If you’re new to Dynamics NAV | Dynamics 365 Business Central, or it’s been a long time since you updated yourself on what’s in the box, it may be useful to start at the very beginning to get a feel for the breadth and depth of this pretty special solution.
Dynamics NAV | 365 Business Central is what the industry commonly refers to as an ‘Enterprise Resource Planning System’ (ERP), which basically means it’s a solution capable of supporting all the business processes company wide. As a footnote, before ERP systems came into fashion in the 90’s, a company typically bought separate solutions for each area of their business, such as finance, order processing, stock management and human resource systems, as there were very few integrated solutions on the market.
So, how to start explaining Dynamics NAV | 365 Business Central and its functionality? A starting point might be to look at the types of good companies who use it to run everything in their business. Probably the most common type of company using Dynamics NAV | 365 Business Central are those in the business of buying products and storing them before selling them on. These businesses are commonly made up of multiple sales channels, all of which can be supported by Dynamics NAV | 365 Business Central from The NAV | 365 People.
Now, let’s look at the core areas of functionality Dynamics NAV | 365 Business Central provides to users:
Financial Management
The financial management element of is the most commonly used function of the system. It allows you to streamline your finances and get real-time visibility into the performance of your business. You can easily share your information in a secure manner with an accountant or book-keeper and gain more control over your budgets and cash-flow. With the finance module you can:
- Apply incoming payments directly to the related customer and mark invoices as paid to automatically reconcile accounts
- Get recommendations on when to pay vendors to take advantage of vendor discounts or avoid overdue penalties
- Add tags to entries for quicker categorisation and analysis
- Improve your organisation’s ability to develop, modify, and control budgets.
Inventory Management
Having the ability to streamline and easily manage inventory is a godsend for any business with a supply chain. Inventory management in Dynamics NAV | 365 Business Central increases visibility across your entire supply chain to reduce inventory costs and keep customers happy. You can use built-in intelligence to predict when and what you need to replenish, ensuring inventory levels are maintained to avoid shortages and lost sales. With the inventory functionality you can:
- Get a detailed view of your inventory - regardless of its location
- Offer customers items that you don’t maintain in inventory
- Post a sales credit memo and manage customer refunds
- Avoid lost sales by offering substitute items when requested items aren’t available.
Sales
Dynamics NAV | 365 Business Central allows you to shorten the time from quote to cash by connecting your sales and accounting processes and you are able to quickly act on sales-related enquiries right from Outlook - genius! It’s also very ease to handle multiple ship-to and bill-to addresses per customer, including direct shipment and invoicing addresses. The sales functionality allows you to:
- Post sales right from Outlook, then send your invoices as PDF attachments that include a PayPal link to expedite payments
- Get a complete overview of interactions and track current customer status, from email to order to invoice
- Negotiate and keep track of special agreements with individual customers, including discount structures
- Prioritise leads based upon revenue potential and opportunities throughout the sales cycle.
Purchasing
The purchasing element enables you to monitor and control your purchasing process through automated workflows and dynamically updated inventory levels. You can prevent unnecessary or fraudulent purchases by implementing approvals, plus modify a posted invoice in your financial management system and register the correction without hassle! You can:
- Create purchase invoices and orders to record the cost of purchase and track accounts payable
- Stay in control of expenses by implementing advanced workflow and approval structures
- Automate tasks for vendors to record your agreements concerning discounts, prices, and payment methods.
Reporting and Analytics
The reporting and analytics functionality allows you to centralise your financial management data across accounting, sales, purchasing, inventory, and customer interactions for an up-to-date, end-to-end view of your business. You can make faster, more informed decisions when you’re guided by connected processes, predictive analytics, and real-time data. It allows you to:
- Make fast, informed decisions with seamless Microsoft Excel integration
- Easily track your KPIs by creating your own analyses on general ledger data
- Chart your business’ performance in real time on your dashboard using built-in Power BI integration
- Accurately predict your cash flow using built-in Cortana Intelligence integration.
Project Management
Project management in Dynamics NAV | 365 Business Central allows you to perform common project management tasks and get all the data you need to help manage budgets and monitor progress. You can track machine and employee project hours using timesheets, and access real-time data on available resources, such as employees and machinery. With the project management functionality you can:
- Create, manage, and track customer projects with sophisticated job costing and reporting capabilities
- Manage usage levels and profitability of resources by planning capacity and sales
- Develop, modify, and control budgets to avoid over-expenditure.
Operations
The operations element allows you to streamline your operations and make smarter decisions by taking advantage of integrated manufacturing, warehousing, and service management. You can:
- Stay on top of warehouse inventory by tracking every item transaction or movement
- Get quality products to market more efficiently with visibility across your entire production process
- Deliver reliable service to your customers by tracking existing service agreements.
In a Nutshell...
So, that is Dynamics NAV | 365 Business Central. Thousands of companies around the world use it - Retailers, eTailers, Manufacturers, Service companies, large companies, small companies, international and local; sophisticated organisations with many users and smaller companies with a few users. The NAV | 365 People are happy to help support you on your ERP journey and have an in-house Dynamics NAV / Business Central support team working hard behind the scenes.
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