How Business Central Handles End-to-End Order Fulfilment

Order fulfilment drives revenue and cash flow. Yet most teams still manage it across different tools, which creates delays, extra work, and errors. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central solves this by keeping every step in one place.

Business Central supports the full lifecycle of an order. It starts with order entry, moves to picking and shipping, and ends with invoicing and payment posting. Whether your business uses a basic or advanced warehouse setup, the system adapts: a small company can run basic pick lists from one location, while a larger firm can configure zones, bins, and directed picks. This flexibility means the same system grows as your needs change. Next, let us examine the order fulfilment process in detail.

In this article, our Business Central consultants discuss key steps for effective order fulfilment. First, we define order fulfilment and outline how to manage it end-to-end in Business Central. Then, we introduce a custom solution that displays open sales lines. This report highlights only the pending items that require action, using custom rolled-up quantities and fulfilment status.

The order fulfilment flow in Business Central is simple to follow. Each step builds on the one before it. Sales teams enter the order. Warehouse teams pick and ship the goods. Finance posts the invoice. All actions stay in one system, which keeps data clean and cuts delays. This helps leaders track cash flow, stock use, and order speed with confidence.

A single sales order can include multiple sales lines. Hence, we highlight sales lines instead of the entire sales order. With this custom solution, show all open sales lines along with custom-calculated details of the rolled-up quantities for each item, and the status of both the line and the overall order fulfilment.

In Business Central, a page/ report is unavailable which lists the fulfilment of sales lines or sales orders. This custom solution will help users identify and process those sales lines for purchasing/ producing unavailable items.

From the fulfilment overview page, we instantly fetch all your open sales lines, specifically those not shipped fully, sorting them by their required shipment date.

Before displaying the list, the system calculates the current available stock for each item and compares it against the required rolled-up quantities. If the available stock is sufficient for a sales line, your 'Able to Fulfil Line?' field is marked as True.

Finally, we review all processed sales lines to determine your 'Able to Fulfil Order?' status, confirming if every line on a specific order can be met.

Technical Information

• AL Dictionaries are part of the technical design.
• There is no native way in Business Central to store the list of sales lines with their available items, able to fulfil line, and able to fulfil order values. In this case, we are using Dictionaries to store Item number, cumulative quantity needed, able to fulfil line, and able to fulfil order. This custom format of utilising dictionaries helps in decoding and presenting order fulfilment values.
• We are using two dictionaries: one of type [Text, Decimal] and another of type [Text, Boolean].
• The Dictionary of type [Text, Decimal] will be used to store the text concatenation of Item No. & Shipment date with the Rolled-up quantity needed for that Item.
• The Dictionary of type [Text, Boolean] will be used to store the text concatenation of Item No., Shipment date, Sales Header No., Sales Line No., altogether with the respective Boolean value of line fulfilment status.
• The Sales line fulfilment is calculated based on the comparison of the available inventory and the respective cumulative (rolled up) quantity of the line.
• The Sales line records will be listed on the page based on the ascending order of shipment date of the respective lines. This is used to serve Sales Orders on a first-come, first-served basis, and the cumulative quantity will be rolled up.

Business Central brings every stage of order fulfilment into one connected flow. Each step updates the same data, improving traceability and reducing errors. The platform supports basic and advanced warehouse setups.

Automation also plays a key role. Approvals, batch tasks, and integrations reduce manual work and support fast, reliable fulfilment. This lowers cost, speeds up billing, and improves customer service.

With clear trace, strong control, and room to grow, Business Central helps companies run a smooth, scalable, and modern fulfilment operation.

Contact our experts if you have any questions regarding order fulfilment in Business Central for your organization.