Category: Business CentralRead time: 5 MinsPublished on: 09 Feb 2026

Set Up Recurring Purchase Orders and Invoices in Business Central

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Recurring purchase orders and invoices in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central help organizations automate repetitive procurement and billing activities. Instead of manually creating the same documents every month such as rent, subscriptions, maintenance charges, or utility bills, Business Central allows you to define recurring purchase lines that can be generated automatically or manually.

Recurring purchase invoices in Business Central enable AP automation by using Recurring Purchase Lines on the Vendor Card. With the Get Recurring Purchase Lines action, organizations can automatically insert predefined expense lines such as rent, subscriptions, utilities, and maintenance into purchase invoices and purchase orders without manual data entry.

Organizations that want to automate recurring vendor invoices as part of AP process improvement can achieve this quickly with expert Business Central consulting services ensuring recurring purchase lines, posting groups, and tax setups are configured correctly.

Set up of recurring purchase orders and invoices

An organization incurs monthly office rent expenses payable to the same vendor under a fixed rental agreement. The rent amount and tax structure remain unchanged for an extended period, and the invoice must be recorded and posted every month in the accounting system. This is a typical use case for automating monthly vendor invoices in Business Central, where fixed charges are handled using vendor recurring purchase lines instead of creating documents manually every month.

Navigation & Setup:

  • To automate the creation of recurring purchase orders and recurring purchase invoices in Business Central, users can define Recurring Purchase Lines in advance from the Vendor Card. These lines are set up from the Vendor Card by selecting Related → Purchases → Recurring Purchase Lines. This feature is typically used for regularly occurring expenses, such as monthly sales team expenses or recurring cleaning and maintenance costs. This page acts as a recurring invoice template in Business Central, storing default purchase lines that can be reused across multiple purchase invoices or purchase orders.

    What Are Recurring Purchase Lines in Business Central?

    Recurring Purchase Lines Business Central allow users to create reusable purchase invoice templates for vendors with fixed periodic charges. When the option Insert Rec. Lines on Purchase Invoice is enabled, Business Central automatically populates the document with default G/L accounts, dimensions, VAT/tax codes, and amounts.

    Screenshot of a vendor management software interface showing details for vendor 'Fabrikam, Inc.' A dropdown menu under 'Related' is expanded, highlighting the 'Recurring Purchase Lines' option, indicating navigation for managing recurring purchase records.

    To view and maintain recurring purchase line details, navigate to the Vendor Card and select Related → Purchases → Recurring Purchase Lines. Within this page, you can define the nature of the recurring expense to be recorded.

    A screenshot of the Recurring Purchase Lines list in Dynamics 365 Business Central for vendor Fabrikam, Inc. It shows a configured line with the code 'RENT' and description 'Office Rent.'
    A screenshot of the Standard Purchase Code Card in Business Central for code 'RENT.' It shows the 'Lines' section where the Type is set to 'G/L Account,' the No. is '60110,' the description is 'Rent / Leases,' and the Quantity is '1.' This illustrates the underlying accounting setup for automated recurring expenses.

    We are configuring like this, so that while creating invoice for this vendor, a line will be automatically inserted for rental expenses.

    A screenshot of the Recurring Purchase Lines in Business Central for Fabrikam, Inc. with specific highlights. 'Office Rent' is highlighted in the description, and the 'Insert Rec. Lines On Invoices' column is highlighted to show the 'Automatic' setting. This emphasizes the specific configuration required for hands-off document creation.

    Note: Users can choose to include recurring purchase lines either manually or automatically by selecting the appropriate option in any of the ‘Insert Rec. Lines On..’ columns. When Automatic Insertion is enabled, Business Central performs automatic line insertion on purchase invoices, ensuring recurring AP expenses are captured without user intervention.

  • To insert recurring purchase lines into a purchase order or purchase invoice, navigate to Actions → Functions → Get Recurring Purchase Lines. This is the core function for automating recurring AP invoices in Business Central, pulling predefined vendor expense lines into the document with correct accounts, dimensions, and tax setup.
  • This action inserts the predefined recurring lines into the document. If Automatic Insertion is enabled, the recurring purchase lines are populated automatically when the document is created.
  • Common scenarios for recurring purchase invoices in Business Central include:
    • Monthly rent expense posting
    • Subscription and license invoices
    • Cleaning and maintenance contracts
    • Utility bills with fixed amounts
    • Regular sales team reimbursements
  • Let’s see, how the rental expense line is inserted automatically when a purchase invoice is created (Since, we already enabled the option in previous step).

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