Business Central automation refers to using native Business Central tools, Power Automate flows, and other applications in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem to automate routine Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tasks with minimal manual intervention. For instance, automated reminders for approval requests, purchase orders, and inventory alerts can be triggered by simple criteria.
As Business Central is a cloud-based ERP software, it integrates seamlessly with Power Automate, Teams, Outlook, Power BI, and SharePoint, and is the preferred choice for small and medium-sized enterprises to digitize their operations.
Manual procedures within ERP systems do not necessarily have obvious pain points. However, every manual hand-off adds time to a process and creates opportunities for errors and bottlenecks. Typical issues arising from manual processes include:
- Approval requests are being overlooked due to approvers not finding the email.
- Data being re-keyed from Business Central into spreadsheets and other applications.
- Delayed reminders for invoice payments, late or inconsistent reminders to customers.
- Management making decisions based on reports that are out of date.
- Lack of end-to-end insight into accounts_PAYABLE, accounts_RECEIVABLE and inventory levels.
Business central automation workflows address all these challenges by bringing built-in process consistency and control, speed, and transparency without disrupting the existing ERP system.
When you’re starting to look at automation, it is important not to attempt to automate everything at once. It is better to identify a few candidate processes that are repetitive and rules-based, and where there is clear scope for improvement. Below are a few examples of where to begin automating business central processes:
1. Purchase and Expense Approvals
Ensure purchase and expense requests are automatically sent to the right person (or people) for approval, using simple criteria such as value or department, and allowing them to approve from Teams or Outlook. Rules and conditions apply to purchase orders for approval. This is one of the finance team’s most time-consuming processes to automate reducing day-to-day operational friction.
2. Invoice Processing and Accounts Payable
Automated invoice processing involves pulling supplier invoices, POs, and receiving reports. Where there are mismatched figures, an alert flag can be set to draw the accounts payable to the team’s attention to resolve discrepancies. Invoice automation reduces time spent keying data and increases productivity as the AP team focuses more on invoice exceptions, disputes, and processing.
3. Sales Order to Invoice
With the sales order picked, the invoice flow can then be used to post the invoice and send a copy to the customer, as well as to update the team in Teams. This reduces the length of the order-to-cash cycle, thus improving cash flow and customer satisfaction.
4. Payment Reminders and Collections
Automated payment reminders can be used to send polite, personalized reminders to customers regarding late or unpaid invoices. The overdue payments will also be brought to the collections manager’s attention, helping improve cash collection without adding to the finance teams’ workload.
5. Inventory Reorder Alerts
Whenever inventory reorder points are reached, an alert could be created, or a purchase order initiated automatically. This gives the purchasing team enough time to get the ordered materials to avoid any disruptions at the warehouse.
6. Month End Reporting and Executive Dashboards
Using Power BI, financial reports such as collections, receivables, and operating margin could be pulled automatically to create executive dashboards that help the finance managers monitor performance without getting stuck in the monthly close.
7. Customer and Vendors Onboarding
Create and approve customer and/or vendor details using standard templates and then generate a record in Business Central automatically. In addition, any supporting documents (e.g., tax forms, contracts) could also be added directly to SharePoint for proper organization and secure storage.
One of the biggest advantages of using Microsoft Business Central is the seamless connectivity of all Microsoft tools. Some key Power Platform offerings that are critical enablers for Business Central automation include:
1. Power Automate: Power Automate contains all the tools needed to design approvals and notifications using a prebuilt no-code Business Central connector.
2. Teams and Outlook: Teams and Microsoft Outlook give end-users access to approval notifications without needing to log in to another application.
3. SharePoint: SharePoint powers the organization and management of documents tied to an ERP system.
4. Power BI: Business Central contains rich and deep data that can be brought to Power BI for deeper analytics. This is ideal for building executive dashboards and making operational data available across finance and operations teams.
5. Copilot in Business Central: Finally, as your data and processes become better organized and automated through these tools, you can bring in Copilot for Finance and Operations to assist end-users in their daily routines using AI.
To embark on your business central automation journey, follow these five steps:
1. Audit your current ERP processes to determine what needs to be automated and the operational impact. This is the ideal time to identify the repetitive tasks your teams perform daily or weekly.
2. Based on this information, prioritize 2 or 3 simple, high-volume processes that could deliver measurable results.
3. Design these workflows with the stakeholders: Define the approvers and the exception rules for each flow. In most cases, finance managers will want to keep approvals within a group to allow flexibility in who processes what.
4. Pilot these workflows and measure the impact in terms of time saved and defects prevented.
5. Set clear Power Platform governance policies to make sure your software spends continue to scale your operations without risk.
By following this approach, improvements will be seen and felt faster, allowing you to gain quick-won approvals to build greater momentum for the program.
The most common mistake is attempting to automate a broken process. Automating approvals, for instance, will only accelerate inefficiencies if the process requires approvers to make decisions based on incorrect or insufficient information.
Other mistakes typically involve vague ownership of designed processes and workflows, not providing sufficient training, and a lack of governance, which can cause security issues or compliance risks later. It is a good idea to have a basic power platform governance model in place before designing and deploying any automation workflow.
Using Business Central automation can help you get more value from the ERP you already pay for. When you automate approvals, invoicing, collections, inventory alerts, and reporting, your team usually spends less time on repeated work. That frees up time for real decisions.
It helps to begin with one or two areas. Track what changes. Then expand in a careful way with clear rules.
Want to know what to automate first in Business Central? Reach out to the 3KT team for an automation check and a practical plan matched to your company.
1. What can be automated in Dynamics 365 Business Central?
Common candidates include purchase and expense approvals, invoice processing, sales invoicing, payment reminders, inventory alerts, reporting, and customer or vendor onboarding. Any repetitive, rule-based task triggered by an ERP event is a good fit.
2. Do I need Power Automate for Business Central automation?
Business Central includes built-in approval workflows, but Power Automate extends them significantly. It lets you connect Business Central with Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, and hundreds of other apps for richer, cross-system automation.
3. Is Business Central automation suitable for small businesses?
Yes. Because Business Central and Power Automate are cloud-based and scale with usage, small and mid-sized businesses can start with a few simple flows and expand as they see results.
4. How long does it take to automate a Business Central workflow?
Simple approval or notification flows can often be set up quickly, while complex, multi-system processes need more design and testing. A short process assessment is the best way to estimate timelines for your environment.