Learn Easy Ways to Manage Your Inventory Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central makes it easier than ever to manage your business’ inventory. But as with any new software-related task, it can be tough to know where and how to get started. If you have questions about Business Central or you’re ready to take the next step with your business, JourneyTEAM can help!
Click here to visit our Dynamics 365 Business Central page, or continue reading this blog post to learn how to manage your inventory in 5 easy steps.
If you want us to walk you through the process, watch the video demo below to see the 5 steps for inventory management with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
1) Review Aged Inventory
Let’s start by reviewing your aged inventory. From the 365 Business Central dashboard, scroll down to the Aged Inventory heading.
Here, you’ll have the ability to drill down into items that have been in your inventory for more than 120 days. This is extremely useful, as you’ll quickly gain insight into whether or not you’re moving inventory effectively. If you click on the “Over 120 Days” bar of the graph that’s displayed, you’ll see a list of old inventory sorted by posting date.
2) Check Your Top Selling Items
Next up, you can take a look at your top selling items. It’s helpful to do this after reviewing your stale inventory, as it gives you a sense of both your worst and best performing items back to back.
From your Dynamics 365 dashboard, click the Items option at the top of your screen. From here, click Report > Inventory > inventory Statistics > Inventory - Top 10 List. And there you have it: your top 10 selling items.
3) Confirm Inventory and Vendor Lead Time
At this point, you have a sense of which items are selling the fastest and which are gathering dust in your warehouse. Obviously, you want to ensure that you have adequate inventory in stock so that your best selling items are available for purchase. In the event that you need to replenish your inventory, it’s important to know what sort of vendor lead time you should expect. Without this information, you could end up out of stock on items that are in high demand.
To check your inventory and vendor lead time, we’ll use Dynamics 365’s search function. Click the magnifying glass at the top right corner of your screen, and then select Purchase Advice.
The Purchase Advice report will quickly show you how many top selling items are on order, as well as how many are currently in stock.
Notice an item that’s nearly out of stock? Let’s see what the vendor lead time is. From your dashboard, click Vendors, then Report > Purchase > Vendor/Item Purchases. Then, preview the report. With the Vendor/Item Purchases report, you’ll see both the average cost as well as the lead time of all available vendors.
4) Enter a Purchase Invoice
If you’ve found something that’s out of stock (or soon-to-be out of stock), it’s easy to enter a purchase invoice for that item. From the dashboard, click Vendors, select the vendor you’re purchasing from, and then click the Purchase Invoice button at the top of your screen. You can now enter your vendor invoice number, insert the items purchased, and then click the Post button to post the invoice.
5) Predict Your Future Inventory Needs
At this point, it’s clear how helpful Business Central can be when it comes to keeping track of your inventory. But Dynamics 365 allows you to do much more than just determine which items you need to re-order now. In addition, Business Central features powerful tools for predicting your future inventory needs ahead of time.
From your Dynamics 365 dashboard, click Items. On the right side of your screen, you’ll see the Forecast app. If you select the Forecast drop down menu, you can toggle between the Sales view and the Inventory Forecast.
Using the power of artificial intelligence, Business Central provides you with a forecast of upcoming inventory needs. The Inventory Forecast will instantly show you whether a particular item is predicted to be out of stock in the near future, given your existing inventory and current customer purchasing behaviors. Rather than running out of an item and missing out on potential revenue, you’ll now have the ability to re-stock that item in advance.
As you can see, Dynamics 365 Business Central offers you the ability to effortlessly manage your business’ inventory. With Business Central, you can improve your decision making, gain greater insight into inventory levels and customer demand, and manage your cash and investments efficiently and effectively.
Thinking about transitioning your organization to Dynamics 365? Want to learn more about what Business Central can do for you? Contact JourneyTEAM today!
Article by: Dave Bollard -
National Director of Marketing