If you work with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you've probably found yourself asking the same questions over and over again:
"What fields are on the Customer Ledger Entry table?"
"Which table holds the posting group configuration?"
"What's the relationship between Sales Header and Sales Line?"
"Is that field a FlowField or a normal field?"
Until now, answering these questions meant either firing up Visual Studio with an AL development environment, digging through Microsoft's scattered documentation, or asking someone who already knows.
There's now a faster way. The XPT Schema Browser gives you free, instant access to every table and field in Business Central — no login, no installation, no development environment required.
What You Get for Free
Open dx.xpt.tools in your browser and you can immediately:
- Browse all 2,000+ BC tables — searchable by name, filterable by category (Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, General Ledger, and more)
- View every field on every table — data types, field numbers, primary keys, and field classes
- See table relations — which fields link to which tables, with clickable navigation
- Identify FlowFields — clearly marked so you know which fields are calculated vs stored
- Cross-reference fields — click any field to see every other table in BC that references it
- Run live queries — select fields, add BC filters, and see up to 100 rows of real Cronus demo data
- Export to CSV — download query results for analysis
- Generate ERD diagrams — interactive entity-relationship diagrams you can customise and export as PNG
No account needed for any of this. Just open the app and start exploring.
The Static Schema Reference
We've also published the entire BC schema as a searchable reference site. Every table has its own page with:
- Full field listing with data types and classes
- Primary key fields highlighted
- All table relations with links to related tables
- Record counts from the standard Cronus demo company
- Category classification (Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, etc.)
Here are some of the most-used tables to get you started:
- Customer Table (#18) — 29 records, the core customer master
- Item Table (#27) — 80 items with pricing, costing, and inventory fields
- G/L Entry Table (#17) — the general ledger, every posted transaction
- Sales Header Table (#36) — open sales orders and invoices
- Sales Line Table (#37) — line items on sales documents
- Vendor Table (#23) — supplier master data
- Purchase Header Table (#38) — purchase orders and invoices
- Item Ledger Entry Table (#32) — every inventory movement
- Customer Ledger Entry Table (#21) — customer transaction history
- Vendor Ledger Entry Table (#25) — vendor transaction history
- Gen. Journal Line Table (#81) — journal entries before posting
- Value Entry Table (#5802) — inventory valuation entries
- Bank Account Table (#270) — bank account master data
- Sales Invoice Header Table (#112) — posted sales invoices
- Contact Table (#5050) — CRM contact records
Each page is designed to be the definitive reference for that table — the kind of page you bookmark and keep coming back to during implementations.
Why This Matters for BC Developers
If you're writing AL extensions, you constantly need to look up field numbers, data types, and relations. The schema browser shows you exactly what you need:
- Field numbers — essential when writing code like
SETRANGE(FieldNo, Value) - Data types and lengths — know whether a field is Code[20] or Text[100] before you reference it
- Primary key composition — see which fields make up the PK without opening the table definition
- FlowField identification — critical for performance. FlowFields are calculated at runtime and including them in queries adds processing time proportional to your record count
- Table relations — the clickable relation links let you trace the entire data model from any starting point
Why This Matters for BC Consultants
During implementations, fit-gap analysis, and data migrations, consultants need quick answers about the BC data model:
- "Where does BC store customer credit limits?" — browse the Customer table and find the field
- "What's the posting flow for a sales invoice?" — start at Sales Header, follow relations to Sales Line, then trace to Sales Invoice Header
- "Which tables do I need for a data migration?" — browse by category to find all tables in a functional area
- "How many fields will I need to map?" — field counts are shown on every table
No need to ask a developer or wait for access to a development environment. The answer is one search away.
Interactive ERD Diagrams
One of the most requested features in the BC community has been entity-relationship diagrams. Now you can generate them directly from the schema browser:
- Go to the Schema tab
- Select any table
- Click ◈ Diagram
- Choose which relations to display from the panel
- Drag tables into position
- Export as PNG
The diagrams are modern, clean, and designed to be presentation-ready. Each table card shows the table name, ID, category, record count, primary keys, and foreign key fields. Connection lines show which field creates each relationship.
Unlike static ERD tools, you control exactly which relations appear on the diagram. This keeps things clean — a table like Item (#27) has dozens of relations, but you might only want to show the five that are relevant to your current implementation.
How the Query Builder Works
The free tier includes a query builder that runs against the standard Cronus demo company. This is real BC data — the same demo dataset that ships with every BC installation.
Select a table, choose which fields to include, add filters using standard BC filter syntax, and run the query. Results appear in a grid and can be exported to CSV.
BC Filter Syntax Quick Reference
| Pattern | Meaning | Example |
|---------|---------|----------|
| DOMESTIC | Exact match | Posting Group = DOMESTIC |
| <>0 | Not equal to | Balance <> 0 |
| >1000 | Greater than | Amount > 1000 |
| 1000..5000 | Range | No. between 1000 and 5000 |
| dental | Contains | Description contains dental |
| CUS* | Starts with | No. starts with CUS |
Filters use standard BC syntax — the same patterns you'd use in a BC page filter or an AL SETFILTER statement.
What About My Own BC Environment?
The free tier uses the shared Cronus demo. If you need to query your own BC data, the Pro plan at £29/month lets you connect your own Business Central environment. You get unlimited queries, full data exports (CSV and Excel), saved views, and up to three BC connections.
For BC partners managing multiple client environments, the Partner plan at £79/month gives you unlimited connections.
But the schema browser — tables, fields, relations, cross-references, and ERD diagrams — is completely free, forever. No account needed.
Start Exploring
The fastest way to understand the BC data model is to explore it yourself:
- Open the Schema Browser — search any table, view any field
- Browse the Schema Reference — 2,000+ tables with full documentation
- Customer Table — start with the most commonly referenced table
- G/L Entry Table — every posted transaction in the general ledger
- Item Table — the complete item master with 250+ fields
Whether you're a developer writing your first AL extension, a consultant mapping data for a migration, or an analyst trying to understand where a number comes from — the BC schema browser is your free starting point.
XPT Data Explorer is built by Xpertly Ltd for the people who work with Business Central data every day. The schema browser is free and always will be.