15 November 2021

Which standard D365 functionalities are used in Anywhere for Retail?

Don’t you wish Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (D365FO) functionalities were optimized for a mobile device in your retail stores?

We see a constant need to use barcode scanning solutions in retail stores to maintain and manage the everyday in-store tasks like counting, labels printing, shipping and receiving, etc. Microsoft D365FO is catering to all these needs, but that is limited only to the back-office. Know how Anywhere for Retail has upped the game for D365FO, helping retail stores with a lot of tedious tasks and operations.

To-Increase’s Anywhere for Retail -- a retail scanning solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations -- manages all your in-store operations efficiently. Here are the processes supported by Anywhere for Retail, competently backed by D365 functionalities:

Item information

Scanning an item on the shelf will give you the overall information of its:

  • On hand inventory – in your store; in other stores; in distribution centers; per product dimension and per item master
  • Recent sales, aggregated per week, or several weeks back
  • Current standard price and promotional price – Anywhere for Retail is making use of the full capabilities of the Retail pricing engine
  • Print label – quickly print a shelf or product label for the item in case you notice it is damaged or missing or wrong
  • Order item – immediately start creating an order against the distribution center (see more below in the Item ordering process)

Blog - Item-information

Label printing

Are you planning a price change for the next month? Or, have a new product promotion lined up for the next week? You can prepare labeling in advance.

Scan an item and select a date, then tell the system what design, and how many labels you need (or let the system decide that for you). The request will be stored in the standard D365 tables under the Retail module and will get printed by the back office in one go.

Blog - Label printing

Store transfers

When you need to send stock to another store, you can simply create a new transfer order (TO) from your store to the requester. Add items and quantities to the order by scanning them and, when ready, ship the transfer order. Now the transfer order is having the status ‘Shipped’ in D365, and the requesting store can use the ‘Receipt journal’ process to receive it.

Blog - Store transfers

Receipt journal

With this process, the store may receive stock from the distribution center or other stores (based on transfer orders) or from vendors (based on purchase orders). In both scenarios, an order should exist in D365 with the correct status, then this order is displayed on the mobile device and can be selected and processed.

Two types of receiving are supported – scanning each item and registering the quantity or collecting the whole shipment within one click after just a visual check. A hybrid approach is also possible, e.g., scan only expensive items or items with discrepancies, then receive the rest in one go.

In the background, an ‘Item arrival’ journal will be created and will be updated after each registered quantity. Finally, you will confirm you are done with the current order, and in the background, a ‘Packing slip’ (for POs) or ‘Transfer order Receipt’ will be automatically posted.

Tag counting

Counting items is always a challenge in retail stores. It is usually difficult to monitor or have an overview of how the counting of various products goes before it actually ends. The process is time-consuming and mentally taxing.

D365 FO has specific functionality for tag counting journals, which is supported by Anywhere for Retail, making it adapt and flexible.

A Tag prefix is introduced, which can be used to clarify the store zone you are currently in. Then Anywhere for Retail will automatically create a new tag id with that prefix for each counted item. If the same item gets counted in another zone (with a different tag prefix), it will receive another tag.

Each counted item immediately creates a new tag counting journal line in D365, thus giving an excellent overview of the counting process.

Finally, everything is counted, and all the information is in the tag counting journals for you to analyze and possibly correct it. Keep in mind that still, no transactions are created in D365 for the counting.

With our extended posting functionality, you can automatically aggregate all tag counting journals into only one counting journal. Then the transactions will be created, the quantities will be matched, and the deviations will be calculated. Of course, you will still be able to approve the counting journal(s) before posting.

Blog - Tag counting

Ordering of items

Delivering the right items in the optimal quantities and at the perfect time is quite a task for retail companies. It all starts with registering the requirements in the system. One of the options for the store is to request stock from the distribution center itself.

With Anywhere for Retail, it is possible to create a transfer order where your store is the receiver, and the distribution center is the sender. This action will then be identified as a requirement from the planning system.

Item ordering can be used as a standalone process, where you create a transfer order and add items to it, or it could be triggered from the Item info process, where you will select an existing TO and add a line to it or directly create a new TO.

Inventory adjustments

For a store, registering discrepancies of all nature is crucial. It could be writing off a sample item, register breakage, theft, etc. For all this, D365 offers two journal typesinventory adjustment and inventory movement, and these two journal types are fully supported by Anywhere for Retail.

Blog - Inventory adjustments

What are the additional functionalities Anywhere for Retail has to offer?

Anywhere for Retail, offers interesting and helpful functionalities across all processes. One of them is taking a picture with the camera of your scanning device or adding a note. The picture or note then will be attached to the relevant D365 object – item, journal, transfer order, etc.

Blog - Retail functionalities

Quite often, some users are working in multiple stores, and it is not convenient to administer that in D365. Anywhere for Retail takes care of this issue as well and offers the option for the user to change the store on the mobile device. And, if you have a multi-company environment, you can change the company as well.

What does the future hold for Anywhere for Retail?

What you can expect for the future is support for picking items, which is much needed in a world with growing volumes of online orders, as well as placing orders directly to a vendor, which could be of help for franchise enterprises.

Anywhere for Retail is continuously improving by fine-tuning and polishing the current functionality, but also adding new ones. As retail supply-chain management is throwing new challenges with a rapid increase in consumerism, there is a constant demand for new products. Anywhere for Retail with its adaptive solutions is gearing up to capitalize on the rising demand of products and retail operational efficiency.

Learn how D365FO integrates with Anywhere for Retail streamlining in-store retail processes and reduce process costs

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Eric Van Hofwegen
Eric Van Hofwegen,
Eric Van Hofwegen,
Solutions Consultant

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