When a user logs into Business Central, the first thing they see is the Role Center, the homepage that shows tiles, activities, and cues relevant to their job. Which Role Center a user gets depends on their assigned profile.
A profile in Business Central is a configuration record that points to a specific Role Center page. By assigning different profiles to different users, you give each person a starting point that matches what they actually do every day.
What a Profile Is
A profile is a named record in Business Central that links to a Role Center page. It can also carry page customizations, changes to field visibility, column order, and layout that apply to all users assigned to that profile.
Profiles are distinct from personalization. Personalization is changes a user makes for themselves. Profile customization is changes an administrator applies to a profile that affect everyone using it.
Every Business Central environment includes a set of built-in profiles:
| Profile Name | Typical User |
|---|---|
| Business Manager | General management, overview dashboards |
| Accountant | Finance team, journal posting, financial reports |
| Sales Order Processor | Sales team, order entry, customer management |
| Purchasing Agent | Purchasing team, purchase orders, vendor management |
| Bookkeeper | Accounts payable/receivable, bank reconciliation |
| Dispatcher | Warehouse and inventory operations |
| IT Manager | System administration tasks |
Navigate to the Profiles Page
- Search for Profiles (Roles) using
Alt + Q. - The list shows all available profiles, their Role Center page, and whether they are enabled.
Assign a Profile to a User
- Search for Users and open the page.
- Open the User Card for the user you want to configure.
- In the User Personalization section, set the Profile (Role) field to the desired profile.
- Close the card.
The change takes effect the next time the user signs in. If the user is already logged in, they need to sign out and back in, or navigate to their Role Center manually.
Enable and Disable Profiles
Profiles that are enabled appear as options in the Profile (Role) field on user cards and in user settings. Disabling a profile hides it from that list but does not remove it or affect users already assigned to it.
- Open Profiles (Roles).
- Select the profile.
- On the profile record, toggle the Enabled field.
You can also set one profile as the default. Users who have no profile explicitly assigned will see the default profile’s Role Center.
Copy a Profile
Copying is the standard way to create a new profile based on an existing one.
- Open Profiles (Roles).
- Select the profile you want to base the new one on.
- Choose Copy Profile from the action bar.
- Enter a new Profile ID and Description.
- Select OK.
The copy includes any page customizations made to the original profile. You can then modify the copy without affecting the original.
Customize a Profile’s Pages
Page customization at the profile level controls the layout, visible fields, and columns for all users assigned to that profile. Unlike personalization, changes here apply to everyone on the profile.
- Open Profiles (Roles).
- Select the profile you want to customize.
- Choose Customize Pages from the action bar.
- Business Central opens in a special customization mode. Navigate to the page you want to adjust.
- Use the customization panel to show, hide, move, or freeze fields and columns.
- Select Done when finished.
Customizations you make here are stored against the profile, not against individual users.
Let Users Set Their Own Profile
Users can change their own profile through their personal settings.
- Select the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner.
- Choose My Settings.
- Change the Role field to a different profile.
- Select OK.
If you want to prevent users from changing their own profile, you can restrict access to the My Settings page through permission sets, though this is not commonly needed.
For a full walkthrough of managing which users exist in the system and how they are configured, see How to Create and Manage Users in Business Central.