Five fields. Ten minutes.
Business Central's planning worksheet does exactly what your item cards tell it. If these five fields are blank or out of date, its suggestions will be too. Check them yourself. No exports, no email, and nothing leaves your system.
Personalise the list (settings icon, then Personalise) and add Reordering Policy, Reorder Point, Safety Stock Quantity, Maximum Inventory, Reorder Quantity and Lead Time Calculation. If you plan by location using stockkeeping units, the same fields are on the SKU card instead.
You'll also want a rough monthly sales figure for the items you check. Your buyer will know it for the top sellers, or use the item's statistics. Start with your 20 best sellers and 20 lines nobody has ordered in a while.
Reordering Policy
Tells planning how to replenish the item. Left blank, planning won't keep it in stock. Set to Order, it's only bought against a specific customer order and is never held.
Out of date when: a line you stock has no policy, or a line that now sells every week is still set to Order. Every customer waits the supplier's full lead time, and it never shows as a stockout because it was never meant to be stocked.
Filter Reordering Policy to blank and look for anything you hold stock of. Then filter to Order and look for anything that sells every week.
Reorder Point
The stock level that triggers a new order. It should cover what you sell while the supplier's order is on its way, plus a small buffer.
Out of date when: it was set for last year's volume. Too low and a fast mover runs out before the order lands. Too high and the item is reordered while it still has months of stock.
For your top 20, divide the reorder point by monthly sales. That's roughly how many months of stock are left when it triggers. Compare it with the supplier's lead time. If it's well short or well over, it's out of date.
Safety Stock Quantity
The buffer planning tries never to touch. It protects against a late delivery or a big order out of nowhere.
Out of date when: it's set on lines that no longer sell, so cash sits in a buffer nothing draws on, or when the same round number appears across many items, which usually means it was entered once and never calculated.
Filter Safety Stock Quantity to more than zero and look for lines with no sales in six months. Then scan the column for the same round number repeated.
Maximum Inventory or Reorder Quantity
How much planning orders once the reorder point is reached. A Maximum Qty. policy refills up to Maximum Inventory. A Fixed Reorder Qty. policy orders the Reorder Quantity each time.
Out of date when: it was set when the line sold far more. A pump set up at 20 a month that now sells 8 will keep being refilled to a level that takes over a year to sell.
For lines that have slowed down, divide Maximum Inventory (or Reorder Quantity) by current monthly sales. Many months of stock on a line that isn't seasonal or bound by a supplier minimum is worth a closer look.
Lead Time Calculation
How long the supplier takes to deliver. Planning uses it to decide when to order. It can be set on the item, the SKU, or the vendor.
Out of date when: it's blank everywhere, so planning assumes little or no lead time and suggests orders too late, or when it was entered years ago and the supplier, shipping route or freight times have changed since.
Filter Lead Time Calculation to blank on your imported lines, then check the vendor cards for those suppliers. For a few lines, compare the setting with how long your last three deliveries actually took.
Found a few? Let's look at the rest.
A free 20-minute stock review. I'll tell you honestly whether your planning setup is worth fixing. No data access, nothing to prepare.