Business Central ER Diagram Editor

Visualize tables and data relationships with this free Entity Relationship Diagram tool based on the actual Business Central extension code.

Business Central ER Diagram Editor screenshot

This interactive tool needs a larger screen. Open this page on a desktop or laptop to launch it.

The Business Central ER Diagram tool is a free online visualization software for creating Entity Relationship Diagrams from .al packages. Click ‘Launch Tool’ above to get started by selection one of the built-in symbols or uploading your own extension. The pre-loaded ‘Base Application’ source contains the core of Business Central’s finance, inventory, warehousing, projects and other core functionality.

Load multiple extensions at the same time to map their dependencies between tables, flowfields and enums. For large tables, you can choose to only display relevant fields to simplify the diagram. The tool automatically draws the connections between nodes using standard Entity Relationship Diagram symbols and displays their data types.

Key terms

Table Relation

A column that is marked as a table relation uses a primary key fields (such as a code or number) to reference another entity. In Business Central, these can be conditional based on another field, allowing one column to reference more than one table. These are the dashed lines you see in the Business Central ER Diagram.

Flowfield

These are calculated fields that Business Central computes based on data in other tables. A flowfield formula uses one of 7 operators: Sum, Exist, Count, Average, Min, Max, or Lookup. They are aggregated conditionally either statically using constants or dynamically based on record values or FlowFilters that can be modified at runtime. The operator used by the formula is shown as a badge on the connecting line between the field and the related table.

Enum

Enums are their own objects in AL source code. They can be used by multiple tables and extended by other extensions. When unset, they have the blank “zero” value determined by the enum definition.

Option

Similar to enums, they define a set list of enumerated values a field can be set to. However, unlike enums, they are defined on the field themselves, so they cannot be referenced or extended by another extension. In the Business Central ER diagram, an option type can therefore only be referenced by a single field.

How it works

  1. Pick an included app or upload your own

    Relationship data for Base Application is already pre-loaded, upload your own .app file to add any custom extension.

  2. Search or browse to a table

    Use the cross-app search, or browse the namespace tree (e.g. Microsoft/Sales/Document). Select a table to drop it on the canvas.

  3. Select tables & columns

    Search or filter tables to add them to your diagram. Choose which related tables, flowfields, conditional relationships to show.

  4. Arrange it

    Drag tables to customize the layout of your diagram, or use auto layout and get perfectly arranged tables in one click.

  5. Export and save

    Download your finished diagram as a PNG, infinitely scalable SVG, or PDF.

What it supports

Real AL metadata
Use published extension artifacts to get the table data and relationships of any app on AppSource. No need to enter data by hand.
Standard and extension apps
Developing a new extension for a client? Show how it relates to Microsoft’s built-in tables by including tables from across standard and custom extensions.
Cross-app relationships
Reason about complex, multi-app data structures by selecting multiple applications and see the relationships between them.
IE crow’s-foot notation
Required and optional table relations are clearly distinguished (|| vs. o|), and conditional / polymorphic relation paths are displayed as dashed lines.
Tables, fields, enums, options, FlowFields
Display as much or as little as you need, include information about flowfields and option values to give a clearer picture of the data structure.
Free export
Download your finished diagram as a printable export. Customize the display ratio for portrait or landscape printing.

Use cases

  • Onboarding to an unfamiliar Business Central database

    Visualize the underlying data model that drives the design, workflow and functionality of the system to understand the dependency and integration surface.

  • Documenting an extension's data model

    Upload your own .app and generate an ER diagram of your tables, including how they hook into standard BC tables. Export the result into your repository or documentation.

  • Planning a migration or integration

    Get the documentation you need to map Business Central’s data model to your existing system. Find the tables you need to populate to create a new integration or synchronization layer.

  • Explaining a relationship in a spec or PR

    Create clean, readable documentation for your client-facing proposals and design documents. Communicate your extension design to other developers.

Skuno is built natively on Business Central

This tool is a small piece of what we work on. Skuno is the unified retail and warehouse operations platform for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central — WMS, POS, and real-time BI on top of your existing BC tenant.

See what Skuno does Talk to the team