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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

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Taming the Chaos: A Guide to Vendor Catalogue Management in Business Central
03
Aug

Taming the Chaos: A Guide to Vendor Catalogue Management in Business Central 

Imagine this: You have just received an enormous update on your company’s vendor’s spreadsheet. It comes with hundreds of new codes, descriptions, and changing prices. Now, somebody needs to go through all of that information, check which items your company already has, change prices, and make sure that all these items are available for purchase. If the described scenario seems familiar to you, then you know the problem of vendor catalogue chaos first-hand. In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, however, managing such influxes of data from vendors doesn’t have to be such a pain. This is how to manage vendor catalogues in Business Central.  The Core Problem: Different References  The core problem in the realm of managing vendor catalogues is that of translation. Your Internal Item Card might have the name “Steel Hex Bolt M10x20” with a proprietary SKU (e.g., SHB-1020), with pieces being tracked in your system. The vendor, on the other hand, might have his own name for it: “HB10X20SS,” and his own part number, and he might sell it in boxes of 100.  This language barrier is bridged by Business Central, without the need to change your internal nomenclature.  Managing Item Cross References  In terms of vendor catalogue management in Business Central, the absolute MVP is the Item Cross Reference table. In this feature, you may link a specific vendor’s part number to your internal Item Card.  When your purchasing agent creates a Purchase Order, he does not have to remember your SKU, instead, he types the vendor’s part number in the “Cross Reference No.” field of the purchase order line. Business Central finds the internal item, inserts the proper vendor item number in the purchase order. Even puts the vendor’s unit of measure on the purchase order line.  Simplifying Bulk Updating Using Excel  If the vendor is giving you a full updated catalogue containing new price rates or part numbers. Then it’s not necessary that you should be entering these one-by-one. Business Central enables you to export your “Item Vendor” information (that contains specific part numbers, lead times, and prices of the items from vendors) in Excel.  You can make use of Excel to match the vendor’s updated information with your existing data in just a few clicks. After that, again upload the updated Excel file to Business Central through configuration packages or Excel integration tool.  Working With Non-Stock Items  In some cases, vendor catalogue may include items that are not included in your usual stock of goods. Such parts are specifically ordered from vendors in response to requests from customers. Business Central solves the problem efficiently with “Non-Stock Items”.  A Non-Stock Item catalogue may be created, which works as a virtual database of all the things that you can purchase, but do not stock in your warehouse. In case a customer requires one of those. Business Central offers an option to convert Non-Stock Item to a regular Item Card right away, with automatically included vendor catalogue number and price.  Catalogue Management Best Practices  Establish Data Governance: Define how you would like to receive vendor data. The more compatible with your Excel template is their spreadsheet, the less time will be required to perform import.  Keep Cross References Neat: Do not save old and obsolete vendor part numbers in your cross-reference table. Archive them to speed up your searching capabilities.  Item Attributes Use: Assign item (vendor catalogue) attributes such as “Material” or “Colour” to enable your purchasing department to find vendor item using specifications and not part numbers.  Conclusion  Vendor catalogue management in Business Central is all about bridging the gap between how your vendors categorize their goods and how you categorize them within your company. With proper use of Item Cross References, bulk updates using Excel files, and non-stock items. You take out all friction associated with your purchases. You end up with a shorter PO process, reduced receiving mistakes, and procurement people who spend more time procuring than keying in data. 
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Streamlining Contracts: Managing Blanket Sales Orders in Business Central
28
Jul

Streamlining Contracts: Managing Blanket Sales Orders in Business Central 

Let’s take the case of your biggest client placing an order for buying 10,000 units of your product for a period of one year from now. But they do not want you to deliver 10,000 units at once but monthly in shipments of 830 units each. Preparing a dozen separate sales orders now will mess up your systems and forecasting as well. That is why Blanket Sales Orders of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central can become your saviour.  The Blanket Sales Order is neither a shipping document nor a financial transaction. On the other hand, it is an agreement that includes the negotiated price and quantity to be shipped in parts according to schedule.  Look at how to handle Blanket Sales Orders in Business Central.  The Advantages of Using Blanket Orders  Before getting into the “how,” we first need to know the “why.” There are three reasons why using blanket orders makes sense:  Price Security: This ensures that the negotiated price will be protected for the customer from any changes in price in the future.  Forecasting: The quantities in a blanket order are known to the planning engine, giving you a forecast of what’s to come without making an inventory commitment at the present.  Efficiency: It saves you the trouble of having to enter all that customer information, item numbers, and negotiated prices every time a partial shipment is made.  How It Works in Business Central  In the Business Central solution, blanket orders are managed using the following straightforward two-tier structure: Blanket Sales Order (agreement) and Standard Sales Order (implementation).  While creating the standard sales order based on blanket order, Business Central will automatically calculate the remaining quantity of blanket order. Moreover, it reserves the quantity of “Blanket Order Quantity” on the item card for your supply chain.  Workflow  1. Creating Blanket Sales Order  Create a new Blanket Sales Order and provide the customer, delivery date(s), and line items. Enter the total agreed upon quantity on the lines.  2. Releasing the Order  Like regular orders, you need to change the status of the Blanket Sales Order to Released from Open. It indicates that the order is now official and ready for a partial fulfilment.  3. Making the Order  In case you want to deliver some part of the product, Make Order from already available blanket order with the quantity specification of the product that needs to be shipped.  This way system automatically creates a regular Sales Order that will have all the necessary information about customer, item, and prices filled. Next, you just need to process this order normally.  Best Practices for Success  Keep Your Statuses Clear: Do not keep any active agreements in the “Open” status when they have blanket orders. Always release them so that the planning engine can recognize the demand.  Use the Order Tracking Window: If you get notified by a customer that they want an increase in their monthly delivery of products, you can use the Order Tracking window in Business Central to identify the exact quantity allocated to blanket orders or other sale orders.  Close Them out: After the final delivery the “Quantity to Receive” becomes zero, close the blanket order. Having old, completed blanket orders on your platform will make your sales pipeline cluttered.  Make Use of Archiving: In case you need to see the original agreement details after several months, but you do not need them on your active list, take advantage of archiving functionality in Business Central instead of simply deleting them.  Conclusion  Handling long-term contracts does not necessarily mean trading off on day-to-day efficiency. Thanks to Blanket Sales Orders in Business Central, you will easily be able to separate the deal from its implementation. Not only does it keep your process from becoming inefficient, but it is also what will help the rest of your team in forecasting demands.  Do you use blanket orders to their full extent in your existing ERP system? If your system obliges you to manually manage partial deliveries, then maybe it’s time to consider Business Central as your sales solution.
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Business Central Features That Help Retailers Scale Faster
13
Jul

Business Central Features That Help Retailers Scale Faster 

It’s very exciting to grow a retail company, but there’s also one hidden downside disorganization. Systems that have run smoothly in a single store environment suddenly fall apart when you expand to other branches, e-commerce, and complicated logistics. Instead of celebrating the growth of your business, you may feel suffocated by the chaos of spreadsheets, disconnected POS software, and manual entries. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central was created to help get rid of all of this. By streamlining your processes, it enables you to scale without stress. Here are reasons why it will help you scale up as a retailer.  1. Flawless Omnichannel Integration  Modern customers expect seamless omnichannel experiences such as buy online and pickup in-store (BOPIS) and returns of e-commerce purchases through physical stores. Business Central seamlessly integrates with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Magento as well as strong Point of Sale (POS) solutions like RMH. The result is impeccable synchronization of inventory, sales, and customer information across all channels. It makes market expansion easy while avoiding data silo creation.  2. Real-time Inventory Management  The more SKUs and warehouses you have, the harder it becomes to monitor stock. Business Central delivers real-time inventory management across all your network. It allows monitoring of inventory on shelves, in warehouses, and currently being shipped. The solution eliminates the risks of stockouts, which harm customer loyalty and overstocking, which blocks cash flow.  3. Smart Demand Forecasting  Guesstimating about the amount of inventory to purchase for a new retail location or for a peak sales season is like inviting trouble. Business Central uses past sales performance, seasonality, and predictive modelling to predict future demand. When you know what will sell even before you order the inventory, you’ll be able to make smarter purchasing decisions and maximize your warehousing capacity and get more profitable sooner.  4. Automated Replenishment Rules  It’s just inefficient and unscalable to manually check your spreadsheet for reordering inventory. In Business Central, you can establish rules-based replenishment process where a minimum and maximum stock levels trigger an automatic generation of purchase orders to your vendors. The best sellers will never run out of stock when the system takes care of them while your sales volumes grow and soar.  5. Dynamic Pricing and Promotions  Having to manage sales, BOGO deals, and customer discounts in more than one store and website may cost you valuable profit margins. Business Central provides an integrated approach to your pricing engine. Create sophisticated, time-limited promotions and customer pricing that is automatically applied at the point of sale whether you sell online or offline.   6. Integrated Customer Insights  Scaling does not only involve bringing in more customers; it means optimizing their lifetime value as well. Since Business Central integrates perfectly with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, you have a holistic picture of every customer. Track buying patterns, preferences, and return behaviour through all channels and allow your marketing department to implement personalized marketing strategies.  The Takeaway  When scaling your retail business, it shouldn’t equate to multiplying your challenges. Rather, by consolidating all your software programs through ERP Business Central, your retail challenges will turn out to be your strength. If you feel that your present technology is hampering your growth potential, then it’s time to check out how Business Central could help you scale. 
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The Most Underrated Inventory Features in Business Central
06
Jul

The Most Underrated Inventory Features in Business Central 

In most instances, when organizations install Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, they are mostly concentrated on the common inventory management functionalities. Such as creating item cards, managing inventory and carrying out basic purchasing and sales operations. These fundamental functions are necessary, but they form just a small portion of the system’s possibilities.  However, Business Central provides users with a few powerful tools that allow for streamlining warehouse processes and improving supply chain efficiency. But the fact is that since these functions aren’t mentioned in the main dashboard, many organizations miss them.  For those who don’t want their ERP solution to become just a spreadsheet program and to finally get their money’s worth. Following are four of the most overlooked inventory features of Business Central.  1. Assembly Management  For most firms, the idea is that whenever they manufacture or assemble something, they will require the entire complicated Manufacturing module to begin with. Introducing Assembly Management. This solution fits just nicely somewhere between inventory management and manufacturing itself.  Assembly enables you to assemble multiple components to create a single end-product via Assembly BOM. Either you can create assemblies for stock by looking at the sales forecast, or you can adopt an Assemble-to-Order method that integrates the sales order with the assembly process automatically. The total cost of assembly is calculated automatically for the end-product based on component costs and assembly cost.  2. Item Cross-References  If you have ever had a situation where a customer uses his proprietary part number when ordering an item or received an item from a supplier with another barcode number, then you probably know the problem of having to do manual searches.  Item Cross-References solve that problem easily. You have the option of mapping any number of different cross-reference codes to your internal Item Number. Do it as per customer, per vendor, or by universal barcodes. Every time a customer orders an item by his part number or the warehouse receives an item with a vendor barcode. Business Central matches the part number with internal item.  3. Defect Management (Nonconformances)  Typically, quality management is done through software solutions. These software solutions are not integrated into the ERP system, but are rather separate or even paper based. The Business Central’s Nonconformance management solution is a real treasure trove for those businesses that do not want to invest in a separate Quality Management System (QMS).  The moment you get a product in a bad state or manufacture a nonconformant product, you have a chance to create a “Nonconformance” object associated with a certain lot or serial number. Then you can add information regarding the root cause, responsible person for analysing the issue, as well as corrective actions. And most importantly, you can direct your defective goods into certain scrap/rework containers.  4. The Standard Cost Worksheet  For most accounting and inventorying staff, computing the new standard cost for finished products at the end of each fiscal period is like a living hell. This usually entails transferring tons of data into the Excel file, computing new material and overhead rates. Also, manually entering the changes to hundreds of item cards.  With the Standard Cost Worksheet, however, you can automate all of that. This lets you create a simulation of how the cost changes will look once executed within the system. Once you are satisfied with the simulated data, you can execute the worksheet and automatically update all associated item cards and inventory balances with one click.  Stop Cheating Yourself Out of Cash  Your ERP system should be handling most of your workload when it comes to managing your supply chain. Through the usage of Assembly Management, Item Cross-References, Nonconformances, and the Standard Cost Worksheet, you can save yourself from having to manually enter data, enhance your quality control process, and optimize your monthly closing process.  But if you’re not utilizing these inventory management capabilities just yet, perhaps now is the time to explore further within your Business Central ecosystem. In other case contact your business implementation consultant for a “health check” of your setup. 
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Understanding Consolidations in Business Central for Multi-Company Reporting
29
Jun

Understanding Consolidations in Business Central for Multi-Company Reporting 

For businesses that have their operations in several subsidiaries, divisions, or separate legal entities, it is no secret that one of the issues faced when the accounting period comes to an end is consolidation. It takes up valuable time and leaves much room for mistakes when trying to aggregate all the spreadsheets manually into a consolidated report.  Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central makes this process easier by providing native consolidation. In other words, instead of depending on third-party systems or working with Excel-based solutions. You can consolidate your accounting data right inside the system you already use. Here we will consider the consolidation process in more detail.  The Key Element: Business Units  “Business Units” is the key element of the consolidation process in the Business Central software. This refers to the branches or subsidiary companies that one plans to consolidate under the parent company. If one does not plan to have several databases, then he can create them in Business Central.  After creating the units, one will be able to get data from each unit whether they come from the same database or from another business central environment and bring them in the G/L entries of the consolidated company.  Dealing with Complexity: Currencies and Chart of Accounts  Among the most difficult aspects in multi-entity consolidation, currencies and differences in Chart of Accounts are two major concerns.  Business Central automatically handles currency conversion. You specify your consolidation rules and the currencies you need. The software will automatically convert the amounts from the subsidiary using exchange rates you specified. Resulting in a proper valuation of your consolidated balance sheet in your currency.  Also, subsidiaries might use an alternative numbering in their Chart of Accounts. Business Central Consolidation Charts of Accounts tab solves this issue. For instance, the “Office Supplies” account may have number 5000 in the subsidiary while in the parent company, its equivalent “General Admin” has number 6000. In such a case, a link ensures that all the money would go to the right account despite its source in another organization.  The Critical Step: Eliminations  The total amount of balances in all sub-ledger accounts will not amount to a consolidated financial statement because there exist intercompany transactions. For instance, when one company in the group sells its products to another company in the group, the sales proceeds are intercompany transaction proceeds that must be eliminated.  In Business Central, elimination is done through the Eliminations process. Financial professionals can make elimination entries depending on certain percentages or dimensions that have been set. The eliminations are made through postings to eliminate the payables, receivables, and revenues resulting from intercompany transactions. Some elimination entries may not be automatically posted, although the system provides the means of posting them manually.  Real-Time Reporting & Analysis  The best possible advantage of applying Business Central as an aid in performing consolidations is the ability to gain real-time insight. The information generated by the process becomes immediately available in financial reports, covering all aspects of a corporation’s financial health. No more waiting of weeks for correct spreadsheet numbers; with the information standardized, analysis is almost immediate.  Conclusion  It goes without saying that the expansion of corporations brings about a higher need for efficient financial reporting processes. Spreadsheets are unable to satisfy the ever-growing demand of multi-company reporting, hence the need for consolidation capabilities, such as those of Business Central. Not only does it minimize the risk of mistakes; it also cuts down the period of the financial close cycle drastically.
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One Source of Truth: Understanding Consolidations in Business Central for Multi-Company Reporting
22
Jun

One Source of Truth: Understanding Consolidations in Business Central for Multi-Company Reporting 

As the size of businesses expands, they tend to become more complex entities with a range of subsidiaries, branches, and legal forms of existence. A business may start with one headquarters, only to acquire a distributor in another area or develop an entirely separate manufacturing branch. Although expansion is always an exciting process. It raises serious questions regarding the ability of the finance department to manage the finances of the whole business. The information spreads across different databases and currencies. Solve this problem by using the Consolidation in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.  Dealing with the “Spreadsheet Maze”  Prior to introducing an ERP system, most companies must resort to traditional methods to integrate their financial figures. In such instances, trial balances are normally exported to Excel from multiple sources. Also it gets adjusted for the differences in currencies before being combined into one document.  As an option, this method may work fine for very small companies. However, it is fraught with the danger of version control problems, wrong formulas, lack of security, etc. Moreover, this process takes much longer, and by the time information integrates, it is already out-of-date. This situation, causing executives to make decisions based on an outdated picture of things.  Business Central Consolidation Process  The following process simplifies the whole procedure by letting you combine all your subsidiaries’ data into one consolidated company regardless of the chart of account, fiscal year, or currency used by each individual subsidiary.  There are two key approaches to consolidations in Business Central:  Internal Consolidation: If all of your subsidiaries use Business Central, then this will allow you to automate the importing of subsidiary databases into the consolidated company.  External Import: In the case of subsidiaries that may be using other ERPs or legacy systems, Business Central lets you import information through XML or Excel ports.  Critical Characteristics of Correct Reporting  What truly sets the Consolidations module apart is its ability to address complexities involved in accounting both internationally and domestically:  Foreign Exchange: When dealing with foreign companies, exchanging them into a reporting currency (USD, EUR, and other) becomes an annoying issue. Business Central deals with this automatically by translating subsidiaries according to the pre-determined exchange rates.  Mapping of Charts of Accounts: In many cases, subsidiaries will have charts of accounts, which differ significantly from those of other subsidiaries and the parent company. Thus, when consolidating subsidiary companies, some accounts need to be mapped to a uniform set of accounts. Business central software makes it possible, and “Marketing expense,” which was originally designated as “Account 6000,” becomes “Account 8050,” etc.  Intercompany Elimination: Without a doubt, the most important characteristic of consolidation is the elimination of internal operations. Since the revenues that arise from them are, strictly speaking, fictitious. This operation can be performed easily with Business Central; the software automatically generates eliminations regarding inter-company payables, receivables, and revenues.  The Strategic Advantage  Using proper consolidation in Business Central elevates the function of finance from being purely tactical to something strategic. With the automation of the tedious task of aggregating data and translating currencies, finance executives can close their books more efficiently.  But most importantly, it gives you a “single version of the truth.” There will no longer be confusion on which Excel sheet is correct because you’ll have access to live and consolidated dashboards. Perhaps even through Power BI, to examine the profitability of the company, break it down to specific regions, and see trends that won’t be evident with fragmented data.  In today’s dynamic business environment, visibility is power. Get it with the help of Business Central’s consolidation capabilities. 
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