Steel fabricators work in a world of one-off jobs, changing drawings, material that must be traced back to its mill certificate, and margins that depend on accurate estimating. A generic ERP setup often ends up beside a stack of spreadsheets. This guide sets out the operational requirements to define before selecting or configuring Dynamics 365 for a fabrication business.
Estimating and quoting
- How estimates are built today: by weight, by piece, by assembly, or from a takeoff from drawings.
- Which estimating or detailing software you use, and whether the ERP must import from it.
- How quotes become jobs, and how changes between quote and order are tracked.
Job structure and bills of materials
- Do you work job by job (engineer to order), or also produce repeat products?
- How assemblies, sub-assemblies and parts are structured.
- How engineering changes during a job are controlled and costed.
In Business Central, production bills of materials and routings describe what is made and how. Business Central's Projects capability tracks budgets and actuals per job. Many fabricators combine both: projects for the commercial view, production orders for the shop floor.
Material and traceability
- Do customers or codes require heat number or mill certificate traceability from receipt to finished piece?
- How remnants and offcuts are tracked and reused.
- How material is reserved for specific jobs.
Business Central's item tracking supports lot and serial numbers, which many fabricators use to record heat numbers. Confirm how certificates will be stored and linked.
Production and the shop floor
- Work centres such as cutting, drilling, fitting, welding, painting and galvanizing (often subcontracted).
- How time and material are recorded against jobs: terminals, tablets or paper.
- Capacity planning and scheduling, and how far ahead you need visibility.
Job costing
- Labour, material, subcontract, equipment and overhead captured per job.
- Work in progress and revenue recognition method for long jobs.
- Progress billing against milestones or percent complete, and holdbacks where contracts require them.
Shipping and site delivery
- Delivery by load, piece marks and packing lists.
- Erection or installation crews and their costs.
Finance
- Multi-company or multi-site operations, for example plants in different provinces or the US.
- Currency for imported material.
- Reports for margin by job, customer and product line.
Business Central or Finance and Supply Chain Management?
Most small and mid-sized fabricators fit Business Central Premium, which includes manufacturing. Larger, multi-plant operations with complex planning may need Finance and Supply Chain Management. Our selection guide explains the difference.
Next step
See how we configure Dynamics 365 for steel fabrication, or book a manufacturing consultation with a sample job file in hand.