TL;DR
Dynamics 365 is Microsoft's suite of cloud business applications. It covers CRM (sales, customer service, field service, contact centre and marketing) and ERP (finance, supply chain, projects, commerce and HR), plus Business Central, an all-in-one ERP for small and midsize businesses. You license it per app, per user, per month. In Australia, list prices run from A$119.70 for Business Central Essentials to A$314.30 for Finance (ex GST). Copilot is included, but Microsoft's AI agents run on Copilot Credits, which only the Premium plans include.
Most organisations meet Dynamics 365 in one of two ways. A growing business outgrows Xero or MYOB and looks at Business Central. Or a larger organisation wants one platform for finance, operations and customer data instead of a patchwork of systems. Either way, the first questions are the same: which apps do we need, what will it cost, and how does it connect to everything else we run?
This guide answers those questions with Microsoft's current list prices and licensing rules as of October 2026. Prices change, so check Microsoft's Australian pricing pages before you budget.
What is Dynamics 365?
Dynamics 365 is a set of separately licensed apps that share Microsoft's cloud, security and data platform. They fall into three groups:
- Customer engagement (CRM) apps: Sales, Customer Service, Contact Center, Field Service and Customer Insights (marketing and customer data). These run on Dataverse, the same data platform as Power Apps and Power Automate.
- Finance and operations (ERP) apps: Finance, Supply Chain Management, Project Operations, Commerce and Human Resources, for medium-sized organisations and enterprises.
- Business Central: a single ERP app for small and midsize businesses, covering finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, projects and basic manufacturing. Microsoft says it is used by 55,000 companies.
Because the apps share a platform, a customer record in Sales can be the same record your finance team invoices from, and Copilot can work across both. That shared data is the main reason to choose more than one Dynamics app.
The apps and what they cost in Australia
Microsoft publishes Australian list prices. All prices below are per user per month, paid annually, excluding GST, from Microsoft's Australian pricing pages in October 2026.
| App | What it does | From (AUD) |
|---|---|---|
| Business Central | All-in-one ERP for small and midsize businesses | A$119.70 Essentials, A$164.60 Premium |
| Finance | Multi-entity financials, budgeting, compliance | A$314.30 (Premium A$449.00) |
| Supply Chain Management | Inventory, warehousing, manufacturing, planning | A$314.30 (Premium A$449.00) |
| Project Operations | Project-based services: quoting, resourcing, time and billing | A$202.00 |
| Sales | Pipeline, forecasting, account management | A$97.30 Professional, A$157.10 Enterprise, A$224.50 Premium |
| Customer Service | Case management, knowledge base, service portals | A$74.80 Professional, A$157.10 Enterprise, A$291.80 Premium |
| Contact Center | Voice and digital contact centre | A$164.60 |
| Field Service | Scheduling and mobile work for technicians | A$157.10 (Contractor A$74.80) |
| Customer Insights | Customer data platform and marketing journeys | A$2,544.10 per tenant (100,000 unified profiles) |
Two other apps are worth knowing about: Commerce, for retail and e-commerce operations, and Human Resources. In 2025 and 2026 Microsoft also retired several smaller apps. Dynamics 365 Guides and Remote Assist stopped selling in November 2025 and won't be available after 31 December 2026. If an older proposal lists them, ask what replaces them.
Business Central or Finance and Supply Chain?
This is the decision that shapes cost, timeline and partner choice more than any other.
Business Central suits single-country or simple multi-entity businesses. It has no minimum user count. It covers finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, projects and light manufacturing in one app. Business Central still gets two major updates a year, in April and October.
Finance and Supply Chain Management suit organisations with many legal entities, multiple currencies and tax regimes, complex manufacturing or warehousing, or high transaction volumes. Microsoft's product terms require a minimum of 20 seats each for Finance, Supply Chain Management, Commerce and Project Operations, or 10 for the Premium plans. The licence cost alone is more than double Business Central's per user.
A practical test: if your finance team consolidates more than a handful of entities, runs intercompany trading across countries, or plans production with real constraints, start the conversation with Finance and Supply Chain. If not, Business Central is usually the better value, and it can be extended later.
How licensing works
- Base and attach: each user's first licence must be the highest-priced app they need (the base licence). Further apps are added at a lower attach price. Business Central Premium users can add Sales Enterprise, Customer Service Enterprise or Field Service at the attach price too.
- Team Members and light users: people who mainly read data and approve things can use cheaper licences. Business Central Team Members is A$12.00 per user per month.
- Premium plans: Sales, Customer Service, Finance and Supply Chain Management each have a Premium tier. Premium adds capacity, advanced features and, since November 2025, 1,000 Copilot Credits per user per month for agents.
- Price changes: Microsoft raised Business Central prices on 1 November 2025, the first increase in more than five years. It applies to existing subscriptions at their first renewal.
Copilot and AI agents
Copilot, the AI assistant inside each app, is included in the licence at no extra cost. Agents are different. These are AI workers that carry out multi-step tasks, such as qualifying leads, reconciling accounts or raising purchase orders. Microsoft's licensing says every Dynamics 365 agent consumes Copilot Credits:
- Premium plans include 1,000 credits per user per month, pooled across the tenant.
- Everyone else buys credits: packs of 25,000 credits for US$200 a month, pay-as-you-go through Azure, or a pre-purchase plan that saves up to 20%.
Agents generally available in October 2026 include:
- Sales: Sales Qualification, Sales Opportunity and Sales Research agents.
- Customer Service and Contact Center: Case Management, Customer Intent, Knowledge Management and Quality Evaluation agents.
- Business Central: Sales Order and Payables agents.
Others are in paid preview, including the Account Reconciliation agent in Finance and the Procurement agent in Supply Chain Management, which replaced the earlier Supplier Communications agent.
Two things to plan for. First, budget for credits from day one if you want agents, because Standard plans include none. Second, decide who can build and publish agents, and on what data. Microsoft 365 Copilot users can build internal agents. Agents for external users, or ones built in Copilot Studio, need their own capacity and governance.
The platform underneath, and how it connects
Dynamics 365 is rarely the only system in the picture. Most of our clients run it alongside Salesforce, an e-commerce platform, a payroll system or industry software, so integration is where projects succeed or stall. The main options are:
- Dataverse Web API: a standard OData v4 interface for the CRM apps and Power Platform.
- Finance and operations integration: OData for real-time reads and writes, and the batch data API for high volumes. Use batch for anything above a few hundred thousand records.
- Dual-write and virtual tables: near-real-time sharing of customers, products and other common records between the ERP apps and Dataverse. Power Platform integration has been mandatory for these environments since May 2025.
- Power Automate and business events: workflows triggered when something happens in the ERP, such as an invoice posting or a stock level changing.
- MCP servers for AI agents: the Dynamics 365 ERP MCP server lets agents built in Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry or third-party tools read data and run actions in Finance and Supply Chain, under the user's permissions.
Can the data stay in Australia?
Mostly, yes. The CRM apps run in Microsoft's Australia East (New South Wales) and Australia Southeast (Victoria) regions for Australian tenants. Finance and Supply Chain production environments run in Australia East. Business Central environments with the Australian localisation are deployed to the Australian geography.
There are exceptions. Lifecycle Services stores some data in the United States, and Customer Voice survey data sits in North America or Europe. For Copilot, Microsoft says Australian environments are processed in region or in the United States, and administrators control whether data can move across regions. If you're regulated by APRA or handle sensitive personal information, review those settings before switching on AI features.
How updates work now
For years Microsoft shipped Dynamics 365 features in two "release waves" a year. On 25 August 2026 it retired that model in favour of continuous publishing on a single roadmap. Business Central keeps its April and October major updates. For everything else, plan for a steady flow of changes, and keep a test environment and regression tests ready rather than preparing for two big events a year.
Where Dynamics 365 sits in the market
Microsoft was named a Leader in Gartner's 2026 Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP Finance. In 2025 it was a Leader in the Cloud ERP Magic Quadrants for both service-centric and product-centric enterprises. Its Dynamics 365 revenue grew 13% in the quarter to June 2026. The main alternatives for Australian mid-market buyers are Oracle NetSuite, SAP's cloud ERP and MYOB Acumatica on the ERP side, and Salesforce on the CRM side. Many organisations run Dynamics 365 for ERP and Salesforce for CRM, which works well when the two are properly integrated.
How Great Minds helps
We implement and connect Dynamics 365 alongside the other platforms you run, and use AI agents for the repetitive work: data migration, enrichment and validation. Our architects sign off every milestone. For a 1,000-person manufacturer, replacing a decade-old ERP with Dynamics cut manual processing by 60% and month-end close by 30%.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dynamics 365 an ERP or a CRM?
Both. It is a family of apps: Sales, Customer Service, Field Service and Customer Insights are CRM; Finance, Supply Chain Management, Project Operations and Business Central are ERP. You buy only the apps you need.
How much does Dynamics 365 cost in Australia?
List prices run from A$119.70 per user per month for Business Central Essentials to A$314.30 for Finance or Supply Chain Management, excluding GST and paid annually. Implementation, integration and support are on top, so budget for them separately.
Is Copilot included?
Copilot inside the apps is included. Agents need Copilot Credits, which come only with the Premium plans (1,000 per user per month) or are bought separately.
Can our data be stored in Australia?
Yes for the core apps, which run in Microsoft's Australian regions. A few supporting services and some AI processing can run elsewhere unless your administrator restricts it.
How long does an implementation take?
It depends far more on scope than on the software. A single-entity Business Central rollout is usually measured in months. Multi-entity Finance and Supply Chain programmes take longer, and data migration and integrations are usually what decide the timeline.
Where to start
List the processes you want to run on Dynamics 365, the systems they have to connect to, and how many entities and users you have. That's enough to decide between Business Central and Finance, size the licences, and see where integration effort will go. If you'd like a second opinion, we're happy to look at it with you.