Business Central Consulting for Dayton Shops, Suppliers, and Labs That Bill by the Part and the Hour
Most Business Central partners hand a Dayton company a configured system and disappear. Sunflower Lab is a US-based team that serves Dayton from our Hilliard office, about 70 miles away, and builds Business Central to connect to Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps from day one, so Dayton financial data does not stay stuck the way your last system's did.
What Is Business Central Consulting?
Business Central consulting is the work of evaluating, implementing, integrating, and optimizing Microsoft's cloud ERP for small and mid-sized companies. It covers license selection and fit-gap analysis through module configuration, data migration, third-party integrations, and post-go-live support. A Business Central consultant's job isn't finished at go-live. It's finished when finance, sales, and operations are actually running on the system instead of working around it. For a Dayton company, that work usually starts on a shop floor, in a supply room, or in a lab, not in the finance office.
Dayton Companies Should Not Run Shifts on a Whiteboard and Money on a Spreadsheet
Business Central is Microsoft's ERP for companies that have outgrown QuickBooks, Sage, or a spreadsheet-based finance stack but don't need the complexity, or cost, of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. Microsoft puts the installed base at over 50,000 organizations worldwide, most in the 20 to 1,000 employee range.
Job cost closes a week late
Finance waits for travelers and timesheets from every shift, then reconciles them by hand.
The shop, the warehouse, and the books disagree
Stock counts, machine hours, and invoices live in separate tools with no shared data.
The plant manager sees last week
A Friday spreadsheet is still the only way to see what shipped, what scrapped, and what it cost.
That's rarely a software problem. It's a scoping and implementation-partner problem, which is exactly what the sections below address.
Business Central Consulting, Implementation & Integration
We work across the full Business Central lifecycle: getting you live on the platform, connecting it to everything else you run on, and keeping it optimized after go-live. Most partners specialize in one of these. We built the firm around doing all three without a handoff between teams.
Live, Built to Connect From Day One
The end-to-end process of configuring Business Central to your business, migrating your data, and getting your team live: chart-of-accounts and G/L setup, module configuration, data migration, integration design, testing, and training.
Most implementation partners treat Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps as a phase two nobody schedules. We scope them in from the start, so the rollout doesn't just relocate the busywork instead of removing it.
- Discovery and data audit against your current systems
- Chart of accounts, G/L, and core module configuration
- Machine centers, routings, lots, and resources set up for how Dayton shops, supply rooms, and labs actually run
- Data migration and validation from your legacy system
- User roles, approval workflows, and security setup
- Integration and automation design built in, not bolted on
- Testing, go-live support, and user training
Connecting to Everything Else You Run On
Connecting your ERP to the other systems your business already runs on, so data moves automatically instead of getting re-typed. Business Central ships with native connectors for the most common cases and an open API layer for everything else.
- Power BI for real-time financial dashboards
- Power Automate for approval routing and PO workflows
- Power Apps for workflows standard screens don't cover
- Shopify & ecommerce for two-way order and inventory sync
- CRM systems (Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce)
- WMS, payroll & legacy systems via custom API
This is the layer most partners treat as an afterthought and the one we specialize in. If your go-live is done but reporting still means a manual export, this is where we start.
Explore Power Automate Development →See Power BI Development Services →
Before You Commit, and After You Go Live
The advisory work around implementation: license selection, fit-gap analysis, performance optimization for a system you're already running, and recovery for a rollout that stalled or underdelivered.
- Evaluating Business Central against QuickBooks, NetSuite, or Sage
- Auditing an existing instance that's underused or misconfigured
- Rescuing a stalled or over-budget implementation from another partner
- Planning a phased rollout across multiple entities or locations
- Ongoing managed support after another partner's implementation ended at go-live
Retiring Dynamics NAV or GP the Right Way
Microsoft has pushed both legacy on-premise ERPs toward end of support, and NAV and Dynamics GP customers are working through the same decision: upgrade in place or move to Business Central. We handle the migration end to end, including the customizations and integrations that made the old system usable in the first place. Dayton plants weighing a wider move off Dynamics GP, NAV, or AX, including Finance and Operations, can start with our Dynamics 365 consulting page for Dayton.
NAV to Business Central
Your core data structure carries over cleanly if your NAV environment is on a supported version and reasonably well organized. The real work is converting old C/AL customizations into modern AL extensions, so they survive Business Central's twice-yearly update cycle instead of breaking on the next release.
Dynamics GP to Business Central
GP doesn't upgrade in place, so this is a re-implementation: financials, customers, vendors, and inventory history migrated and validated, GP customizations rebuilt as Business Central extensions, and your team trained on a genuinely different interface, not a GP reskin.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Cold Storage & Logistics: 16 Sites, 4 Systems, Zero Manual Exports
Core X Partners runs 16 cold storage facilities nationwide, each with its own operator and its own reporting workflow. Their ERP, WMS (Datex), CRM (Salesforce), and payroll system (UKG) all held pieces of the picture, but nobody had the whole thing without a manual pull. We built the integration layer connecting all four systems into a single Power BI model with automated refresh.
Delivered outside Dayton, shown because the same integration layer applies to a Dayton Business Central build.
Proof the Integration Layer Works, Regardless of Your ERP
United Utility runs Sage 300, not Business Central, but the problem was the same one Business Central customers hit after go-live: seven operating divisions, each with different rules and rates, all reporting through manual timesheets and spreadsheets. We connected their ERP to Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Automate. It's the same integration layer we build around Business Central, applied to whatever core system you're actually running.
Delivered outside Dayton, shown because the same integration layer applies to a Dayton Business Central build.
How Dayton Businesses Use Business Central
Five Dayton scenarios, from machine shops near Wright-Patterson to composite floors and testing labs, where the standard screens need a deliberate setup.
Aerospace and defense machine shops that price by the machine hour
A sub-tier machine shop prices parts by the hours its CNC machines will run, so the machine rate matters as much as the material. Business Central Premium models each machine as a machine center (a single machine with its own hourly cost) inside a work center (a group of similar machines). Setup and run times on each routing roll into a cost per part, so a quote reflects the real machine rate instead of a shop average. A load view compares planned hours with available hours by week, so an overbooked five axis machine shows up before a due date slips. Power BI shows planned against actual hours per part number.
Medical, dental, and senior living supply dealers
A supply dealer restocks clinics, dental offices, and senior living communities that order the same boxes every two weeks and send back what they do not open. Business Central keeps each customer's prices in a price list (a saved set of prices for one customer) and saves each standing order as standard sales codes (saved sets of invoice lines), so a repeat order is one click instead of forty lines of typing. Lot numbers and expiration dates ride on every receipt and sale, and a return order brings a box back into a quarantine location so it is not resold by mistake. Power BI shows return rate by customer and stock aging by expiration month.
Wholesale distributors that promise next day delivery across three states
A distributor at the I-70 and I-75 crossroads promises next day delivery to customers in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky from two warehouses. Business Central holds stock by location (a place where stock is kept), so a sales order shows which warehouse has the item, and a transfer order moves stock to the other warehouse when only one has it. Order promising calculates the earliest ship date for each line from stock on hand, open purchase orders, and the lead times you set, so inside sales quotes a date the warehouse can hold. Shipping agent fields keep carrier and service level on the order. Power BI shows on time ship rate by warehouse and customer.
Testing, prototyping, and engineering labs that sell hours
A lab sells time on an environmental chamber, a vibration table, or a technician, and customers want to know how many hours went into their program. Business Central treats each machine and each technician type as a resource (anything that can be booked and billed by the hour) with a cost rate and a price rate. Hours post to the customer program as a job, and the job shows hours, cost, and billable amount by task, so the invoice and the margin come from the same entries. Resource capacity shows hours booked against hours available, so a chamber sitting at 40 percent is visible before a second one is bought. Power BI shows utilization by machine and billing by program.
Composite and advanced materials fabricators
Composite parts makers buy carbon fiber, resin film, and core material that cost a lot, expire, and arrive by the roll but are used by the square foot. Business Central buys in rolls and issues in square feet through units of measure (the sizes a product is bought, stored, and sold in), tracks each roll as a lot with its expiration date, and records scrap on the bill of materials so a part's cost includes the offcuts. Premium production orders cost each part from the materials and hours it used. Material that must be kept frozen and logged by hours out of the freezer needs more than a standard lot record, so we confirm the tracking method with your quality team before build. Power BI shows scrap and yield by part.
Business Central Licensing at a Glance
Microsoft US list pricing, current as of the September 2026 update. If you run production orders, routings, or machine centers, you need Premium. If you sell, distribute, or bill hours, Essentials usually covers it.
- Finance, sales, purchasing, inventory
- Basic CRM & project management
- Everything in Essentials
- Manufacturing (BOM, production)
- Service order management
Lighter users can be covered by a Team Member license at $8/user/month for read-only or light-entry access.
How Implementation Works
Discovery & Solution Design
We audit your current systems, data quality, and integration needs, then map them into a fixed-price roadmap before any build starts. For Dayton teams, discovery runs as remote sessions and, where it helps, time on your floor, scoped in the free assessment.
Configuration & Data Migration
Core modules configured to your business; legacy data migrated and validated.
Integration & Automation Build
Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps, and any third-party connectors built in parallel with configuration, not after.
Testing, Go-Live & Training
Full functional and integration testing, then go-live with hands-on user training.
Optimize & Scale
We stay on to tune performance, extend automation, and add the Copilot/AI layer as adoption grows.
