Recurring sales lines in Business Central help automate the creation of regular sales transactions. Instead of manually entering the same products or services each time an order is created, you can save those lines under a recurring sales code and reuse them whenever needed.

This can significantly reduce data entry and speed up the invoicing process for recurring transactions such as memberships, subscriptions, service agreements, and other routine billing activities.

Example scenario

In this example, a customer has joined a monthly premier book club membership offered by the company. Because the customer is invoiced every month for the same membership, recurring sales lines provide an efficient way to create those transactions without manually entering the same information each time.

Step 1: Create a recurring sales line code

To begin, create a recurring sales line code.

1. Open Recurring Sales Lines in Business Central.
2. Create a new recurring sales code.
3. Add the sales lines you want included whenever the code is used.

A recurring code can contain a single line or multiple lines. While the example uses a one-line transaction, the feature becomes especially valuable when multiple sales lines need to be recreated each time a transaction is generated.

Step 2: Assign the recurring sales line to a customer

After creating the recurring sales code:

1. Open the customer card.
2. Navigate to Related > Sales > Recurring Sales Lines.
3. Assign the recurring sales code to the customer.

Additional options available include:

• Valid From Date
• Valid To Date
• Payment Method Code
• Payment Terms Code
• Temporary blocking of the recurring line

Many payment-related settings are typically maintained at the customer level and may not need to be configured within the recurring sales line setup. Recurring sales lines can be used on:

• Quotes
• Orders
• Invoices
• Credit Memos

Step 3: Create a sales order using recurring sales lines

To generate a transaction using the assigned recurring sales line:

1. Create a new sales order for the customer.
2. Select Prepare > Get Recurring Sales Lines.
3. Choose the recurring sales line assigned to the customer.
4. Confirm the selection.

Business Central automatically populates the sales order with the defined recurring sales lines. For transactions that contain multiple recurring items, this can save a significant amount of time compared to manually entering each line.

Automatic vs. manual recurring sales lines

Business Central offers several options for how recurring sales lines are applied to customer transactions.

Manual

With the Manual option, users select Get Recurring Sales Lines when creating a transaction. The recurring lines are added only when requested.

Automatic

With the Automatic option, Business Central automatically inserts the recurring sales lines when a sales order is created for the customer. This is especially useful when the customer regularly receives the same transaction and no manual selection is required.

Always ask

The Always Ask option prompts the user each time a transaction is created, allowing them to decide whether or not to apply the recurring sales lines.

Key takeaways

• Recurring sales lines help automate repetitive billing processes.
• Multiple sales lines can be grouped under a single recurring sales code.
• Recurring sales codes can be assigned directly to customers.
• The feature works with quotes, orders, invoices, and credit memos.
• Users can choose Manual, Automatic, or Always Ask behavior for recurring lines.
• Automatic recurring sales lines can significantly speed up order entry for repeat transactions.