The Most Expensive Business Central Customization Is the One You Never Needed

Why your consultant asking “Why?” might save you tens of thousands of dollars

I attended a presentation by Rod O'Connor at a local User Group recently and it was called "Just because you have a cool hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail". It was a clever title but also got me thinking about AI vs Customs Vs PowerApps and how no one is asking "Why" enough to ensure we are offering the right solution and not just the "easy solution" or the "shiny new" solution...are we asking the questions to make sure the solution really fits or just trying to make the same process fit new technology or the same custom never die even though it isn't the right answer anymore. I think Rod did a rockin job on that but it got me thinking on just customs themselves. So welcome to my latest brain dump.

If you’ve spent any time around ERP projects, you’ve probably heard someone say “That’s how we’ve always done it.” It’s usually followed by “Can we customize Business Central to work exactly like our old system?” Smh....

As a consultant, those two sentences make me instinctively reach for another coffee or something stronger in a previous life.

Let me be clear all customization is bad. Sometimes it can drive me nuts when someone makes some crazy workaround just to avoid a small custom. That is equally wild to me. There are absolutely situations where custom development creates competitive advantage.

The problem is that far too many customizations are built to preserve yesterday’s processes instead of improving tomorrow’s business. Those, my friends, are why I say "often the most expensive decisions an organization makes." See this clever title, yeah?

Every customization has a price tag… even the free ones

When companies estimate the cost of customization, they usually think about the development hours which to be is only the beginning. I would ask them to embrace the "and" as they say! So yes there is a cost to development and testing and User training and Documentation and Future enhancements and Regression testing every major update and Upgrade conflicts and Supporting new employees and the Technical debt that accumulates year after year. Sometimes the lesser expense now is actually quite costly in the long run.

I’ve seen organizations spend building functionality that Microsoft released six months later as standard. I’ve also seen customizations become so embedded that upgrading Business Central became an exercise in archaeology. Nobody remembers why it exists. Nobody wants to remove it. Everyone is afraid to touch it.

The consultant who pushes back might be your best investment

Let’s talk about something that surprises a lot of customers. The best consultants are rarely the ones who immediately say yes. I think this is what separates a trainer from a consultant and I say that all the time in our practice.

They’re the ones who respectfully ask questions like "Why do you do it that way?", "What problem are we actually trying to solve?", "Is this a compliance requirement or simply habit?", "What would happen if we simplified this process?", "Could standard Business Central already do what you need?"....Sometimes these conversations are uncomfortable.

Lawd bless the years of “this is how we’ve always done it.” and who challenge it. Good. You should ask if you are a consultant. ERP implementations shouldn’t just digitize inefficient processes. They should improve them.

A consultant who’s willing to challenge assumptions respectfully, collaboratively, and always with your business goals in mind is often protecting you from years of unnecessary complexity. If your consultant never challenges anything, I’d probably start asking a few questions.

(Respectfully, of course.) Did I say respectfully?

The best process improvement isn’t always glamorous

One of my favorite implementation moments is when a customer explains a twenty-step manual process they’ve been following for years.

Everyone nods.

Everyone assumes we’ll automate all twenty steps.

Instead, we ask:

“What if we only needed five?” Mic drop.

Sometimes the biggest improvement isn’t writing more code. It’s deleting fifteen unnecessary steps. That’s a much better return on investment.

Before you customize, ask these five questions

Whenever someone requests development, I encourage teams to stop and ask:

1. Does standard Business Central already do this?

It sounds obvious. It isn’t.

Business Central has evolved dramatically, and many organizations are still asking for customizations that solved problems ten versions ago.

2. Is there an app that already solves it?

This is one of the biggest changes in the Business Central ecosystem.

The ecosystem today is filled with outstanding ISV solutions that solve everything from warehouse management and shipping to manufacturing, quality, EDI, expense management, AP automation, document capture, planning, field service, reporting, and much more. The advantage isn’t just that the functionality already exists.

It’s that these companies wake up every day focused on solving that specific problem.

That’s hard to compete with. That said, not every app deserves a place in your solution.

Before installing anything, do your homework:

• Is it updated regularly alongside current Business Central releases?

• Does it have a strong rating and positive customer reviews?

• How long has the publisher been in the Business Central ecosystem?

• Is there active documentation, training, and responsive support?

• Does the publisher have a roadmap and ongoing investment?

An app isn’t just software it’s a long-term partnership. Choose accordingly.

3. Is this a competitive advantage?

If the customization creates something unique that differentiates your business, it may absolutely be worth building. If it’s simply recreating an old screen because users liked the colors…Maybe not.

4. Are we solving the root problem?

Many customization requests are actually training issues. Or reporting issues. Or process issues. Or change management issues. Writing code rarely fixes any of those. I think this can be one of the hardest ones because finding the root cause can be tough. A lot of things are the symtpom not the root. That is tricky I know!

5. Who owns this five years from now?

This question changes the conversation. Because someday your consultant may move on,

your internal champion may retire, your developer may no longer support it, Microsoft will release new functionality, your business will evolve. Will the customization still make sense?

Literally you name it. I have seen it.

The hidden cost nobody budgets for is because customizations don’t usually fail on day one.They become expensive in year three. "Why Jenn?" Do you ask? Well every upgrade requires testing, every new feature needs validation, every integration becomes a little more complicated, every new employee needs extra training because your system no longer behaves like everyone else’s Business Central. Eventually your ERP starts feeling less like Business Centra…and more like “Business Central-ish.” That’s not where you want to be. Don't be ish.

Custom when it matters. Standard when it doesn’ is the key. I’m not anti-customization. Some of the best Business Central implementations I’ve worked on include thoughtful custom development but those customizations solved real business problems not nostalgia.

The goal isn’t to have the most customized ERP. The goal is to have the most maintainable, upgradeable, scalable ERP possible. Sometimes the smartest line of code…

…is the one you never write.

If your consultant politely challenges your request, don’t assume they’re making your life harder. They are not. I promise. They may be protecting your budget, your future upgrades, and your sanity, maybe their own sanity :D The best implementation partners don’t just ask “What do you want us to build?” They ask “Should we build it at all?” Those are two very different conversations. And in my experience, the second one usually leads to the better Business Central implementation.