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How an Indiana Business Central engagement unfolds
- 1
Floor walk and fit-gap
We start with how orders, jobs and shipments actually move. Video walk-throughs cover most plants; a site day is added when a line is too complex to follow on camera.
- 2
Written design
Item setup, routings, locations, costing method and approval rules go into one document your controller and plant manager both sign.
- 3
Build and data load
We configure a sandbox, load your real items and bills of materials and run sample orders end to end.
- 4
Testing on your own orders
Planners, buyers and accountants run last month's work through the new system and log every difference.
- 5
Go-live and first close
Cutover is timed away from model-year changeovers and quarter end, and we stay close through the first month end.
Where Indiana industry meets Business Central
RV and trailer builders
Configured bills of materials, chassis serial numbers, dealer orders and warranty claims for the Elkhart County cluster.
Automotive tier suppliers
Scheduled releases from customers, EDI orders and advance ship notices, and packaging rules per customer part.
Steel service and fabrication
Coil and sheet in weight and pieces, cut-to-length conversion and scrap recording in northwest Indiana.
Orthopedic and medical device
Lot and serial traceability, device history, and controlled changes to bills of materials around Warsaw.
Pharma and life sciences suppliers
Expiration-dated lots, quarantine locations and quality release before stock can ship.
Agricultural processing
Grain, seed and feed items with moisture or weight adjustments and farmer settlements.
Wholesale distribution
Multi-warehouse stock, pick and pack, and freight charges for distributors using the interstate network.
Engineering and contract services
Jobs, time sheets and progress billing for firms serving the state's plants.
Indiana tax and multi-state points in Business Central
Indiana runs a single statewide sales tax administered by the Indiana Department of Revenue, with no additional local sales taxes on top. That makes in-state invoicing simpler than in many neighboring states. The complexity usually arrives with interstate trade: a plant in Indiana selling into Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky faces each of their rules.
In Business Central we set this up with tax areas, tax jurisdictions and tax groups, and record exemptions such as manufacturing inputs and resale against customers and items. Where a company ships to many states or sells online, we usually recommend connecting Avalara so rates and filings come from a maintained service rather than a spreadsheet someone updates twice a year.
Indiana also puts most of the state on Eastern Time while a few counties near Chicago and near Evansville keep Central Time. If you run plants on both sides of that line, we set posting cutoffs and job queue schedules so each site's day ends at its own local midnight.
Signs an Indiana plant is ready for Business Central
- ✓Production schedules live in a spreadsheet that one person maintains
- ✓Inventory counts and the ledger disagree every month end
- ✓Customer releases arrive by EDI but are re-keyed by hand
- ✓Dynamics GP or NAV is still running and the partner that built it is gone
- ✓Quality holds are tracked on paper tags rather than in the system
- ✓Leadership asks for margin by product line and waits a week for it
Indiana manufacturers ask a Business Central consultant
Can Business Central run an RV or trailer plant?
Yes for most small and mid-sized builders, with care in how options and bills of materials are modeled. Standard assembly and production orders handle the build, and serial numbers follow each unit to the dealer. Complex configurators usually come from an AppSource product configurator rather than custom code. We prototype two or three real units before committing to a design.
We are on Dynamics NAV. Is this an upgrade or a reimplementation?
It is usually a reimplementation with your data carried forward, because old NAV customizations rarely translate line for line. We list every modification, keep the ones that still matter as extensions and drop what standard Business Central now covers. Master data and open items migrate; history is a choice we agree with you. Our NAV migration page explains the options in more depth.
How do you handle EDI with automotive customers?
Through an EDI provider or AppSource connector that turns customer releases into sales orders and sends advance ship notices back. We define the documents per customer, test them against the customer's test environment and set up alerts for failed messages. Business Central holds the orders; the EDI service handles the trading partner formats. That split keeps upgrades painless.
Do you come on site in Indiana?
When it helps the project, yes, by arrangement and named in the scope. Plant walk-throughs and training for a shift of users are the usual reasons. Most design, configuration and testing runs remotely over video and screen sharing. That keeps travel off the budget for work that does not need it.
Talk to us about your project.
Tell us what you run today and what has to change. A senior consultant replies with a written next step.