The difference between Basic Documents, Inventory Documents and Warehouse Documents

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Business Central uses different documents and journals depending on how you set up your warehouse and inventory handling. Which documents you get access to is controlled by the checkmarks on the location card. This article maps out all the documents across four levels of functionality: basic inventory, simple put-away and pick, advanced receipt and shipment, and full WMS with directed put-away and pick.

If you only run basic inventory handling without any warehouse setup, you work with sales orders, purchase orders, transfer orders, assembly orders, and production orders. Be aware that production orders and service orders require the premium license in Business Central.

When you activate simple put-away and pick on the location card, you get inventory picks, inventory put-aways, inventory movements, and physical inventory recordings.

When you set require receipt or require shipment, you unlock warehouse shipments, warehouse picks, pick worksheets, warehouse receipts, warehouse put-aways, and put-away worksheets.

When you enable directed put-away and pick, you get the full WMS functionality with internal warehouse picks, internal warehouse put-aways, and warehouse movements from the movement worksheet.

Basic inventory documents in Business Central

The basic documents apply to normal inventory handling without any warehouse functionality. These are the documents that many customers running basic functionality in Business Central use every day.

On the outbound side, you have the sales order, the transfer order, the purchase return order, and the service order. On the inbound side, you have the purchase order, the transfer order, and the sales return order. Internally, you work with the assembly order and the production order.

Keep in mind that the production order and the service order are part of the premium license in Business Central. If you only have the essential license, you will not have access to those two documents.

Simple put-away and pick documents

You move into the simple functionality when you put a checkmark in put-away and pick on the location card, together with bin handling. This means you work with bins in the warehouse and use simple put-away and pick functionality.

On the outbound side, you get the inventory pick. On the inbound side, you get the inventory put-away. Internally, you have the inventory movement, which is created from an internal movement document, and the physical inventory recording, which is created from physical inventory order documents.

The physical inventory recordings are for counting, while the movements are for moving stock around. These documents apply when you use the checkmarks for bin mandatory, put-away required, and pick required on the location card.

Advanced documents with require receipt and require shipment

The advanced functionality kicks in when you set a checkmark in require receipt or require shipment on the location card.

The require shipment checkmark applies the documents on the outbound side: the warehouse shipment, the warehouse pick, and the pick worksheet. The require receipt checkmark gives you access to the inbound documents: the warehouse receipt, the warehouse put-away, and the put-away worksheet.

WMS documents with directed put-away and pick

The full WMS functionality becomes available when you set the directed put-away and pick checkmark on the location card.

With this setup, you get access to an internal warehouse pick and an internal warehouse put-away. You will also be able to make warehouse movements from a movement worksheet. These documents apply only when you use directed put-away and pick.

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