License Terms

This page describes the licensing model for BCCL (Business Central Command Line) by hougaard.com. Understanding these terms helps you choose the right license, manage registration, and stay compliant.

Publisher

BCCL is developed and published by hougaard.com. All licensing, support, and distribution are managed through the hougaard.com website.

Which License Do I Need?

If your purpose is to download or sync data from a Business Central cloud environment into a database you own (for example a custom on-premises SQL Server database used for reporting), the license you need is one of the BCCL Enduser licenses, sold as the product "BCCL Subscription (Enduser)" and referred to below as the Commercial license. This applies whether you are the end customer or a partner acting on behalf of one end customer.

It does not matter whether the source environment was recently migrated from an on-premises version of Business Central (for example a BC14 on-premises installation moved to the cloud). What matters is that the data is being pulled from a BC cloud tenant.

Purchase at hougaard.com/product-category/bccl. For questions about how many tables you sync, or whether you start with one company and later add more, check the current tier definitions on that product page.

What Does One License Cover? (Production and Sandbox)

The licensing unit is the tenant. A single BCCL license covers all environments within the same tenant, including the production environment and all cloud sandbox environments. The number of environments inside the tenant does not affect the license requirement.

Consequences:

You do not need a second license to test BCCL downloads from a sandbox before go-live. One license is enough for both.
You can run BCCL against a sandbox during upgrade or migration testing and against production after go-live, and you can continue to download from the sandbox after go-live. Both are covered by the same license at the same time. There is nothing to "move" or re-assign from sandbox to production.

For more licensing questions and answers, see Frequently Asked Questions.

License Types

BCCL offers two license types, each designed for a different use case.

Commercial License

The Commercial license is the standard license for business use. It allows you to use BCCL with a single Business Central tenant.

Property	Value
Product IDs	5864, 1909
Scope	Single BC tenant (all environments and companies in that tenant)
Cross-tenant access	Not included
Intended for	End customers and internal IT teams

A Commercial license is appropriate when you are integrating data for your own organization's Business Central environment.

Partner License

The Partner license extends the Commercial license with the ability to access multiple BC tenants. This is designed for Microsoft partners, consultants, and ISVs who manage or integrate with multiple customer environments.

Property	Value
Product IDs	2062, 5865
Scope	Multiple BC tenants
Cross-tenant access	Included
Intended for	Microsoft partners, consultants, ISVs

With a Partner license, you can authenticate against any tenant where you have appropriate permissions, making it suitable for managed service scenarios.

Trial Mode

BCCL can be used without a license in trial mode. Trial mode gives you access to all features with the following limitations:

Limitation	Value
Upload (import)	100 records per transfer
Download (export)	50,000 bytes per transfer
Features	All features available
Duration	Unlimited

Trial mode is useful for evaluating BCCL, testing configurations, and developing integrations before purchasing a license. There is no time limit on trial mode -- the limitations apply per operation, not per time period.

Registration

To unlock full functionality, you must register BCCL with a license key and your BC tenant ID.

How to Register

BCCL.EXE --register yourlicensekey --tenantid your-tenant-guid

The license key is provided when you purchase a license from hougaard.com.
The tenant ID is the Azure AD tenant GUID associated with your Business Central environment. You can find it in the Azure portal or the BC Admin Center.

Verifying Registration

To check your current registration status:

BCCL.EXE --check

This displays:

Whether BCCL is registered or in trial mode.
The license type (Commercial or Partner).
The associated tenant ID.
The license expiration date.

License Validation

BCCL performs an online license validation against the hougaard.com license server. This means:

The machine running BCCL needs internet access to validate the license.
Validation occurs periodically, not on every execution.
If the license server is temporarily unreachable, BCCL continues to operate with the last validated status for a grace period.

License Scope and Restrictions

Per-Tenant Licensing

Each BCCL license is tied to a specific Business Central tenant ID (for Commercial licenses) or is valid across tenants (for Partner licenses). You cannot use a Commercial license registered for one tenant to access a different tenant.

The tenant binding is held on the hougaard.com license server. Two consequences follow:

If your BC environment moves to a different tenant (for example a sister company's tenant being consolidated into the parent's tenant), the existing license is re-bound to the new tenant. You do not need to buy a new license. Registering on the new tenant does not by itself remove the old tenant binding; hougaard.com support removes it manually when you tell them which tenant ID to remove. A license normally allows one tenant at a time, but support can temporarily enable two tenants for a short cut-over window on request. See "Moving a BCCL License to Another Business Central Tenant" in License and Registration Issues.
If a key was registered against the wrong tenant, it cannot be re-registered on another tenant by the end user. Support resets the registration when you send the license key, the incorrect tenant ID, and the correct tenant ID. Clearing local settings with --forget does not affect the tenant binding.

Concurrent Users and Servers

Your license agreement specifies the number of concurrent users and/or servers permitted. This limits how many machines can run BCCL simultaneously under a single license. Contact hougaard.com if you need to increase capacity.

Non-Transferable

BCCL licenses are non-transferable. You cannot sell, assign, or sublicense your BCCL license to another organization. If your organization undergoes a merger, acquisition, or restructuring that affects the tenant ID, contact hougaard.com to arrange a license transfer.

Warranty

General Functionality Warranty

hougaard.com provides a 90-day warranty on general functionality from the date of purchase. During this period, if BCCL does not perform the functions described in the documentation under normal use conditions, hougaard.com will correct the issue or provide a workaround.

Defect Warranty

hougaard.com provides a 1-year warranty against defects from the date of purchase. This covers software bugs that prevent BCCL from functioning correctly. If a defect is confirmed, hougaard.com will release a patch or updated version.

Warranty Exclusions

The warranty does not cover:

Issues caused by incorrect configuration or misuse.
Incompatibilities with custom BC extensions that alter standard table structures or web service behavior.
Problems caused by third-party software, hardware, or network conditions.
Issues arising from using BCCL with unsupported versions of Business Central.

Upgrades

While your license is valid, you are entitled to receive automatic upgrades to newer versions of BCCL at no additional cost. This includes:

Bug fixes and security patches.
New features and enhancements.
Compatibility updates for new Business Central versions.

Upgrades are distributed through the hougaard.com website and, for the BC extension component, through Microsoft AppSource.

Data Handling and Privacy

BCCL processes data locally on the machine where it is installed. Data flows directly between the BCCL client and your Business Central environment over HTTPS.

BCCL does not send your business data to hougaard.com or any third party.
Credentials stored with --remember are saved in Windows Isolated Storage, encrypted and accessible only to the Windows user who saved them.
License validation communicates only the license key and tenant ID to the hougaard.com license server -- no business data is transmitted.

Purchasing a License

To purchase a BCCL license:

Visit https://www.hougaard.com.
Navigate to the BCCL product page.
Select the license type (Commercial or Partner) that matches your needs.
Complete the purchase process.
You will receive a license key by email.
Register BCCL using the --register command as described above.

Renewal

Licenses have an expiration date. To renew:

Contact hougaard.com before your license expires.
Complete the renewal purchase.
You will receive a new license key.
Re-register BCCL with the new key.

BCCL will notify you when your license is approaching expiration.

Choosing the Right License

Scenario	Recommended License
Single company using BC cloud or on-premises	Commercial
IT department integrating one BC environment with external systems	Commercial
Microsoft partner managing multiple customer BC environments	Partner
ISV providing integration solutions to multiple customers	Partner
Consultant implementing BC for various clients	Partner
Evaluating BCCL for potential purchase	Trial mode (no license needed)

License Terms Summary

Term	Detail
Publisher	hougaard.com
Commercial Product IDs	5864, 1909
Partner Product IDs	2062, 5865
License binding	Per-tenant (Commercial) or multi-tenant (Partner)
Transferability	Non-transferable
General warranty	90 days
Defect warranty	1 year
Upgrades	Included while license is valid
Trial limitations	100 records upload, 50,000 bytes download
Validation	Online (periodic)

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use trial mode in production?

Trial mode is not intended for production use. The record and size limitations make it impractical for real data operations. It is designed for evaluation and development.

What happens when my license expires?

BCCL reverts to trial mode with the associated record and size limitations. In practice, an installation that has been running fine simply stops updating and commands start printing Trial version detected, data transfers are limited to 100 records upload and 50000 bytes download.; there is no separate licensing error dialog. Your configuration, scripts, and saved settings are not affected. Contact support@hougaard.com to have the license checked and renewed, then re-register with the renewed license key to restore full functionality.

Do I need a separate license for sandbox and production?

No. One license covers all environments in the same tenant, production and cloud sandboxes alike, at the same time.

Do I need a separate license for each machine?

Your license specifies the number of concurrent users or servers. Multiple machines can share a single license as long as the concurrent usage stays within the licensed limits. Each machine (and each Windows user profile) must run --register itself, because the registration is stored locally.

Can I move my license to a new machine?

Yes. Since the license is tied to a tenant ID (not a machine), you can register BCCL on a new machine using the same license key and tenant ID. Remembered connection settings (--remember) are also stored locally, so the new machine needs its own --remember run.

Do I need a new license when our BC environment moves to another tenant?

No. The existing license is re-bound to the new tenant. Register it on the new tenant, then contact support with the old tenant ID so the old binding can be removed. See License and Registration Issues.

Does BCCL work offline?

BCCL requires network access to communicate with Business Central. It also requires periodic internet access for license validation. If the license server is temporarily unreachable, BCCL operates under a grace period using the last validated status.