Voting Summary:

Business Central’s Customer/Contact Communication section is based on outdated single-field design (one phone, one email). Modern organizations require multiple structured phone numbers, emails, and addresses with classification and defaults.

Please redesign this area to support multiple communication entries with types (Business, Mobile, Billing, etc.) and primary assignments across Customer, Vendor, and Contact cards.

Summary

The current Communication section on Customer, Vendor, and Contact cards in Dynamics 365 Business Central is based on a legacy, single-value data model (e.g., one Phone No., one Mobile Phone No., one Email). This structure does not reflect how modern organizations manage communication data and is no longer sufficient.

Problem Statement

In today’s environment, both individuals and organizations commonly have:

• Multiple phone numbers (main, mobile, direct, department, support, etc.)
• Multiple email addresses (invoicing, accounts payable, sales, support, personal, etc.)
• Multiple physical and mailing addresses with different purposes
• Multiple communication channels tied to specific roles or workflows

The current Business Central design:

• Restricts most communication fields to single entries
• Forces users into inconsistent workarounds (Contacts, Comments, custom fields, or external systems)
• Lacks structured classification (e.g., Business, Mobile, Billing, Support)
• Does not support assigning different communication methods to different processes (e.g., invoicing vs. order confirmations vs. general contact)

This creates:

• Data fragmentation
• Increased user friction
• Reduced usability of core Customer/Contact records
• Increased reliance on customization or external CRM systems

Business Impact

This limitation impacts daily operations across accounting, sales, and customer service:

• Inefficient communication workflows
• Increased risk of sending documents to incorrect recipients
• Additional manual processes and errors
• Reduced adoption of native Business Central capabilities
• Increased cost for customizations that replicate standard functionality in other modern systems

Requested Enhancement

Replace or enhance the current Communication section with a modern, extensible communication model that supports:

1. Multiple Entries per Communication Type

• Multiple Phone Numbers
• Multiple Email Addresses
• Multiple Addresses

2. Structured Typing / Classification

Allow each entry to be tagged (examples):

• Phone: Business, Mobile, Direct, Support, Fax, Other
• Email: Billing, Sales, Support, Primary, Other
• Address: Billing, Shipping, Physical, Mailing

3. Primary / Default Assignment

• Ability to designate a primary contact method per type
• Ability to define defaults by business process (e.g., invoicing email vs. general email)

4. Consistent Data Model Across Entities

Apply consistently across:

• Customer Card
• Vendor Card
• Contact Card

5. Integration with Existing Features

• Document Layouts
• Contacts
• Interaction Log Entries
• Email sending and reporting processes

Expected Outcome

A redesigned communication model would:

• Align Business Central with modern business practices
• Reduce need for customization
• Improve data quality and usability
• Enable better automation and process control
• Increase user adoption and satisfaction

Additional Context

Many modern business applications already support multiple structured communication entries. Business Central’s current design reflects an earlier era when a single phone number and email address were sufficient. Updating this area would significantly improve the usability of core master data across the system.