If you’re a growing small or medium-sized business (SMB), the last thing you want is to juggle multiple responsibilities without a structured system in place. That’s why choosing the right enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is one of the most important decisions you can make.

The right ERP system not only helps streamline your day-to-day operations – it is also key to fuelling innovation and growing your business confidently. Microsoft Business Central is a game-changing solution that’s an essential consideration if you’re an SMB looking to outperform your competitors.

In this guide, we’re exploring the 7 key Business Central features that make Microsoft Business Central the ERP system of choice for SMBs in the UK.

Top 7 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Features for UK SMBs

Here are some of the features of this SaaS solution that can change the way you do business:

1. Financial Management and Reporting

Efficient financial management is essential for the success of any growing business. But you don’t want to spend time untangling complex financial workflows. With Business Central, you gain the necessary tools to simplify complicated financial processes, with benefits including:

  • Financial Visibility in Real-Time: Get quick access to financial data, track cash flow, and generate automated reports.
  • Automated Invoicing and Payments: Reduce manual work with AI-driven automation for invoicing and payment collection.
  • Multi-Currency and Tax Compliance: Built-in tax calculations and currency exchange rates allow you to operate effortlessly across regions.
  • Budgeting Tools: With this Business Central feature, you can create detailed budgets for your projects or cost centres and compare actuals versus forecasts in real time.
  • Power BI: Bring numbers to life with visualisation combined with in-depth business analytics. 

Business Central’s finance module streamlines financial management and reporting, with SMBs reporting significant cost savings and reduction in financial close times. 

The finance modules help you track cash flow in real-time and remain up to date with VAT returns, with the data-backed knowledge to make smart decisions for your business.

2. Inventory and Supply Chain Management

If you’re operating in manufacturing, production, wholesale, distribution, or logistics, you know how important it is to control inventory and supply chains. 

With Business Central’s inventory and supply chain management features, you can support your operations and avoid stockouts by maintaining optimal inventory levels and streamlining your supply chain.

These features include:

  • AI-Powered Demand Forecasting: Helps you create near-accurate demand forecasts to reduce overstocking and understocking.
  • Real-time Inventory Tracking: Gain complete visibility into stock levels, locations, and movement of your inventory.
  • Automated Purchase Order Recommendations: Minimise manual ordering with intelligent purchase suggestions.

These Microsoft Business Central features give you better control over your stock and vendor relationships. Thanks to automated reordering and accurate demand forecasts, Business Central helps you gain a significant edge over your inventory holding costs.

3. Sales and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Businesses can’t thrive without strong, long-term relationships. If you’re looking to improve connections with your customers and boost sales, you can take advantage of the following Business Central features:.

  • Customer Insights and Interaction Tracking: Lets you store all your customer interactions in one place to assess and create bespoke sales strategies.
  • Quote to Cash Automation: You can create quotes, convert them into orders, and process invoices with no hassle.
  • Integration with Dynamics 365 Sales: Integrate Business Central with Dynamics 365 Sales and benefit from synced customer data and tracked sales pipelines, with the potential to improve your conversion rates.

4. Manufacturing and Production Planning

If you’re an SMB with production and manufacturing operations, you know how critical planning is for your daily operations. 

There’s a wide range of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central features that have the potential to boost your productivity, including:

  • Bill of Materials (BOM) and Routing: Easily plan and track production processes.
  • Work Order and Capacity Planning: Ease your scheduling and resource allocation.
  • Cost Tracking and Waste Reduction: Reduce waste and improve your business’s production efficiency.

5. Automation and Workflows with Power Automate

Business Central can be integrated with Power Automate, which allows you to automate manual and repetitive tasks without writing a single line of code. 

Whether you’re sending automatic reminders for overdue payments or dispatching an invoice for approval, Power Automate helps you work efficiently and reduces human error with the following features:

  • Tailor Automation Needs: Use templates or build custom flows to customise automation to your specific needs.
  • Workflow Automation: Reduce repetitive tasks across departments by automating them.

6. Mobile Accessibility and Cloud-Based Flexibility

As a business owner, you need to stay constantly connected, with critical data accessible anytime, anywhere at your fingertips. With Business Central, you can harness the power of the cloud with business-critical information securely backed up and accessible whenever you want it. 

Here are some features you’ll benefit from:

  • Accessible on Any Device: You can manage finances, sales, and operations on your mobile, tablet, or desktop.
  • Secure Cloud Storage: All your data is securely stored and automatically backed up.
  • Scalable and Flexible Operations: Easily add users, features, and integrations as your business grows.

7. Business Intelligence and AI Insights

Business intelligence and insights likely play a key role in your data-driven decision-making, helping your organisation stay ahead of the competition and changing market scenarios. 

You can make the most of these Business Central features with built-in intelligence to analyse performance and forecast trends:

  • AI-Powered Insights: Get data-driven recommendations to optimise business operations.
  • Power BI Integration: Create interactive dashboards to visualise financials, sales, and customer behaviour.
  • Automated Data Analysis: Identify patterns and trends with AI-driven analytics.

Transform Your Business Operations with Brookland Solutions’ Business Central Consulting

Brookland Solutions is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central implementation partner helping businesses with Business Central software implementation, management, and support. 

This one transformative SaaS platform provides UK SMBs with the power to grow smartly, securely, and affordably. Its broad range of modules for finance, sales, stock, projects, and automation improves your organisation’s operational efficiency.

We’re here to ensure you can smoothly implement Business Central for your business, tailor it to meet your needs and goals, and provide ongoing training and support that helps you maximise the value of your ERP investment.

Ready to transform your SMB operations? Contact us today for a quick demo.