, see [Business Central pricing: Essentials vs Premium](https://www.epifive.com/blog/business-central-pricing-essentials-vs-premium).

## What the Team Member license allows

Microsoft's licensing guidance for Business Central grants the Team Member license to a named user for their own use only, not on behalf of others. The rights listed are:

- Read data in Business Central.
- Update existing records and entries, for example previously created customer, vendor or item records.
- Approve or reject tasks in workflows assigned to the user. Approvals can only update data in records that Team Members can access.
- Create, edit and delete sales or purchase quotes.
- Create, edit and delete personal information.
- Edit job time sheets for approval.
- Use the Power Apps and Power Automate rights included with a Dynamics 365 license.

The same page notes that the license is not to be confused with the Dynamics 365 Team Members license, which is a different product. Make sure the SKU on your order says Business Central.

Elsewhere on the same page, the short description of the license talks about read-only access to certain data and limited functionality, while the detailed rights above include updates and approvals. Treat the detailed rights list as the definition, and check the exact wording in the current Licensing Guide when you are deciding borderline roles.

## What it does not cover

The license is not a cheaper Essentials. Anything that is not on the list above needs a full license. In practice that means these tasks should be assigned to Essentials or Premium users:

- Creating and posting sales orders, invoices, purchase documents and journals.
- Running a business process end to end, such as order fulfilment or month-end close.
- Setup and administrative tasks.

The list above is an interpretation of the published rights, not a quote from a Microsoft table, so for a specific role check the entitlements on a test user (see Verification below).

### Customization limit

Microsoft's licensing page says the Business Central Team Members application module may be customized with a maximum of 15 additional tables. If you add extensions with custom tables, count them against that limit and ask your partner how your solution fits.

### Entitlements beat permissions

Microsoft's licensing article explains that Business Central online generates permissions from entitlements, defined per object in the Entitlements table and tied to the user's Microsoft Entra service plan. When someone signs in, the service applies the intersection of the entitlements for their plan and the permissions the admin gave them. Entitlements always have higher priority. Microsoft's example: a user given SUPER permissions who has the Team Member license assigned can still only access the objects defined by the Team Member entitlements.

This means you cannot widen a Team Member's rights by giving them a bigger permission set. If someone needs more, they need a different license.

## How it compares with the other options

| Option | Microsoft's description of access | Where it works |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Microsoft 365 license (supported plans) | Read, but not write, Business Central data | Business Central app for Microsoft Teams only. No web client, mobile apps, APIs or other Office integrations |
| Team Member | Limited write access: the rights listed above | Business Central clients, per the license |
| Essentials or Premium | Full write access | Business Central clients |
| Device | Lets multiple users share a covered device, such as a point of sale, shop floor or warehouse device | Concurrent users up to the number of device licenses |

Essentials and Premium user licenses include unrestricted Team Member access, according to Microsoft's licensing guidance.

### Microsoft 365 access in Teams

The Microsoft 365 route suits people who only need to view shared records. Microsoft lists these requirements:

- Business Central online (SaaS).
- The user accesses data through the Business Central app for Teams.
- The user is internal to the tenant. Guests and external identities are not supported.
- The user has a supported Microsoft 365 plan, such as Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, E5, F1 or F3, with the Microsoft Teams service plan enabled.
- The organization has at least one other user with a Business Central license.

Users with only this access can read table data but cannot edit, create or delete records.

### Device licenses

A Device license is not per person. When you buy several, up to that number of users in the Dynamics 365 Business Central Device Users group can sign in at once. Microsoft says the group name must be spelled exactly in English, and users in the group do not need a Business Central license. A device user cannot be the first to sign in; an Administrator, Full User or External Accountant must do that.

## Sorting your users into license groups

Use a simple worksheet. For each person, write down the tasks they do in Business Central in a typical month, then match:

1. **Only needs to see data**, such as a manager checking a customer card: Microsoft 365 access in Teams may be enough if they have a supported plan.
2. **Approves requests, edits their own time sheet, maintains existing records, manages quotes**: candidate for Team Member.
3. **Creates and posts documents or journals, or runs a process**: Essentials or Premium.
4. **Shared kiosk, scanner or counter used by shifts**: consider Device.

Edge cases are common. A salesperson who creates quotes fits Team Member, but one who also converts quotes to orders and posts shipments needs a full license. Decide by the most demanding task the person does regularly.

## Assigning the license

Business Central online users are created in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and licenses are assigned there or by your partner in Partner Center.

1. Create the user in the Microsoft 365 admin center and assign the Dynamics 365 Business Central Team Member license.
2. Before assigning licenses to many users, decide whether to customize the default permissions for the license (see below), because changes only affect new users.
3. In Business Central, search for Users and choose Update Users from Microsoft 365, or let the account be created when the user first signs in. Running the sync requires the SUPER permission set.
4. Business Central adds the user to user groups according to their plan and updates the permission sets.

### Default permission sets

Microsoft states that the Team Member license has these default permission sets: D365 READ, D365 TEAM MEMBER, EDIT IN EXCEL - VIEW, EXPORT REPORT EXCEL and LOCAL. Other permission sets are added according to user groups assigned to the license.

To change the defaults, sign in as an administrator, search for License Configuration, choose the license, choose Configure and switch on Customize permissions. Microsoft's example is removing the Excel Export Action user group so new Team Member users cannot export to Excel. Customization only affects users you assign after the change, so do it before you start assigning licenses.

## Verification

For each license type you plan to buy, create one test user and check what they can do.

1. In Business Central, search for Users and open the user.
2. Open Effective Permissions from the User page. Microsoft names this page as the place to verify how entitlements, licenses and user groups work together.
3. Sign in as the test user and attempt the real tasks: approve a request, edit an existing customer, create a quote, try to create and post a sales order.

If a task is blocked, you have confirmed the user needs a different license. Run the same test again after any extension or customization is installed.

## Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Likely cause and fix |
| --- | --- |
| User with SUPER permissions still cannot open a page | Entitlements override permissions. The page is outside the Team Member entitlements, so the user needs a license that includes it. |
| New user cannot sign in right after you license them | Microsoft notes a new user who signs in before you add them might hit a problem, but they are not blocked. They can choose Go back home or sign in again. Run Update Users from Microsoft 365 after adding users. |
| Permission changes for the license did not reach existing users | Customized license permissions apply to new users only. Edit existing users directly, or use Restore User Default User Groups on the Users page, which removes manually assigned user groups and permissions for that user. |
| Trial never ends after you buy licenses | The first user to sign in after the license is applied must have a Business Central license assigned. If an administrator signs in first, the trial continues until it expires. |
| Premium Experience is on but Essentials users cannot sign in | Users with an Essentials license cannot sign in to a company whose Experience field is set to Premium. |

## Summary checklist

- Confirm you are buying the Business Central Team Member license, not the Dynamics 365 Team Members license.
- List each person's regular tasks and compare with the rights: read, update existing records, approve, quotes, personal information, time sheets.
- Use Microsoft 365 access in Teams only for read-only viewers on a supported plan.
- Assign Essentials or Premium to anyone who posts documents or runs a process.
- Count custom tables against the 15-table limit.
- Customize license permissions before assigning users, then verify with Effective Permissions.

For a view of how Business Central connects to the Microsoft 365 apps people already use, see [Business Central and Microsoft 365 integration](https://www.epifive.com/blog/business-central-microsoft-365-integration).

## References

- Microsoft Licensing, Dynamics 365 Business Central: https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/guidance/Dynamics-365-Business-Central
- Licensing in Business Central: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/deployment/licensing
- Create users according to licenses: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/ui-how-users-permissions
- Business Central access with Microsoft 365 licenses: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/admin-access-with-m365-license

## Frequently asked questions

### What can a Business Central Team Member user do?

Per Microsoft's licensing guidance, a Team Member can read data, update existing records such as customers, vendors and items, approve or reject workflow tasks assigned to them, create, edit and delete sales and purchase quotes, edit personal information, and edit job time sheets for approval.

### Can a Team Member user create sales orders or post invoices?

Microsoft's list of Team Member rights covers updating existing records and managing quotes, not creating new transactional documents such as orders or posting entries. Entitlements override permissions, so even with the SUPER permission set a Team Member can only reach the objects in the Team Member entitlements. Use Effective Permissions to check a specific task.

### Can I assign Team Member licenses without an Essentials or Premium license?

Microsoft's Learn pages do not state this rule, and the licensing guidance page does not list it as a prerequisite. The Microsoft 365 access feature does require at least one other user with a Business Central license. Ask your Microsoft partner to confirm the purchasing rules for your agreement.

### Is a Team Member license the same as Microsoft 365 access?

No. Microsoft 365 licenses give read-only access to Business Central data in Microsoft Teams, with no web client, mobile or API access. Team Member is a Business Central license with limited write access and works across the Business Central clients.