Customize to fit your needs
Simple Object Designer
The App that lets you customize your Business Central in minutes
without writing a single line of code
The easiest way to customize Business Central to fit your needs
The Simple Object Designer empowers organizations to seamlessly customize their Dynamics Business Central system, proving invaluable for non-developer organizations by saving considerable time and resources.
Intuitive interface
The intuitive interface offers the ability to design full features without coding, simplifying the creation of custom fields, reports, and APIs, and opening up new opportunities for innovation.
Operational efficiency
Dedicated support and continuous updates make the Simple Object Designer a cost-effective and essential tool for enhancing operational efficiency.
Video guides
Easy-to-follow video guides to help you fully utilize all features and functionality. Whether you're a beginner or a pro, our accessible tutorials will provide peace of mind. Reference our guides anytime for answers and enjoy a smooth user experience.
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Rating on Microsoft AppSource
Ready to try it?
You can use the trial version of the Simple Object Designer to make unlimited customization without writing a single line of code and deploy them to your Sandboxes.
Try all the features in the App to see how they can empower you to do more for your business.
Done testing?
When you are sure the Simple Object Designer is the right choice for your business you can buy a yearly license and deploy to your production environment.
Simple Object Designer
The license covers both production and sandbox environment(s) for one tenant.
USD 499/year
Key features that lets you customize
Create fields on any table
Are you missing a field anywhere in Business Central?
Just select the table, fill in the name of the new field, select a type and you’re done.
After you have created a new field, select where you want your users to see and use the field.
Surface existing fields on any page
The field you’re looking for may already exist in Business Central, and it’s just hidden with no way to display it.
With the Simple Object Designer, you can surface those fields and place them on any page.
Place fields on any report
After adding fields, you might also want to print them.
The Simple Object Designer enables you to add both your new fields and existing fields to a report’s data-set.
Then you can use either Word or Report Builder (depending on the type of report) to add the fields to the layout.
Connect fields between tables
You can activate a Field Transfer if the same is added to multiple tables.
Example: If a field is added to both the customer and the sales order, then you can activate a field transfer to have the field on the sales order be filled out with the value from the customer you select.
Expose data as web service APIs
Microsoft is telling everybody to stop exposing pages as web services and instead use APIs. But there’s no easy way to expose data as API without writing code.
The Simple Object Designer enables you to expose data as true APIs and get all the benefits of an API without writing any code.
Add new features to BC
A feature is data, with user-interface and business logic, all bundled together to extend Business Central to fit your needs. Specify what fields and functionality you want and watch the Object Designer create it for you.
Template-based designs
Select between different templates to easily design new functionality in Business Central without writing any code.
Each template is built with the deep knowledge to produce the same level of quality as you would expect from a senior developer.
Create Role Centers
The first page a Business Central user sees when logging on is a Role Center. With the Simple Object Designer, you can design Role Center pages to fit your organization and users simply by selecting the components you want and combining those with the menu items your users need.
How is it actually working?
The Simple Object Designer has an app generator and compiler built-in and outputs a new extension.
The new extension can be installed automatically or downloaded and installed on another environment. (You can create your new fields in a sandbox and afterwards move them to production, or you can work directly in production).
Your questions answered
FAQ
How do I get started with the Simple Object Designer?
The easiest way to get started is to follow the link below to watch the short video that guides you through the process.
After installing the Object Designer, how do I start it?
To avoid cluttering your role centers with menu items, the Object Designer is only available by searching for it. (Tell Me Alt-Q for Object Designer).
Will one license for the "Simple Object Designer" work in both production and sandbox environment?
Yes, one license for the Simple Object Designer covers both production and sandbox environments for one tenant.
Is Simple Object Designer just for the cloud or is it working also on prem?
Unfortunately, the Object Designer does not work on-premises. It uses several features in Business Central that are only available in the cloud.
Does the Simple Object Designer work in all countries/regions of Business Central?
There are no limitations on localization. The Simple Object Designer works on all localized versions of Business Central.
Will the Simple Object Designer be in my Language?
The Simple Object Designer is currently available in the following languages:
Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
What about updates?
The Object Designer is getting regular updates all the time. You can force the update from Admin Center (select the environment and open “Apps”).
Having trouble downloading symbols?
In order for the Simple Object Designer to work, it must know about what tables, pages, and reports your Business Central has. Adding a field to a table is only possible with information about the table. We call that information Symbols. So one of the very first screens you’ll meet in the Simple Object Designer is the Download Symbols page.
How do I apply the License to the Simple Object Designer in my Business central environment, when I already have the trial version installed?
Click Buy/register the Object Designer at the bottom of the Information section on the main menu of the Simple Object Designer. Then, enter your registration code on this page.
How do I renew my Simple Object Designer license?
We have updated our payment system and can now handle subscriptions with automated yearly renewals.
If you have purchased your Simple Object Designer before March 2023, this is the last time you will need to purchase a new license key and enter it into your Simple Object Designer.
What happens if I unsubscribe or don't renew my license after a year?
If you choose to unsubscribe, you cannot create new customizations, but all the objects you have created with the Simple Object Designer will still work.
Access to the published extensions with your objects is always free and available regardless of the license for the Simple Object Designer.
A published extension might stop working in future versions of Business Central due to changes from Microsoft.
What are symbols?
Symbols are information on all the objects (tables, reports etc.) in your Business Central. The Simple Object Designer must know about these symbols to add new fields to your Business Central.
Why does it take so long to start? – Downloading symbols
Because there are a lot of symbols, about 100 megabytes of symbols, to be exact, processing these can take a bit of time.
Will it slow performance?
In general, no. Adding a limited number of fields to existing tables in Business Central will not have a negative impact on the user experience. However, if you’re adding 100s of fields into a high-traffic table, that can produce significant slowdowns.
There is no difference in performance between fields added with the Simple Object Designer or by a senior developer.
Why does the deployment fail, when I try to deploy with a deleted field?
Normal deployment is configured to avoid data loss. To allow data loss due to changing or deleting fields and tables, you must set the Publish Update Mode in the setup to Force.
What if I need a field transfer to a table that’s not offered in the list of fields transfers?
Go to https://github.com/hougaard/Simple-Object-Designer/issues and request the field transfer for a future version of the Object Designer.
We use published events (programming hooks) from Microsoft to do the field transfers, and we cannot add the field transfer if no event is available.
Supported Editions
This app supports the Essential and Premium editions of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Supported Countries
This app supports all countries where Business Central is available
Supported Languages
The app is available in Czech (Czech Republic), Danish (Denmark), German (all areas), Spanish (Spain and Mexico), Italian, Icelandic, Dutch (Belgium), Finnish (Finland), French (all areas), Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish and English (all areas)