Bramvia — Business Central Experts
How to choose a Business Central partner in the US: 9 questions that expose a bad one before you sign
Every Business Central partner says the same three things. These nine questions separate the ones who will deliver from the ones who will over-license you, migrate ten years of history and bill hours without deliverables — learned from rescuing a US company that paid for Premium it never needed.
Short answer: the Business Central partner you choose matters more than Business Central itself — the same product, well and badly implemented, produces opposite results. In the US the market runs from national consulting firms to two-person shops, and every one of them says "certified, experienced, customer-focused." What separates them shows up in nine questions: how they count licenses, what they migrate, how they scope, when you pay, whether the people who sell are the people who build, and what happens after go-live. We learned the list the expensive way — by taking over a US distribution company that a large firm had licensed entirely on Premium when Essentials was enough, at a project cost far above the scope. Ask these before you sign anything.
The 9 questions
1. "Show me the license count, role by role." A partner who quotes 30 full users for a 30-person company hasn't looked. Managers who approve, warehouse staff on a shared device, salespeople checking stock — those are $8 Team Members, not $80 full users. And Essentials vs Premium is a $30-per-user-per-month decision that only manufacturing or field service justifies. The role list is the single most valuable document in the sales process, and most partners never produce it.
2. "What exactly is not included?" Training, data cleanup, integrations "to be determined", post-go-live support, tax engine setup. What's missing from the proposal appears later as a change order. A good partner lists exclusions unprompted.
3. "How much history do you migrate — and why?" The right answer: masters, open documents, opening balances; history archived read-only. "Everything" doubles the data line and helps nobody.
4. "Which of our customizations already exist in the standard?" If you're coming from NAV or another ERP, a third to half of your custom code is obsolete. A partner who quotes "rewrite all customizations" is quoting work you don't need — or hasn't done the inventory. Ask for the object list marked standard / app / extension.
5. "When do I pay, and against what?" 30-50% upfront puts the entire project risk on you. Milestones tied to written acceptance criteria put it where it belongs. Our own terms: each part invoiced only after you accept it, no upfront payment.
6. "Will the people in this meeting be the people on the project?" The senior architect in the pitch and the junior consultant on the project is the oldest trick in ERP. Ask for names, and ask whether they've done a project like yours.
7. "Can we start with a small paid test?" The best question a US client ever asked us. A defined piece of work — a report, an integration, an assessment — that shows how the partner scopes, communicates and delivers, before you commit to a project. A partner who refuses is telling you something.
8. "Do you modify the standard, or extend it?" In Business Central, customizations must be extensions that hook into the standard through events. Modifications to the base code break at every update — and there are two a year. Ask how they handle updates for existing clients.
9. "What happens in the first 90 days after go-live?" Included support, response times, who you call. The first month-end close is where projects are won or lost; if it isn't in the proposal, it isn't covered.
The case behind the list
A distribution company in Virginia, previously on SAP, had Business Central implemented by a large US consulting firm. Every user was on Premium; the company doesn't manufacture. The project cost was far above the scope. They came to us with question 7 — a paid test first — then engaged us part by part. Two years later we still work together. The license fix alone was worth more than any consulting discount. Named reference available under NDA.
Red flags in the first meeting
- The proposal arrives before anyone has asked about your processes.
- "Premium has everything" without asking what you make.
- A block of hours with no deliverables.
- Nobody can say which version of Business Central you'll be on or how updates work.
- The reference customers are all in a different industry — or there are none.
What a good partner looks like, in the US or from abroad
Written acceptance criteria. Payment on acceptance. A role-by-role license list. An object inventory before a quote. Real data in testing. Names, not titles. And — increasingly — AI in the implementation itself: a partner that reads your legacy code, cleans your data and generates tests with AI delivers the same scope in 35-40% fewer hours, which is why some European teams now quote below US firms working by hand.
Location matters less than it used to: our US work runs from Europe — English, written communication, overnight delivery, and a two-year client who can tell you how it works.
FAQ
Should we choose a Microsoft Solutions Partner designation over a smaller firm? Designations measure volume, not whether your project will work. What you can check for any partner: the individual Microsoft certifications of the people on your project — MB-800 (Business Central Functional Consultant) and MB-820 (Business Central Developer) are the two that matter. Ours are listed on our site. Ask the nine questions either way.
Does this apply in Canada? Yes — the nine questions are the same, and so are the traps. The only difference is the localization: GST/HST/PST and bilingual documents come from Microsoft's Canadian localization, not from a partner add-on.
Local or remote? For functional workshops and training, local presence helps. For migration, development and integrations — most of the hours — remote works, and often better in writing.
We already have a proposal. Can someone check it? Yes — line by line, within 48 hours, including "this one is good, sign it."
What does a Business Central implementation cost in the US? Real ranges here; NAV migration specifically here.
Comparing partners? Free assessment, no commitment — and yes, we'll happily do the small paid test first.