Business Central Manufacturing Partner for UK Manufacturers
NetMonkeys implements, extends and supports Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central for manufacturers, from production BOMs and routings to MRP, costing and shop-floor reporting. Manchester-based since 2006. Microsoft Solutions Partner.
"NetMonkeys helped us transition from legacy spreadsheets to Business Central Premium without missing a single dispatch date. Their consultants understood the reality of our machine centres from day one."
What does a Business Central manufacturing partner do?
A Business Central manufacturing partner is a Microsoft-certified implementation specialist that configures Dynamics 365 Business Central for the way you actually make things. That means designing production BOMs and routings, setting up work and machine centres, tuning MRP planning parameters, aligning costing with your finance team, migrating legacy data, training your people and supporting the system after go-live.
Manufacturing functionality sits in the Premium licence, so a good partner will also confirm what you need to buy before you commit.
Business Central for manufacturing at a glance
Key architectural and commercial details small and mid-sized manufacturing teams need to evaluate.
| Question | Short Answer |
|---|---|
| What is it? | Microsoft's cloud ERP for small and mid-sized manufacturers, joining finance, production, inventory, purchasing and sales in one system. |
| Which licence includes manufacturing? | Premium. Essentials covers assembly management but not production orders or routings. |
| Core manufacturing functions | Production BOMs, routings, work and machine centres, production orders, MPS and MRP, capacity planning, subcontracting and production costing. |
| Production models supported | Make-to-stock, make-to-order, assemble-to-order and, with careful configuration, engineer-to-order. |
| Deployment | Cloud on Microsoft Azure, with an on-premises option for specific cases. |
| Cost and timeline | Depend on users, sites, routings, data volumes and integrations. We scope and fix these at discovery. |
See Business Central Manufacturing in Action
Watch how Dynamics 365 Business Central Premium manages bills of materials, routings, shop-floor execution, and material planning in a single unified interface.
Connected Shop-Floor & Production Management
Explore how production orders, finite capacity planning, and live stock tracking work together to keep output on schedule and control actual product costs.
Why manufacturers need a specialist Business Central partner
Most UK manufacturers reach the same point sooner or later. Production is scheduled in spreadsheets that only one person understands. The accounts package knows what was invoiced but not what is sitting on the shop floor as work in progress. Sales promise delivery dates that production cannot meet, purchasing orders materials on gut feel, and the stock count never quite agrees with the system. Each problem is small on its own. Together they cost margin, delay shipments and make growth feel harder than it should.
Consolidate disparate spreadsheets and siloed accounts packages into a single operational truth.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed to remove those gaps by putting demand, supply, stock, production and finance into a single set of records. Microsoft describes its manufacturing capability as a way to plan, schedule, execute and analyse production, with production BOMs, routings, work centres and production orders as the core building blocks.
The software, however, only does what it has been configured to do. A production BOM built at the wrong level, a routing with unrealistic run times or a planning parameter set carelessly will produce purchase suggestions that make no sense and product costs that never reconcile.
That is where a dedicated Business Central manufacturing partner earns its fee. The right partner understands both the system and the shop floor, asks awkward questions about how you really build, and designs the set-up around your products rather than a generic template.
What to expect from a Business Central manufacturing partner
A partner is more than an installer. The work typically spans six areas, and you should expect your partner to be clear about who is accountable for each.
Process discovery & fit-gap analysis
Before any configuration, the partner maps how orders flow from quote to shipment, where your routings differ from standard practice and which requirements the standard Business Central manufacturing module meets without change.
Solution design & configuration
Item masters, production BOMs, routings, work and machine centres, costing methods, number series, planning parameters and user roles are configured to your documented design.
Data migration
Items, customers, suppliers, open orders, opening stock and financial balances are cleansed, mapped and tested before they are loaded into your live environment.
Integration & extension
Business Central connects to Microsoft 365, Power BI, e-commerce, EDI, shop-floor data collection and specialist add-ons where the standard product stops short.
Training & change management
Planners, buyers, stores, finance and shop-floor supervisors each need different training. Adoption is where many ERP projects succeed or fail.
Go-live & ongoing support
A planned cut-over, a period of close support and a clear service model afterwards keep the system accurate as your products and customers change.
The Business Central manufacturing module explained
Searches for the business central manufacturing module usually come from people asking one thing: will it handle our production? The module is built around a small number of linked records, and understanding them helps you judge how well any partner's proposal fits your business.
Production BOMs and routings
A production bill of materials lists the components, quantities and sub-assemblies that go into a finished item, and can be multi-level so that a finished product draws on semi-finished items that have their own BOMs. A routing defines the sequence of operations, the work or machine centre used for each and the setup and run times. Together they tell Business Central what is needed and how long it takes. Versions and effective dates let you introduce engineering changes without disturbing live orders, and BOM and routing accuracy is the single biggest factor in how reliable planning and costing will be.
Connect shop-floor activity and live work orders directly into Power BI dashboards to track operational efficiency.
Work centres and machine centres
Work centres represent groups of people or machines doing similar work, while machine centres represent individual machines within them. Each carries a calendar, capacity, efficiency and cost rates. This is how the system calculates load, finite or infinite, and how overhead and labour cost flow into product cost.
Production orders
Production orders coordinate material consumption, operation time, output and finished goods from planned demand through to completion. They progress through statuses from simulated and planned, through firm planned and released, to finished. Consumption and output can be posted manually through production journals or automated using flushing methods and warehouse activities.
Supply planning: MPS and MRP
The Planning Worksheet is the main planning tool for manufacturing and assembly companies. It runs the master production schedule (MPS) and material requirements planning (MRP), and the two together are known as full planning. Business Central balances independent demand, such as sales orders and forecasts, against dependent demand from components, then suggests purchase, transfer, assembly and production orders. Reordering policies such as lot-for-lot, fixed reorder quantity, maximum quantity and order, together with safety stock and lead times, determine what the suggestions look like. Order tracking then shows which demand caused each planning line, so planners can trust the recommendations rather than overriding them.
Subcontracting and outsourced operations
Many UK manufacturers send work out for plating, heat treatment, finishing or specialist machining. Business Central lets you outsource all or selected operations in a production order to a subcontractor, so cost, lead time and stock movements are tracked within the same order rather than in a side spreadsheet.
Costing, traceability and reporting
Finished production order costs and consumed components can be calculated and adjusted for financial reconciliation. Lot and serial number tracking supports traceability for recalls and customer audits. For reporting, Microsoft provides a Power BI Manufacturing app to monitor KPIs, and NetMonkeys can extend it with reporting built around your own measures, such as on-time-in-full, scrap rate and work-in-progress value.
Manufacturing module components compared
How individual records in Business Central connect shop-floor activity to your P&L balance sheet.
| Component | What It Does | Why It Matters Commercially |
|---|---|---|
| Production BOM | Defines components and sub-assemblies, with versions | Accurate material requirements and cost roll-up |
| Routing | Defines operations, setup and run times | Realistic lead times and labour costing |
| Work and machine centres | Model capacity, calendars and cost rates | Shop-floor load visibility and overhead absorption |
| Production orders | Drive consumption, output and completion | Live work-in-progress and finished stock |
| Planning Worksheet (MPS/MRP) | Suggests purchase, production and transfer orders | Fewer stock-outs and less excess inventory |
| Subcontracting | Outsources selected operations | Complete cost and lead-time visibility |
| Item tracking | Lot and serial numbers | Traceability and faster recalls |
Need to see how your production routings translate into Business Central?
Talk through your production models, BOM structures and planning bottlenecks with an experienced UK manufacturing ERP consultant.
Business Central Essentials or Premium for manufacturing?
Licensing is the first practical question, and it is often answered incorrectly. Business Central has two main plans. Essentials covers finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, warehouse and assembly management. Premium includes everything in Essentials and adds service management and full manufacturing functionality.
| Requirement | Essentials | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Finance, sales, purchasing, inventory | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Assembly management with flat BOMs | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Production orders and routings | ✕ No | ✓ Yes |
| Multi-level production BOMs | ✕ No | ✓ Yes |
| Work and machine centre capacity planning | ✕ No | ✓ Yes |
| MRP and MPS planning with production orders | Limited (purchase & assembly) | ✓ Yes |
| Subcontracting of operations | ✕ No | ✓ Yes |
| Service management | ✕ No | ✓ Yes |
If you bolt components together and ship, Essentials may be enough. If you machine, fabricate, mix, cure, finish or otherwise convert materials through multiple operations, you need Premium. Microsoft publishes current per-user prices on its Business Central pricing page, and list prices vary by region and currency, so we base every quotation on the figures in force at the time.
Limited-access Team Member licences are available for staff who only need to view data, approve requests or enter time, which can keep total licensing costs sensible.
Microsoft Business Central for manufacturers by production model
Microsoft Business Central for manufacturers covers more production styles than many buyers expect, but fit varies. Being honest about this at the start saves months of frustration later.
| Production Model | How Business Central Handles It | What to Check With Your Partner |
|---|---|---|
| Make-to-stock (MTS) | Strong fit. Forecasts and reorder policies drive production orders through MRP. | Forecast accuracy, safety stock, lot sizing |
| Make-to-order (MTO) | Strong fit. Sales orders create production orders and order tracking links demand to supply. | Quoting process, lead-time promising |
| Assemble-to-order (ATO) | Strong fit. Assembly orders created from sales lines, available on both plans. | Kit structures, component availability |
| Engineer-to-order (ETO) & Configure-to-order (CTO) | Achievable with item variants, product configurators or project-based set-up. | Configurator choice, engineering change control |
| Batch & process manufacturing | Possible for simpler recipes. Complex formulas, co-products and potency management often need an add-on. | Yield, co-products, allergen and batch-genealogy needs |
| Repetitive & high-volume | Supported with production BOMs and flushing, but shop-floor execution often needs an add-on. | Real-time machine data, OEE reporting |
Where the standard product stops, Microsoft's ecosystem fills the gap. Our Business Central ISV and add-on review explains how we vet specialist extensions for shop-floor data capture, advanced scheduling, quality and product configuration, so you are not buying a bolt-on that will outgrow the core system.
Is Business Central the right ERP for a manufacturer?
Manufacturers comparing options usually ask the same question in different words. The answer depends on scale, complexity and appetite for customisation.
| Option | Best Suited To | Main Trade-Off |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets & an accounts package | Very small workshops with simple products | No integrated stock, costing or planning, and a high risk of single points of failure |
| Business Central Premium | Small to mid-sized manufacturers wanting finance and production in one cloud ERP | Highly specialised process industries may need add-ons |
| Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management | Large, multi-site manufacturers with complex global operations | Greater cost, longer implementation and heavier governance |
| Legacy on-premise ERP (Dynamics NAV, GP, Sage) | Businesses already invested and not yet ready to move | Rising support cost, upgrade risk and limited integration with Microsoft 365 |
For many UK manufacturers with between ten and several hundred staff, Business Central Premium sits at the sensible centre of that table. It is cloud-based, updated by Microsoft twice a year through major release waves, integrates natively with Microsoft 365 and Power BI, and can be extended where necessary. If you are on Dynamics NAV, GP or Sage today, we also run structured migrations; see our Business Central partner hub for the full programme.
How a Business Central manufacturing implementation works
Every project differs, but a well-run implementation follows a predictable sequence. Timescales depend on sites, products, routings, integrations and data quality.
Process mapping, fit-gap analysis, licence and scope confirmation.
Solution design document covering BOMs, routings, costing, planning parameters and user roles.
Configuration, data cleansing, integrations and trial test loads.
User acceptance testing (UAT) with real manufacturing orders and role-based training.
Cut-over plan, opening balances, and live production orders.
Close floor support, tuning of planning parameters, then ongoing service level agreement.
The most common cause of delay is not the software. It is BOM and routing data that was never kept up to date. We start data validation in the first weeks, so problems surface early, while there is still time to fix them properly.
Integrations that make Business Central work harder for manufacturers
A manufacturing ERP rarely stands alone. Business Central connects to the Microsoft tools your team already uses. Power BI turns production, stock and margin data into live dashboards, Microsoft 365 puts approvals and documents in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint, and Power Automate can remove repetitive manual steps.
Extend your core ERP with specialized warehouse barcode scanning and automated EDI integrations.
Beyond Microsoft, we integrate e-commerce platforms, EDI for retail and automotive customers, barcode scanning, shop-floor data collection and carrier systems through our system integration services. Our supply chain and distribution ERP work covers warehouse and logistics management in comprehensive detail.
How to choose a Business Central manufacturing partner
Ask every shortlisted partner the following questions, and expect specific answers rather than brochure language.
1. Do they hold current Microsoft partner status?
Check Microsoft's partner directory for designations, and confirm that the consultants who will work on your project hold current Dynamics 365 certifications.
2. Have they delivered Premium manufacturing projects?
Ask for references from manufacturers of a similar size and production model to yours, not just general ERP clients.
3. Will they insist on a fit-gap analysis?
A partner who quotes before understanding your routings is guessing. Demand documented fit-gap scoping.
4. How do they handle data migration?
Ask who cleanses BOMs, how many test loads are included and what happens if data is not ready.
5. What does support look like after go-live?
Look for named contacts, response times and the ability to adjust planning parameters as your business changes.
6. Do they understand infrastructure and security?
ERP sits on identities, devices and networks. A partner who ignores them leaves technical risk with you.
7. Is pricing transparent? Fixed-scope phases with clear assumptions beat open-ended day rates for most manufacturers.
Why NetMonkeys as your Business Central manufacturing partner
NetMonkeys is a Manchester-based Microsoft Solutions Partner, established in 2006, with offices in Manchester, Nottingham and London and field engineers covering major UK cities. We hold Cyber Essentials Plus, the government-backed certification that includes independent technical testing, which matters when your ERP holds customer, supplier and pricing data.
Our difference is breadth. Most Business Central specialists stop at the application. We also run the Microsoft 365 tenant, the network, the devices and the security underneath it, so there is one accountable partner when something affects production.
Our Business Central consultants work alongside your operations, finance and planning teams from discovery through to support, and we will say plainly when a requirement is better solved by process change than by customisation. You can explore our Business Central for Manufacturing service, our wider IT support for manufacturers and our ongoing Business Central support options.
Support after go-live
A manufacturing ERP changes as your business does. New products need BOMs, new machines need centres, new customers need pricing rules, and Microsoft's twice-yearly releases need testing before they reach your users. Our support service covers user queries, planning parameter reviews, release management, report changes and small enhancements, backed by our UK-based helpdesk. For many clients, that continuity is what keeps the system accurate three years on rather than three months on.
Conclusion: choosing the right Business Central manufacturing partner
Business Central gives UK manufacturers a single, cloud-based system for finance, stock, planning and production, but the value comes from how well it is implemented. The manufacturing module is powerful because it is detailed: BOMs, routings, work centres, planning parameters and costing all need to reflect reality. Choosing a Business Central manufacturing partner who understands that detail, who is honest about licensing and fit, and who supports you after go-live is the decision that determines whether the system becomes the backbone of your operation or another tool people work around.
If you are comparing options, replacing a legacy system or simply want to know whether Premium is the right plan for your production model, talk to our consultants. We will review your processes, confirm the licence and give you a clear, written scope. Call 0161 834 9345 or email [email protected].
Business Central manufacturing partner: frequently asked questions
What is a Business Central manufacturing partner?
A Business Central manufacturing partner is a Microsoft-certified consultancy that implements and supports Dynamics 365 Business Central for manufacturers. It configures production BOMs, routings, work centres, planning and costing, migrates your data, trains your team and provides support after go-live.
Does Business Central have a manufacturing module?
Yes. Microsoft provides manufacturing functionality covering production BOMs, routings, work and machine centres, production orders, supply planning, capacity, subcontracting and costing. It is available with the Premium licence.
What is the difference between Business Central Essentials and Premium for manufacturers?
Essentials includes finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, warehouse and assembly management. Premium adds service management and the full manufacturing functionality, including production orders, routings, multi-level BOMs and capacity planning. Most manufacturers that machine or process materials need Premium.
Is Business Central suitable for manufacturing companies?
Business Central suits small and mid-sized manufacturers that make to stock, make to order or assemble to order, and it can support engineer-to-order with configuration. Highly specialised process manufacturing, such as complex formulations with co-products, may need an industry add-on.
Can Business Central run MRP?
Yes. The Planning Worksheet runs master production scheduling and material requirements planning, individually or together as full planning, and suggests purchase, transfer, assembly and production orders based on demand, stock and planning parameters.
How much does Business Central cost for a manufacturer?
Cost depends on the number of Premium and Team Member users, the scope of implementation, data migration, integrations and add-ons. Microsoft publishes per-user licence prices, and we provide a written fixed-scope quotation after discovery.
How long does a Business Central manufacturing implementation take?
Timescales depend on the number of sites, products, routings, integrations and the quality of existing data. We confirm a project plan in writing after the discovery phase rather than quoting a generic figure.
Can Business Central integrate with shop-floor systems and Power BI?
Yes. Business Central integrates natively with Power BI and Microsoft 365, and connects to barcode scanning, shop-floor data collection, e-commerce and EDI through APIs and certified add-ons.
Can you migrate us from Sage, Dynamics NAV or Dynamics GP?
Yes. We migrate items, BOMs, customers, suppliers, open orders, stock and financial balances from legacy systems, with test loads and reconciliations before go-live.
Do you support Business Central after go-live?
Yes. Our support service covers user queries, release management, planning parameter reviews, reporting changes and enhancements.
Find out whether Business Central Premium fits your manufacturing process.
A focused discovery session with a UK Microsoft partner — we will review your BOMs, map your routings and provide a clear, fixed-scope proposal.
