2025-09-10
How to Set Up Advanced Warehousing in Business Central
Advanced Warehousing in Business Central is a powerful suite of warehouse management tools within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, designed to optimize storage, picking, movements, and inventory accuracy.
Setting up Advanced Warehousing in Business Central enables businesses to streamline warehouse operations with precision and automation. Whether you’re tracking bin capacity, directing put-away, or enforcing FEFO, this structured guide walks you through 10 essential steps to implement advanced warehouse capabilities in Dynamics 365 Business Central, delivering clarity, efficiency, and accuracy to your logistics workflows.
Why Use Advanced Warehousing in Business Central?
Streamlined Warehouse Control
Advanced Warehousing elevates warehouse operations beyond basic inventory tracking, bringing in features like directed put-away, pick optimization, bin ranking, and movement automation.
Enhanced Efficiency & Accuracy
Steps such as FEFO (First Expired, First Out), warehouse classes, and capacity enforcement reduce errors, improve throughput, and ensure compliance.
10 Easy Steps to Set Up Advanced Warehousing in Business Central
1. Enable Warehouse Management (Advanced)
Activate warehouse management in your Business Central setup to access advanced flows like Warehouse Receipts, Pick Worksheets, Movement, and more.
2. Define Warehouses, Locations & Warehouse Employees
Create the physical and logical structure: set up warehouse locations and assign users as warehouse employees, so they can post and manage warehouse documents.
3. Create Bin Types, Zones & Bins
Organize bins by type, PICK, PUTPICK, RECEIVE, QC, etc. and group them into zones. These structures guide storage and retrieval flows.
4. Configure Bin Capacity & Ranking
Establish capacity rules, by quantity, cubage, weight, and assign bin ranking to optimize put-away and pick sequences.
5. Assign Warehouse Classes to Items, Bins, Zones
Use warehouse classes (e.g., FROZEN, HAZARD, STANDARD) to classify and control storage, ensuring items are stored in appropriate zones.
6. Set FEFO (First Expired, First Out) for Lot/Serial-Tracked Items
Enable FEFO on locations to ensure picking prioritizes items with earlier expiration dates. Ties are resolved by lot/serial number and registration order.
7. Define Put-Away Templates
Design rules for where items should go, e.g., same UOM, bin capacity criteria. Templates help guide put-away decisions.
8. Configure Warehouse Document Number Series
Set up number series for Warehouse Receipts, Picks, Put-Aways, and Shipments to maintain structured tracking across processes.
9. Define Default Bins (Receipt, Shipment) & Use Put-Away Worksheets
Establish default bins for receiving and shipping on the Location Card. Enable and use put-away worksheets, group receipts and process put-aways in bulk.
10. Test End-to-End Processes: Receipts, Put-Away, Picks, Shipments
Run through real scenarios, create purchase orders with Warehouse Receipts, complete put-aways, then process sales orders with Picks and Shipments, to validate workflows. In Dynamics 365 Business Central, warehouse setup, specifically Advanced Warehousing in Business Central, is essential to modern inventory management. Whether you're asking "what is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central?" or implementing it in the UAE or Dubai, these steps apply globally to ensure efficient warehousing. Use in-software features like directed put-away, FEFO, and bin ranking to align with your regional workflows and compliance needs.
Conclusion
Implementing Advanced Warehousing in Business Central transforms warehouse operations, empowering organizations with structure, efficiency, and precision. Following these 10 easy steps, enriched by features like FEFO, warehouse classes, bin ranking, and directed workflows, puts you on a swift path to optimized inventory control.
Need help adapting this setup to your UAE or Dubai warehouse operations, or want templates for number series, put-away rules, or testing scenarios? Just say the word!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central?
It's an all-in-one ERP system by Microsoft that unifies finance, supply chain, sales, and warehouse operations under one platform.
2. Why choose Advanced Warehousing instead of Basic?
Advanced warehousing splits inventory flows into dedicated documents (warehouse receipt, pick, movement, shipment), enabling better tracking, control, and optimized workflows.
3. Can I use FEFO picking in the UAE or Dubai operations?
Absolutely, FEFO is activated per location and works for lot or serial-number tracked items anywhere, including UAE or Dubai deployments.
4. How do I handle hazardous or frozen goods?
Use warehouse classes, e.g., "HAZARD", "FROZEN" and assign them to items, bins, and zones to segregate and control item handling.
5. Do I need customization for automation?
Basic processes work out of the box, but full automation (e.g., auto-generating picks on order release) requires customization or job queue setups.
With over two decades of driving marketing transformation across the GCC, Aasim brings a rare blend of brand leadership, digital innovation, and business foresight. He has demonstrated a unique ability to align with evolving customer and market demands whilst predicting and leading best practice in digital and customer experiences. His journey spans across building multi-million-dirham portfolios, launching modern marketing campaigns, building AI enablled Tech platforms and leading award-winning teams across both client and agency environments. His appointment to the MMA Board of Director reinforces a larger belief: Modern marketing demands more than strategy it demands ideas that are unafraid to build what’s next.