Dynamics 365 Business Central Implementation Plan

Business Central/NAV General Discussions
1

Dears, Good day to all of you

I am currently starting Business Central Implementation for a Creative & Advertising agency, there is no inventory at all, only they are selling Ideas, Media Buying, Video production & etc.

I am looking for a short & rapid Implementation plan.

Ideas how to deal with sales & purchases as they will purchase services and resell them with a % of the cost.

Thanks in advance

2

I think before implementation plan you need to write HOW do you plan to use NAV for this “Creative & Advertising agency”.

The main point - you need to define “place” which will generate the finance action. And this “place” maybe Job&Resource, Service, Inventory (to purchase and sell item like a service) or … And then you cal define tha “short & rapid Implementation plan” (when you define business-processes for automatisation you can understand where and how will you apply the NAV)

3

Thanks so much for your advises

4

I would have expected that you knew how your customer would be going to use BC, even before a contract was signed!

They are selling ideas, but what is an idea? It could be a (non-inventory) item or a job. So how is an idea invoiced? If based on actual time then I would sell resources via a job, just as I invoice my own NAV customers. If fixed price, then job or item could be used. With purchase then you could buy non-inventory items.

Adding a percentage to the costs can again either be done via the non-inventory items (if same % for all with same number) or via jobs, if specific per customers (allows you to assign a Unit Cost Factor).

But all these questions, and much more should have been answered, even before selling to the customers. If not, how would you even know that the customers requirement fits to BC?

5

Mr Erik, Thank you; [emoticon:eb4aa943e408408bad7f7f839387d1a3] always your questions inside the discussion are very helpful and opens new ideas, I really thank you.

The current company was going to use Netsuite but as a small company it’s so expensive for them and the features of NAV/BC covering more than the requirements.

but they have a less staff and if I need to activate all features like Jobs they should hire, they are currently 14 emp. and the sales doing purchases, it’s quite complexed, dealing with staff does not know basic excel and you explaining to them an ERP is a heavy task.

They are purchasing services from a vendor and resell it with a higher price but for the Media buying like ( Youtube, Twitter & etc) they add a fixed % 7 and sometimes 10% based on the customer, regarding the ideas its mainly calculated by the working hours, and I think the best option is using the resources and jobs.

Using the Non-Inventory items also a very good option, I will see how to apply that, if you can please guide me or send me some ref. to check about the Jobs, Resources and Non-Inventory, I will be much appreciated.

As you know I am just a beginner and my main area is the Finance Dept.

Thanks

Mahmoud

6

Mahmoud, the Netsuite has many restriction.

I think you need to check information from here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-nav-app/walkthrough-business-process-walkthroughs (“Business Process Walkthroughs”) and then navigate though this site (see more information on lest side of the page)… It is hard to advice you something curtain…

7

For a service-based company (no inventory), you can keep the implementation very lean.

Suggested rapid approach:

  1. Use Service Items + G/L accounts

    • No need for inventory setup

    • Define services like Media Buying, Video Production, etc.

  2. Sales process

    • Create Sales Quotes → convert to Sales Invoices

    • Use Job/Project module if you want to track cost vs revenue per client/project

  3. Purchases (cost side)

    • Post vendor invoices against the same job/project

    • This gives clear visibility of margin

  4. Markup / resale model

    • Either:

      • Add % markup directly in sales line

      • Or use Job Planning Lines with cost + price

  5. Core setup (keep minimal)

    • Chart of Accounts

    • Customers / Vendors

    • Dimensions (for tracking by project/client)

  6. Timeline (realistic)

    • Basic setup: 1–2 weeks

    • Jobs + reporting: +1 week

    • UAT + go-live: 1 week

Key tip:
Don’t overconfigure. For agencies, Jobs module + simple invoicing covers most needs.