Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP for Construction Industry
The construction projects involve several areas including cost control, resource management, procurement, fiscal management, and fulfilling customer requirements. Managing these project activities can become challenging when project information is spread across different databases or systems. Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP for construction industry manages main financial and operational processes in one integrated software system.
Business Central can support project accounting, budgeting, resource monitoring, procurement, inventory management, and financial control, allowing construction companies to operate production processes in an organized manner.
Find out how Business Central can meet your construction requirements, connect with Evolvous to discuss the next steps.
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What is Business Central ERP for Construction?
Business Central is a cloud-based enterprise resource planning solution created by Microsoft that connects functions like project management, sales, finance, and inventory together on one platform.
Construction companies can set up the program to efficiently manage their project operations like project setup, resource allocation, supply ordering, budgeting, and sending invoices to clients. Microsoft documentation details functionalities for monitoring labor and machine hours through timesheets.
Instead of treating each project as a separate financial process, companies can enter their project information into Business Central and link their project activities to the procurement and financial operations of the company.
If you want to learn how Business Central can work for construction businesses, Evolvous will work closely with you to evaluate your existing business processes and make the right configuration for Business Central.
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What is the Importance of ERP in Construction Companies?
Construction projects require several things, such as constant change in requirements, suppliers, material procurement, labor expenses, machinery, and scheduled payments. All these factors create challenges for construction companies when processing their operations manually.
The ERP system helps construction sectors to optimize their operations. For example, Business Central helps in project budget control, resource management, procurement, inventory management, invoicing, and financial reporting.
This can prove especially useful for companies working on many projects, so they must speak about costs, resources, and finances in the context of every project or business unit.
How is Business Central ERP Beneficial to Construction Businesses?
Business Central assists construction companies in organizing their project expenses, resources, purchases, and processes in one system. It provides insight into the costs associated with projects and financial information for all projects and business processes.
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Manage Project Budgets and Costs
In construction, budgets are an essential part of the process as it has to do with comparing costs against what was planned to be used.
With Business Central, companies can create a budget and look at the actual use of the product and resources in comparison. Project Planning Lines can be used to create or identify all project operations, resources, and their related costs.
Therefore, project groups have a straightforward way to account for their costs related to resources, materials, and other expenses.
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Track Labor and Resource Utilization
Labor and machinery account for much of the project’s expenses. Business Central provides functionality for bookkeeping of resources, timesheets, and project consumption.
Organizations can define resources and record how employees or machines report time expenditure. Later, project managers can analyze the current resource utilization for the project.
This functionality will allow businesses to document the project information including hours, equipment hours, and other resources used in the process.
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Manage Materials and Supplies for the Project
Construction operations cannot be performed without the availability of materials and supplies. Business Central allows acquiring supplies for the project and accounting for the use of materials based on the project activities.
The functionality of inventory will also be useful for tracking the movement and using dimensions for inventory analysis. As per Microsoft documents, dimensions can also be used to categorize entries according to such parameters as projects, departments, and locations.
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Connect Purchasing with Projects
Construction businesses are involved in purchasing supplies, materials, and services from vendors. Therefore, it is necessary to keep track of purchasing information so that project records help in understanding where costs are arising from.
Business Central allows the purchase of supplies for projects through purchase orders or invoices and keeps records of the item used and time spent on it.
This helps create a formalized approach for linking projects needs to the purchasing process.
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Support Project Billing
Construction contracts can have many billing methods. Based on the project and contract, billing can only happen at project completion, or periodic billing can be done.
Business Central deals with project billing and payments in accordance with the different installments outlined by Microsoft project management documentation.
Billing methods must be set based on the company’s contracts and accounting standards.
Want to understand what goes into a successful Business Central implementation? Download our eBook for key considerations and practical guidance.
What is the Key Business Central Capabilities for Construction?
Business Central system offers several features for Construction companies, helping to carry out management of projects, finances, resources, purchasing, inventory, and many other aspects.
| Construction requirement | Business Central capability |
| Project budgeting | Create project budgets and compare planned and actual usage |
| Resource management | Schedule resources and track employee and machine hours |
| Project costing | Record project-related materials, resources, and expenses |
| Purchasing | Purchase supplies through purchase orders or invoices |
| Inventory | Manage and analyze inventory across locations and dimensions |
| Project invoicing | Invoice customers based on project requirements and schedules |
| Fiscal management | Connect project activity with financial records |
| Reporting | Analyze project and financial information using reports and analytical tools |
Business Central provides support for project analyses, including project KPIs and data on budgets, purchases, usage, and works in progress.
What Challenges is the Construction Industry Facing, and How Does Business Central Help?
Construction companies can simultaneously operate on several projects, budgets, subcontractors, materials, and deadlines. The absence of connected systems makes it hard to control costs and coordinate project data. Dynamics 365 Business Central helps overcome these challenges by bringing financial, project, inventory, and operational data into a single system.
| Construction Challenge | How Business Central Helps |
| Uncontrolled project costs | Tracks budgets, actual costs, resources, and expenses to help managers monitor project profitability. |
| Poor visibility into project finances | Connects project and financial data so teams can review costs and financial information in one place. |
| Material shortages or excess inventory | Provides inventory visibility to help businesses monitor stock levels and plan material requirements. |
| Manual financial processes | Automates accounting tasks such as invoicing, payments, and financial reporting. |
| Difficulty managing multiple projects | Helps teams track project-related resources, costs, budgets, and billing across projects. |
| Delayed financial reporting | Provides access to financial and operational data for faster reporting and analysis. |
| Disconnected business systems | Connects core business processes, reducing the need to manage information across separate systems. |
See Business Central in Action
Explore our case studies to see how businesses solve operational and financial challenges with Business Central.
How Can a Business Central Consulting Partner Help Construction Industry?
Implementing an ERP system involves much more than just installing software. Construction industries must learn how to align their business processes related to finance, projects, procurement, inventory, and reporting using Business Central.
Business Central Consulting Partner can assess the requirements of the business, configure the platform, plan for data migration, integrate the corresponding systems, and offer training and support for end users.
The process of implementation is based on the existing processes of the company and the necessary functionalities of Business Central.
How Evolvous Supports Business Central for Construction Businesses?
Evolvous helps organizations in evaluating their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) needs as well as the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central according to its business processes.
For construction sectors, Evolvous is ready to support the assessment of project accounting, finance, purchasing, inventory, reporting, integration, and other requirements concerning Business Central prior to its implementation.
Have your Business Central needs analyzed with the assistance of Evolvous and find out what configuration, implementation, migration, training, and support services will be necessary for your construction company.
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FAQs
Can Business Central handle construction project costs?
absolutely. Business Central offers project budgets, project planning, utilization of resources, consumption of items, and expenses of projects. This enables the business to monitor the utilization of resources both those allocated in the budget and those used.
Can Business Central Manage Construction Materials?
Yes. Business Central supports inventory management and project-related supply purchasing. Businesses can purchase supplies for projects and record item usage against project activities.
Does Business Central Support Project Invoicing?
Definitely. Business Central has provisions of allowing entities to monitor inventory and acquire the materials required for a project. An entity can therefore obtain supplies needed for a project and create accounting of the products used in relation to the project’s activities.
Is It Possible to Issue Invoices for Projects in Business Central?
Yes. Business Central provides project invoicing, which can either be performed at the completion of a project or done periodically depending on the issued payment schedule.
