Business Central App Review: Multi Company Inventory
Mark Richardson once stated, "We can always create more inventory. You don't just turn people away. The challenge is finding new ways to accommodate people." This is especially true for organizations that have multiple companies under their umbrella. Just because one company doesn't have the inventory on-hand does not mean that the organization does not have enough inventory.
Currently in Business Central there is not an out-of-the-box feature that allows you to check the inventory levels of multiple companies without having to log in and out of each company. An app or extension is needed. That's why when I was researching Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central apps to review for our podcast, A Shot of Business Central and A Beer, I was very intrigued when I came across Multi Company Inventory by Isatech. Not only did this app have a 5 star rating it was free! I knew I had to give it a shot and the following is what I found.
Why I Chose This Business Central App
For the Solution Systems podcast A Shot of Business Central and A Beer Ken and I decided that we wanted to find an app to review that had at least a 4 star rating and was free to use. When I came upon Multi Company Inventory app in AppSource the descriptions made the app appear simple to use and required only a Business Central tenant that had multiple companies. There wasn't any sort of external account I had to create to link Business Central to a portal or anything else to do. All I had to do was download and use. Now, that's my kind of app!
Since I'm a sucker for things that make you more productive I was hooked and had to give this app a try.
What the Multi Company Inventory App for Business Central Does
This app allows you to see a consolidated inventory view taken from all companies in your Business Central database. For this to work, the item number has to be the same in all companies.
The Availability by company and location page can be personalized to see only fields that matter to you.
Benefits of this App
You'll be able to answer inventory related customer questions quickly. Questions such as: is this item in stock or where will this item be shipping from?
You can view this information on any sales, purchase, or transfer document. If the availability menu can be seen you'll be able to use multi company inventory.
This app works anywhere that Business Central is available.
Here is the multi company inventory option on the Item List:
How to Use
Example: A customer has signed off on a quote for 1,500 chairs. As you’re creating the Sales Order, Business Central gives you a warning letting you know that the available inventory for the item is lower than the entered quantity at this location. Prior to this app you’d have to log in and out of all the other companies to see which one had enough inventory to fill this order. No more. Now you can check item availability by company right from the Sales Order. All you have to do is select Line, select Item Availability By, and select Company. You’ll now see an Availability by company and location card that shows the inventory amounts for that item.
