Forecasts exist. MRP runs. But somehow, stockouts still happen, vendor orders land too early or too late, and planners spend more time cleaning up the plan than executing it. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.
The Enhanced Planning Worksheet helps fix the disconnect between forecast and flow in Business Central—giving planners control, visibility, and logic that the standard tools often lack.
Why is planning still such a manual task in Business Central?
In most Business Central setups, forecasts live in one place, actual demand in another, and vendor constraints somewhere else. Planners run MRP, then spend hours reconciling reschedules, cancellations, and noise.
That’s where the Enhanced Planning Worksheet comes in—keeping forecasting, purchasing, and replenishment in one dynamic workspace that reflects what’s really happening.
What makes the Enhanced Planning Worksheet different?
At first glance, it resembles Business Central’s native Planning Worksheet. But underneath, it includes:
- Visual supply and demand summaries
- Vendor planning insights (minimum spend, prepaid freight eligibility)
- Multi-location stock visibility
- On-the-fly adjustments to reorder points and order quantities
- Historical item trends in-line for instant context
It’s like planning with guardrails.
Can it reduce MRP noise and manual cleanup?
Yes. The Enhanced Planning Worksheet includes a unique Calculate Purchase Plan mode that’s especially useful for distribution. It avoids the reschedule and cancel clutter of standard MRP and supports fast processing—even for 100,000+ SKUs.
You can also schedule it to run overnight so your team arrives to fresh recommendations in the morning.
How does it connect forecast to execution?
When paired with the Enhanced Forecasting Worksheet, the planning process becomes even tighter. Forecasts from Azure ML can auto-adjust:
- Reorder points
- Safety stock
- Reorder quantities
Now each PO or transfer is linked back to informed, updated demand signals.
Forecast results can update planning parameters automatically—replacing guesswork with data.
What are the real-world benefits for planners?
Planners gain:
- Fewer reactive corrections from flawed plans
- Better decision-making from embedded historical data
- Control to tweak logic without drilling into item cards
- Saved hours every week—especially in multi-location setups
Many users say it pays for itself on day one by preventing a single bad order run.
You can read the original blog here.
🛈 This post is based on content available through public resources for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central users. It is not endorsed by Microsoft.
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