How to analyse Field Monitoring Telemetry in Business Central

Analysing Field Monitoring Telemetry in Dynamics 365 Business Central – Applies to: Business Central 2020 Release Wave 2 (version 17.1) and later

The Field Monitoring Telemetry feature in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides powerful insights into system operations by capturing and analysing key events and performance metrics. Designed to support administrators, developers, and IT professionals, this telemetry data enables proactive monitoring, faster troubleshooting, and improved system performance. In this article, we’ll explore how to effectively leverage this feature to maintain a healthy and high-performing Business Central environment.

To add a layer of security, you can monitor important fields when someone changes a value. For example, you might want to know if someone changes your company’s IBAN number.

To gather this data, you’ll have to start field monitoring and specify the fields that you want to monitor.

Telemetry is then logged for the following operations:

When field monitoring is stopped or started
When a field is added or removed for monitoring (only in version 18.0 and later)
When a field value is changed

Changes to fields in the following tables are always logged:

Fields in the Field Monitoring Setup Many of the fields are included on the Field Monitoring Setup page.
Fields in the Change Log Setup (Field) Many of the fields are included on the Field Monitoring Worksheet page.
The Contact Email field in the User

More on Field Monitoring HERE

Note: Sending notifications by email requires that you set up the email feature in Business Central. For more information, see Set Up Email.

Set up field monitoring

You can use the Monitor Field Change Setup assisted setup guide to specify the fields that you want to monitor based on filter criteria, such as the data sensitivity classification for the fields. For more information, see Classifying Data Sensitivity. The guide also lets you specify the person who receives an email notification when a change occurs, and the email account that sends the notification. Specify both the user to notify and the account from which to send the notification. After you finish the guide, you can manage settings for field monitoring on the Field Monitoring Setup page.

Note: When you specify the email account from which to send notifications, you must add either the Microsoft 365 or SMTP account types. Notifications should be sent from an account that is not associated with an actual user. Therefore, you cannot choose the Current User account type. If you do, notifications will not be sent.

Over time, the list of entries on the Monitored Fields Log Entries page will grow. To reduce the number of entries, you can create a retention policy that will delete entries after a specified period of time. For more information, see Define Retention Policies.

When you set up field monitoring, or change something in the setup, entries are created for your changes. You can specify whether to display entries related to the monitoring setup by showing or hiding them.

You can manage settings for field monitoring, such as whether to send an email notification or just log the change, for each field on the Monitored Fields Worksheet page. The page is also where you can add or remove fields to monitor.

Note: After you add one or more fields and start monitoring, you must sign out of Business Central and sign in again to apply your settings.

Work with field monitoring

Entries for all changed values for monitored fields are available on the Monitored Fields Log Entries page. For example, entries contain the following information:

The field in which the value changed.
The original and new values.
Who made the change, and when they did so.

To further investigate a change, choose a value to open the page where it was made. To view a list of all entries, choose Field Change Entries.

View field monitoring telemetry

You can set up Business Central to send field monitoring activity to an Application Insights resource in Microsoft Azure. Then, using Azure Monitor, you create reports and set up alerts on the gathered data. For more information, see the following articles in the Business Central Developer and IT Pro help:

Define retention policies

You can create retention policies to delete unneeded data in logs after a period of time that you specify. For example, over time the number of entries in a log can build up. By cleaning up old entries you can make it easier to focus on more recent, and probably more relevant, entries. To learn more about retention policies, go to Define Retention Policies.

Conclusion

How to analyse Field Monitoring Telemetry in Business Central – highlights this powerful feature that enhances visibility, control, and security across your business operations. By tracking sensitive field changes, setting up automated alerts, and integrating with tools like Azure Application Insights, you can proactively manage data integrity and system performance. With built-in options for email notifications and retention policies, you can tailor the monitoring process to suit your organisation’s compliance and operational needs. Implementing this functionality ensures a more secure, transparent, and responsive Business Central environment.