Business Central for wholesale: B2B pricing, credit limits and retail EDI

How Business Central for wholesale handles B2B price lists

Wholesale pricing is rarely one list. Sales price lists in Business Central can hold prices for all customers, a customer price group or one account. They allow quantity breaks for volume discounts, start and end dates and currency. Line discounts work the same way by item or item discount group. Then Business Central finds the lowest valid price as soon as you enter the order line.

We build the structure from your current agreements and load it in bulk. So a trade customer with set prices on a few lines and a group discount on the rest gets the right price. Nobody checks a spreadsheet. Also, supplier price changes can wait in a draft list. Then you switch them on for a chosen date.

Order entry for repeat trade customers

Trade customers order the same goods again and again. They often use their own part numbers. Item references let staff type the customer's number and get your item. Copying a past order, standard sales lines and blanket orders for agreed volumes cut entry time more. Also, the availability check warns on each line when stock is short.

Order promising works out a real delivery date from stock, inbound purchase orders and transfer times. Goods you do not hold can go as a drop shipment straight from the supplier. Or they can be a special order brought in for that customer. Credit limits and overdue balances raise a warning before you release the order.

Purchasing and units of measure in Business Central for wholesale

A wholesaler buys by the pallet and sells by the case or the each. Units of measure set those conversions once. Separate default buy and sell units let each side use what it knows. Stock is held in the base unit. So quantities agree, whatever unit the document used.

Replenishment runs from the requisition worksheet. Each item carries a reorder policy, lead time and vendor. Then the worksheet proposes purchase orders. We add freight, duty and handling to item cost with item charges. So margin reports show the true landed figure.

Credit limits and payment terms for trade accounts

Each trade customer carries a credit limit, payment terms and a payment method. When an order would take the account over its limit, or the account has overdue invoices, Business Central warns staff at order entry. If a warning is not enough, an approval workflow can hold the order until someone signs it off.

Bill-to customers let a head office pay for orders placed by its branches, so the limit sits on the account that pays. Reminders and finance charge memos follow up overdue balances. The customer statistics page shows balance, overdue amount and sales to date in one place.

Where Business Central for wholesale needs an add-on

Some wholesale needs sit outside the base product. EDI with large retail chains is the most common: it needs an EDI tool that takes in their orders and sends back invoices in their format. Rebates after the sale and supplier chargebacks usually need a rebate app. Live carrier rates and label printing come from a shipping connector. Also, handheld scanning works better with a dedicated mobile app.

A trade ordering portal is another common request. The built-in Shopify connector supports business-to-business selling on that platform. Other portals connect through the APIs. We suggest an add-on only where the standard features fall short for your volumes. Then we test it with your data before you subscribe.

Business Central for wholesale: buyer questions

Is Essentials enough for Business Central for wholesale?

In most cases, yes. Essentials includes finance, sales, purchasing, inventory and warehouse management. You only need Premium if you also make goods or run service management. Light kitting or repacking can be done with assembly orders, which are part of Essentials. So most wholesalers start with Essentials and add Premium only if the business changes. We can test your real order mix first. Then you see whether the lighter license is enough before you buy.

Can each customer have its own prices in Business Central for wholesale?

Yes. You can set prices and discounts for one customer, a group of customers or everyone. Quantity breaks and date ranges work too. Business Central picks the lowest valid price as soon as you enter the line. Staff can also see why that price applied. So a price question from a customer gets a quick, clear answer. We load your price agreements in bulk and test a sample of orders. So the first week of live orders has few surprises.

How does Business Central handle backorders?

When an order ships short, the unshipped quantity stays on the order line as outstanding. It shows in availability and planning. Then you ship it later from the same order once stock arrives. Nobody has to enter it again. So customers get the rest of their goods, and your team keeps one clean record. We also show your sales team the open backorders at a glance. Then they can call customers before customers call them.

Can we sell stock we do not hold?

Yes. A drop shipment links a sales order line to a purchase order. So the supplier delivers straight to your customer. A special order does the same, but the goods pass through your warehouse first. Both keep cost and revenue tied together. Then margin on the sale is easy to see. We set up the supplier link for each special order. That way the cost and the sale never drift apart.

Does Business Central for wholesale show margin by customer and item?

Yes. Posted sales carry cost and revenue on value entries. So you can study profit by customer, item, salesperson or dimension. Analysis mode on list pages and Power BI reports make it easy to slice the data. You do not need to export it. Then buyers and sales leads can act on real margin. We also add freight and handling to item cost. So the margin you see is the true one, not a rough guess.

Related wholesale topics

Business Central for wholesale overlaps with distribution but leans harder on pricing, trade terms and agreements. These pages cover the distribution view of multi-warehouse stock and landed cost, price lists in depth, blanket orders and rebate handling. For the product detail, see Microsoft Learn: record special sales prices and discounts.