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Business Central is a widely trusted ERP (or business management) solution, named overall Best Cloud ERP Software by Forbes Advisor for 2025.

It brings together finance, sales, purchasing, inventory and operations in a single platform, helping streamline manufacturing and distribution processes, enhance efficiency, gain real-time insight and, ultimately, improve your bottom line.

Read a more comprehensive overview of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

The exact steps of a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central implementation may vary depending on your partner.

Typically, you can expect an invite to discovery calls to help define your operations, challenges, future processes and what you want to achieve. Next, your supporting documentation will be written up. From there, your system will be built and configured, tested with your data and any apps and integrations added in. You can expect a detailed solution walkthrough to follow – plus any training for your key users, who will then test your system for themselves. Finally, your go-live and transition to support.

The price you pay for Business Central depends on things like business size, process complexity, how many users you have and how much customisation you need.

When you move to Business Central, you’ll pay a one-off implementation fee. Licence costs, ongoing support and any add-on apps will be billed monthly or annually.

Licences for Business Central are provided on a subscription basis, with pricing determined by the number of users and the chosen licence type. Each licence type gives access to different features, and manufacturing functionality requires a Premium licence.

Choosing annual payment for your licencing typically rewards you with a lower monthly cost. Monthly subscriptions offer greater flexibility for scaling your user numbers up or down – ideal for businesses with seasonal fluctuations.

For the latest pricing information and licence options, please refer to our Business Central pricing page.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central gives manufacturers built-in tools for managing production orders, BOMs and routings, plus reliable job costing – all in one place. Production orders pull together materials, labour, routings and costs, so you can keep track of what’s happening on the shop floor. BOMs and routings clearly lay out your components and process steps, including capacity planning, so you’re always in control and confident in your numbers.

For manufacturers wanting more, add-ons like Clever Manufacturing Plus and Clever MES from Clever Dynamics bring enhanced production visibility, change control and shopfloor data, giving you cost accuracy and even more operational control.

Business Central brings sales, purchasing, inventory and warehouse management together in one place, giving distributors instant visibility of stock and ensuring orders are fulfilled quickly and accurately. Whether you’re managing simple picking or more advanced WMS processes, Business Central is designed to scale with your needs.

Distributors can extend Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, using Tecman’s Clever solutions to make things even easier. Clever EDI takes care of customer, supplier and 3PL transactions automatically, while Clever WMS Devices make your warehouse operations faster and more reliable. That means less manual work, fewer mistakes, and happier customers – all while helping your business stay ahead.

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Business Central is highly customisable without heavy code changes. Business Central supports manufacturing and distribution out of the box, but the software can still be tailored to meet specific business needs with extensions, configuration and Microsoft Power Platform integration – all while staying upgrade safe.

Industry specific apps can add extra functionality (think enhanced production control and integrated EDI). This approach lets businesses quickly adapt Business Central to their way of doing things, without compromising future updates or scalability.

Yes, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central includes built-in MRP (material requirements planning).

Business Central can run MRP, MPS (master production scheduling) or full planning to calculate what to buy or make – and when – based on demand, forecasts, inventory levels, lead times, BOMs and routings. It generates action messages and planning worksheet suggestions for purchase, production, transfer and assembly orders.

Business Central has basic CRM functionality built in to support simple, order-driven sales – think contact management and converting quotes into orders.

For an end-to-end customer management experience, people often pair Business Central with other apps from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM suite. This unlocks lead nurturing, marketing campaign management and automation, field service scheduling and a whole lot more.

Yes, Business Central has built-in AI capabilities to speed up daily tasks and take the guesswork out of decision-making.

With embedded Microsoft Copilot features and agents, manufacturers and distributors can generate item and marketing descriptions, dive into data using plain English, get quick answers about business information, breeze through bank reconciliations, match vendor invoices to purchase orders and even get helpful suggestions for sales document lines.

Microsoft Learn offers free, self-paced learning paths and modules covering Business Central basics, finance, manufacturing, reporting, administration and development, plus role-based certification preparation.

When you partner with Tecman, you can access weekly Free Scheduled Training in addition to any training delivered as part of your Business Central implementation. The sessions are led by manufacturing and distribution experts.

As a trusted Microsoft partner, Tecman offer a whole host of educational events and resources. This includes customer workshops (exploring unfamiliar areas of the software to maximise your investment), annual Customer Days (for Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and Power Platform, as well as Business Central) with insightful keynotes and hands-on learning opportunities, a customer-exclusive AI resource hub, regular podcasts, videos and more.

Standard Business Central functionality training is also available to non-Tecman customers.

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