Expertise
Business Central partner for implementation, upgrades and support
Month-end still closes in spreadsheets, the warehouse types in what it picked after the fact, and the partner who set up Business Central has stopped calling back.
Our Business Central consultants set the system up around how your warehouse moves stock and how finance closes the month, move your data across from the old system, and stay to support it after go-live.
TechFabric is a Microsoft Solutions Partner. Funko's warehouse system runs on Business Central, extended on site by our engineers, and AmTab's online orders reach it without anyone typing them in again.
In the Phoenix metro? Dynamics 365 consulting in Phoenix
Not sure where you stand? Take the Business Central reporting assessment
Reporting across systems? Business Central data into Databricks
Who are good Dynamics 365 Business Central partners for a manufacturer or distributor?
TechFabric, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Gilbert, Arizona, is a Microsoft Solutions Partner and an Insight Works partner that implements Business Central for the warehouse and the shop floor.
Funko's warehouse system runs on Business Central, AmTab's orders reach Business Central from their store without anyone re-keying them, and Cyclic Materials engaged us for on-site Business Central and Insight Works support at their Mesa, Arizona facility.
We build Power BI reporting on Business Central when the standard reports stop being enough, and for companies outside Arizona we travel for discovery and the opening weeks of a build.
TechFabric is a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Data & AI (Azure), Digital & App Innovation (Azure) and Infrastructure (Azure), and an Insight Works partner. We implement Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 CRM, and take Power BI reporting, Power Automate workflows and the integrations around them into production.
What a Business Central partner does
Microsoft sells Business Central through partners, and the partner is who configures it, extends it, moves your data into it and answers the phone when a posting goes wrong. A good one designs the system around how the warehouse moves stock and how finance closes the month. A weak one installs the defaults and leaves the gap to spreadsheets.
- Chart of accounts, dimensions and posting groups agreed with finance before the first posting
- Locations, bins and warehouse setup designed against the physical floor
- AL extensions for what the base product doesn't do, built on events so they survive Microsoft's updates
- Integrations to the store, EDI, shipping and CRM systems the ERP has to agree with
Changing Business Central partners
If Business Central is already live and you've outgrown the partner who set it up, changing doesn't mean reimplementing.
We start with an assessment of two to three weeks that reads the extensions, the Power Automate flows and the integrations actually running, writes down what each one does, and ends in a recommendation you can act on with us or without us.
- Every extension and flow listed with what it does and who depends on it
- Known problems ranked by what they cost the business each week
- Release wave readiness checked before Microsoft updates your tenant
- A support shape agreed in writing, a monthly scope or a call when something breaks
Business Central data in Power BI and Databricks
Power BI on Business Central alone is enough when every number you need is in the ERP. Once a question needs the line historian, the lab, the scale house or a second system, the data has to land somewhere it can be joined.
Business Central reaches Databricks through its API pages or the bc2adls extension, and we'd land it under Unity Catalog with one definition per metric, so Power BI and Genie read the same number.
- A semantic model on the Business Central tables, with the grain written down
- Measures for margin, aged debt and inventory turns agreed with whoever owns them
- Row-level security that matches who may see which company or location
- How we decide between the two is at /expertise/erp-reporting
What to ask a Business Central partner
The answers to these can be checked, and we'd answer every one of them before a proposal. Ours are beside each question.
- Which Solutions Partner designations they hold, and ask them to show you. Ours are Data & AI, Digital & App Innovation and Infrastructure
- Who will configure your system, and which go-lives they've done. Funko and AmTab are at /case-studies
- How extensions survive Microsoft's monthly updates. Ours are AL extensions built on events
- Which products they don't implement. We implement Business Central and Dynamics 365 CRM, not Finance & Operations
A Business Central implementation, step by step
We date an implementation after the assessment, not on the first call, because its length depends on what the assessment finds: how many companies and locations, how much customisation the current system carries, and how clean the data is. The assessment takes two to three weeks and ends in a written recommendation.
The migration is then rehearsed until the balances and open documents reconcile, and anything that doesn't sends the work back to the build. Cutover is a weekend with a rollback somebody has read. Hypercare runs through the first month-end close, staffed by the people who built it, and support carries on through the release waves after that.
01
Assess and design
The assessment, then the chart of accounts, dimensions, posting groups and locations, agreed with finance and operations before anything is configured.
02
Build
Setup, AL extensions, Insight Works apps where the floor needs scanning, and the integrations to the systems around it.
03
Rehearse the migration
Opening balances, open orders and item history loaded and reconciled with finance, more than once, before the real weekend.
04
Go live and support it
The cutover, hypercare through the first close, then a named engineer through the release waves. Moving off NAV first? What the move involves.
What we implement
Implementation
A blank tenant to a live system, designed around your floor and your close, with the data migration rehearsed before the cutover weekend.
Upgrades from Dynamics NAV
Each customised object given a verdict, rewritten as an AL extension, replaced by an app, or retired, before the data moves.
Taking over from another partner
An estate someone else built, read and written down first, so support starts from what's actually running.
Reporting on the ERP record
Power BI on Business Central, and Databricks when the questions need data the ERP never held.
Where it runs
ManufacturingDistributionWarehouseSupply chainDynamics 365 and Business Central clients
Detect IncWritten about it
Clients we have done this for
Warehouse management
Funko
Funko consolidated its distribution into one Arizona warehouse and needed the system running it to keep up. Our engineers went on-site and sat with the warehouse and operations teams, extended the module Funko already had instead of starting over, and the warehouse doubled its operational efficiency.
B2B ecommerce
AmTab
AmTab, a table manufacturer, had orders moving between departments on paper while demand climbed. Senior engineers from TechFabric worked through those manual steps with AmTab's own people first, then connected the amtab.com store, the CRM and Business Central, so an order placed online reaches the ERP that invoices it without anyone retyping it.
Supply chain
SmartCert
Aerospace distributors were scrapping good parts because the certificates proving what they were got lost in email attachments. With Aramid, our senior engineers built SmartCert on Azure and took it into production. A QR code on each package opens the documents for that exact shipment, and links to Epicor Prophet 21 and Dynamics 365 Business Central mean nobody retypes a certificate. Since launch, none have been lost.
What we build
- Business Central implemented by consultants who also write the AL extensions, so nothing waits on a second firm
- Migration rehearsed with finance until the balances and open documents reconcile
- NAV estates moved with every customisation given a verdict before any code is written
- Support from a named engineer who knows the estate, through every release wave
- Power BI or Databricks on the posted record when reporting outgrows the ERP
How this is delivered
Forward-deployed teams
Product, design and engineering people who sit inside your business, find the real problem, and ship it.
FAQ
Questions we get asked
What does a Business Central partner do?
Configures Business Central around your business, writes the extensions it needs, migrates your data, takes it live and supports it afterwards.
Microsoft sells and licenses Business Central through partners, so the partner is also who you call when a posting fails or an update breaks something. TechFabric is a Microsoft Solutions Partner and an Insight Works partner, and does all of that in-house.
How long does a Business Central implementation take?
We date it after a two-to-three-week assessment rather than on the first call. The length follows how many companies and locations you run, how much the current system was customised and how clean its data is, so we'd rather date it after looking.
Can we change Business Central partners after go-live?
Yes, and it doesn't mean reimplementing. We read what's running first, every extension, flow and integration, and write it down, so support starts from the system you have. If your licences were bought through your current partner, moving them is a separate step we'd walk you through.
Do you write Business Central extensions?
Yes, in AL, built on events rather than changes to Microsoft's code, so they keep working through the monthly updates. Where an Insight Works app already does the job, such as handheld scanning or license plating, we'd configure the app rather than write and maintain our own.
Can Business Central data feed Power BI or Databricks?
Yes. Power BI reads Business Central directly, which is enough while the ERP holds every number you need. Databricks takes Business Central data through its API pages or the bc2adls extension, which is where it goes once a report needs data from outside the ERP.
Do you support Business Central outside Arizona?
Yes. Support and most build work are remote, at the same standard everywhere, and for implementations we travel for discovery and the opening weeks. In the Phoenix metro we're on site when it helps, from our office in Gilbert.
How can we help?
Tell us what Business Central runs today, or what it's replacing, and we'll tell you what the work involves.