Business Central includes a standard feature called recurring sales lines that can handle simple subscription billing without any additional apps. Before you invest in a dedicated subscription app, it’s worth checking whether this built-in functionality covers what you need.
Recurring sales lines work well if you have simple subscriptions, invoice in larger intervals like half-yearly or yearly, and apply the same terms across all your customers. The feature lets you set up recurring sales line codes with items, date controls, payment terms, and rules for automatic or manual insertion into invoices.
The main limitation is that recurring sales lines have no recurrence control or automation. You have to remember to create each invoice yourself for every customer, every period. There’s also no subscription list to give you an overview of active subscriptions. Deferral codes are inherited from the item setup, so you can’t control them per individual line without using separate items.
What recurring sales lines do in standard Business Central
Recurring sales lines are a standard part of Business Central. You don’t need a subscription app to use them. To make them easy to reach, you can add the relevant functions to your Role Center.
The basic idea is to create recurring sales line codes. For example, you can create a code for a basic subscription and add the items it should contain. A basic membership might be access to an online portal. Each code holds one or more items that get pulled into an invoice when you need them.
Compared to a dedicated subscription app, you get fewer fields here. You can’t set up deferral codes, frequencies, or other detailed parameters on the recurring sales line itself. Nothing on the code indicates whether the subscription is yearly or when it should be invoiced next.
How to set up and use recurring sales lines on an invoice
Once you have your recurring sales line codes, you create a new sales invoice as usual. At first the invoice has no lines. You then click Get recurring sales lines to pull in the relevant codes for that customer.
On each recurring sales line you can apply a few controls:
- A date control to define whether the line is valid within a certain interval
- Payment method and payment terms
- Rules for whether the line should be inserted automatically or manually
If you set a line to insert automatically, Business Central adds it every time you create an invoice for that customer. If you set it to manual, you pull it in yourself when you need it.
When the lines are imported into the invoice, the deferral code comes along automatically because it’s defined on the item. That’s worth noting: deferral works, but it always uses the general setup on the item. You can’t control deferral per line. If you need different deferral behaviour, you need different items.
After the lines are in place, you post and send the invoice. In practice this is a subscription invoice. You’re invoicing a subscription, just without the surrounding automation.
Limitations to be aware of
The biggest gap is recurrence. There’s no recurrence control, so you have to remember to create the invoice again next period for the same customer. There is a small report you can run to help create these invoices, but the recurrence handling and automation that a subscription app provides simply isn’t there.
You also don’t get a subscription list as an overview. The subscription list and the related setup options only appear when you have a subscription app installed.
When standard functionality is enough
In some cases the standard feature is all you need. It can be a good fit if your subscriptions are simple, you invoice in big batches such as quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly, and you apply the same terms to all customers.
If you want to check whether standard Business Central can cover your needs, you can find more information about recurring sales lines on Microsoft Docs.
Q&A
Do I need a subscription app to invoice subscriptions in Business Central?
Not always. Business Central has a standard feature called recurring sales lines that can handle simple subscription billing. If your subscriptions are simple, you invoice in large intervals like quarterly or yearly, and you use the same terms across all customers, the standard functionality may be enough.
What are the main limitations of recurring sales lines compared to a subscription app?
Recurring sales lines have no recurrence control or automation, so you must remember to create each invoice yourself for every customer and period. You also don’t get a subscription list as an overview, and you have fewer fields available, with no option to set frequencies on the line itself.
Can I control deferral codes per recurring sales line?
No. The deferral code is inherited from the item setup, so it always uses the general setup on that item. If you need different deferral behaviour, you have to use different items.
How do I add recurring sales lines to an invoice?
Create a new sales invoice, then click Get recurring sales lines to pull in the relevant codes for that customer. You can set the lines to insert automatically each time you invoice that customer, or insert them manually when needed.