Blog Posts

I’ve been implementing Business Central (and Dynamics NAV before that) for manufacturing companies for over two decades now. And in almost every single implementation, at some point during the requirements workshops, someone from quality or operations asks: “Can the system handle quality inspections?” The answer used to be: “Not really, not out of the box. We’ll need an add-on for that.” Well, that changes with Business Central version 28. Microsoft has added native quality management functionality, and from what I can see in the early access preview, it’s not just a checkbox feature—it actually looks great 🙂 , it is […] The post Quality Management in Business Central Version 28 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

You can install this extension for Free from the AppSource here: Naviona Configuration Audit And here is my story behind this extension: 20+ years ago I was working at Tectura in Copenhagen, it was a fairly big office with something like 120 employees. About one third were Navision consultants, one third were Axapta consultants and one third was a mix of infrastructure, BI, etc. In the Axapta department there was a person named Alan. Alan was a very positive and likable person, his ‘claim to fame’ was that he had created some kind of report that could be run against […] The post Business Central Configuration Audit using Vibe Coding first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

The development of the Copilot Inventory Queries extension that I described in my previous blog posts has inspired me to apply the same concept of using Copilot (or actually Azure OpenAI) to enhance the other extensions that we use. This blog post is an example of an application that hopefully can inspire others to apply AI to their Business Central extensions. In this case we have an extension called Planning Parameter Worksheet that allows Business Central users to set up rules and have the system suggest the planning parameters to use for each Item or Stockkeeping Unit. This is a […] The post Copilot in Planning Parameter Worksheet first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This is a continuation of my last post where I described the Copilot Inventory Queries extension that I developed (available for free in AppSource). I have now taken that concept and applied it to the Planning Worksheet in Business Central. With this you get a Copilot user interface that can help explain the suggestions created by the material planning (MRP). I created this in a way that the AI model includes all the suggestions for the same item number, location and variant code for each query. So, if the plan makes multiple suggestions for the same item, you have the […] The post Copilot in Planning Worksheet first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

As we all know, Microsoft is adding Copilot features to everything these days. Every new version of Business Central has more Copilot than the last version and soon there is not a single place in the application that does not have a Copilot feature. This is great and most people are excited about it. The Copilot features and the underlying AI capabilities are what get people talking when we present Business Central to customers. Most of what I work with are manufacturing companies and almost all of them have their own AI initiatives, sometimes those are just around being creative […] The post Copilot Inventory Queries first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

10+ years ago I created a Record Deletion tool for Dynamics NAV that I published here on my blog. It was a tool that could be used to clean up test transactions in a company in Dynamics NAV, and it quickly became very popular. People have reach out to about getting this tool available for Business Central (I also think some have done the work of converting this tool into a BC extension themselves). So here we go; it is now available via AppSource and can be accessed for FREE here: Record Deletion Tool for Business Central The functionality is […] The post Record Deletion Tool for Business Central in AppSource first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Hello! I am still around and working with Business Central. I know it’s been more than 8 years since my last blog post, but better late than never. 🙂 I went to Directions North America in April this year and met people that are still using and reading my blog, which was great to hear. I also learned that it is now possible to Reopen Finished Production Orders in Business Central, something that people have been waiting on for years (I have wanted this feature for 25 years now, finally!!). This made me so happy I decided to write this […] The post Reopen Finished Production Orders first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Most of us that’s been programming in Dynamics NAV for a while are aware of the Excel Buffer table. It is a super useful table that can be used to create and read Excel files from C/AL code. This table have been around as far as I remember, and now it has some siblings, the XML Buffer and CSV Buffer tables. The concept is the same, a table with functions to create or read files, this time XML/CSV files instead of Excel files. Just like with the Excel Buffer table, the XML buffer and CSV buffer table should be used […] The post XML Buffer and CSV Buffer Tables first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 was released last week. I have installed it and poked around in the new functionality a bit and there are some awesome improvements and new features. 🙂 Through this blog post I share some of my thoughts on some of the new functionality. The look and feel when first launching the windows client is more or less the same as with version 2016, and I was happy that it could co-exists with all my older installations of NAV (always interesting when installing a new version). Below are some of the new functionality that I have looked […] The post Functionality Improvements in NAV 2017 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Production orders in Dynamics NAV allows you to consume both less and more than what’s defined on the components and to output both less and more than what’s defined on the operations in the routing. There is no check when you post, which is nice (sometime I which it was like that on sales and purchase orders as well, but that’s a topic for another post). But when you post more than you wanted you need to be able to reverse it. Luckily reversing production output and consumption is easy if you know how to do it (if the production […] The post Reversing Production Output and Consumption first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This blog post is about the return merchandise (or material) authorization process in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, this is another topic that is more or less always discussed during Dynamics NAV implementations. The typical scenario is that a customer calls and wants to return a product that they have purchased to get a refund, replacement product or to get it repaired. For this they need an authorization, an RMA. So, how is this done in Dynamics NAV? The short answer is by using a sales return order, which is similar to a sales order but it goes the ‘other way’ and […] The post Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Do you know that you can create sales quotes without having a customer created in Microsoft Dynamics NAV? It’s been like that as long as I can remember but surprisingly many users and also consultants don’t know this and I have seen lots to workarounds with generic ‘quote customers’, etc. This is a quick blog post describing how you can create sales quotes in Dynamics NAV without having a customer record. This is especially useful for companies that are doing a lot of quotes to prospects that might not turn into customers. With this method you then don’t ‘muddy’ the […] The post Sales Quote without Customer first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

My last post about adding a field to the item tracking lines turned out to be very technical, so this time I am doing a post that is completely without any programming or changes to the application. The topic is parallel routings in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, it is nothing new but something that I get a fair amount of questions about and someone once suggested that I should write a blog post about it. So, here it is! 🙂 Parallel routings (sometimes also referred to as parallel sequences) are used when multiple manufacturing operations/processes can or is need to be […] The post Parallel Routings first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This blog post is to describe how fields can be added to the Item Tracking Lines in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Adding additional fields to this page is a common requirement; it could for example be to add a vendor lot number, some quality measurements, a manufacturing date or any other type of property that should be stored against an inventory lot or serial number. When you first look at it seems like a simple modification but it is actually a bit (or a lot) more involved than just adding the field to the table and the page. The Item Tracking […] The post Add Fields to the Item Tracking Lines first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

One of the cool new features in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 is the options to use Events. Through events you can create functions that are published and subscribe to them in other objects. The great part here is that Microsoft have incorporated a long list of published functions as part of the standard application which can be subscribed to in custom code. This will simplify maintaining and upgrading the objects since modifications can be done completely separated from the standard objects. To demonstrate this new feature I have programmed a simple field level security add-on (maybe add-on is the wrong […] The post Field Level Security using Events in Dynamics NAV 2016 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

If you have a relative large number of items to plan it could take a while to run the MRP calculations in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, an hour to do a full calculation is not uncommon, especially if you have been using the system for a while. In order to not have the MRP calculations to interrupt with the daily operations (such as posting orders) you typically want the calculations to take place during the night. This is a very common requirement and in fact a lot of people I talk to are surprised that this is not something Dynamics NAV […] The post Schedule MRP first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This blog post describes how you activate the ‘Directed Put-away and Pick’ functionality (also known as WMS or advanced warehousing) for an existing location in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It could for example be that you have been using Dynamics NAV for a couple of years and your business has grown or changed and you want to start using the WMS functionality for an existing location (or at least check the functionality out in a test environment). Below is the process to do this, step by step. The screenshots are done by converting the ‘BLUE’ location in a Cronus company (the […] The post Activate WMS Functionality for Existing Location first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

The 2016 version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV comes with a new C/AL editor. This is a big step forward for people that are writing code within Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The C/AL editor have, in my mind, always been much behind other code editors in terms of usability, but with the 2016 version Dynamics NAV catches up a bit. This blog post is about the new features you will find when you start writing code in Dynamics NAV 2016. The first thing that you will notice when you open the C/AL editor is how the functions looks with their colors etc. and that there […] The post C/AL Editor in Dynamics NAV 2016 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

One of the new super useful features in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 is the capability to record table data permissions by simply going through the process in the application. For those of you that have been implementing NAV/Navision when the classic client was around are probably familiar with this process since the classic client came with a client monitor which results you could turn into permissions quite easily. I did this all the time in the ‘old days’, but since the replacement of the classic client I have not found a good way of recording permissions until now. So, for […] The post Record Permissions in NAV 2016 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Just like with processing of shipments, there are four ways to process receipts of inventory in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Choosing the most suitable method is important in order to get the software to support the business as efficient as possible. Below is a description of each of the four methods together with some of the pros and cons. If you have read the previous blog post describing processing of shipments then you will notice that there are lots of similarities between the options on the receiving and shipping side, in fact a lot of the functionality just ‘mirrors’ each other. On the […] The post Processing of Receipts first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

When implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV in a manufacturing environment this question is always discussed; should the time posted against production orders be according to the expected values (e.g. the setup and run times in the routings, sometimes also referred to as nominal values) or should it be according to the actual time (entered by a user)? In my mind the answer to this should be driven by business requirements and should not be determined by the functionality available in a software (just like many other things when it comes to implementing an ERP system). My experience is that 3 out […] The post Posting of Actual and Expected Production Time first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

I have previously described how production orders are posting into the general ledger which I have received a lot of positive feedback on. This time I will described how assembly orders are posting into the general ledger in Microsoft Dynamics NAV (which is a lot simpler). The assembly orders in Microsoft Dynamics NAV was introduced in the 2013 version and they are a great compliment to the production orders, you can read one of my previous blog posts about assembly vs. production orders to get a feeling about what to use when. The only thing on assembly orders that creates entries […] The post Assembly Order Posting to General Ledger first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Using alternative production BOMs or routings is quite common in a manufacturing environment. It could for example be that larger orders are run in higher capacity machines, versions of products are produced with slight variations in components (like different colors), or you might produce the same item in two different locations and therefor need two different routings. These are just some examples, there are many more scenarios like that where you might need to change the production BOM or routing based on different factors. Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to manually change both the routing and production BOM used on […] The post Alternative Production BOMs and Routings first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

One of the nicer things about the assembly functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is the option to assemble to order. What this means is that you can stock the components and not assemble them until it is time to ship the order (very useful if you sell kits of products for example). In this blog post I will describe how this works together with the inventory picks and movements. This is in my mind a setup that works well and supports scenarios where the personnel that are picking the products also assembling/bundling them at the same time. I have previously […] The post Assemble to Order with Inventory Picks and Movements first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

In one of my previous blog posts about processing shipments I mentioned a batch job I developed many years ago to automatically create warehouse shipments. I have since that post received many requests and questions about this batch job, so here it is! The objects themselves are available in the downloads section and the details about the functionality is described below. I hope you will find this useful. In standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV there are two ways to create warehouse shipments; 1. from the order itself using a create warehouse shipment function or 2. by manually create a warehouse shipment and retrieving order […] The post Batch Creation of Warehouse Shipments first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Being able to handle consignment inventory in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a common requirement. There are four scenarios of consignment inventory that I frequently bump into; 1. Inventory at a Customer 2. Inventory at a Vendor 3. Customer Owned Inventory 4. Vendor Owned Inventory Some may argue that case 2 and 3 is not consignment, and they might be right, but nevertheless they are cases that needs to be handled and to me the overall concept is closely related to consignment inventory and therefor I included them here. Case 2 and 3 are typically found in relation to subcontracting or […] The post Consignment Inventory first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

By accident I discovered something quite interesting last week and I thought it was worth sharing it through a blog post. When you create an object type variable in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 and you leave out the name then NAV will automatically suggest the name based on the subtype. So, when creating variables that are forms, records, reports, xmlports, etc. then there is no need to enter a variable name anymore. Nice! 🙂 Here is how it works; Create a new variable by leaving the name blank and enter the datatype and subtype. Now, when leaving the subtype field Dynamics NAV automatically […] The post Autofill Variable Name in NAV 2015 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

A way to handle maintenance on machines in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is to create production orders with operations that represent the maintenance. The beauty of this is that you can then include the maintenance when scheduling the production orders, you also maintain history about when the maintenance was done and you have the option to capture the labor cost related to maintenance. Below is an example of how it can be done. Assume we want to be able to schedule maintenance on a cutting machine (I use the same machine center setup as in my previous blog post Work Centers […] The post Maintenance Production Orders first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

There are four ways to process shipments of inventory in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Which way to choose depends on the business requirements and what processes that are most suitable. I typically discuss the different options early in the analysis phase of an implementation to establish the preferred method as soon as possible (if it is not obvious which one to apply that is). It is important to get it right early since the procedures, work instructions, potentially modifications and printouts all will depend on the method chosen (and you don’t want to change your mind half way through the project). […] The post Processing of Shipments first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This might be ‘the oldest trick in the book’ but it is still a frequently asked question and therefor I thought it was worth a small blog post. The question is how do you block/prevent users from posting something in Microsoft Dynamics NAV? This is actually quite easy. Dynamics NAV has a feature that allows you to limit the dates you can post on by setting a start and ending date, so all you need to do is to set the start date to be after the end date and nothing can be posted. It is that easy! 🙂 The dates are […] The post Block Postings first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

A topic that is discussed on all manufacturing implementations is Work Centers vs. Machine Centers. Questions like ‘should we be using machine centers?’ and ‘what are the differences?’ are always raised and discussed. It is very important to understand the differences and how to apply the functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. I have seen several installations where the setup has been much more complicated than it needed to be and therefor the system became hard to work with. I have also seen cases where standard functionality that could have added lots of value was not utilized and even modifications being […] The post Work Centers vs. Machine Centers first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

In the older versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV where the classic client was available you could go to the sessions table and just delete a session to kill it. This was very useful for a number of reasons but it does not work like that anymore in the windows client of version 2013 and 2015. Fortunately this feature can easily be replicated by adding an action item to the ribbon on the sessions page in Dynamics NAV. Here is how you can add a ‘Kill Session’ action item to the sessions page: Open page 9506 in design mode through the development […] The post Kill Sessions in Dynamics NAV first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Several people that have read my previous post, Run Objects in NAV 2013 using GETURL, has asked me about the record deletion tool that I was working on. So, here it is! 🙂 It is available for NAV 2015 on the downloads page. This data deletion tool is useful if you want to ‘clean’ a company from transactional data. It could for example be that you have been testing transactions in a company that you want to use for a go-live or you just want to have a clean company without transactions for a demo, training or testing session. Here is […] The post Record Deletion Tool for Dynamics NAV 2015 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

A question that I receive frequently is; ‘how do I run Dynamics NAV as a different user?’. A basic question it seems, but not everybody is aware of how it can be done. It could for example be that you are testing permissions and you want to run one client with SUPER user access to do the permission setup and another client with limited access to test the setup at the same time. Another common scenario is that you want to debug something on a users computer and for this you need your own log-in to have full permission and access […] The post Run Dynamics NAV as Different User first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Implementing MRP (material requirements planning) successfully in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is one of the more complex tasks. There are lots of moving parts and to make it work in an efficient way you not only need to know Dynamics NAV and the theories behind MRP but also the product structures and how the business wants to operate. This is my guide to how to make it work, it is based on my experience and how I normally approach MRP. It does not guide or dictate how you should setup NAV, just some guidance on how to get there (I guess […] The post Guide to Successful MRP Implementation first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 was released a couple of weeks ago. I have download and installed it and so far it seems like it can co-exist with Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 without any issues (which was not the case with my 2013 and 2013 R2 versions, so this is great). To me the improvements that the users will see (e.g. the functionality in the NAV clients) are the most important ones (and also the most fun to review). The improvements of the technology behind the scenes (such as OAuth support for web services, merge utilities, multi-tenant architecture, etc.) are also important […] The post Functionality Improvements in NAV 2015 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This is something that I did some days ago and I thought it was creative enough to be worth a blog post. The task was to do a onetime mass update to the item records. There were more than 85.000 items in the company and they all had two production bin fields that needed to be updated according to a table with some rules provided in Excel. For items starting with ’10’ the two fields should be ‘RAW’ and ‘RAW’, for items starting with ‘11’ the two fields should be ‘TREATED’ and ‘CUT’, etc. like the below table, nothing strange. Now, […] The post Write C/AL Code in Excel first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This is the fifth post on my blog related to subcontracting in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It describes how you can setup and use Dynamics NAV when you are performing subcontracting on behalf of a customer (e.g. if you are a subcontractor for a customer and perform operations on parts belonging to the customer). This is actually quite straight forward. The key is to create separate items that represent the customer’s parts. Whatever is received from the customer as components should not have an inventory value and whatever is sent back to the customer should have a value representing the value […] The post Subcontracting Part 5: Perform Subcontracting first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This is the fourth post related to subcontracting in Dynamics NAV. The topic is how to use warehouse receipts together with subcontracting purchase orders (previous parts are here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). It is a quite common requirement to be able to use the warehouse receipts to process receipts of subcontracting purchase orders. It could for example be that your location is setup to use the ‘Directed Put-Away and Pick’ (sometimes referred to as advanced warehousing) and therefore you are required to use the warehouse receipts or it could simply be that the warehouse receipts are used standalone […] The post Subcontracting Part 4: Warehouse Receipts first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Here is a small tip (some of you might already know it): the GETURL together with the HYPERLINK can be used to run objects in NAV 2013 (even tables 🙂 ). I am working on a tool to delete records from a database (to ‘clean’ a company from transactional data for example). Part of this tool is a function to view the data in the tables, and for this I needed a way to run a table from the NAV 2013 windows client (not the development environment). This turned out to be quite easy using the GETURL and HYPERLINK functions. Here […] The post Run Objects in NAV 2013 using GETURL and HYPERLINK first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This is the third post in a series of subcontracting blog posts, and it starting to get a bit tricky. The topic is how to handle transport charges for subcontracting operations. In other words if you have a vendor that handles parts of the production process and you receive an invoice from a shipping agent/transportation company for the transportation of products either to and/or from the subcontractor. If you haven’t read part 1 and part 2 it might be a good idea to read those first, this post assumes you know the basics of subcontracting and uses the same items […] The post Subcontracting Part 3: Transport Charges first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This describes how to ship components to a subcontractor as part of a subcontracting process in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It is a frequently asked question, so I thought it deserved its own blog post. As the title indicates, this is a second post in a series of posts related to subcontracting. It might make sense to read part 1 first since this kind of built on top of it (using the same items, etc.). The key to shipping components to a subcontractor is to create a location that represent the vendor location and use transfer orders to ship the components. […] The post Subcontracting Part 2: Shipping Components to Subcontractors first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This is the first part of a series of blog posts about the subcontracting functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It describes how to setup and use the basic functionality, which is something that is very common to use for manufacturers (3 out of 4 places I go to uses some kind of subcontractors to perform operations that they can’t or don’t want to do in-house). Future posts on the subject subcontracting will describe things like how to ship the products to the subcontractor in a proper way, how shipping charges can be applied, how to receive subcontracted parts using warehouse […] The post Subcontracting Part 1: The Basics first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

To allocate the total costs posted against a production order towards multiple outputs is a bit tricky in standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you more or less have to manually separate the different costs and post them against each of the production order lines (this since the cost calculations in Dynamics NAV is per production order line). For material and capacity costs this involves dividing the quantities consumed and times spent between the production order lines and then post them individually against each of the lines. And for subcontracting costs it is more or less impossible (although nothing is impossible in […] The post Total Cost Allocation for Multiple Outputs first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

With Dynamics NAV 2013 came the assembly management. It is a great addition to the functionality in Dynamics NAV and gives companies with basic assembly operations a simpler option compared to using the manufacturing functionality in NAV. The question when implementing Dynamics NAV is then; when do you recommend the assembly functionality instead of the manufacturing functionality and is it wise to use both at the same time? My approach to manufacturing is always to keep it as simple as possible and to use the functionality that is needed, that adds value and not just because something is available. Most […] The post Assembly or Manufacturing? first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV has multiple ways in which you can handle scrap in the production. There are scrap related to an operation in the routing, there are scrap related to individual components and there are scrap related to the product being produced. Just like any other functionality, it is important to know all the options when configuring and implementing Dynamics NAV. The scrap related setup has an impact on both the material and capacity planning. If you are using the standard costing method to value your inventory then the scrap related setup also has an impact on the cost roll-up. […] The post Scrap in Production first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

For those of you that are reading my blog posts you probably know that I have been working on a Shop Floor Terminal role center for Microsoft Dynamics NAV (mostly for my own training, kind of how I learn). I have finally got some time to finish it (was stuck at Tampa airport for 3 hours before a 3 hour flight, more or less an entire work day in transit), so here it is! The concept with the Shop Floor Terminal role center is to provide an interface for a terminal in the production where the operator can see upcoming […] The post Shop Floor Terminal Role Center first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This is something I first discovered some months ago, and back then I didn’t think that much about it. Recently someone asked me if it was possible, and I thought it would be worth a quick small blog post. Yes, you can sort on multiple columns in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 (with some limitations though). You do it by holding the shift key down while clicking the next column(s). This way Dynamics NAV sorts the data based on multiple columns. On the page you can see it by the sorting indicator (or whatever the small triangle is called) is being […] The post Sort on Multiple Columns in Dynamics NAV 2013 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

One of the new features in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 is the ability to enter formulas like ‘%me’ and ‘%myitems’ while setting filters. Dynamics NAV then replaces the formula with values while applying the filter. Some of the formulas that comes standard are for example; ‘%me’ and ‘%user’ will be converted in to the USERID, ‘%company’ will be converted into the COMPANYNAME, ‘%myitems’ will be converted into a string with the item numbers you listed in the My Items role center part (same goes for ‘%mycustomers’ and ‘%myvendors’). This is nice but what is great is that you can also […] The post Custom Filter Formula in Dynamics NAV 2013 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

I have never used Microsoft OneNote that much, never really seen a need for it (I usually just have my notes in Word). So, when Microsoft announced that there will be a OneNote integration with Dynamics NAV last year I didn’t think that much about it. But when I finally tried it out myself I was very impressed. I saw a very usable tool for both capturing comments/files related to entities NAV and for doing company specific instructions for the different parts of the application. The OneNote notes can be related to individual records or to a page in Dynamics NAV. Notes that […] The post Microsoft OneNote Integration with Dynamics NAV first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Sometimes a customer is also a vendor and sometimes a vendor is also a customer. It can for example be that a customer provides some components for an assembly that they have ordered or a vendor that also orders items from you. Microsoft Dynamics NAV has the option to link a customer with a vendor through the contact functionality. When you create a customer or a vendor, Dynamics NAV automatically creates a contact record for your. If you create them separately you will end up having duplicated contacts and a customer that is not linked to the vendor. The way […] The post Connect a Customer with a Vendor first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

A common request is to activate item tracking (lot numbers and/or serials numbers) for items that already have transactions (item ledger entries). In Microsoft Dynamics NAV you can’t really do this without going ‘behind the scenes’ and tweaking the data. What I have done a couple of times is to change the check on the item tracking code to only check for open item ledger entries. This way you can adjust the inventory out, change the item tracking code, and then put the inventory back in with the lot and/or serial numbers. This is a one line code change that […] The post Activate Item Tracking for Items with Ledger Entries first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Here is a small trick that I have used a couple of times to turn the report selections into a selection dialog in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The report selection table in Dynamics NAV is used to specify what report(s) to run when a user prints a document such as an order confirmation. Part of the report selection functionality is the ability to define more than one report to print at the same time; you can for example have Dynamics NAV print three different documents when the user prints an order confirmation. This is done by listing the reports in the […] The post Turn Report Selections into a Selection Dialog first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

The production lead time if you are using routings in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is the sum of the lead times for the operations that each can have 5 different time components; queue time, setup time, run time, wait time and move time. In addition to the production lead time is the safety lead time defined on the item or stockkeeping unit card of the product being produced; this adds a slack time between the scheduled ending time for the last operation and the due date of the production order. The below illustrates the different times and how they together makes up […] The post Production Lead Time using Routings first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Do you know what the low-level code in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is used for? And do you know how it is maintained? The low-level codes are critical for Dynamics NAV to function properly in a manufacturing environment where material planning takes place (which is in 9 out of 10 places). In addition to this, the cost adjustments in Dynamics NAV are also using the low-level codes. The low-level code is a field in the item table that represents the items lowest level of usage in the production BOM or assembly BOM structures. It is used internally by Dynamics NAV to determine […] The post The Low-Level Code first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Here is an example of how to create a custom chart in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 using the business chart control add-in that is provided by the Microsoft.Dynamics.Nav.Client.BusinessChart.dll assembly. It sounds complicated, but it is actually quite easy. The example shows how to create a work center load chart that shows available vs. allocated capacity on a day by day basis. If you have read some of my previous blog posts (the Custom Progress Bar or Interaction Between Role Center Parts) you know that I am working on a shop floor terminal role center (more for my own training) […] The post Custom Business Chart Add-In Example for NAV 2013 R2 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Here is a super simple, but very useful modification for displaying the rolled-up costs on the item card in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The item table has 10 standard fields that contain the rolled-up costs that are calculated during a regular standard cost roll-up. Those fields are not by default added to the item card; just adding them is quick and adds lots of values to the users that are looking at the costs shares of items. The 10 fields are called: Single-Level Material Cost, Single-Level Capacity Cost, Single-Level Subcontrd. Cost, Single-Level Cap. Ovhd Cost, Single-Level Mfg. Ovhd Cost, Rolled-up Material Cost, Rolled-up […] The post Cost Roll-Up Details on the Item Card first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

How Microsoft Dynamics NAV posts into the general ledger from production orders is something that you must know when implementing it in a manufacturing environment. It is critical in order to get the posting groups and their related accounts correctly defined. This blog post will focus on the general ledger accounts and the amounts, for details about what dimensions that are used, see my previous post; Dimensions on Production Orders. The examples that are described are using the expected cost posting (setup in the inventory setup), which to me is the preferred way to setup Dynamics NAV. Without the expected cost posting […] The post Production Order Posting to General Ledger first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

One of the new reports in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 is the BOM Cost Share Distribution Report that came with the assembly functionality. It is a great looking report, and what makes it even better is that it does not only work with assembled items but also with manufactured items. You find the report in the assembly part of Dynamics NAV (I think it should have been added to the manufacturing part as well since it is such as nice report). When you run it you get a request page where you can set if you want to view the single-level or […] The post BOM Cost Share Distribution Report first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

I thought it would be cool to be able to get the role center parts to interact with each-other in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2. I wanted to see if it was possible to have a role center part to display different information based on what was highlighted in another role center part. This way the role center itself would become more interactive. To test this I wanted to have a role center part with a task list for a work center and based on what operation that was highlighted the related components from the production order should be displayed in another role center part. […] The post Interaction Between Role Center Parts in Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

In school we where told that when you invoice (voucher) received inventory you get a debit transaction against the inventory account and a credit transaction against the accounts payable. Well, in Microsoft Dynamics NAV you also get two transactions in the P&L, a debit against the purchase account and a credit against the direct cost applied account. What are those used for? Wouldn’t they always be the same and net each-other out? Not necessarily. There is a special case to consider where the two transactions in the P&L are not the same and therefore a discrepancy between the two accounts will occur. […] The post Discrepancy Between Purchase and Direct Cost Applied first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Here is an example of how you can create a customized progress bar in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2. It uses the System.Drawing.Graphics .net method to draw a progress bar and display it to the user in a BLOB field. This method can basically be used to generate any type of graphic and display it in Dynamics NAV, which is very useful. The scenario in the below example uses a work center task list that displays all operations for a specific work center. The task list should include a progress bar showing the statuses for all the operations of the production order. The status bar will […] The post Custom Progress Bar in Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

In one of my earlier blog posts, Dimensions on Production Orders, I described how the dimensions on the production orders in Microsoft Dynamics NAV gets populated and posted. In that blog post I described that the dimensions on the production order components are inherited from the production order lines and therefor the consumption is posted with dimensions according to the default dimensions of the output item. If this is not wanted (which is quite common) then Dynamics NAV can easily be changed to accommodate posting consumption with dimensions according to the components instead. Here is one way of doing it. […] The post Default Dimension Priorities for Production Order Components first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

You can run production in Microsoft Dynamics NAV with only production BOMs and without any routings. A reason for this is typically that you don’t have a requirement to capture capacity costs (labor and overhead) and you don’t want to do any scheduling of work centers or machine centers. This kind of makes sense because you don’t want to make the configuration in Dynamics NAV more complicated than it needs to be. But one thing that most people forget is that you can only back-flush the output if you use routings in Dynamics NAV. More information about flushing is in one of […] The post Simple Production with Generic Backflush Routing first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Some weeks ago I came across a requirement to be able to display GD&T symbols in the windows client of NAV 2013 R2 (as part of a quality control system). It sounded easy since the symbols was generated by a string of regular characters displayed with a special font. In the classic client it would just have been to change the font of the text box and it would probably have worked, but it is not that easy in the 2013 version of Dynamics NAV (and I believe the same applies to the NAV 2009 RTC client). But as always, most of […] The post Display Symbols and Different Fonts in Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

How do I get the Equisys ZetaDocs add-on to work with the Tectura Document Configurator? There are some tricks to know, but once you know them it is actually easier then making it work with the standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV reports (and less object changes required). ZetaDocs is a document management add-on that among other things provides functionality to e-mail and apply templates (stationery and attachments) to documents printed from Dynamics NAV. The Document Configurator is an add-on that controls the content and layout of the documents through a configuration in Dynamics NAV (and therefor eliminates the hassle of Visual […] The post Equisys ZetaDocs with Tectura Document Configurator first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

The Change Log in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is used to log inserts, modifications and deletions of records. This is very useful and can be an option for the users to see who created the record, what was the value of a field before, when was the last modification made, etc… If it is going to be used this way (and not only for auditing once a month) then you probably want to add an action in the Ribbon to display the Change Log Entries for the record that the user is looking at. There are two ways to do this; […] The post View Change Log from Ribbon first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

In the manufacturing part of Microsoft Dynamics NAV there are two Lot Size fields; one is on the item or stockkeeping unit card and the other one is on the routing line. Do you know what they are used for? Here is an explanation for both of them and a trick how one of them can be applied to a common requirement. Let’s starts with the Lot Size on the item or stockkeeping unit card, which is found on the replenishment tab. This field is used during a cost roll-up to calculate the setup costs per unit. It should represent […] The post Production Lot Sizes first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Most of us know that you can create production orders from sales orders in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. When doing this the production orders are reserved against the sales order lines and they also inherits the dimensions from the sales order lines. The quantity on the production orders equals the base quantity on the sales order lines and the due dates of the production orders becomes the shipment dates backdated by the default safety lead time defined in the manufacturing setup. For make-to-order environments this is great and creating the production orders from the sales orders quite often becomes the handover […] The post Create Production Order from Sales Order for Partial Quantity first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This is an old but still relevant topic; on sales documents (quotes, orders, invoices, return orders, etc.) in Microsoft Dynamics NAV you have the option to specify a separate bill-to customer. The bill-to customer is obviously who gets the invoice and where the accounts receivables end up, while the sell-to customer is who you are selling to. Having a separate bill-to for some customers is a quite common requirement. In addition to the sell-to and bill-to customer there is also a ship-to address that is used to specify where the shipment is going. There are some things that you need […] The post Bill-to vs. Sell-to Customer first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 has a web based help system; this is great since it is now much easier to modify the help to include company specific instructions (gone are the old .chm help files) and users can use their web browser to bookmark the help, etc.. If you want to change the host name for the help server on an existing NAV client installation you can do this by changing the ClientUserSettings.config file. The default location for this file is as follows: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\71 Open the file in Notepad (or another text editor) and you see the HelpServer […] The post NAV 2013 R2 Help Server Host Name first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Items in Microsoft Dynamics NAV can have multiple units of measures, you can for example sell in one unit of measure and purchase in another unit of measure. This is great, but there are some things to be aware of when setting an item up with different unit of measures. An item must have a base unit of measure. The base unit of measure is how the inventory quantities are displayed and how the inventory is valued. It is also how it is produced (you can have a Production BOM in a different unit of measure, but the Routing and […] The post Multiple Item Unit of Measures first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

In 2005 I developed a simple barcode system that allowed you to put barcodes on printouts for displaying the documents in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Initially the system was called ‘Document Lookup’ because it was exactly what it did; you scanned the barcode and Dynamics NAV displayed the form in the client. This barcode system turned out to be a big success and it was extended to perform different functions as well (such as creating picks, finishing production orders, etc.). Since then I have used it in most places where I implemented Dynamics NAV and it now goes under the name […] The post Shop Floor Barcode System first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

From time to time I run into situations where users want to view a filtered list of order lines; it could for example be a list of shipped not invoiced items or a shipping queue showing outstanding items to ship. Most of the menu items in Microsoft Dynamics NAV refer to the order headers and not the lines, but adding a page to the navigation pane that shows the order lines can be done by the users themselves with a few simple tricks without having to modify any objects. The key is to use the ‘Save View As’ feature on […] The post Add Order Lines to Navigation Pane first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

The dimensions involved in posting production orders are a bit interesting. It is interesting since there is a slight difference between on how they behave compared to other parts of Microsoft Dynamics NAV (like the sales and purchase orders). It can be argued what is right and wrong, but knowing how it works in standard Dynamics NAV is requirement for setting a system that is easy to work with and provides correct reportable and understandable data. As an example; if you have default dimensions on the items and set them up with the ‘Value Posting’ equal to ‘Same Code’ and […] The post Dimensions on Production Orders first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

The item charge functionality in Dynamics NAV gives you the option to include additional costs such as freight, insurance, fuel charges, etc. in the unit cost or unit price of an item transaction. Item charges are something that most companies that handles any type of inventory would benefit from using. When implementing item charges there are a couple of things to be aware of. Non-Inventoriable Costs Item charges can be entered on a purchase invoice or purchase order and applied to an outbound transactions such as a sales shipment or a purchase return order. When doing this you get a non-inventoriable […] The post Things to Know About Item Charges first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

The MPS/MRP suggestions in the Planning Worksheet has an ‘Accept Action Message’ field that determines if the suggestion should be accepted or not. The value of this field is by default set to TRUE if there are no warnings. This sounds great, by my experience is that most planners would like this to default to FALSE and activity accept each message when reviewing the suggestions. In many cases this request is due to a large number of suggestions generated by having a long planning horizon (where the long planning horizon is needed due to lead times and multiple levels in […] The post Accept Action Message in Planning Worksheet first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Having additional outputs on production orders (sometimes refereed to as by-products or reclaimed material) is a common requirement. It could be scrap that should go back into inventory for further processing (melting it down, regrinding it, etc…) or it could be multiple products that are produced at the same time in a process. This can basically be handled in two ways in Dynamics NAV: Negative Consumption Adding Production Order Line(s) for Multiple Outputs In both ways you need to consider both the operational aspect and the inventory costs aspect. Option #1 is easier from an operational point of view since […] The post Additional Outputs on Production Orders first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Dynamics NAV has an ‘Inventory Value Zero’ field in the item table that is not visible on the page (for some unknown reason). Adding it to the page allows you to have items with no inventory values, this is useful if you managing inventory on the behalf of someone else or if you want to keep track of material that you have expensed (like packaging materials, etc..). An Item setup like this can be transacted like any other item in Dynamics NAV, exept it can not be produced. If you try to enter a production order with an item flagged […] The post Inventory With Zero Value first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

In the demo company from Microsoft (also known as Cronus) the Manufacturing Setup has been configured to use different number series for the different production order statuses. Configuring it this way make Dynamics NAV to assign a new production order number each time the status is changed (except when it is changed to finished). I have never understood why you would setup the system this way, and I have never meet a customer that wants the system to behave this way either. But, I have seen it being implement this way several times. It may makes sense to use a different […] The post Number Series for Production Orders first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

At Convergence 2014 Microsoft presented the official number of companies using each of their Dynamics products. I thought I would share the numbers on my blog since this tells a lot about how widely used Dynamics NAV is. Have a look at the numbers below, quite impressive. Breakdown of the Microsoft Dynamics customer numbers worldwide by product: Microsoft Dynamics® AX 19,000 companies Microsoft Dynamics® GP 47,000 companies Microsoft Dynamics® NAV 102,000 companies Microsoft Dynamics® SL 13,500 companies Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 40,000 companies The post How Many Companies are Using Dynamics NAV first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

I was debugging something today and I noticed the ‘Break on Records Changes’ break rule, sweet… 🙂 I didn’t know this. In the older versions of Dynamics NAV I always used the code coverage to find where in the code records are modified, but this is much better. Here is how to do it; start the debugger, click ‘Break Rules’, and activate the ‘Break on Records Changes’. The debugger will now stop whenever a record is inserted, modified or deleted. The post Debugger Break Rules – Break on Records Changes first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

I have meet many experience Dynamics NAV consultants and end users that did not know that it was possible to revalue closed item ledger entries in Dynamics NAV. Most of them had used the ‘Calculate Inventory Value’ function in the Revaluation Journal and since it only brings in open transactions the assumption was that it was not possible to revalue closed transactions, so if a transaction has the wrong cost and it is closed you have no good options. This is wrong… Instead of using the ‘Calculate Inventory Value’ function to correct an item ledger entry with an incorrect cost you […] The post Revalue Closed Item Ledger Entries first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Can Dynamics NAV handle statistical (unit) accounts in the General Ledger? Yes, it can! Although there is nothing in Dynamics NAV called statistical accounts, so the main thing is to make sure you are not mixing them into the regular g/l accounts. The way it can be set up is to use a prefix like an ‘S’ for all the statistical accounts and this way group them in the end of the chart of accounts. You also need one of them to be an offset account when you are posting against them. Something like this could be used: The statistical […] The post Statistical Accounts in General Ledger first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

Dimensions are great in Dynamics NAV and one of the things that makes it great is that you can control the required dimensions for each type of posting into the general ledger by setting dimensions as mandatory on the general ledger accounts. Most people that work with Dynamics NAV knows this. But surprisingly many people does not know that you can also specify what dimensions that are mandatory for each account type by using the ‘Account Type Default Dimension’ setup. For each of your dimensions you can go to the ‘Account Type Default Dim’ and setup if the dimension is […] The post Mandatory Dimensions by Account Type first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

From time to time I see users struggling with a list of warehouse receipts, the question is then ‘how can I find the warehouse receipt I am looking for?’. Well, you make it too complicated. A warehouse receipt should be created at the time of receiving not before that. If you create your warehouse receipts in advance you will have problems finding them since the list of warehouse receipts does not really include any useful information. The procedure should be like this: 1. Create a new warehouse receipt when you are about to receive material in NAV. 2. Use the […] The post How to Work with Warehouse Receipts first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

An old but still relevant topic is the different flushing methods you can use in Dynamics NAV. Flushing basically means that you can have NAV to automatically post consumption and/or output/time based on expected quantities. The flushing could either be forward or backward. With forward flushing the posting occur during the release of the production order and with backward flushing the posting occur during the finishing of the production order or finishing an operation if routing link codes (RLC) are used. Flushing can be used on both components and operations (components are by far the most common place to use […] The post Flushing Methods first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.

This is my very first post on this blog, my goal is to post new stuff frequently to keep it updated and interesting. Feel free to contact me or to comment on any of my posts. The post First Post on My New Blog first appeared on Olof Simren - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blog.