The implementation of Dynamics 365 Business Central can be a daunting process for the end users of the new system. Highlighting useful, everyday features of Dynamics 365 Business Central can help to make adoption easier.
When implementing a new system, it can be quite common to find that people focus on the differences between their old familiar system and the new system – often judging any changes unfavourably. Whilst this behaviour may be both common and understandable, it is important the champions of your new system put focus on the new features that will deliver process improvements and quick wins. Having this focus often negates the perceived issues of the new system. Dynamics 365 Business Central contains many features that can greatly enhance productivity, especially in labour-intensive tasks.
So, what are some of the great features you may be blissfully unaware of?
1. Recurring Purchase Lines
Recurring Purchase Lines allows easy accurate order entry. Relationships between specific nominal account codes or items and suppliers can be defined with the outcome of increasing both speed and accuracy.
Imagine accounts frustration at the requisitioners inability to select the correct account code on a PO or quote. Similarly, understand the requisitioners frustration at being presented with a range of codes with often similar names that are ‘supposedly’ clearly different and easy to select correctly. These issues can be resolved by the Recurring Purchase Lines functionality.
Recurring Purchase Lines allow the correct codes to either be easily selectable by the user by assigning a user-friendly name or even pre-populated on every new document for a supplier.
Dimension values can be pre-assigned in the background, so the user does not need to add them.
2. Recurring Sales Lines
The Recurring Sales Lines function is like Recurring Purchase Lines but for selling rather than buying. Fast and accurate order entry is made possible through combinations of default items and account codes per customer. User-friendly names can be assigned and dimensions pre-populated in the background to reduce manual data entry.
3. Copy Document
Business Central’s Copy Document functionality enables rapid recreation of an existing document. Once copied, the new document can be amended to allow for new changes.
This feature provides clear time savings for users and improved accuracy by reducing manual data input requirements.
4. Non-Inventory Items
Business Central Non-Inventory Items offer the ability to store additional information such as price lists and discounts for both sales and purchasing. Financial data such as dimensions and accounts can also be defaulted by item to facilitate detailed analysis of revenue and expenses.
Business Central users can set up different types of items within the system, allowing users to save time by not having to remember, or manually add details when processing sales and purchase transactions.
5. Item Attributes
Item Attributes enable an organisation to add unlimited classifications to items. Anybody dealing with large SKU ranges will be familiar with complex (occasionally very annoying) part numbering conventions that inevitably morph over time, run out of characters for a new product type and contain various errors or inconsistencies that frustrate the detail-oriented eye.
Business Central Item Attributes does the heavy lifting of classifying items and does away with challenging code conventions and the associated order errors that come with them.
Item Attributes can accommodate all manner of sizes, colours, launch dates, seasonality, materials, specifications and more. Attribute filtering also allows easy navigation of the Item Catalogue saving users time when searching.
6. Select Items
For users that need to create sales or Purchase Orders that contain multiple lines, Business Central has a handy feature – Business Central Select Items allows you to add dozens of items to your order simultaneously just by ticking the boxes of required items.
If you already have pricing set up in Business Central, it is possible to raise a 50-line order in a matter of minutes simply by adding quantities to each line. These are the sort of tangible time savings that may have made your organisation decide to purchase an ERP in the first place.
7. Copy and paste
Lastly, never forget good old copy and paste. For users that require several lines that are the same or very similar, copy and paste works seamlessly within Dynamics 365 Business Central to allow rapid data input.
With a bit of effort on arranging source documents with the right columns, you can also copy data from outside Business Central and paste it in.
Getting started – utilise all the features of Dynamics 365 Business Central
At Telefónica Tech, we value making incremental improvements to your Dynamics 365 Business Central implementation, helping you to drive maximum value from your investment by utilising out-the-box features. Ready to get started with Business Central? Get in touch.