Microsoft Dynamics NAV Functionality Catalog

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for small and medium sized companies. Its official web page says that it “helps people work faster and smarter”, that it “gives your business the flexibility to adapt to new opportunities and growth”, and that it “offers a breakthrough user experience and technology innovations”. That’s all true.

But what can you really do with Microsoft Dynamics NAV? What is it core functionality? What kind of ERP, SCM and CRM functionality does it contain? Can I do this or that using this software?

Finding answers to these questions can be a daunting tasks, and yet your final decision whether to implement Microsoft Dynamics NAV will be influenced mostly by the answers to these questions.

That’s why this Microsoft Dynamics NAV Functionality Catalog is here.

This catalog is still in development, I plan to complete it during this calendar year. Every month, there will be an update to it, and by January 1st 2010, you’ll have a comprehensive list of Microsoft Dynamics NAV core functionality that will explain most important (if not all) application features.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV consists of the following application areas:

  • Financial Management: represents the core of the system, and allows keeping track of and managing company’s finances. Financial management functionality is grouped around General Ledger, Cash Management, Receivables, Payables, Fixed Assets and Inventory management. It also contains comprehensive Analysis and Reporting features throughout all functionality groups, as well as detailed and easily traceable History of transactions, which facilitates regulatory compliance.
  • Sales & Marketing: contains the functionality necessary to support and manage your sales, marketing and generally customer-oriented processes. It is grouped into Sales management, sales Order Processing, Marketing management and Inventory and Pricing. As with all other application areas, here you have access to all relevant Analysis and Reporting functionality and History of sales transactions. A lot of CRM functionality (not to be confused with Microsoft Dynamics CRM) is also interspersed throughout this module.
  • Purchase Management: one of the key components of Supply Chain Management functionality of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, purchase management makes it possible to plan and manage purchases of goods. It comprises Planning, purchase Order Processing and Inventory and Costing functionality, as well as Analysis and Reporting and transaction History.
  • Warehouse Management: supports both basic inventory management functionality and advanced internal warehouse processes and tightly integrates with other Supply Chain Management functionality of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Features are grouped into Orders and Contacts, Planning and Execution, Goods Handling and Inventory management. Comprehensive reporting is also available, as well as ubiquitous transaction History.
  • Manufacturing (Production Management): at the very heart of Supply Chain Management lies the Manufacturing functionality, which enables managing of manufacturing processes and tightly integrates with other Supply Chain Management areas (sales, purchases and warehouse). Functions are grouped into Product Design, Capacities, Planning, Execution and Costing. As well as other application areas, manufacturing comes with a lot of Reports and History of transactions.
  • Jobs (Project Management): allows companies to keep track of long-term projects and jobs, including their resource planning, invoicing and costing functionality, and integrates with other application areas. It contains a handful of Reports and transaction History which integrates to other parts of the system.
  • Resource Planning: allows planning and managing people and equipment resource capacities and consumption, and contains reporting and transaction History functionality.
  • Service Management: manages service processes for servicing items sold to customers. Features are grouped into Contract Management, Planning and Dispatching and Order Processing functionality groups, and integrates with reporting and transaction History capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
  • Human Resources: allows keeping track of employees and human resources, their personal and professional information and qualifications, ant their absence. It also contains a dozen of Reports.

Please, keep in mind that this catalog is still work in progress, so do stop by to check if it has been updated.

Alternatively, you can keep an eye on blog homepage, as every update will be announced by a blog post; or you can subscribe to the updates by RSS or e-mail.

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Kevin Martin

    Does anyone have experience in implementing the service management components of NAV 2009 and does anyone understand the pricing?

    We are a CRM Partner with a customer with a real service mangement requirement.

    Regards,

    Kevin Martin

    Director

    1. Vjekoslav Babic

      Hi Kevin,

      Thanks for posting a comment on this blog. I have experience in implementing service management of NAV. Pricing varies from country to country, and the best option to get the understanding of pricing is to contact your local Microsoft office. In Croatia, in order to license Service Management components you must purchase BRL Advanced Management license, since Service Management is not available in BRL Business Essentials version.

      Best regards,

      Vjeko

  2. Sam

    Hi Nav gurus:

    I am an accountant and using NAV in office. You guys have written about accounting but all of you fall short of meeting the requirements of the accountant’s monthly activities.
    1. Bank reconciliation (BRS): Conversion of one currency to other after BRS diff becomes zero (0).
    2. Fixed Assets (FA): How does one delete entries from FA Journal and re-enter again with the same dates and filling all the details required IFRS.

    SAM

  3. Dardan

    @Babic

    Can i have your e-mail to discuss something with you?

    I am having difficulty while getting reports from NAV in ordering process. THe reports generates random numbers not based on any critieria i.e ascending order.

    If you could provide me with any help, i would really appreciate it.

    best,
    Dardan

    1. Vjekoslav Babic

      Dardan,

      I don’t mind giving you my e-mail address, but I’d prefer that you ask your question here. Then other people benefit from the knowledge sharing, and if anyone else has a problem, they can find the solution. What do you say?

      Cheers,

      Vjeko

  4. Dardan

    Vjekoslav,

    I am a fan of sharing knowledge with others, that’s why i want your opinion. Still its better to have your contact.

    My question is:

    When i am generating a report from NAV, more specifically – Inventory Customer Sales the values shown are not in any order ( they are just randomized), meaning the values shown do not respond to any criteria i.e ascending or descending order.

    How can i resolve that issue?

    Cheers,
    Dardan

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