Business Central for textiles mills, converters and fabric wholesalers

Selling by length, stocking by roll

A fabric item usually has length as its base unit. The roll is a second unit for buying and handling. When each roll is its own lot, Business Central knows the length left on every roll. It also knows the location and the supplier. A cut length sold to a customer reduces that one roll.

Rolls rarely hold the exact nominal length. So receiving records the real length of each roll against its lot number. Sales staff then see real rolls with real lengths before they promise a continuous piece. Short ends left after cutting stay visible as small lots. You can sell them off or write them down on purpose.

Colors, widths and qualities in Business Central for textiles

One fabric quality may come in many colors and more than one width. Item variants hold those under one item. So you price and describe the quality once. We still record stock and sales for each color. Item attributes add content, weight, weave and care notes that staff and customers can filter on.

Variants in Business Central are a single list per item. They are not a grid. For fabric, that is normally enough. But finished garments sold by style, color and size need a matrix screen. Standard Business Central lacks one. An apparel add-on supplies it, and our apparel page covers it.

Keeping dye lots together

Customers expect one order to come from one dye lot. Shades differ a little between batches. Record the dye lot as the lot number. Or hold it on the lot information card when you track rolls one by one. Then pickers can choose rolls from the same batch. The posted shipment shows which lot went out.

Say a customer reorders to match an earlier delivery. The posted documents show the lot they got. Availability by lot shows whether any remains. Reservation can hold set lots for an order. So other customers do not split them. Item tracing follows any dye lot forward to every shipment.

Weaving, dyeing and finishing

Mills that spin, weave or knit use production orders under the Premium license. Yarn is a component. Machines are work centers. Converters buy greige cloth and have it dyed or printed by a finisher. They use subcontracting. The greige goes out. The finisher's charge is bought against the order. Then finished fabric comes in as a new lot.

Enter shrinkage and process loss as scrap on the bill of materials. Or record the real output length. So you see yield per batch. Grading fabric into first and second quality at inspection is usually done by receiving output into different variants or items. Each has its own price.

Imports and landed cost in Business Central for textiles

A large share of fabric comes from overseas mills in foreign currency. Purchase orders carry the vendor's currency. Business Central works out exchange rate differences when you pay the invoice. You add freight, duty, brokerage and insurance to the received goods with item charges. So stock value and margin show the landed figure.

Goods on the water can sit in an in-transit location. Then sales can promise against them with an expected date. We set lead times per item with your buyers. So planning suggests orders early enough. An import add-on handles container tracking and detailed import papers better.

Business Central for textiles: frequent questions

Can Business Central for textiles track individual rolls of fabric?

Yes. Treat each roll as a lot, or use package numbers. Then every roll has its own record with length left, location and origin. Warehouse staff pick by roll. The quantity on that roll falls as lengths are cut from it. So your stock figures match what is on the shelf in Business Central for textiles. Also, sales staff can see which rolls are long enough for a big order before they quote it.

How do we sell in yards when we buy in meters?

Choose one as the base unit. Add the other as an alternative unit of measure with its conversion factor. Purchase and sales documents can each default to a different unit. Stock is always held in the base unit. So the numbers stay consistent across the whole system. Then a buyer can order in meters while a sales rep quotes in yards. Nobody has to run a conversion on a calculator. Also, we show your team how to read both units on one screen.

Does Business Central for textiles handle two units at once, such as length and weight?

It converts between units with a fixed factor. Say weight per length varies from roll to roll, and you must record both. That is a dual unit need. A catch weight add-on is the dependable way to manage it. We can show you how it works before you decide. Then you can judge whether your range really needs it. Many fabric traders find that a fixed factor is enough.

Can we send sample cuttings and swatch cards to customers?

Yes. You can ship samples on a sales order at zero price. Or use a dedicated sample item. Either way, Business Central takes the fabric from the right roll. Its cost posts to a selling expense account. So samples never distort your stock. Then you can see what swatches cost each month. Also, a sales rep can track who got which sample, and follow up on it.

We are a fabric trader with no production. Which license applies?

For Business Central for textiles, Essentials is normally enough. It covers purchasing, stock with lot tracking, warehousing, sales and finance. You only need Premium for production orders or service management. Microsoft publishes current license prices on its own site. So you can check them yourself. Then we match the license to what each person does. That way you do not pay for features nobody uses, and you can add Premium later.

Related pages for textile businesses

Business Central for textiles rests on a few core features. Other pages explain them in detail. These pages cover the apparel sector, item variants, units of measure and landed cost for imported goods. For the product detail, see Microsoft Learn: set up units of measure.