This Fast Class reviews several warehouse and inventory-related enhancements introduced in the Business Central 2023 Release Wave 2. These updates provide greater flexibility for warehouse operations, improve access to item information, expand Edit in Excel functionality, and bring advanced put-away concepts into basic warehousing environments.

Enhanced warehouse operation configuration

Business Central locations previously relied on four warehouse settings that applied universally across an entire location:

• Require Receipts
• Require Shipments
• Put-aways
• Picks

With the update, these settings now apply specifically to purchase, sales, service, and transfer workflows. Additional configuration options have been introduced for production, assembly, and job-related processes. New workflow-specific options include:

• No warehouse handling
• Optional picks
• Warehouse picks
• Mandatory warehouse picks
• Inventory picks and movements

For production output activities, users can select:

• No warehouse handling
• Inventory put-away

These enhancements allow organizations to configure warehouse behavior more precisely for different operational scenarios, reducing user confusion and aligning warehouse processes more closely with business requirements.

Expanded access to the Description 2 field

The Description 2 field has long existed in Business Central but previously required development support to make it available on pages and records. With this update:

• Description 2 can now be added through personalization.
• The field is available on approximately 40 additional pages.
• Users can expose the field on both card pages and list views.

This is especially useful for organizations migrating from legacy systems that need to retain reference information such as previous item numbers or alternate identifiers. Field lengths include:

• Description: 100 characters
• Description 2: 50 characters

The enhancement provides a convenient location for storing supplementary item information without requiring custom development.

Edit in Excel expanded to additional journals and worksheets

The Edit in Excel feature is now available on several item journals and warehouse worksheet pages. Examples include:

• Item Reclassification Journals
• Physical Inventory Journals
• Output Journals
• Consumption Journals
• Requisition Worksheets
• Planning Worksheets

This functionality allows users to:

1. Export transactional data to Excel.
2. Make bulk updates.
3. Publish changes directly back to Business Central.

A practical example demonstrated updating bin code values in an Item Reclassification Journal through Excel and publishing those changes back into Business Central without manual entry. Benefits include:

• Faster data maintenance
• Improved master data management
• Easier bulk transaction updates
• Reduced manual entry effort

Users can update existing records or add new lines directly within the exported spreadsheet before publishing.

Directed put-away functionality in basic warehousing

One of the most significant enhancements allows organizations using basic warehousing to take advantage of put-away templates, bin rankings, and bin capacity rules that were traditionally associated with advanced warehousing setups. Traditionally:

• Basic warehousing allowed receipts directly on purchase orders.
• Advanced warehousing introduced additional warehouse receipt and put-away processes.

With this enhancement, organizations can continue using basic warehousing while benefiting from more intelligent inventory placement suggestions. Key setup components include:

• Put-away templates
• Bin rankings
• Minimum and maximum bin quantities
• Bin capacity management

Example scenario

A warehouse contains:

• Bin A1 with a ranking of 950
• Bin B2 with a ranking of 500

Bin A1 has:

• Maximum capacity of 10 units
• Existing inventory of 2 units

A purchase order is created for 10 additional units. When an inventory put-away is generated:

• Business Central recommends placing 8 units into Bin A1.
• The remaining 2 units are directed to Bin B2.

The system follows put-away template rules and bin rankings while respecting defined capacity limits. Warehouse personnel can:

• Accept the suggested bins
• Modify recommendations if warehouse conditions require changes
• Complete receipt and invoicing processes directly through the inventory put-away workflow

This provides a more structured warehousing experience without requiring a full advanced warehousing implementation.

Key takeaways

The Business Central 2023 Release Wave 2 warehouse and inventory enhancements deliver several practical improvements:

• More granular warehouse workflow configuration
• Easier access to the Description 2 field
• Expanded Edit in Excel support across journals and worksheets
• Advanced put-away logic for basic warehousing environments

These features help organizations improve inventory management, streamline warehouse processes, reduce manual effort, and create a more flexible user experience within Business Central.