Round 39 of our Dynamics GP vs. Dynamics 365 Business Central Functionality Face-Off is for everyone who sells bundles: gift sets, starter packs, equipment kits, anything built from parts.
Selling a bundle sounds simple. But behind the scenes, your ERP has to answer real questions. Do we build these ahead of time and stock them? Or grab the parts when the order comes in? What about the labor to put them together? And what happens when a customer wants to swap one component?
GP and Business Central both handle kits and assemblies. GP splits the job across two separate tools. Business Central runs it all from one item card. Let’s build it out.
How you do it in Dynamics GP
GP gives you two different features, and you pick per situation.
Option 1 — Kit items in Sales Order Processing. Set the item type to Kit in Item Maintenance and assign the component items. A kit is bundled at the time of sale: when the kit hits a sales order, GP allocates the components, because quantities are tracked for the components — never for the kit itself (Microsoft Learn — Different types of inventory items in GP). The Sales Kit Options window lets you substitute components or adjust quantities on the fly. But kits have quirks: you can’t drop-ship a kit, and you can’t partially transfer one from an order to an invoice — it’s all or nothing (Microsoft Learn — Sales Order Processing Part 2).
Option 2 — The Bill of Materials module. For bundles you build ahead of time, you define the bill in the Bill of Materials Maintenance window, then post an Assembly Entry transaction (Transactions >> Inventory >> Assembly Entry). Posting increases the on-hand quantity of the finished good and relieves each component (Microsoft Learn — Reverse assemblies in Bill of Materials). Now the finished good is a stocked item you can sell normally.
Two features, two setups — and a couple of gaps. The BOM module builds items, but nothing connects a customer’s order to an assembly automatically; someone watches demand and keys the assembly entries. And if you post an assembly by mistake, there’s no undo button — Microsoft’s guidance is to reverse it with manual inventory adjustments.
How you do it in Business Central
Business Central folds kitting and light assembly into one feature: assembly management. The choices live on the item card.
Step 1 — Set up the assembly item. On the item card, set the Replenishment System to Assembly. Then pick an Assembly Policy: Assemble-to-Stock for bundles you build ahead, or Assemble-to-Order for bundles you build only when they’re sold (Microsoft Learn — Assemble items).
Step 2 — Build the assembly BOM. From the item card, choose Assembly, then Assembly BOM, and list the components — and here’s a big one: you can add resources too, so the fifteen minutes of labor to pack each kit is part of the BOM and the cost (Microsoft Learn — Work with assembly BOMs).
Step 3 — Assemble to stock. Create an assembly order, enter the item and quantity, and post. Output and consumption post together, and the Quantity to Assemble field lets you post partial builds — assemble 8 of the 10 today, finish the rest tomorrow.
Step 4 — Or let the sales order do it. For assemble-to-order items, just enter the item on a sales order line. Business Central automatically creates an assembly order linked to that sales line, with components exploded from the BOM and quantities synced (Microsoft Learn — Understanding Assemble to Order and Assemble to Stock). Customer wants an extra item in the kit or a swap? Open Assemble-to-Order Lines right from the sales order and change the components for that one order. The pieces get picked, assembled, and shipped as part of the normal flow — the same flow we walked through in Round 15 on entering sales orders.
Side by side
| Task | Dynamics GP | Business Central |
|---|---|---|
| Sell a bundle at invoice time | Kit item type in Sales Order Processing | Assemble-to-order item on a sales order |
| Build bundles ahead of time | Bill of Materials module, Assembly Entry | Assembly order, assemble-to-stock |
| Labor in the bundle cost | Not part of the kit or BOM | Resources on the assembly BOM |
| Sales order connection | Manual — no link between demand and assembly | Assembly order auto-created and linked to the sales line |
| Customize one customer’s kit | Sales Kit Options (substitute components) | Assemble-to-Order Lines on the order |
| Fixing a posted assembly | Manual inventory adjustments | Standard document flow, partial posting via Quantity to Assemble |
Why BC comes out ahead
To be fair to GP: kits in Sales Order Processing and the Bill of Materials module have bundled products for decades, and the Sales Kit Options window handles substitutions nicely.
Business Central’s win is that it’s one feature instead of two, and it’s connected. The same item card handles build-ahead and build-to-order — you pick a policy, not a module. Labor rides along as a resource on the BOM, so your kit cost is the real cost, a theme that echoes what we saw in Round 36 on landed cost. And the assemble-to-order link means the sales order drives the assembly automatically — no one has to notice demand and key a build. When your bundle business grows past what assembly can handle, BC’s full manufacturing module with production BOMs and routings is waiting in the same database. More on that tomorrow.
Let’s talk about your bundles
Aisling Dynamics helps GP shops map kits and BOM assemblies onto Business Central’s assembly policies the right way — including which bundles should be assemble-to-order versus assemble-to-stock. Take a look at what we offer, then contact us or call (251) 293-0555 to walk through your item list.
Next up in the Face-Off: manufacturing BOMs and routings — GP Manufacturing vs. Business Central production orders, part one. See you tomorrow.