Employee Self-Service (ESS) Portal for Business Central

Key Features

Payslip and tax-document download — employees self-serve historical payslips and year-end tax statements as PDFs generated on the Business Central job queue, no HR email required

Leave request and live balance view — submit absence requests that post to standard Employee Absence tables, with entitlement and remaining-balance calculation surfaced in real time

Expense and reimbursement claims — capture claims with receipt attachments, routed through Business Central document approval workflow to the correct approver

Salary certificate / NOC request workflow — employees request letters; HR reviews and the extension generates a templated document with company letterhead

Personal-detail update workflow — address, bank, emergency-contact and dependant changes go through an approval step before writing to the Employee table

Secured API page surface over the BC REST/OData v4 API, scoped so each employee can only read and write their own records

Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on — reuses the identity already governing your Business Central tenant; no separate password store

Custom permission sets shipped with the extension, enforcing record-level isolation and least-privilege access for the self-service role

Event subscribers that keep leave balances, claim statuses and approval states synchronized with HR posting events

Mobile-first responsive web portal plus an optional Power Apps / Power Pages front end backed by Dataverse for Power Platform customers

Approval routing built on the native Business Central approval workflow engine, so managers act inside the tools they already use

Audit-friendly change history on personal-detail edits via Comment Line and field-change logging for compliance review

Built to order, done for you

No DIY setup — a working app, built, installed and supported by ECOSIRE.

You order

Start with a one-time build price. We scope it with you at kickoff.

We build & install

ECOSIRE builds, configures and installs it on your Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Go live + support

You go live in about 2–4 weeks, with a post-launch support window.

About this Product

What this is

The Employee Self-Service (ESS) Portal for Business Central is a build-to-order app that gives every employee a clean mobile and web front end to the HR data already living in your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central tenant. Staff download payslips and tax documents, request leave and see their balances, file expense and reimbursement claims, ask for salary certificates or NOC letters, and submit personal-detail changes for approval — without ever logging into Business Central or emailing HR.

This is not an instant AppSource download. ECOSIRE builds the solution to your environment, installs it as a per-tenant AL extension, and supports it on your tenant. The extension adds table extensions and page extensions over the standard Employee, Employee Absences and Comment Line tables, exposes a secured API page surface over the Business Central REST/OData v4 API, and ships custom permission sets so employees see only their own records.

How it works technically

The employee app authenticates against Microsoft Entra ID (the same identity already securing Business Central) and reads/writes through dedicated API pages published by the extension. Event subscribers on document-approval and HR posting events keep balances and statuses live. Long-running jobs (payslip PDF generation, bulk certificate issuance) run on the Business Central job queue so the UI stays responsive. Where you use the Power Platform, we can surface the same data through Dataverse and a Power Apps canvas/Power Pages front end instead of a standalone portal — your choice at scoping.

Honest delivery

After purchase, ECOSIRE runs a short scoping call, confirms your payroll/HR data model and approval rules, then builds, tests in your sandbox, and deploys to production as a per-tenant extension. You own the deployed extension on your tenant. A typical first build lands in roughly 3–4 weeks depending on payroll complexity and how many document types you need.

What you get

A per-tenant AL extension package (.app) built for your Business Central version and installed in your sandbox and production environments

Table extensions and page extensions over Employee, Employee Absence, Comment Line and related HR tables

Secured API pages exposing the self-service surface over the BC REST/OData v4 endpoint

Custom permission sets and a self-service security role configured for record-level employee isolation

The mobile/web ESS portal (or a Power Apps / Power Pages app over Dataverse, per your scope) wired to Microsoft Entra ID SSO

Job queue entries and event-subscriber codeunits for payslip generation, document issuance and balance synchronization

Sandbox deployment, UAT support, production cutover, and an admin handover guide covering permission assignment and document templates

Who this is for

HR Manager

Wants to cut the daily flood of payslip, leave-balance and certificate requests so the HR team can focus on people work instead of document admin, while keeping approvals and audit trails inside Business Central.

Business Central Administrator

Needs employee self-service delivered as a clean per-tenant extension that respects permission sets, Entra ID identity and upgrade safety — not a fragile bolt-on or direct table hacks that break on the next BC update.

Finance / Payroll Lead

Wants employees to self-serve payslips and file reimbursement claims through proper approval workflow, with claims and certificates traceable against the same HR and finance data already in Business Central.

How Employee Self-Service (ESS) Portal for Business Central Compares

Criterion	ECOSIRE	Custom Build	Competitor
Self-service payslips, leave, claims and document requests for employees	Included	Partial support	Partial support
Delivered as an upgrade-safe per-tenant AL extension (no base-table modification)	Included	Partial support	Included
Tailored to your exact payroll model, approval rules and document templates	Included	Included	Not included
Built, installed and supported on your tenant by the vendor	Included	Not included	Partial support
Microsoft Entra ID SSO with record-level permission isolation per employee	Included	Partial support	Partial support
Optional Power Apps / Power Pages front end over Dataverse	Included	Partial support	Not included
No in-house AL development effort required from your team	Included	Not included	Included
One-time fixed build cost with a clear delivery scope	Included	Not included	Partial support

Frequently Asked Questions about Employee Self-Service (ESS) Portal for Business Central

How long does delivery take, and is this an AppSource download?

This is build-to-order, not an instant AppSource install. After purchase we run a scoping call to confirm your HR/payroll data model, approval rules and the document types you need, then build and test in your sandbox before deploying to production as a per-tenant AL extension. A typical first build lands in roughly 3–4 weeks depending on payroll complexity and the number of document and claim types in scope.

How is ongoing support and updates handled after go-live?

ECOSIRE supports the deployed extension on your tenant. Because it is delivered as a per-tenant extension built with table/page extensions and event subscribers (no direct base-table modification), it survives Business Central's monthly and major updates safely. We offer support for bug fixes, BC version-compatibility checks ahead of major releases, and enhancement requests; the scope and term are agreed at handover. You own the deployed extension on your tenant.

Do employees need a Business Central license to use the portal?

No. Employees interact only with the self-service portal (or the Power Apps / Power Pages app), which talks to Business Central through secured API pages over the REST/OData v4 endpoint under a controlled identity. They authenticate with Microsoft Entra ID but do not consume full Business Central user licenses for self-service. We confirm the exact licensing fit for your tenant during scoping.

Will this work with our existing payroll setup in Business Central?

The portal reads and writes against your existing Employee, Employee Absence and related HR tables, and we map payslip and tax-document generation to your current payroll configuration during scoping. If you run a third-party payroll extension, we adapt the API surface and event subscribers to integrate with it rather than replacing it.

Can we surface this through the Power Platform instead of a separate portal?

Yes. For customers invested in the Power Platform, we can expose the same self-service data through Dataverse and build the front end as a Power Apps canvas app or a Power Pages site, instead of a standalone web portal. The Business Central extension, API pages, permission sets and approval logic are the same underneath — only the presentation layer differs. You choose the front end during scoping.