Steve Endow's Business Central Podcast

I Need Coffee - Episode 217 - Weekly BC Review! (July 17, 2026)
- Neighborhood animal chaos
  Helped trap a stray cat with severe mange for the local shelter (TNVR process). Separately, a pack of large collared dogs has been roaming the area twice in two months, drawing multiple sheriff’s cars, motorcycle cops, and even a helicopter after one of the dogs bit someone.

- ERP Academy launch
  Created a full 18+ month Business Central / ERP training curriculum that starts from zero knowledge and goes through manufacturing plus a hands-on practicum. Built primarily with Claude/Fable (roughly 400 pages of material). Aimed at nearshore talent in El Salvador (Edgar, Fabricio, Jazelle, Melvin, Ronald, Fatima, and others). LMS is set up; first lesson and call start Monday. Goal is to have people job-ready for a large company seeking nearshore resources in 18–24 months. Plan includes periodic AI-assisted refreshes as Microsoft updates Business Central.

- Grok privacy issue
  Reports that Grok was uploading entire local repositories—including untracked files, credentials, and environment files—despite users being opted out. Speaker is avoiding Grok for now.

- Microsoft tenant billing confusion
  Received an unexpected invoice for Business Basic on a newly created isolated tenant used for GitHub Enterprise + Azure Key Vault. Tracking down the correct tenant ID took significant time.

- Custom PTE proposal & sales friction
  Sent a proposal for a custom Business Central extension. Will present at Vibe 2.0 in September on making the sales and proposal process more efficient. Noted how hard it is to scope custom work on short customer calls; prototypes are often required first.

- Dynamics GP ISV trial lesson
  A partner purchased the highest-capacity version of a high-volume posting product for a customer that only posts about 35 transactions per day. Strong reminder to always run a proper trial before buying the top-tier license.

- Marketing & website work
  Call with Daniella on marketing campaigns. Used Claude to add prominent pricing (including a $1,000-off promotion) to a product page in minutes. Also refreshed the five-year-old Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, added modern legal clauses, and switched to fully cookieless analytics (Cloudflare + exploring Umami) so no GDPR cookie banner is needed.

- Claude Code CLI tip
  Disabled accidental mouse-click selections with the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_MOUSE_CLICKS.

- Automated documentation site
  Built a dedicated docs / user-guide site for the marketplace apps using Astro + Starlight. It is fully automated: every night it checks the app repositories for updated user guides and publishes them. Already live for the first two apps. Described as previously feeling like an unrealistic “super yacht” project that is now running with almost zero ongoing effort.

- Standardizing the AI development process
  Inspired by Waldo’s article on top-down AI frameworks. Pushing the small team toward one consistent process instead of each developer inventing their own approach to documentation, PRDs, user guides, etc. Current pain points include excessive Git branching by Claude, PR overload, and constant manual approval of actions.

- Local voice-to-text
  Settled on Open Whisper running locally (Nvidia model) on both the main machine and a Windows VM for RDP sessions. Basic transcription works well with only a short delay.

- GPT deletion incidents
  Multiple reports of GPT aggressively deleting files (including an entire home directory via rm -rf), production databases, and even all customer subscriptions on a Shopify store. OpenAI attributed some cases to full-access mode without proper sandboxing.

- Microsoft Marketplace (formerly AppSource)
  Official rename. App update was submitted and finally published around midnight, allowing a same-morning install for a customer. Removed trial record limits after they caused incomplete test data; now relying on online registration and license validation instead. MVP status renewed for the 13th year.

- App logic improvement
  Payment-to-invoice matching logic changed from invoice date to due date; Claude suggested adding a plus/minus tolerance window, which was accepted.

- AI project-management experiment
  Forwarded a real proposal email to an agent (OpenClaw) with instructions to create a Teams Planner opportunity, attach the document, summarize hours, assign it, and set a follow-up date. It worked in one shot. Next step is exploring Microsoft Work IQ + Teams Planner MCP server so Claude can handle richer multi-step project tasks.

- Upcoming events
  - Vibe 2.0 – September in Provo, Utah (speaking on marketing with zero budget/team).
  - Summit NA – October 11–15 in Nashville (book early; hotels and flights are expensive).

- Important warnings
  - Do not fully outsource critical thinking or bug hunting to AI; it is weak on edge cases, multi-step workflows, and external data.
  - Customer claims of “we only ever have one simple scenario” are frequently wrong when real data appears.
  - One company standardized on Microsoft AI tools and blocked everything else before licenses were ready, grinding work to a halt.
  - SonicWall SMA VPN appliances have a critical unauthenticated RCE (CVSS 10.0) that fully rootkits the device beyond recovery—hardware must be destroyed. Similar risks exist on other SonicWall SSLVPN products.
  - Cursor automatically executes any file named git.exe when a project is opened (known issue for many months).

- Team updates
  - Ronald – posting the ERP Academy curriculum.
  - Franklin – enhancing the partner dashboard (auto-pushing minimum supported BC versions) and investigating a hard-to-reproduce transaction error.
  - Fatima – helping with the academy, August meetup agenda, and testing project-management processes.
  - Daniella – building the marketing plan and campaign; learning UTM parameters and Umami analytics.
  - Joselyn & David – studying for the MB-800 exam (fixed assets, posting groups, and deferrals are hot topics).
  - Active MCP servers in use: Business Central, Microsoft AL Code, and Stefan Maron’s AL dependency server.

I Need Coffee - Episode 216 - Weekly BC Review! (July 10, 2026)
1. AI Development Practices & Lessons

Development Process Improvements:
Uses PRD → Detailed Design Doc → Comprehensive Development Plan (52 pages in latest example).
Adds wireframe walkthroughs for early validation.
Implements review gates, proofs of concept, and phased execution.

Key insight: One-shotting complex apps with AI is risky. Needs heavy guidance, nurturing (especially with Opus), and context.
Experimenting with Fable for development.
Learned hard lesson on prompting: Giving AI only code leads to hallucinations and poor root cause analysis. Needs full context (docs, rules, history, sample data).

2. Berlin ERP Academy Progress

Full curriculum built: 10 phases, 22 documents, 441 pages.
Timeline: 18–20 months for complete beginners (zero ERP knowledge) to become BC consultants + manufacturing experts.
Includes training guides, quizzes, labs, gates (exams/practicums).
Team (Fatima, Ronald) loading into LMS; using Notebook LM heavily for infographics, slides, and study aids.
Daniela (new marketing associate) will also participate to gain BC knowledge.

3. New Side Project: AI-Powered Project Management

Goal: Systematize project management using AI agents (OpenClaw, Claude, etc.) integrated with Teams Planner via MCP.
Vision: Auto-generate tasks, risk assessments (ISO 31000 style), status reports, budget vs actual, blockers, etc.
Fed by requirements docs, estimates, timesheets.
Enthusiastic about the potential but notes tools are still janky/slow.
Enlisting Fatima to help build this framework.

4. Business Central Development & Version Issues

Multi-company demo tenant trick: Use evaluation company setup wizard in unlicensed demo environments to create multiple companies.
BC Version Circus (28.x):
Avoid developing on 28.1, 28.2, 28.3 — major issues (Application Test Library fails, symbol download problems, update date resets).
Stick to 28.0 for stability.

DevOps/GitHub pipeline struggles with complex dependency scaffolding.

5. Marketing & Daniela Update

Daniela started as Marketing Associate.
Learning fundamentals from scratch (value propositions, Business Central vs ISV differences).
Will participate in ERP Academy for domain knowledge.
Steve’s approach: Building marketing capability in-house with minimal budget instead of expensive agencies ($13k/quarter quotes).

6. Conference Updates

Partner Vibe 2.0 (September 2026, Provo, UT):
Steve speaking on two sessions: “Marketing Without a Marketing Team” and AI-assisted project delivery.
Blue Dragonfly sponsoring (cocktail/mocktail + gamer prize).

Summit NA – October 2026, Nashville.
Other mentions: Dynamics Con Regionals (Ghana July, Columbus August).

7. Team Excellence Updates

Joselyn: Heavy financials, config packages, data loads.
David: Complex contacts migration (GP → BC).
Ronald: Continia Document Capture expert; formal project plans; Academy curriculum support. Starting implementations soon (6–7 week timeline).
Franklin: Sales Price List PTE + assemblies/kits; bug diagnosis; AI-generated user guides.
Fatima: Academy LMS setup; planning El Salvador DUG meetup in August; project management initiative support.
Daniela: Marketing fundamentals training.

8. Other Notable Items

Customer thank-you for responsive support.
Azure Foundry: Not recommended for frontier model dev work (quota, access, and model limitations).
Windows hardening tool: “Harden System Security” by Violet Hansen (recommended, available in Microsoft Store).
New Bill.com integration user guide in progress.
Upcoming tasks: Vibe code new ERP Center of Excellence website, finalize proposal, enhance integrations.

9. Closing Thought

Artwork highlight: “Fly Quietly” by Masaki Sasamoto (2016).
Encouragement: Go build/vibe code something, but be aware of AI’s limitations and the need for strong processes.

I Need Coffee - Episode 215 - Weekly BC Review! (July 3,2026)

1. Trip to El Salvador Highlights
Flew to El Salvador office in Berlin.
Airport experiences: Ate pupusas at 7 AM (heavy but good), used the SEPA/Ca Sepa lounge.
Stopped at famous roadside Papuseria La Infia.
Set up new office decor (Microsoft Dynamics 365 pillows).
Morning walks around town, coconut tree maintenance (OSHA hazard – needs regular trimming).
Team lunches/dinners with Joselyn, Franklin, Fatima, and English Academy students.
Took professional studio photos in-office using Sony mirrorless + lights.

2. Personal & Website Updates
Launched several new websites using Claude Vibe Coding (Astro + Cloudflare Pages):
Blue Dragonfly site.
Old Precipio site refresh.
New personal site (steveendo.com) with terminal Easter egg (Konami code hint), contact form (Resend + Turnstile).
Praises vibe-coded sites for easy maintenance — agents can update icons, sections, etc., in minutes.

3. Marketing Strategy & New Hire
Submitted conference talk: "Marketing Without a Marketing Team".
Created a 6-month zero-budget marketing plan using AI.
Hired Daniela (E4CC English Academy scholarship recipient) to execute the plan.
She starts next week.
Will handle CRM setup, newsletters, outbound marketing, webinars, etc.
Plans to follow successful patterns from Ben Cole (ERP Connect / Ruck Software).

4. Major Technical Project Success (Agentic Engineering)
Completed a massive, complex customization for a customer:
Reverse-engineered a 1,600+ line SQL stored procedure from Dynamics GP.
Built extensive design doc (~44 pages), wireframes, and 41-page development plan.
Result: 38 AL files, ~3,800 lines of Business Central code.
Used Fable (AI coding agent) to diagnose and fix a subtle decimal rounding bug (down to ~28th decimal place).
Emphasizes the need for strong prompting, design docs, and oversight to prevent AI from hallucinating in complex apps.

5. Berlin ERP Academy Launch (Big New Initiative)
Goal: Train 4 locals (including university students) to become Business Central consultants (MB800 certified) + manufacturing experts in 18 months.
Target completion: ~Feb/March 2028.
~10 hours/week study schedule with light weeks for holidays/exams.
Curriculum covers: ERP foundations, financials, sales, purchasing, inventory, APIs, manufacturing practicum, etc.
Team teachers: Joselyn, Ronald, Fatima (experienced with Google Classroom).
LMS platform being set up.
First lessons: BC navigation, tenant setup, admin center (by Ronald).

6. Team Updates (Excellence Report)
Joselyn: Crushing financials & workflows (38 workflows completed). Discovered strange disappearing records issue in one environment.
David: Working on messy GP → BC data migrations (contacts) and new customizations.
Ronald: Completed Continia Document Capture implementation plan; helping with Academy content.
Franklin: Refined Sales Price List PTE (assembly explosion handling).
Fatima: Leading Academy LMS setup and structure.

7. Upcoming Events
Partner Vibe 2.0 – September 21, 2025, Provo, Utah.
Summit NA – October 11, 2025, Nashville, TN.
BC Bash – Nashville (big party during Summit).
Dynamics Con Regionals 2026: Ghana (July 25), Columbus (August 25).

8. Cybersecurity Lesson
Story of a 19-year-old hacker arrested after Microsoft traced him via Global Device Identifier (GDID) + Windows telemetry.
Key takeaway: Windows emits telemetry that bypasses VPNs/proxies. Don’t use Windows for serious cybercrime.

9. Closing Wisdom / AI Reflection
AI dramatically lowers the cost of building (apps, websites, complex customizations, curricula).
The real challenge remains getting users/customers — building ≠ success.
Incumbents with technical debt and complacency will also face disruption.
Encouragement: Try Fable on hard projects before it potentially changes.

I Need Coffee - Episode 214 - Weekly BC Review!  (June 19, 2026)
1. Opening & Casual Notes
Morning coffee: Good Beans Guora Pakamara Washed (milder than natural process).
Light-hearted joke about project managers and PMP exam struggles.
Audio troubleshooting at the start.

2. AI & Development Wins
Missed Anthropic’s short-lived Fable model (high-cost, advanced AI that was pulled quickly).
Created high-fidelity wireframes + narrative walkthrough with Claude for a complex GP-to-BC migration project. Excellent for customer reviews.
TRDP (The Really Difficult Project): Complex financial reporting with beginning balances, period subtotals, restrictions, etc. Using incremental agentic development approach (tables → UI → code units with review gates).

3. Hardware & Troubleshooting
Multimeter tip: Need capacitance mode (curved line symbol) for capacitors — not available on cheapest models (~$70–90 range).
Mac Mini M4 (ARM64) issues:
Windows 11 VM on Parallels.
x64 tools (Process Monitor) fail; need ARM64 or 32-bit emulation versions.
FastKeys utility had a helpful 32-bit workaround.

4. Website Redesign (Major Win)
Replaced ancient 2013-era WordPress site (security issues, expensive hosting) with a new static site.
Built in <1 day using Claude + Cloud Code CLI, Astro 6, Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Actions, Wrangler, Turnstile, Resend.
Result: Fully functional, mobile-responsive, contact form working. Switched from $31/month hosting → essentially free.
Estimated savings: $5k–$10k vs. hiring a professional.

5. Media Processing
FFmpeg optimization via OpenClaw/Claude for Teams recordings.
Reduced 218 MB MP4 → 54 MB with no noticeable quality loss for analysis/training.
Used btop to monitor CPU; leverages full cores on M4.

6. Business Central / ISV Topics
Registration Dashboard: Internal tool to manage licenses, trials, renewals, and automate extensions upon payment (via iSolutions integration).
Permission Sets workaround: Use the “Permission Set by User” page for bulk(er) assignments instead of the user card.
Email issues: Microsoft 365 Defender quarantine overly aggressive — blocking legitimate BC invoices and even internal Teams notifications.

7. GitHub Migration Challenges
Migrating from Azure DevOps to GitHub Enterprise.
Pitfall: Choosing “Managed Users” creates a ghe.com isolated tenant that ALGO for GitHub does not support.
Recommendation: Use Personal Accounts option for compatibility.
Reverted to DevOps temporarily due to this.

8. Productivity & Prompting Tips
Claude Opus 4.8 acting “dumber” recently → bump thinking effort (High → Extra/Max or X High) for better coherence on complex tasks.
Incremental development with agents is preferred over one-shot prompts.

9. Security Alerts
Fortinet massive breach: ~74,000 firewalls compromised via credential stuffing + hash cracking (45-GPU cluster).
VS Code 1.25+: Enable extension auto-update delay (24–72 hours) to mitigate supply chain attacks.

10. Personal / Misc
Replaced Intermatic whole-house fan timer switch (easy DIY electrical work).
New tires (“llantas” in El Salvador Spanish — not “neumáticos”).
Cost-sensitive customer reminder on estimates.

11. Team & Business Updates
Joselyn & David progressing on MB800, reports, data exchange, check layouts.
Ronald: Continia project planning + new English Academy cohort.
Franklin: Registration Dashboard + new PTE (multi price list selection).
Fatima: Learning partner/registration dashboards + PTE testing.

12. Upcoming Events
Partner Vibe 2.0 – Sept 21–23, Provo, UT.
Dynamics Summit NA – Oct 11–15, Nashville, TN.
Dynamics Con Regional – Ghana (July 25), Columbus OH (Aug 25–26).

13. Q&A
Explained DevOps → GitHub migration rationale and current ghe.com blocker.

I Need Coffee - Episode 213 - Weekly BC Review! (June 12, 2026)

1. Personal & Fun Updates
- Served as part-time caterer: Grilled veggies and steaks for a 20–30 person potluck.
- Discovered Loupe app (by @myk_co) — reveals extensive iOS device fingerprinting (copy/paste count, activation timestamps, reboot history, SSIDs, etc.). Highlights near-impossible anonymity on mobile devices, especially with roadside Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/ALPR tracking.

2. Major Achievement: New Website Launch
- 100% vibe-coded (500% AI-assisted) using Claude Code CLI.
- Tech stack: Astro + TypeScript, Cloudflare Pages (free hosting), GitHub Actions for auto-deploy, Wrangler, Turnstile (CAPTCHA), Resend for contact forms.
- Process: AI helped with design research, brief, full build, and maintenance.
- Saved ~$7,000 compared to professional quote.
- Easy ongoing maintenance (e.g., adding products, logos, summaries via AI).

3. AI Usage & Proposal Workflow
- Consistently uses AI for rapid deliverables: Record Teams call → transcript → combined FRD/PRD (10–15 pages) + 2–3 page executive summary proposal.
- Total time: ~30-min call + 1 hour AI work.
- Challenges with AI estimating hours (inconsistent task lists and ranges).
- Claude 4.8 issues: Bizarre/abstract language, gibberish phrases, overconfidence, refusal to decide ("I am not deciding this for you"), hallucinations, and compounding design errors (e.g., unnecessary fields for 20-char Code constraints).

4. Development & Product Updates
- Multi-Entity Management (MEM) oversight: Forgot to check for MEM in a new sandbox; may require app adjustments.
- Business Central 28.2 rollout: Frustrating upgrade date control — new versions become default without easy delay options. Using internal Partner Dashboard tool to bulk defer upgrades.
- New Marketplace app: BAI2 Direct Debit Import (US-focused, Bank of America initially). Handles automated vendor payments via bank files, matching, exceptions, etc.
- Ongoing monster project: Migrating 1,260-line SQL stored procedure → BC. Created 40-page design doc; now doing high-fidelity wireframes (excellent with Opus) and detailed development plan for potential sub-agent orchestration.

5. AI Model News
- Anthropic released powerful Mythos → downgraded/guard-railed as Fable 5. Heavy data logging (30+ days) by Anthropic, so avoided for customer work.
- Microsoft (major investor in Anthropic) reportedly restricting employee use of Fable 5 due to privacy concerns.
- Prompting remains difficult; even multi-agent setups risky without strong human oversight.

6. Cybersecurity Updates
- MS Nightmare (formerly Nightmare Eclipse) releasing zero-days after MSRC conflict:
  - Rogue Planet: Windows Defender bypass (race condition).
  - Great XML: BitLocker drive encryption bypass (second after Yellow Key).
- Warning of more zero-days coming due to MSRC's poor handling of researchers.

7. Team Updates (El Salvador)
- Joselyn: Financial reporting expert; studying Fixed Assets & Posting Groups for MB-800 retake.
- David: RDLC/Word layouts, Data Exchange, customizations; part-time MB-820 study.
- Ronald: Completed BAI2 app testing; BC email setup; helping with Partner Dashboard.
- Franklin: Partner Dashboard refinements; workflow approvals study.
- Fatima: Taking PMP exam today (tough 4-hour exam); learning Partner Dashboard.

8. Upcoming Events
- Partner Vibe 2.0: Sept 21–23, 2026, Provo, Utah (submissions open until June 15).
- Summit NA: Oct 11–15, Nashville (presenting with Brad on AI for PTEs). Avoiding expensive on-site hotel.

9. Fun / Misc
- English contronym: "Peruse" means both "examine in detail" and "skim casually."
- Opsec fail story: NSO Group (spyware) left a cup of noodles photo with their logo visible in WhatsApp testing — used as evidence in court.