ERP New Implementation

Your ERP partner is still here after go-live.

Most ERP partners are project shops. They win the deal, build the system, hand you the keys, and move on. The support desk is a separate team you have never met. Braintree runs your Business Central as a managed service from day 31, under one agreement with your Microsoft 365 and Azure.

Managed Business Central from day 31

Your full Business Central environment. One partner. One outcome.

Business Central Implementation

Scoping, design, data migration, training, go-live and the first month of hypercare. Your first ERP delivered by one Braintree team, to a Forrester-validated business case.

Financials and Reporting

General ledger, AP, AR, fixed assets, budgeting and multi-entity consolidation. The full finance function in one place.

Operations and Supply Chain

Inventory, sales and purchase orders, warehousing and service management. Designed around how your business actually runs.

Integrations

Microsoft 365, Power BI, and South African banking, Payfast and Yoco feeds. Connected without custom code.

Managed Business Central

Monthly health checks, release management, feature adoption and a support SLA. From day 31, Braintree keeps it healthy.

Five days. One cut-over. Measured and managed.

This is the final week, when Braintree runs the go-live. No overtime heroics. No cliff-edge risk. A disciplined transition from your old way of working to Business Central, with hypercare starting the Monday of week two.

Monday

Final extract

Legacy frozen at 07:00

Your old way of working stops taking entries. The final data extract begins.

Master data locked

Chart of accounts, customers, suppliers and transactional history locked for migration.

Tuesday

Migration run

Migration to production

Data migration executed against the production Business Central tenant.

Ledger parity checks

Every ledger total reconciled. The reconciliation report is signed off by your finance team.

Wednesday

UAT sign-off

Scripted end-to-end tests

Finance and operations leads run real transactions, not synthetic data.

Defects cleared same day

Anything found is triaged and resolved before Thursday. No carry-over.

Thursday

Go or no-go

Leadership sign-off

The risk register is reviewed. The rollback plan is confirmed. The decision is recorded.

The business is briefed

Communications go out by 16:00 so every team knows what changes on Friday.

Friday

Live

Business Central live at 07:00

First transactions posted on the new system. The cut-over is complete.

Hypercare on standby

A Braintree lead is on call. Your first month-end close is co-piloted, not handed off.

Week two and beyond

Hypercare, then Managed Business Central

Week two runs as hypercare with a Braintree lead on call, and your first month-end close co-piloted with your finance team. From day 31, Managed Business Central takes over: monthly health checks, release management, feature adoption and a support SLA. One agreement with your Microsoft 365 and Azure.

How we deliver. Scope, Build, Go-live, Support.

Every Business Central implementation runs the same four steps. Three of them get you live. The fourth, Support, is the one most partners skip.

Scope

Sign-off gate A 5-day scoping sprint. Business case, module list, integrations, timeline and cost envelope. Walked through your leadership on day five.

Build

Configuration over customisation. Process design, chart of accounts, role-based security, data migration and a full dress rehearsal.

Go-live

Cut-over over a weekend. Hypercare for the first month. Your first month-end close co-piloted with your finance team.

Support

Managed Business Central from day 31. Monthly health checks, release management, feature adoption. One agreement.

Most ERP partners disband the team at go-live. Braintree’s relationship starts there.

Price the project. Or own the outcome.

The cheap quote wins the RFP. Then scope creep starts, customisation piles up, and ownership disappears after go-live. Braintree runs a different model: a Forrester-grade business case up front, scoping discipline in delivery, and Managed Business Central from day 31.

The project-shop ERP partner

Wins on price. Loses on outcome.

Wins the RFP on price. The cheap number sets the expectation for everything that follows.
Underestimates scoping. Discovery done in days, not weeks. The gaps show up in build.
Customisation creep. Every missed requirement becomes a change request that adds cost and risk.
You own the mess after go-live. The implementation team moves on. Support tickets bounce.
No ongoing management plan. Release upgrades pile up. Feature adoption plateaus.

Braintree clients on the One Intelligent Agreement

Braintree Business Central

Forrester-validated ROI used as the business case. 200%+ over three years, a six-month payback.
Scoping discipline. A 5-day scope sprint before any build. No surprises after kick-off.
Configuration over customisation. Business Central out of the box does most of what an SMB needs.
Hypercare in month one. Your first month-end close runs co-piloted with a Braintree lead.
Managed Business Central under one agreement from day 31. Health checks, release management, support SLA.

See what a Business Central project actually looks like

One Microsoft Partner. One Intelligent Agreement. One Unified, Secure Solution.

An ERP bought on its own is a separate vendor, a separate contract and a separate support desk that has never met your Microsoft 365 or Azure team. Braintree puts Business Central under the One Intelligent Agreement: the same contract, the same team, one accountability for the whole Microsoft estate.

An ERP bought on its own.

Before. A standalone ERP.

A separate ERP vendor and a separate contract
A support desk that has never seen your Microsoft 365 or Azure
Renewal cycles that never line up
No single accountability when finance and IT disagree
Microsoft 365 integration quoted as extra scope

Business Central, Microsoft 365 and Azure on one agreement.

After. One Intelligent Agreement.

One Microsoft Customer Agreement across Business Central, Microsoft 365 and Azure
One Braintree team accountable for the whole Microsoft estate
One quarterly review across ERP, workplace and cloud
One SLA, one roadmap, one renewal conversation
Native Microsoft 365 and Power BI integration, in scope from day one

200%+

ROI over three years Forrester Total Economic Impact study on Microsoft
Dynamics 365 Business Central, commissioned by
Microsoft, March 2026. The study modelled finance team
efficiency, operations productivity and reporting time
savings over three years.

6 MONTHS

Payback period on Business Central The Forrester TEI composite organisation reached payback inside six months. An independent study, not a vendor brochure. The business case you take to a board before a project starts.

1 OF 3

Microsoft Managed Partners in South Africa The highest Microsoft partner tier in South Africa. The study proves the product. The credential proves the partner building a system you will run for a decade.

What a real ERP gives you. Function by function.

Business function

What Business Central gives you

The day-one outcome

Finance and the close

One general ledger, AP, AR, fixed assets and multi-entity consolidation.

Month-end close in days, not weeks

Operations

Inventory, sales and purchase orders, warehousing and service management in one record.

No re-keying between systems

Reporting

Power BI on live Business Central data. Board packs, budgets and forecasts.

Numbers the board can trust

Cash and SA banking

FNB, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Absa statement feeds. Payfast and Yoco built in.

Reconciliation that runs itself

Compliance

SARS e-Filing ready for VAT201 and EMP201. POPIA data residency by default.

Audit-ready from day one

WedgeOngoing ownership

Managed Business Central from day 31. Health checks, release management, feature adoption.

A partner that stays

Six functions. One Business Central environment. This is what your first real ERP puts in place.

From first call to a scoped Business Central plan, in five days.

Share your business

Tell us your headcount, what runs your finance and operations today, your integrations and your top operational pressure. Five to ten minutes on your side.

5-day scoped response (SLA)

Braintree returns a written readiness assessment, the Business Central module shortlist and a scoping outline. Inside five business days.

30-minute findings call

A Business Central specialist walks you through the scope, the timeline and the cost envelope. You decide the next step. No sales deck.

Book the 30-minute scoping call

What CFOs ask before they book.

Eight questions we answer in every scoping call. Pre-empted here so you can scan first.

What is the difference between Business Central and Finance and Operations?

Both are Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP products. Business Central is built for SMB and mid-market organisations, typically up to around 500 users, and ships with out-of-the-box financials, operations and reporting. Finance and Operations is built for large enterprise with multi-country tax, complex manufacturing and 1,000-plus user estates. This page covers new Business Central implementations.

How long does a typical Business Central implementation take?

A straightforward SMB implementation with core financials and light operations typically runs 12 to 16 weeks from kick-off to go-live. Mid-market with multi-entity, integrations and custom reporting runs 16 to 24 weeks. The 5-day Scope phase returns a firm timeline before any build starts.

What does a Business Central project actually cost?

Two components. Microsoft licensing is a per-user monthly subscription, on the Essentials or Premium tier. The Braintree implementation is a scoped fixed fee that covers Scope, Build, Go-live and the first month of hypercare. Managed Business Central from day 31 is a separate monthly fee. The Scope output includes a full 5-year cost model.

How does Business Central integrate with SA banking and payment providers?

Bank statement feeds from FNB, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Absa connect into Business Central, so AR and AP reconciliation is automated. Payfast and Yoco integrate through supported connectors. EFT payment file generation supports the South African bank formats your AP team already uses.

Can Business Central handle multi-entity and multi-currency operations?

Yes. Business Central supports multiple legal entities under one tenant, with intercompany postings, eliminations and consolidated reporting. Multi-currency is native, with configurable exchange-rate updates. Common South African cases include a holding company with operating subsidiaries, or an SA parent with a cross-border African entity.

What happens after go-live? Do you walk away?

No. The first month is hypercare, with a Braintree lead on call and your first month-end close co-piloted. From day 31, Managed Business Central takes over: monthly health checks, feature adoption, user access reviews, release management and a support SLA. One agreement with your Microsoft 365 and Azure.

Can we move straight from spreadsheets to Business Central?

Yes. Most first-time ERP clients come from a spreadsheets-plus-small-accounting-package setup. Business Central is designed for exactly that move. The one prerequisite is a clean chart of accounts and documented processes. If those are messy, the Scope phase includes a short clean-up before build begins. You do not need an intermediate system.

How does Business Central fit alongside our Microsoft 365 and Azure?

Business Central shares identity with Microsoft 365 through Entra, runs on Azure, and integrates natively with Excel, Outlook, Teams and Power BI. If Braintree already runs your Microsoft 365 or Azure, Business Central sits under the same agreement. One contract, one SLA, one team accountable for the full Microsoft estate.

Insights for CFOs choosing their first ERP.

Strategy

Your first ERP playbook. The five decisions that actually matter.

Feature comparisons are a trap. The five decisions that determine first-ERP success are simpler, harder to get right, and almost never in the RFP.

Dynamics

Business Central or Finance and Operations. Which Dynamics ERP fits?

Both sit under the Dynamics 365 banner. One fits SMB and mid-market. The other fits large enterprise. A practical decision framework, not a feature list.

ROI

What the Forrester TEI says about Business Central ROI.

200%+ ROI over three years. A six-month payback. How Forrester built the model, and what it means for a South African business making its first ERP decision.

Business Central sits inside a bigger Microsoft estate.

One Braintree agreement. One team. Full Microsoft coverage.

Modernise ERP. SMB

Already running Dynamics NAV, GP or another older ERP? This is the migration path to Business Central, not a new build.

Modern Workplace

Microsoft 365 deployed and managed. Business Central shares identity and integrates natively with Outlook, Teams, Excel and Power BI.

Azure Cloud

Business Central runs on Azure. Infrastructure and managed cloud under the same Braintree agreement.

Deployed once. Built to last.