By: Matt Ceron – Microsoft Dynamics ERP Consultant
In January of 2021, Bond Consulting Services (BCS) deployed the basic functionality of Dynamics 365 Business Central for a unique packaging company that delivers specialized glass packaging for natural products. After getting accustomed to their new environment, the packaging company desired specific customizations to fit their business needs and optimize operations.
The BCS Team integrated the Business Central environment with the 3rd party application called Dynamic Ship from Insight Works which is a global leader in productivity solutions for manufacturers and distributors and a trusted partner of BCS. Dynamic Ship is a package management system that enables users to add real-time shipping rates, label printing, shipment tracking, carrier integration and more capabilities right into their Business Central environment:
The packaging company ships many products internationally, especially to Canada, which presented a major obstacle for their integrated Business Central and Dynamic Ship environment. To ship products internationally, companies need to complete a Commercial Invoice that is evaluated by customs to ensure all product and pricing information is accurate. Dynamic Ship reporting only supported 1 line per item on the invoices which forced the system to add all the company’s separate product figures together. For instance, if the company wanted to ship 1 box that included 280 product items to Canada, the Commercial Invoice would show 281 items (instead of 280) which would cause the price of the box to increase exponentially. Therefore, customs would often deny the international shipments as the Commercial Invoice did not reflect the correct pricing.
BCS and Insight Works quickly got to work customizing the invoicing functionality to fix the line-item issue in their Dynamics 365 Business Central instance. Our expert consultants reconfigured the gross weight field on the Commercial Invoices to correctly calculate the weight of their products in addition to any packaging materials used such as boxes or pallets. The customized Commercial Invoice eliminates the company’s international shipment issue by enabling multiple lines per item, so the pricing and product quantities are accurate every time.
BCS established another customizable report in their Business Central environment to streamline the packaging company’s inventory replenishment process. The customizable report includes exact inventory measures such as exact weights of packages, exact weights of boxes, exact unit prices, how many products they have sold, how many sales orders they have completed, how may sales quotes they have completed and much more (see example report below):
The new report compiles all relevant data into a single document, so the company does not have to gather data from multiple sources which saves time and employee costs. This has been hugely helpful for the sales, warehouse management and inventory teams as it automatically updates orders and shipments to provide actionable insights on closing deals and replenishing inventory.
The packaging company is delighted with their new reporting functionality but is still experiencing issues with shipping samples internationally. To introduce their new products and increase customer retention, the company sends many product samples to their customers free of charge:
However, the samples are often not allowed through customs as there must be a dollar value on the Commercial Invoices to be shipped internationally. The BCS Team is currently coordinating with the packaging company to create an option that would still reflect $0 on the sales invoices but would generate some type of dollar amount on the Commercial Invoices to enable them to ship internationally.
The BCS Team is dedicated to modifying and enhancing Business Central reporting capabilities to meet all the needs and desires of our customer. The new functionality will be finalized within the next couple of weeks, and it can be implemented for a large variety of Business Central environments.
To learn more about Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamic Ship, or to learn more about specific customizations for your business, please schedule a free consultation or call (562) 988-3451 to speak to our BCS Team!
