EN Business Central environment transfer to other tenant

Business Central environment transfer is a process where an existing Business Central environment is associated with another Microsoft Entra tenant.

During the transfer, a new empty environment is not created and data is not imported into it manually. The existing Business Central environment is transferred together with all data stored in it. In practice, this means that the tenant ID of the existing environment is changed.

The transfer covers only the Business Central environment. Microsoft 365 organization elements — users, groups, domains, licenses, mailboxes, and other objects — are not transferred to the new tenant and must be configured separately.

Companies planning this type of transfer should review Microsoft’s instructions and requirements in advance:

Link:https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/tenant-admin-center-environments-move

It is recommended to plan and carry out the transfer together with the Softera team.

Brief description of the transfer process:

• Business Central licenses are ordered in the new tenant. Existing licenses cannot be transferred, so it is important to evaluate their validity.

• The Global Administrator of the existing tenant initiates the environment transfer, and the Global Administrator of the new tenant approves it.

• After the environment is transferred, users are granted permissions and access again.

• Integrations with other systems are reconfigured.

More about Business Central migration

1. What remains after the transfer?

After the Business Central environment transfer, the data stored in the Business Central environment remains.

Typically, the following remain:

• companies;

• accounting data;

• customers, vendors, items, and other master data cards;

• sales and purchase documents;

• posted entries;

• financial history;

• Business Central settings;

• extensions / applications installed in the environment and their data;

• environment type, for example Production or Sandbox;

• localization and region.

Simply put, all Business Central business data should remain the same after the transfer.

2. What is not transferred during BC migration between Entra tenants?

Although Business Central data remains, additional actions may be required after the transfer for users, permissions, personalizations, integrations, and related services.

2.1. Users

Users from the old Microsoft Entra tenant are not automatically transferred to the new tenant.

After the transfer, the users who will use Business Central must be prepared in the new tenant. Appropriate licenses and permissions must be assigned to them. In the new environment, they must be imported on the Users page by using the “Update users from M365” function.

This means that before the transfer, it is important to have an up-to-date user list and to create the users in advance.

At least one license in the new tenant is sufficient to perform the migration itself.

2.2. Permissions

After the transfer, user permissions in Business Central must be reassigned or reviewed.

Make sure that each user:

• can sign in to Business Central;

• can see the required companies;

• has the required roles and permission sets.

If access to Business Central was managed using Microsoft Entra security groups, new or appropriately prepared security groups must be created in the new tenant.

2.3. Personalizations

User personalizations are lost after the transfer. This means that users will lose their individually customized Business Central view, for example:

• modified field layout;

• hidden or additionally promoted fields;

• personal filters;

• individual list settings;

• other personal page changes.

After the transfer, users must set up their workspaces again according to their needs.

2.4. Integrations

If Business Central is connected to other external systems, these integrations must be reconfigured after the transfer by the party responsible for the integration. Integrations may require updating the Business Central environment address, Microsoft Entra tenant ID, creating new App Registrations, updating credentials, permissions, and other settings.

2.5. Outlook, Excel, Power BI, and other related services

After the transfer, if they were used, services related to Business Central must be reconfigured, for example:

• Business Central Outlook add-in;

• Business Central Excel add-in;

• Power BI reports;

• Power Automate;

• Power Apps applications;

• Dataverse connections;

• etc.

2.6. Other data that is not transferred

The following are not automatically transferred together with the Business Central environment:

• users from the old tenant;

• Microsoft Entra security groups;

• Microsoft 365 domains;

• mailboxes;

• Microsoft 365 subscriptions;

• external system settings;

• user personalizations.

3. Are Business Central modifications transferred?

Additional functionalities developed in the Business Central environment should remain together with the environment. However, after the transfer it is necessary to verify that they work correctly in the new tenant. It is especially important to check solutions that connect to external systems. These solutions will require configuration updates.

4. How long does the transfer take?

The actual technical process of migrating a Business Central environment is usually quite quick (typically up to 1 hour). However, the exact duration depends on the size of the environment and Microsoft’s processes. During the migration, the environment will not be accessible to users, as it is deleted from the old tenant. If you want to retain a copy of the environment in the old tenant as well, it should be created before the migration.

Although the technical Business Central environment transfer time is not long, the overall migration window may take longer depending on preparation, the number of users, the number of integrations, and the scope of testing.

It is recommended to plan not only the transfer time itself, but also additional time after the transfer for:

• checking user sign-in;

• checking permissions;

• testing integrations;

• checking the main Business Central processes;

• testing third-party systems.

5. What needs to be prepared before the transfer?

5.1. User list

A list of users who will use Business Central after the transfer must be prepared.

It is recommended to specify:

5.2. Integration list

A list of all systems connected to Business Central must be prepared.

For example:

If integrations are maintained by third parties, they must be informed in advance that a migration between tenants will be performed and that credentials in the integrations will need to be updated.

5.3. Additional services in use

It is recommended to assess whether the following services are used:

6. What needs to be provided to third parties?

If third parties connect to Business Central or receive / send data to Business Central, they must be informed about the planned transfer.

The following information should be provided to third parties:

• planned migration date and time;

• new Microsoft Entra tenant ID;

• new Business Central environment address, if it changes;

• information on when integrations can be tested;

• contact person during the migration;

• new OAuth credentials.

Third parties should confirm that the integrations they maintain work correctly after the transfer.

Business Central environment migration between tenants:

Before the migration, prepare:

1. Old tenant ID - where the Business Central environment is currently located.

2. New tenant ID - to which the Business Central environment will be transferred.

3. Administrator access in both tenants

   • in the old tenant – to initiate the transfer;

   • in the new tenant – to accept the transfer.

4. Business Central licenses
   The new tenant must have at least one paid Business Central user license.

5. Sufficient environment and capacity quota in the new tenant
   The new tenant must have sufficient capacity to receive the transferred Business Central environment.

6. Migration time
   Choose a time when Business Central can be temporarily unavailable.

7. User list
   After the transfer, users will need to be prepared in the new tenant and permissions assigned to them.

8. Integration list
   If Business Central is connected to other systems, they will need to be checked after the transfer.

Step 1. Sign in to the old tenant’s Business Central Admin Center

Sign in to the Business Central Admin Center using the administrator account of the old tenant.

Address:

https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/[SENOJO_TENANTO_ID]/admin

Replace [OLD_TENANT_ID] with the old tenant ID.

Step 2. Open the environment transfer window and create a transfer request

In the Business Central Admin Center window:

1. Select Environments.

2. Select Environment Transfers.

3. Click Transfer Environments.

4. Select the environment you want to transfer.

5. Enter the new Microsoft Entra tenant ID.

6. Select the transfer date and time.

7. Check that all data is correct.

8. Confirm the transfer request.

Important: the transfer time can be scheduled no more than 2 weeks in advance.

Step 3. Sign in to the new tenant’s Business Central Admin Center

Sign in to the Business Central Admin Center using the administrator account of the new tenant.

Address:

https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/[NAUJOJO_TENANTO_ID]/admin

Replace [NEW_TENANT_ID] with the new tenant ID.

Step 4. Accept the transfer request

In the new tenant’s Business Central Admin Center window:

1. Select Environments.

2. Select Environment Transfers.

3. Click Receive Environments.

4. Enter the old Microsoft Entra tenant ID.

5. Select the environment you want to receive.

6. If the system asks, specify a new environment name.

7. Confirm acceptance.

Important: the transfer request must be accepted in the new tenant within 8 hours after it is created in the old tenant.

Step 5. Wait until the transfer is completed

If a future time was selected for the transfer, it will start at the specified time.

If the selected time has already passed, the transfer will start immediately after it is accepted in the new tenant.

During the transfer:

• users will be disconnected from Business Central;

• the environment will be unavailable;

• after the transfer, the environment will be visible ONLY in the new tenant.

Step 6. Check whether the environment appears in the new tenant

In the new tenant’s Business Central Admin Center window, check:

1. Whether the environment is visible in the list.

2. Whether the environment name is correct.

3. Whether the environment type is correct, for example Production or Sandbox.

4. Whether the transfer operation was completed successfully.

Step 7. Prepare users

After the transfer:

1. Make sure that users are created in the new Microsoft Entra tenant.

2. Assign Business Central licenses to them.

3. Open the transferred Business Central environment.

4. Import / update users in Business Central from the Users list by using the “Update users from M365” function.

5. Assign the required permissions to users.

6. Check whether users can sign in.

Important: users from the old tenant are not transferred automatically.

Step 8. Check integrations

If Business Central was connected to other systems, check whether the integrations are working.

The following may need to be updated in the integrations:

• Business Central environment address;

• Microsoft Entra tenant ID;

• API sign-in settings;

• OAuth / App Registration settings;

• Client ID or Client Secret;

• third-party system settings.