More reliable financial operations, better forecasting, less manual work, improved decision making, stronger compliance, enhanced performance as growth demands increase.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) brings finance, operations, and reporting together in one connected platform, available in the cloud or on-premises. FormusPro helps organisations modernise legacy ERP systems and streamline everyday processes with a flexible solution that grows as your business does.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is an Enterprise Resource Planning system which connects your finance, manufacturing, and logistics together in a single, all-in-one environment.
Manage your sales, purchasing, inventory, logistics in multiple currencies and across multiple countries. It includes a robust set of audit trails, along with automated bank feeds, reconciliation, asset management and workflows.
Beyond the essential and expected features of any financial management software, it also provides additional insight and forecasting tools, such as reporting the impact of changes to exchange rates or supply chain costs. These insights can be quickly reviewed, discussed and actions can be taken to minimise impacts.
Integrations with e-commerce, retail POS and EDI platforms can ensure accurate and real-time information is passed directly into your financial reports, avoiding the need for delays or user errors due to manually importing data.
It’s a powerful ERP for Discrete Manufacturing, including MPS (Master Production Scheduling), BOM (Bills of Materials), demand forecasting, capacity planning and agile manufacturing.
Reliability, efficiency and control are core tenants of Discrete Manufacturing. Real-time visibility of manufacturing lines can help managers make critical in-time decisions, Lot and serial number tracking and audit trails can help ensure an accurate account of all products for certifications, standards and (hopefully infrequent) recalls.
The CRM and Sales aspects of Dynamics 365 can be used to forecast the impact of new and prospective orders on the current manufacturing plans. Whether the orders are placed online, in store or over the phone or email, you can gain insights into the potential and immediate strain on your manufacturing lines.
Access complete control and insights into your warehouse and logistics, from stock to sales and purchases across multiple sites and in-transit.
Using handheld warehousing tools and integrations, you can go completely paperless across all your warehouses. These systems integrate easily to provide a powerful handheld tool to staff, which can be used to track, locate and audit stock with complete audit trails and accountability.
As Microsoft continues its move towards a single unified platform, the various tools used by everyone within your business will become more and more integrated.
Outlook features an Add-in that enables users to attach emails to quotes, invoices, purchases and memos. List pages can be shared quickly to Teams, allowing easy collaboration and discussions.
Excel can be used to export data directly into BC.
Power BI dashboards can be embedded, providing real-time graphs and data from multiple sources including.
Power Automate can be used to create automated workflows, such as requesting approval for raised POs and invoices.
These are just a handful of the many integrations and features, for more information or a free initial audit, contact our team.
There’s a range of benefits to optimise your organisations processes such as:
Manage your company’s stock levels in one or multiple locations. Tracking items to ensure you always have the optimal number or parts or products.
Set up service contracts and host everything in one place.
You can create, manage and track service orders, including assigning service items and handling your order statuses.
Record your cost of purchases and track this to accounts payable. You can also dynamicly update inventory levels to minimise your inventory costs.
Task scheduling allows you to control when specific operations or processes occur.
What business outcomes can we expect from Business Central?
More reliable financial operations, better forecasting, less manual work, improved decision making, stronger compliance, enhanced performance as growth demands increase.
Can Business Central help with cash flow visibility for subscription-based or recurring revenue businesses?
Yes. It supports recurring revenue models, forecasting and dashboards which let you project future cash, monitor receivables and plan ahead.
How secure is our data with Business Central?
Microsoft provides robust security, with role-based access, encryption, compliance with regulations, and supports local legal / tax / GDPR requirements in many regions.
What licensing considerations should organisations be aware of?
Licences vary by role (full users vs team members), feature set (core vs premium), capacity needs and whether add-ons or extensions are needed.
How does Business Central improve order-to-cash cycle?
By automating sales orders, invoicing, cash receipts, chasing late payments, integrating with inventory so shipping & billing are aligned, reducing delays.
Can we deploy Business Central on-premises or is it cloud only?
There are options: cloud deployment (SaaS) or hybrid / on-premise in some cases, depending on business needs, data sovereignty or compliance constraints.
How does Business Central work for NonProfits or grant-funded organisations?
It can map income and expenditure to funding sources, enable transparency in reporting, support budget vs actual tracking, and ensure compliance with funder/budgetary requirements.
Can Business Central track sustainability metrics or ESG data alongside financials?
Yes. New and upcoming features include tracking environmental impact elements (emissions etc.), helping organisations meet sustainability reporting obligations.
How does Business Central support service management or warranty tracking?
It supports contract management, warranty tracking, return handling etc. so service obligations can be tracked alongside finance and operations.
Can Business Central help forecast financial impact of supply chain disruptions?
Yes. You can run scenario analyses to see how changes in shipping costs, inventory delays or supplier issues might affect cash flow or margins.
What role does Continuous Improvement play with Business Central?
Continuous Improvement means reviewing what’s working, refining dashboards, automations, adding AI or reporting enhancements, ensuring the system evolves with your organisation’s needs.
How does Business Central assist in managing inventory and supply chain?
It gives you capabilities for inventory tracking, ordering, stock levels, logistics, combined with visibility and adjustability as supply demands change.
What are common pitfalls when implementing Business Central?
Common issues include poorly-defined data migration, weak requirements upfront, underestimating integration needs, neglecting user training/adoption, and not configuring workflows or security correctly.
How quickly can we expect to see value from implementing Business Central?
Some gains (improved financial operations, automation of routine workflows, better visibility of sales/inventory) often occur early, within weeks. More complex improvements (customised workflows, advanced AI-insights) take time.
What kinds of integrations are possible with Business Central?
It integrates with Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Excel, Teams etc.), Power Platform (Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate), external systems via connectors or APIs, and can extend using industry-specific apps.
Can smaller organisations benefit from Business Central, or is it only for large enterprises?
Absolutely. It’s well suited for smaller organisations; you can start with core financial and operational features and scale up features, modules and integrations as your business grows.
What AI / Copilot features are included in Business Central?
It includes Copilot and autonomous agents to automate routine tasks, support forecasting, assist with order entry and suggest efficiencies.
Is Business Central accessible on mobile or remotely?
Yes, you can access it across devices (desktop, tablets, mobile) and location-agnostic working is supported. Teams, Outlook and Excel integrations help people access data where they already work.
How does Business Central help with audit trails and compliance?
It includes strong audit functionality, workflow controls, traceability, secure data handling, and features that support regulatory requirements.
What forecasting and insight tools does Business Central offer?
You get tools to model the impact of exchange rate changes, supply chain cost fluctuations, cash flow forecasting, trend reporting, plus AI-powered insights as you grow.
Can Business Central manage multiple currencies and countries?
Yes. It supports multi-currency, handling different sales, purchasing and logistics across borders. It also includes features localised for specific jurisdictions.
How does Business Central help with financial management?
It offers comprehensive tools such as general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, bank reconciliation, asset management, audit trails and workflows so finance teams can operate more accurately and efficiently.
What do we mean when we say Business Central?
Business Central is Microsoft’s all-in-one ERP system designed especially for small and medium-sized organisations. It unifies financials, operations, purchasing, sales and inventory, giving you better control, insight and automation.
The International Institute for Active Ageing have worked with FormusPro for nearly two years now, and after completely replacing their finance system with Dynamics 365 Business Central, they asked us to extend the project to also include all of their warehousing and other ERP activities.
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