AL extensions
New fields, tables and business logic packaged as an extension, installed alongside the standard application rather than editing it directly.
Microsoft and Dynamics 365
Hire a Dynamics 365 Business Central developer in Dubai
AL extensions, integrations and reporting on Business Central, Microsoft's ERP for smaller and growing UAE businesses.
- 4.7 Google rating
- 200+ clients
- In Dubai since 2018
45 minutesto a fixed written quote
A growing Dubai business often reaches for Dynamics 365 Business Central once spreadsheets and entry level accounting software stop coping with its finance, sales, purchasing and inventory together, and it is the point where most businesses first hire a Dynamics 365 Business Central developer. Business Central is Microsoft’s ERP aimed at smaller and mid sized businesses, distinct from the larger Finance and Operations platform, and it is built on its own language, AL, developed and packaged as extensions rather than direct edits to the base application.
A Business Central developer’s work is usually triggered by a genuine gap: a report a bank or auditor wants in a specific layout, an approval step the standard workflow does not offer, or a connection to an online store that needs orders to land automatically in the system. If your business instead runs the larger Finance and Operations platform, our Finance and Operations developer page is the right match, since the two ERPs do not share a codebase, and a Dynamics 365 Business Central developer in Dubai is not automatically productive on the other one.
What a Business Central developer builds
Typical AL work on Dynamics 365 Business Central
Six examples of the kind of brief that actually lands on a Business Central developer’s desk.
Reports
Custom AL reports and layouts for statements, purchase orders or management packs that the standard reports do not produce.
Integrations
Connections to a bank feed, an ecommerce platform or Power Platform apps, built against Business Central’s own APIs.
Page and workflow customisation
Page extensions and approval workflows shaped around how your specific business actually operates.
Data migration
Moving customers, vendors, items and opening balances from an old system into Business Central, cleaned and mapped correctly.
AppSource readiness
Building an extension to the standard Microsoft expects for publishing on AppSource, for a business planning to sell its own add on.
Skills that matter
What to check before you hire a Dynamics 365 Business Central developer
The AL specific habits worth confirming, since general ERP experience alone does not cover them.
| Skill or tool | What good looks like | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| AL fundamentals | Comfortable with tables, table extensions, pages and codeunits, writing code in codeunits rather than scattered across objects | Microsoft’s own AL guidance recommends this pattern for security and reuse |
| Visual Studio Code and the AL extension | Works day to day in the standard AL toolchain, not an older development environment | The current tooling is what Microsoft documents, supports and updates |
| Extension model discipline | Ships changes as installable extensions, never edits to the base application objects | Direct edits are lost or conflict the moment Microsoft updates the base application |
| APIs and integration | Comfortable calling and exposing Business Central’s own API pages for external systems | Most real Business Central integrations run through these APIs, not manual exports |
| Application lifecycle management | Uses source control and a defined path from a sandbox to a production environment | Prevents a change made only in one environment from being lost or overwritten |
Microsoft’s own guidance on programming in AL is explicit that code belongs in codeunits rather than directly on the object it operates on, which is a fair, specific question to put to any candidate you interview to hire a Dynamics 365 Business Central developer in Dubai.
Ways to work with us
Hiring a Business Central developer in Dubai
Think of the choice as a question about how often the work repeats. A one off need, such as a bank feed connection or a specific statement layout, is answered fastest by a scoped project with a fixed brief and a handover date. A business whose product mix or accounting practice keeps shifting is better matched with a dedicated developer who sits inside your team and picks up changes as they arise. If the plan is to build and keep a Business Central capability permanently in house, recruitment support sources and technically tests people for you to employ directly, rather than us. And where the honest question is whether to build a custom extension at all versus adjusting a process instead, that call is best made through a short consulting conversation before anyone opens Visual Studio Code. Most Dubai businesses that hire a Dynamics 365 Business Central developer through us start with a project or a dedicated developer.
In short
- One off extension, report or integration: a project
- Repeated, evolving requirements: a dedicated developer
- Want your own permanent team: recruitment support
- Build versus configure decision: consulting first
Assessing a candidate
How to assess a Dynamics 365 Business Central developer
A candidate who has only followed tutorials tends to fall down on these five questions.
Have them describe an extension end to end
What business problem prompted it, why an extension rather than a base object change, and how it reached production. Vague answers here are the biggest warning sign.
Open a report or page extension together
Look for a clean split from standard Business Central objects and ask why each piece was structured the way it was.
Talk through one integration in detail
Name the external system, ask what happens when a call fails, and listen for a considered answer rather than an assumption that it always works.
Give them a short, bounded task
A field with validation logic, built in a sandbox, is enough to see real coding habits without asking for unpaid work.
Ask about their last platform update
Business Central ships new releases on a schedule. Someone who has actually maintained extensions through one can describe the testing routine, not just the theory.
Certifications
Certifications worth asking for
A single Microsoft credential maps onto this exact role.
Dynamics 365 Business Central Developer Associate
Microsoft’s certification page lists designing, developing, testing and maintaining extensions, application lifecycle management, and integrating Business Central with other applications as the skills exam MB-820 assesses.
Checking a Dynamics 365 Business Central credential
A shared Microsoft Learn transcript link, not a badge picture, is how Microsoft intends a credential to be checked independently. Look at the date too: associate certifications lapse after a year without renewal, worth checking before you hire a Dynamics 365 Business Central developer in Dubai on the strength of it.
UAE considerations
UAE points worth raising with a Dynamics 365 Business Central developer
Two things worth putting on the table early.
Where personal data sits inside the ledger
Customer and vendor records inside Business Central usually include names, contact details and sometimes staff data, which brings Federal Decree Law No. 45 of 2021 into play as the UAE’s federal rule on how that personal data must be secured, quite apart from how long finance records themselves must be kept, so raise it with any Dynamics 365 Business Central developer you hire in Dubai before an integration is scoped.
Electronic invoicing obligations
The Ministry of Finance runs a national eInvoicing programme requiring business to business transactions to be reported to the Federal Tax Authority electronically over the OpenPeppol network. Build any invoicing logic to change as the rules do, since the Ministry’s own page describes the programme as still being rolled out.
Running the bigger sibling platform instead: our Finance and Operations developer page covers that. Not sure which app you need at all: start from Microsoft Dynamics 365 developer. Need a named Microsoft credential specifically: see certified Microsoft Dynamics 365 developer. The process and module configuration side of a Business Central rollout, rather than code, is covered by our Dynamics 365 consultant page, and every role in this family sits together on Microsoft and Dynamics 365, part of hire developers in Dubai.
Straight answers
Frequently asked questions
What size of business is Business Central built for?
Smaller and mid sized businesses that have outgrown basic accounting software but do not need the scale of Finance and Operations. It covers finance, sales, purchasing, inventory and light manufacturing in one system.
Is Business Central the same platform as Finance and Operations?
No. They are separate Microsoft ERPs aimed at different sizes of business, built on different languages, AL for Business Central and X++ for Finance and Operations. A developer strong in one is not automatically productive in the other.
Do we need a Business Central developer or a consultant?
A developer writes AL extensions, reports and integrations. A consultant configures modules and sets up your chart of accounts, processes and approvals, largely without code. Most implementations use both at different stages.
Can a Business Central developer also build our Power BI reports?
Often yes at a working level, since Business Central connects directly to Power BI. For heavy, standalone reporting across several systems, our Power BI developer page is the more specific match.
How disruptive is customising Business Central?
Less than older ERPs, because AL extensions are built and installed separately from the base application code. A competent developer builds this way specifically so a Microsoft platform update does not break your customisations.
How do we brief a Business Central developer role accurately?
Describe the module involved, what should change, and any system it needs to talk to, such as a bank feed or an ecommerce platform. A short call fills the rest, and you receive a written fixed price proposal scoped to that brief.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn: Programming in AL, Business Central accessed 14 September 2026
- Microsoft Learn: Dynamics 365 Business Central Developer Associate accessed 14 September 2026
- U.AE: Data protection laws accessed 14 September 2026
Fixed price, in writing
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