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Activate the product

Before you can build and run flows, AutoFlow has to be activated. Activation is done per company through a short wizard.

The activation type follows the environment automatically – it is not something you choose:

  • A sandbox activates as a test activation: all features, no flow limit.
  • A production environment activates on the Free Tier (2 flows), or with your organisation's AutoFlow license – see Licensing.

Start the activation wizard​

There are two ways to open the wizard:

  • From the role centre notification – any AutoFlow page shows a "AutoFlow is not yet activated" bar with a link that opens the wizard.
  • From AutoFlow Setup – choose Activate AutoFlow.

Business Central Online (SaaS)​

Online, the wizard registers this environment with the AutoFlow customer portal, so it shows up under your organisation there and your activation is anchored to it.

  • If your tenant is already claimed in the portal, activation completes immediately – there is nothing else to do.
  • If the tenant isn't claimed yet, the wizard opens the portal and asks you to sign in with a Microsoft account of that tenant to claim it. Once you have, choose Check activation in the wizard and it finishes.

A tenant is claimed only once; after that, further companies and environments activate without the sign-in.

If your organisation licenses AutoFlow per company and all seats are taken, the wizard tells you so instead of activating, and offers to open the portal to add a seat. See Licensing.

Business Central on-premises​

On-premises activates offline from a signed license file – the server never needs to reach the internet to run flows.

The wizard shows the three values that identify this database (server computer name, server instance name, and database name) and a link that opens the AutoFlow portal. Register the database in the portal with those exact values, download the license file it generates, and import that file back in the wizard. AutoFlow verifies the file against this database and activates.

With a per-company license, the license file names the companies it covers, and it can only be imported in one of them. The portal preselects the companies you have already activated.

Because AutoFlow reads the three values from the running installation, a license issued for one database can't be used on another.

After activation​

AutoFlow is active for this company. Open AutoFlow Flows from the role centre to build your first flow. To use AutoFlow in another company of the same tenant, run the wizard there too.

To stop using AutoFlow in one company, choose Deactivate AutoFlow in This Company on the AutoFlow Setup page. Its flows are unpublished and stay as drafts; with a per-company license, its seat becomes free for another company.

To return an environment to an unactivated state – for example to move it to a different organisation – use Reset AutoFlow Activation on the AutoFlow Setup page.