When you run standard MRP in Business Central, you often end up with a planning worksheet full of suggestions you don’t fully understand or don’t want to act on. Most of those lines are not critical. They are reschedules, quantity changes, and cancellations triggered by minor date shifts or safety stock rules, not by an actual shortage.
The Simple MRP and Reverse Planning apps let you cut through that noise. Instead of moving dates and cancelling orders, Simple MRP only suggests new supply orders. You can also tell it exactly what to trigger on: safety stock, zero inventory, or end inventory below zero in the period. By triggering on end inventory below zero, you see only the items that genuinely need a new order.
In the example below, standard MRP produced suggestions across several items, including reschedules and cancellations. After filtering with Simple MRP on end inventory below zero, only two items remained. Those two were the only ones that actually required action, namely two production orders for bikes that went below zero.
Simple MRP also runs noticeably faster than standard MRP, and it gives you one line per item instead of three or four.
Why standard MRP creates too many planning lines
One of the classic issues with MRP is that the planning worksheet creates too many lines and too many suggestions. For a single item you might get three separate lines: a reschedule, a change quantity, and a new line, sometimes with a cancellation on top. In one example, item 1450 produced four different lines on its own. With that much going on, it becomes difficult to see what actually matters.
To make this easier to investigate, two apps help. The Reverse Planning app handles the planning itself, and the Graphical Inventory Profile app, which is free on AppSource, shows the inventory profile per item so you can see exactly why an item shows up in the worksheet.
Three examples where the suggestions are not critical
Looking at the graphical inventory profile per item makes it clear that many suggestions are not as urgent as they first appear.
Item 1000, the full bike (C-Bike). It shows up in the worksheet because it goes to minus 20 on March 25, which looks like a problem. But the profile shows it ends up with a positive inventory of seven. In a case like this you usually only need to move some dates, and Reverse Planning has the tool to do exactly that instead of forcing changes on the supply orders. So it is not that critical in real life.
Item 1300, the chain. Standard MRP makes three lines here: a reschedule, a change quantity, a new line, and a cancellation. But the graphical profile shows a perfectly fine inventory profile. The only reason it pops up is that it runs with a safety stock and a lot-for-lot reordering policy. When the demands change, the suggestions move around with them, and the inventory drops below safety stock. That is below safety stock but not actually a shortage, so it is not critical.
Item 1500, the bike lamp. This produces a single line, a new supply suggestion of 34 pieces. The profile shows negative inventory in part of the period but a positive end inventory. The reason MRP suggests a new order rather than moving an existing supply is that the supply order uses planning flexibility set to None, which prevents it from being moved. So even though planning flexibility is a useful feature, it can create noise. In the worksheet you only see that you need 34, and you might order another 34 pieces when you don’t really need to.
Which items are actually critical
When you go through all the lines, very few are genuinely critical. Two items in this example are:
- Item 1012 (another bike) goes to minus 10. This is really critical and needs a production order started.
- Item 1026 goes below safety stock and below zero, down to minus 23. Also critical.
Those are the only two items that need action right now, when you set aside the items that just need a date change or that only dip below safety stock.
How Simple MRP reduces the noise
The whole idea of Simple MRP is to avoid the move and cancel lines. It only creates new lines and only suggests new orders. It does not move dates and it does not cancel orders. It looks at supplies and handles new supplies.
When you open the Simple MRP journal and calculate, you get many lines, but only one line per item, and all of them are new supply suggestions. You also get extra columns to work with, such as current inventory, expected end inventory, and the lowest inventory in the period.
Simple MRP gives you several parameters to control what triggers a line:
- Calculate to safety stock. Shows items that go below safety stock. Many of these have an end inventory of zero, an existing inventory of zero, and a lowest inventory of zero, and only appear because a safety stock is attached.
- Calculate to zero. Shows items only if they get below zero at some point in the period, not below safety stock. In this example that brought the list down to four items, including item 1000 and item 1500.
- Trigger on end inventory below zero. Shows an item only if the end inventory in the period is below zero. This filters out everything that is just a matter of moving dates. In this example that left only the two critical items, the two bikes that go below zero and need two production orders started.
So instead of a long list in the standard planning worksheet, you get a simple calculation that quickly gathers the items that actually drop below zero. You can then expand the calculation step by step: below safety stock, below reorder point, and so on. In this case you only needed to start two items, not the three that standard MRP flagged as interesting.
What you should do
If your planning worksheet is overloaded with suggestions, start with Simple MRP and set the trigger to end inventory below zero. That gives you the shortest, most actionable list: the items that genuinely need a new order. Once those are handled, widen the calculation to below zero, then below safety stock and reorder point, depending on how aggressively you want to replenish. Use the Graphical Inventory Profile app alongside it to confirm why an item appears before you act on it.
Q&A
Why does standard MRP create so many planning lines for one item?
Standard MRP can produce several lines per item because it suggests reschedules, quantity changes, new lines, and cancellations all at once. A single item can generate three or four lines, which makes the worksheet hard to overview. Many of these are minor date shifts or safety stock effects rather than real shortages.
What is the difference between Simple MRP and standard MRP?
Simple MRP only creates new lines and suggests new supply orders. It does not move dates and it does not cancel orders. It looks at supplies and handles new supplies only, giving you one line per item instead of several. It also runs faster than standard MRP.
How do I see only the items that genuinely need a new order?
In Simple MRP, set the calculation to trigger on end inventory below zero in the period. This filters out everything that is just a matter of moving dates and shows only the items whose end inventory is actually negative, which are the ones that need new orders or production orders started.
Why does an item show up in MRP even though it has a positive end inventory?
An item can appear because it goes negative at some point during the period, or because it drops below safety stock, even though it ends with a positive inventory. In many cases you only need to move some dates rather than create a new supply order. The Graphical Inventory Profile app helps you confirm this.
Why does MRP suggest a new order instead of moving an existing supply?
If a supply order has planning flexibility set to None, MRP cannot move it. So instead of rescheduling the existing supply, it suggests a new order. This can lead you to order more than you actually need, so it is worth checking the supply order’s planning flexibility.
What does the Graphical Inventory Profile app do?
It shows the inventory profile per item, so you can see exactly why an item appears in the planning worksheet. It is free on AppSource. You can use it to check whether an apparent shortage actually ends with a positive inventory before you act on a suggestion.