One of the major ways in which it achieves this is through increasing your operational efficiency, it can do this by:-
• Allowing greater and tighter control over the supply chain through the monitoring of mission critical events and processes.
• Allowing you to automate mission critical processes, freeing up your workforce to be more productive.
• Through an easy to use format, allowing you to quickly choose and set up a solution, improving the flexibility of you business and its ability to react to unforeseen events.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV also helps you to improve productivity right across your workforce:-
• The familiar interface ensures that training costs are kept to a minimum, meaning your workforce is ready to use the software quickly.
• Thanks to real time information, employees are able to react and make decisions that are relevant and suitable.
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• Eliminates the duplication of work.
• Reduces time spent in reconciliation of disparate systems
Team is working from a single data source producing unity and parity across the company.
The simple and effective integration with other Microsoft software cuts downtime:-
• Applications work with each other, saving the time spent switching between different applications and formats.
• Tasks, activities and customer views can all be presented in easy to use and familiar Microsoft Office programs such as Excel and Word.

The points above have hoped to highlight a small number of the benefits provided by Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It has also strived to show that Dynamics NAV provides a cost effective, integrated and easy to use solution for a range of businesses.

As early as the sixties, ERP software was being used. In the early stages, the predominant function of ERP software was as an inventory management and control tool. Fundamentally it was the automation of inventory processes such as monitoring and accurate reporting, as well as the ability to define forecasts and goals that made these early ERP solutions valuable. The heritage of ERP software as an inventory management tool continues to this day with Microsoft Dynamics NAV providing companies with a range of different inventory management and stock control features.

Over the next two decades ERP was steadily improved, specifically in regards to the software and operating interfaces. The software also started to be used in the planning of projects and business operations. By the end of the eighties ERP software offered companies combined tools across many different facets of business operations.

It was in the nineties however that ERP software made some of the largest leaps forward. It was at this point that software options were offered on a multi module basis. With the growth in popularity of the personal computer and server technology, modern ERP software capable of performing management tasks across inventory, human resources, financing, manufacturing, purchasing, sales and marketing was born.

With the turn of the millennium the technological advancements made in internet enabled software opened up a new realm to ERP solutions. At this point in the marketplace there were a number of different company mergers. For instance, Navision (the forebear of Microsoft Dynamics) merged with Danish rival Damgaard in 2000; Microsoft noted the huge potential of ERP in the small to mid-range markets and purchased Navision for its Microsoft Business Solutions division.

In 2005 Microsoft rebranded it’s business division and Microsoft Dynamics NAV was born with closer integration to other packages in the Microsoft stack, such as Office and Pocket PC. Since this time Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 has been released offering a role based user interface, a SharePoint based portal and SQL based reporting. Microsoft is continuing to pump record investment into the Dynamics NAV development as the market continues to grow.

Today ERP software and Microsoft Dynamics NAV in particular offers businesses enhanced productivity and administrative functionality. The software is simple and easy to use, secure and integrates well with other Microsoft software; making it a highly valuable organisational and operational tool in a range of business environments and market sectors.

Dynamics NAV is widely known as the package to choose when you want your software to fit your business operations. Its ease of customisation makes it perfect to tailor to industry sectors. From auctions to the trading of commodities, to the supply chain, including manufacturing and the importation & distribution industries, the integrated solution provided by Microsoft Dynamics NAV bring a number of different benefits to a business.

One of the most important benefits provided by ERP software is the fact it effectively sources all of the information related to your business in one solution. A complete package means that as a business owner or manager you are provided with the information you need on numerous facets of the business in an instant, allowing cross referencing of data simply and swiftly.

More than just stock control software or accounts, Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an all encompassing solution that can be customised to ensure it meets your requirements. For example, Dynamics NAV stock control works brilliantly, functioning effectively to help you reduce costs and improve the customer experience through efficient inventory management. Tasks such as these are carried out with the additional benefits of having accurate data on many different elements of the business.

Put simply the benefits of Microsoft Dynamics NAV are as follows:

Microsoft Dynamics NAV certainly offers businesses a remarkable number of different advantages and benefits. When implemented correctly it offers far reaching functionality that can be used to manage almost any facet of the business.

Below is a quick guide, providing some of the basic principles that should be included in your decision making process when choosing stock control software.

Hopefully the previous information is useful to those attempting to find a stock control solution. It is also hoped that it will aid any decision that must be made on finding the right software for your business.

From offering you combined accounting and operational stock figures, to helping you make purchasing decisions and take full control over supply chain tracking, Microsoft Dynamics NAV consistently outperforms alternative stock control software.

In this post, we’re going to summarise the stock control benefits offered by NAV and then offer you the chance to try out its capabilities for yourself.

Let’s begin…

Accounting and operational stock figures

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV you don’t have to reconcile your accounting figures with your operational stock figures – you already have unified data.

Thanks to this fact, you get better inventory management:

Purchasing made easier

Traditional buying decisions could easily be undermined by relying too heavily on out-of-date stock, sales and forecast figures.

NAV helps you to avoid this situation by allowing you to track up-to-the-minute stock levels, and quickly spot when demand for an item increases or decreases – giving you more time to take action.

In addition, NAV streamlines purchase order production. Requests can be approved immediately, and an Evo-Soft plugin allows you to upload new items via Microsoft Excel spreadsheets – the format generated by many suppliers.

Supply chain tracking

Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to find out instantly where any product is in your supply chain, and what status it has. This has significant benefits, particularly in conjunction with Evo-Soft add-ons:

This is unified stock control software at its best.

Goods received

Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to enter stock immediately into your inventory – you don’t have to wait for the invoicing to catch up. If you ask Evo-Soft to deploy NAV, you can:

Stock management inside the warehouse

NAV allows you to maximise the space available inside your warehouse. You can define picking criteria and you can assign items to multiple bins and put-away locations – safe in the knowledge that NAV has an accurate record of every item’s whereabouts.

You can also track lot and serial numbers, not to mention ‘best before’ dates. You can also track batches and easily handle any product recalls or messages that relate to any one of them.

Because your stock data is so accurate, you can:

In short, Microsoft Dynamics NAV increases the accuracy of your inventory – giving you a whole host of cost-effective efficiency benefits.

The stock control audit trail

NAV will log stock control changes instantly, so you can access live figures at any time. You can access details of all physical transactions, whether goods are received, sent, transferred, returned or written off. You can therefore analyse stock status easily, quickly detecting errors or abuses.

You can analyse any part of the full audit trail to check performance by product, department, operative, warehouse, date range or other factor. The audit trail also means you comply with Government record-keeping, check transaction accuracy, detect improper use or security problems and analyse data to find patterns and trends.

The strength of NAV is that you can monitor every detail of stock control from purchase order to final delivery – all within one system. It saves you money, makes your business more effective and gives you a competitive edge over your rivals.

Would you like to try the benefits for yourself? If so, please get in touch and we’ll show you what NAV can do…

The bottom line of stock control is knowing, with absolute certainty, what your stock levels are. The dynamic nature of operations means that your inventory figures are changing on a minute-by-minute basis. With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, stock control changes are instantly logged, providing live stock figures at any given moment.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides you with full audit trails as standard. The Item Ledger shows all transactions that have an impact on the stock valuation, while the Warehouse Entries show all physical transactions, including internal transfers.

Whether goods are being received, dispatched, transferred, returned, or written off, the total picture is always available, with drill-down functionality that allows ready access to the originating documents and all ledger transactions. The use of Reason Codes also allows you to further analyse your data and provides insights that are invaluable in driving efficiency and profitability.

When a journal entry is entered you can see when it happens and why it has happened. This means you can analyse the changing status of stock, and quickly detect errors or abuses in entering or removing transaction data.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV’s audit trail helps you detect problems fast

You can use Microsoft Dynamics NAV to generate an audit trail for any part of the supply chain. For example, you can examine an audit trail for transactions related to a single product, an individual operative, a specific warehouse, within certain date ranges and more.

So, if your analysis of your stock control data reveals products, departments or operatives performing to an unexpected level – whether positive or negative – you can easily see from the audit trail whether there’s another story to be told by the figures.

In addition, if you operate a bonded warehouse, the audit trail in Evo-Soft’s customisation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to track bonded entries accurately and helps you to cut administration costs.

Benefits of a robust stock control audit trail

There are many other benefits of having a detailed audit trail as part of your inventory management system. These are just a few:

• Compliance with Governmental requirements for record keeping – without all the paper!
• An audit trail allows you to trace transactions and check their accuracy and validity
• The audit trail creates item traceability, down to lot or serial number level if these are in use
• You can detect improper use or security breaches
• You can analyse data to find patterns and trends.
• With Dynamics NAV you can monitor the whole process from purchase order to delivery – something that is normally achieved via a number of systems.

Microsoft NAV’s powerful audit trail functionality is a major asset to any business needing inventory management software. If you would like to learn more, be sure to contact Evo-Soft today.

With NAV, you can manage goods and space much more effectively. For example, you can define criteria to comply with the most efficient pick patterns and define picking criteria to maximise your warehouse space and/ or efficiency.

Within the warehouse itself, you can assign items to multiple bins and put-away locations, and the inventory management software will keep an accurate record of every item’s location. The result – better use of warehouse space, keeping your costs down.

Lot and serial number tracking are standard within NAV, and you can activate these features where needed. NAV can assist in the stock management of these products by allowing you to:

• Track ‘Best Before’ dates – minimising wastage
• Handle tracking of batches
• Facilitate any product recalls or messages that relate to a particular batch

Microsoft Dynamics NAV tracking

Because NAV makes tracking items within the warehouse easy, it helps you to easily find any product, flag errors or track missing stock in the inventory management system. As you have access to accurate stock data at any given moment, staff spend much less time locating items and get your goods to market more quickly. You are also able to ulitise the entire warehouse space and not be limited to only using a fixed bin scenario.

Using NAV for warehouse stock control also makes short work of your returns – replacement goods, returns to suppliers and credit memos can all be organised automatically.

Equally useful, you can increase the accuracy of your inventory and ensure you meet shipping deadlines by using NAV to determine the counting frequency of each item, and by utilising the perpetual inventory features.

In the next post, we conclude with one of Microsoft Dynamics NAV’s major strengths – taking control of the audit trail. Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed so you don’t miss out.

When goods arrive from your suppliers, you want them to be listed immediately in your inventory management software. That way, they become immediately available for distribution and sale.

If they are not, you face delays in despatching to your customers, damaging your relationship and sometime incurring costly penalty charges. You also may end up keeping more stock than you need to satisfy demand – and that ties up your capital.

However, some stock control systems won’t allow the goods received to be listed until the relevant invoicing has been matched to the items.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV for goods received

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, stock can be entered immediately into your inventory – there is no need to wait for the invoicing to catch up. It happens immediately. NAV can be used to track goods receipt dates, check all items against any purchase orders that might be outstanding, and verify quantities.

Equally important, NAV will highlight discrepancies between invoices and the goods received, allowing you to identify over-deliveries or under-deliveries immediately and take corrective action.

Summary of inventory management benefits

Evo-soft can help you to deploy Microsoft Dynamics NAV so that your inventory management software manages goods received in efficient and cost-effective ways.

With NAV deployed by us, you can:

• Have stock available for distribution or sale, practically from the moment of delivery
• Keep stock levels down, freeing up capital and warehouse space
• Easily spot discrepancies between goods received and supplier invoices
• Take corrective action on delivery descrepancies quickly.

In the next post, we’ll be looking at stock management inside the warehouse, and the related efficiencies that NAV can bring to your business. Make sure you don’t miss out – subscribe to our RSS feed today.

We’re now going to look at supply chain tracking using stock control software. Customers demand information and you have to be able to supply it. You need to know where the stock is to fulfil their order, whether it is available in the warehouse, at the docks, or in manufacture, or never coming.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV and supply chain tracking

With NAV you can find out instantly where any item is in your supply chain, and what its status is. This has significant benefits for your inventory management:

• You can respond quickly to customer demands and provide them with detailed information on their order status. This increases satisfaction and boosts your reputation.
• You can monitor purchasing status and take action when supply is slipping, avoiding late delivery penalties and fees.
• You can use data on stock status to streamline distribution and increase efficiency.
• Monitor testing requirements, certificate expiry dates, and production issues.
• You can identify which suppliers are most efficient and supply goods the fastest.
• With streamlined admin, you can communicate easily with vendors to assess updates and load the information into the system.
• You can communicate with customers using reports reflecting current stock availability and projected estimated times of arrival.

*Some of the benefits listed are Evo-soft add-ons and not standard in Dynamics NAV.

Good supply chain tracking is vital for both customer and supplier satisfaction, and Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to achieve both from unified stock control software. In our next post we’ll be examining how NAV can help manage goods received and make your stock system faster and more efficient as a result.

Our solution was to use Microsoft Dynamics NAV in place of the separate systems, ensuring that data is not only unified, but that it gives you the power to make more strategic and effective purchasing decisions.

We’re now going to look more closely at Microsoft Dynamics NAV from a purchasing perspective – and find out how using it for inventory management makes buying much easier.

Stock control software and purchasing decisions

Users of effective stock control software need to ensure that they have the correct amount of stock at any given time. Ideally you need enough stock to satisfy demand, but not so much excess stock that your cash flow suffers.

If you have significant excess stock, then you have capital tied up in items that may take weeks, months or even years to sell. That’s money that could have been used on faster-moving and more profitable products.

On the other hand, if you don’t have enough stock, you won’t meet demand and you’ll lose out on current profits as well as possibly losing those customers. And if you don’t spot in time that you need to increase your stock of a particular item, you may not have time to get it to market before demand slumps.

In terms of inventory management, the correct stock levels rely on effective purchasing decisions. Microsoft Dynamics NAV gives you extra tools to make these decisions effectively.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV for informed purchasing decisions

Traditionally, buying decisions could be weakened by purchasing managers who put too much faith in outdated stock, sales and forecast figures.

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you can track up-to-date stock levels, quickly identify when demand for an item increases or decreases by an unexpected amount – and take action accordingly. You can also incorporate sales forecasts on demand, and identify patterns that you may have missed using a less effective system.

For example, traditional sales forecasts may show that sales of a particular item increase by 20% in the second half of July. Therefore, relying on that information, you would normally increase your stock levels just before that period.

However, if sales picked up by 25% in the first half of July, it would take some time for traditional stock control systems to pick up on the fact – this could leave you without sufficient stock by the end of the month. Microsoft Dynamics NAV, on the other hand, is capable of detecting the increased sales instantly, allowing you to make faster purchasing decisions that give you an edge over competitors.

Dynamics NAV provides you with four choices of standardised reordering policies, which meet the needs of most companies:

• Fixed Reorder
• Maximum Quantity
• Order
• Lot-for-Lot

Companies can simply choose the settings that fit their company buying policies. Evo-soft also has an adapted version that is tailored for the idiosyncrasies of the seasonal markets.

NAV and purchase orders

Microsoft Dynamics NAV streamlines the purchase order productions process. Purchasing managers can quickly review and approve requests straight away. With the push of a button the Purchase Order can be raised directly from the Requisition Worksheet, the buying planning tool in Dynamics NAV, creating greater efficiency and less administrative tedium.

An additional time saving feature provided by Evo-soft is that new items can be created through uploaded spreadsheets from Microsoft Excel into NAV. As many suppliers now generate Excel quotes this eliminated a lot of duplicated effort.

Stock control software that makes purchasing much easier

Getting the purchasing right is of paramount importance to a company’s survival in a competitive marketplace. Microsoft Dynamics NAV is ideal if you need to make effective purchasing decisions for good inventory management. You can interrogate your data to spot unusual sales patterns as they happen, allowing you to make faster buying decisions. And if you have to manage lots of purchasing transactions, NAV completes them much more quickly and helps you keep ahead of your rivals – it’s stock control software that makes purchasing much easier.

In our next post, we’ll be looking at how Microsoft Dynamics NAV is invaluable for supply chain tracking. Make sure you don’t miss out – subscribe to our RSS feed today.