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Overview of inventory to deliver business process and relationship to other business processes

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Applies to: Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Microsoft Supply Chain Center

This article provides a high-level flow diagram and an overview for each of the business process areas in the end-to-end business process from inventory to deliver. The article also describes this business process's relationship to other business processes in Dynamics 365.

Note

We're in process of updating the article based on the November 2024 version of the business process catalog.

Inventory to deliver process relationship

The following diagram shows the relationship of other processes and products/features for the inventory to deliver process. Each solid gray rectangle on the diagram represents an end-to-end business process. The solid blue rectangle represents the business process area. The diagram shows the subprocesses for the business process area. The arrows on the diagram show the flow of the business process in an organization. If a subprocess can lead to more than one other subprocess, the parallel subprocesses are shown as branches.

Business process relationships with upstream and downstream processes that are explained in the next paragraphs.

The upstream processes for the inventory to deliver process include the following.

  • Design to retire

    Mandatory prerequisite: An item must exist before you can begin to receive, handle inventory, or ship the product.

  • Source to pay

    When you use Dynamics 365 to manage your procurement process, the inventory to deliver process requires a purchase order to exist to receive the inventory. There are also downstream processes that happen after the inventory to deliver process is complete, such as the Source to pay process.

  • Order to cash

    When you use Dynamics 365 to manage your sales process, the inventory to deliver process requires a sales order to deliver the inventory. There are also downstream processes that happen after the inventory to deliver process is complete, such as the order to cash process.

  • Service to cash

    When you use Dynamics 365 to manage your service process, the inventory to deliver process includes handling outbound goods, such as loading spare parts into a delivery truck.

  • Plan to produce

    When you use Dynamics 365 to manage your production process, there are overlaps with the inventory to deliver process for both inbound and outbound processes. For example: issuing raw materials to a production order and reporting a production order as finished have inventory implications.

  • Project to profit

    When you use Dynamics 365 to manage your project process, there can be connections to the inventory to deliver process for both inbound and outbound inventory. For example, in some industries, especially engineer-to-order business models, the project process includes production orders. There can also be purchases and/or sales for specific projects, which are referred to as item requirements. When projects are used to manage services, for example: professional services or maintenance services, there can also be a connection to the service to cash process.

The inventory to deliver end-to-end process is broken down into the following business process areas:

  • Manage warehouse operations
  • Process inbound goods
  • Manage inventory quality
  • Maintain inventory levels
  • Manage inventory costs
  • Record and control costs
  • Process outbound goods
  • Manage freight and transportation
  • Analyze warehouse performance

The downstream processes for the inventory to deliver process include the following.

  • Source to pay

    When the inventory to deliver process is completed as a sub process in the Source to pay process, the Source to pay process continues. For example, the invoicing and payment for the purchases.

  • Order to cash

    When the inventory to deliver process is completed as a sub process in the order to cash process, the order to cash process continues. For example, the invoicing, payment, and collection of payment for the sales.

  • Service to cash

    When the inventory to deliver process is completed as a sub process in the service to cash process, the service to cash process continues. For example, the invoicing, payment, and collection of payment for the service.

  • Plan to produce

    When the inventory to deliver process is completed as a sub process in the plan to produce process, the plan to produce process continues. For example, the ending of production orders and analyzing of production costs.

  • Project to profit

    When the inventory to deliver process is completed as a sub process in the project to profit process, the project to profit process continues. For example, the invoicing of the project for external projects, the capitalization and conversion to an asset of the project for internal capital projects, or the expensing of the project for other internal non-capital projects.

  • Case to resolution

    The case to resolution process can optionally be used downstream to handle and respond to quality issues with vendors; this process is also the starting point for many returns and exchanges, for example.

  • Record to report

    When you use Dynamics 365 to manage your financials, the inventory to deliver process is tightly integrated with the record to report process. The inventory to deliver process is responsible for the management of the inventory subledger and records vouchers into the general ledger throughout the process.

There are product-specific capabilities that interact with the inventory to deliver to process including, but not limited to, the following list:

  • Advanced warehouse management (mobile device)

    The Process inbound goods and Process Outbound goods business process areas can optionally use advanced warehouse management processes to automate and simplify the inventory processes on the warehouse floor using mobile devices.

  • Transportation management

    The Transportation management module in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management can be used to help manage the inbound and outbound processing of goods, including but not limited to, rating, routing, and reconciling freight invoices.

  • Cross docking

    When you need to tightly integrate your inbound and outbound processes to minimize the handling of inventory, cross docking capabilities allow you to receive goods, and immediately distribute them through the outbound process without the need to put the inventory into intermediate storage.

  • Cost accounting

    When you have complex requirements for managing the cost of your products or produced items, you can use the Cost accounting module in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to keep a set of books that help you monitor and control your inventory costs closely. For solutions with Dynamics 365 Business Central, the Cost accounting module there also helps you understand the costs of running the business.

  • Global inventory accounting add-in

    With the Global inventory accounting add-in for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, organizations can track the value of inventory in multiple ways. For example: multiple currencies, multiple costing methodologies, or multiple accounting standards such as IFRC or GAAP.

  • Production floor execution

    The Production floor execution features can be used on your production floor to help manage the inventory receipt and report as finished processes when you use Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to manage your production process.

  • Dynamics 365 Guides

    You can use Halo Lens with Dynamics 365 Guides to deliver mixed reality solutions through Production floor execution or as a training tool in your inventory to help optimize your inventory to deliver business processes.

  • Supply chain insights with Microsoft Supply Chain Center

    You can synchronize your data from first party applications or third-party applications to the Dataverse to use advanced analytics capabilities for monitoring your supply chain.

  • Intelligent Order Management with Microsoft Supply Chain Center: You can orchestrate your order fulfillment operations using this solution built on the Power Platform.

Inventory to deliver business process flow

The following diagram shows the high-level flow of the inventory to deliver business process. Each solid rectangle on the diagram represents an end-to-end business process area. The diagram shows the subprocesses for the end-to-end business process in this article. The arrows on the diagram show the flow of the business process in a typical organization. If a subprocess can lead to more than one other subprocess, the parallel subprocesses are shown as branches.

Inventory to deliver end-to-end process flow diagram

The following steps are illustrated in the inventory to deliver end-to-end business process flow diagram.

  1. Inventory to deliver end-to-end process

    1. Manage warehouse operations
    2. Manage inventory quality
    3. Manage inventory costs
    4. Record and control costs
    5. Report to report
    6. End

  2. Project to profit end-to-end process

    Parallel branches from Project to profit connect to Source to pay, Plan to produce, Order to cash, and Service to cash.

  3. Design to retire end-to-end process

    The diagram doesn't illustrate connections, but Design to retire is also an upstream process for the Source to pay, Plan to produce, Order to cash, and Service to cash business processes.

  4. Source to pay end-to-end process

    1. Manage freight and transportation

      1. Process inbound goods

      2. Track supplier managed inventory and consignment inventory

    2. Manage inventory quality

    3. Manage inventory costs

    4. Record and control costs

    5. Record to report

    6. End

  5. Plan to produce end-to-end process

    1. Process inbound goods

    2. Process outbound goods

    3. Manage freight and transportation

    4. Manage inventory quality

    5. Manage inventory costs

    6. Record and control costs

    7. Record to report

    8. End

  6. Order to cash end-to-end process

    1. Process outbound goods

    2. Manage outbound freight and transportation

    3. Manage inventory quality

    4. Manage inventory costs

    5. Record and control costs

    6. Record to report

    7. End

  7. Service to cash end-to-end process

    1. Process outbound goods

    2. Manage outbound freight and transportation

    3. Manage inventory quality

      A parallel branch from this subprocess is Case to resolution, which connects to End.

    4. Manage inventory costs

      A parallel branch from this subprocess is Record to Report, which connects to End.

    5. Record and control costs

    6. Record to report

    7. End

Next steps

If you want to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to assist with your inventory to deliver business processes, learn more at the following resources and steps.

  1. Inventory to deliver - introduction to the end-to-end business process

  2. Inventory to deliver business process areas

Use the following resources to learn more about the inventory to deliver process in Dynamics 365.