Dynamics 365 Business Central Tips and Tricks: My Favorite Things in Business Central – Part I

In this series of bi-monthly blogs, Western Computer shares our expertise with tips and tricks to help users work more efficiently in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Based on our more than 30 years in business—with 1,250+ solution implementations, including more than 350 in the cloud—we share the expertise we have accumulated to enable users to work as proficiently as possible. You can also subscribe to these blogs in our LinkedIn newsletter. 

Business Central has a lot to offer when it comes to tricks to help you work more efficiently. You know some of them, and you’re pretty sure there are more out there—but you’re not sure where to find them.

This blog is here to help!

As part of my role as a Business Application Consultant and Solution Architect for almost 20 years, I have trained many customers on how to run Dynamics applications. When I present tips, I will often hear, “Oh my gosh, we didn't know that was there!”

There are so many processes in Business Central that often the little things get missed. To help your accounting team discover a few tricks, here are some of my favorite things in Business Central when managing customer and vendor records.

Credit Management

The <Credit Management> feature has been around for a while but not a lot of users know about it. For those who handle collections, it's a one-stop shop for getting a quick view into how much credit you have allocated to each customer and how much each customer currently owes on open invoices. You can easily see which customers are behind on payments.

Here’s a screenshot of <Credit Management> in Business Central:

With the <Credit Management> view, you can keep tight control over outstanding balances and make sure there’s enough credit available for new orders. That way, you can determine if an order should be released for shipment or held until there’s a chance to talk to the customer about an outstanding balance that has put them over their credit limit.

Duplicate Customer or Vendor Cards

Oftentimes, accounting realizes that a customer or a vendor has more than one card. Perhaps there’s one for <ABC Company> and another for <ABC Company Inc.>, and the information in each record differs.

With Business Central, you can run a process to merge the duplicate cards. The system will identify conflicting information so you can reconcile multiple cards and make sure the new merged card has all accurate information. Once you finish reconciling, Business Central moves all the transaction activity for that customer or vendor into the merged card.

Here’s a view of a Customer Card:

For this feature, users need the <Merge Duplicate> permission. On the <Customer Card> or <Vendor Card> page, choose the <Merge With> action. In the <Merge With> field on the <Merge Duplicate> page, select the customer or vendor that has a duplicate card of the one you opened (as indicated in the <Current> field).

After doing this, the <Fields FastTab> will list fields where the values are different for the two customers.

Net Balance of Customers Who Are Also Vendors

A company you do business with might be both a customer and a vendor. Business Central will tell you what the net balance is on paid and unpaid invoices between your company and the customer/vendor. This enables you to determine the net dollar value of the relationship. You can also avoid making unnecessary payments or receipts and save on transaction fees by consolidating the customer and vendor balances.

Linking the Customer and Vendor cards happens through the Contact Card. Normally both the Customer card and the Vendor card will create a corresponding Contact Card; however, to link these two, one of the Contact Cards must be deleted.

After deleting one of the Contact Cards, use the <Link with existing> function to link the Customer and Vendor cards. You will then be able to see the <Balance as Vendor> field on the <Customer> page and the <Balance as Customer> field on the <Vendor> page.

Below is a sample view of a <Contact Card>:

On the <Payment Journal> page, you can use the <Net Customer/Vendor Balances> action to net the customer and vendor balances for the company. This action also creates payment journal lines to which the net balances for a customer and vendor are linked.

Multiple Posting Groups for Customers and Vendors

When posting a customer or vendor transaction, do you need the option to hit a different AR or AP account in the GL?

Now you can!

Allowing alternate Customer Posting Groups or Vendor Posting Groups helps a user control these accounts. You can allow users to select posting groups other than the default groups when they're working with sales documents, purchase documents, and journals.

For the setup, go to the <Sales & Receivable Setup> or the <Purchases & Payables Setup> and turn on the <Allow Multiple Posting Groups> toggle. Then, turn on the <Allow Multiple Posting Groups> toggle for the Customer or Vendor cards. 

On the <Customer Posting Groups> or <Vendor Posting Groups> pages, you can specify the groups allowed as substitutes by choosing <Alternative Groups>. Alternate posting groups can replace the default customer or vendor posting groups specified for a customer or vendor.

Here is a screenshot of <Customer Posting Groups>:

After you set this up, you can choose from the allowed posting groups and change the customer or vendor posting group when posting sales or purchase documents and journals. The alternate customer or vendor posting groups are copied to posted documents and journals. Payable and receivable entries are posted to the general ledger accounts specified for the alternates.

To Learn More 

Look for more of Telka’s favorite things in Business Central in an upcoming Western Computer blog. We offer deep expertise across the Microsoft technology stack, particularly in Dynamics 365 solutions. Our thought leaders can help you ensure your critical ERP application meets your business needs for today and beyond.

And for more information on how to use these Business Central tips, or for help in designing, deploying and supporting Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions, contact Western Computer today.