Business Central developer

What does a Business Central developer do?

A Business Central developer creates and maintains extensions using AL. You add behaviour, pages, reports, or connections to other services. You also help the team diagnose faults and prepare updates.

A customer might need to send delivery details to a carrier. You would agree the required data, build the connection, and handle failed requests. You would test how the change behaves with the rest of the application.

What the week can involve

• Review a requirement with a consultant or product owner.
• Build AL objects and use supported extension points.
• Write automated tests and review code changes.
• Investigate a problem in a test environment.
• Prepare a release and check that an update preserves expected behaviour.

Skills to learn

Study AL, source control, debugging, testing, and the Business Central data model. Learn how events and extensions work. You need to understand permissions and the business process behind the code.

NAV experience can help, but a move to modern extensions still needs study and practice. General software skills also transfer, including API design, error handling, and clear naming.

Ask how a team manages multiple customers, product versions, and updates. These practices affect how maintainable the work will be.

How to get started

Choose a small extension with a clear business purpose. Write down what it changes and how a user can check the result. Keep the scope small enough to test fully.

Microsoft's AL documentation is a starting point for product details. Check the required development tools and access before choosing a course. Use the current official certification pages for any exam plans.

A portfolio should include a setup guide, source code, tests, and known limits. Use fictional data and state which product version you used.

Partners, vendors, and clients

Partner work can involve customer-specific extensions and integrations. An ISV developer works on a product used by several customers, so compatibility and support become central parts of the job.

A client developer may focus on one company's business process and connected systems. Ask whether the role includes urgent support, releases, reports, or integration work.

In every setting, look for code review and a test process that gives you useful feedback.

Where the career can lead

You can become a senior developer, technical lead, product engineer, or technical architect. Some developers specialise in integrations, reporting, testing, or performance.

To progress, show how your work behaves after release. Explain a difficult fault, a test that caught a problem, and a design choice that made later changes easier.

Practice task

Build a small extension for a fictional equipment-hire business. Record an extra business detail and use it in a simple rule or report. Keep the exercise separate from real company data.

Prepare for an interview

Expect to explain your code, extension choices, and tests. A useful answer includes the business reason and how you checked for side effects.

Ask which versions and environments the team supports. Find out how it handles updates, customer-specific changes, and product releases.

Find a role that fits

Read the job duties and ask about the team, training, and first assignment.