Inventory Management Product Capabilities within Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Microsoft Dynamics NAV “Navision” ERP system is a popular and robust Business Management System used by over 80,000 customers worldwide. Below are some functionality examples within the system.
Analysis Reports
Provide company decision-makers, especially those with overall responsibility for sales, purchases, and product portfolio management, with an efficient and flexible way to get meaningful information out of the system to inform day-to-day decisions. Built on item entries,this granule provides a customizable, analytic view that enables people to add and combine analysis objects—customers, items, and vendors—according to their needs. You can:
• Present figures in both amounts and quantities and compare by periods as well as against budget. When the figures are put in a formula, they can become an indicator of the company’s performance.
• Drill down to locate the cause of problems.
• View sales dynamics; analyze inventory turnover; evaluate customers’ buying behavior; spot trends; reconsider product offerings, prices, and vendors; and make informed business decisions.
Alternative Vendors
Manage purchase of the same items from several different vendors. Create alternative vendors and price information for inventory items. Useful for when a company has several possible vendors for the same items.
Basic Inventory
Keep track of items and prices. Set up each item and post item transactions in journals. This granule includes the Microsoft Dynamics. NAV item tables, item entries, and item journals. Integrated with General Ledger and with the posting processes in Sales and Receivables and Purchase and Payables, this granule is required for the configuration of all other Inventory granules.
Bills of Materials
Create bills of materials (BOMs). Break down finished goods into BOMs, which describe constructions, packaging details, and other products always sold together. Set up BOMs in the item table with a BOM description specifying items, resources, quantities, and so on. You can batch jobs for calculating the direct unit cost of the BOM. This granule also supports the building of kits, individual items that are grouped or packaged together to create a special, single item. BOMs for kits can be defined and assigned to items. Kits can be built and disassembled using the BOM Journal.
Bin
Organize your warehouse by assigning items to bins, the smallest unit in the warehouse logical structure. Bin assignment is done as the item journals or directly on the document lines (does not apply to order lines).
Cycle Counting
Manage cycle counting, a basic method of verifying inventory record data used to maintain and increase inventory accuracy. Set up cycle counting on the item or SKU level.
Item Budgets
Make sales and purchase budgets on the customer, vendor, and item levels, and in both amounts and quantities. Prepare and record a sales budget that can serve as input to decision-makers in other operational areas, such as purchasing and logistics. Decision-makers gain information about future expected demand they can use for business discussions with the customers. After budgets are made, track the actual sales performance by means of calculating the variance. The ability to move budgeted figures between the system and Excel provides additional flexibility to the budgeting process.
Item Charges
Manage item charges. Include the value of additional cost components such as freight or insurance into the unit cost or unit price of an item.
Item Cross References
Quickly and precisely identify the items a customer is ordering on the basis of item numbers other than your own. Cross-reference information from customers, vendors, and manufacturers, as well as generic numbers, universal product codes (UPCs), and European article numbers (EANs) that can be stored and easily accessed.
Item Substitutions
Link items with the same or similar characteristics so that if a customer orders an item that is unavailable, you can offer substitute items and avoid losing the sale. Or, provide an extra service to your customer by offering lower-cost alternatives.
Item Tracking
Manage and track serial and lot numbers. Assign serial or lot numbers manually or automatically, and receive and ship multiple quantities with serial/lot numbers from a single order line entry.
Kitting (Version 5.0 or Later, not available in all countries)
In addition to the kitting features included in the Bills of Materials granule, kits can be added to sales orders, managed using item tracking, reserved, and created using instant production. Orders, pick tickets, packing slips, and invoices can display kit details. Additional reporting is also provided for kit margins and availability calculations.
Location Transfers
Track inventory as it is moved from one location to another and account for the value of inventory in transit and at various locations.
Multiple Locations
Manage inventory in multiple locations. This granule includes locations in plants or production facilities as well as distribution centers, warehouses, and service cars.
Nonstock Items
Offer items that are not part of your inventory but that you can order from the vendor or manufacturer. Such items are registered as nonstock items but otherwise are treated like any other item.
Pick (only available in Advanced Management Edition)
Enable warehouse workers to create a pick from the released order. Pick is managed from a separate user interface when shipping items in an order-by-order environment.
Put Away (only available in Advanced Management Edition)
Enable warehouse workers to create a put away from the released order. Put Away is managed from a separate user interface when receiving items in an order-by-order environment.
Standard Cost Worksheet
Efficiently review and update standard costs with this worksheet. The standard cost worksheet provides a company’s controllers with a reliable and efficient way to maintain accurate and up-to-date inventory costs. Work with standard cost updates the same way you work with an Excel spreadsheet but within the framework of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Because it provides an overview of the current standard costs, the worksheet is a convenient place to prepare for a cost update without the changes having an immediate effect in the system. Using the worksheet, you can:
• Carry out cost updates for both the purchased components and capacity by using different sorting criteria in several worksheets simultaneously, and then later consolidate them into one.
• Get information that can help you identify and avoid potential errors by simulating the cost of the manufactured item due to changes in components and/or capacity use cost and then viewing the effect.
• Help ensure that you execute the changes at a given date and that any revaluation resulting from cost changes is dealt with in the system
Stock-Keeping Units (only available in Advanced Management Edition)
Manage stock-keeping units (SKUs). Identical items with the same item number can be stored in different locations and managed individually at each location. Add cost prices, replenishment, manufacturing information, and so on, based on the location.
Warehouse Receipt (only available in Advanced Management Edition)
Enable warehouse workers to create a put-away from the receipt. Warehouse Receipt is managed from a separate user interface when receiving items in a multi-order environment.
Warehouse Shipment (only available in Advanced Management Edition)
Enable warehouse workers to create a pick from the shipment. Warehouse Shipment is managed from a separate user interface where shipping items in a multi-order environment.
There are 2 different versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV; Business Essentials (BE) and Advanced Management (AM). Functionality of these two versions differ and it is best to contact us to determine which version would work best for your company. Contacts us for more information here or download the entire report at: Microsoft Dynamics NAV Product Capabilities
