Three partners, one problem, one product: How Planner 365 came about

The idea arose directly from real-world experience: around two years ago, several CKL partners approached the team independently of one another. They were looking for a solution that would bring together the various specialist departments in Business Central and put an end to the annual Excel cascades in Controlling.

CKL recognised the need and began development.

Development rooted in real-world practice

To ensure the software didn’t miss the mark, CKL brought the partners on board at an early stage. “We regularly presented interim results to two or three partners,” reports Lars Böhlen, who played a key role in designing the product at CKL. “We wanted to ensure from the outset that the features met the customers’ actual needs.”

After around a year of design and close coordination, work began on the technical implementation: the go-ahead was given for the programming of Planner 365.

Problem one: Siloed planning

But what does the product actually do? What is missing from the standard version?

Business Central does, admittedly, come with its own planning functions for sales, purchasing and financial accounting. However, these operate in isolation from one another.

An example from the retail sector illustrates the problem: if a sales representative is planning figures for the North region, the standard system simultaneously displays all the planning data for the South region – unfiltered and without any access restrictions.

Planner 365 assigns an area of responsibility to everyone involved in planning: each planner sees only their own figures. Nothing gets mixed up.

Planners should only see what concerns them. This is a fundamental organisational requirement that contributes to compliance: personnel costs, for example, should not automatically be visible to everyone simply because they are entering planning figures.

Problem two: the Excel drama

Furthermore, partners within organisations observe the following scenario: the Controlling department creates separate Excel spreadsheets for each department and, in some cases, for individual staff members; sends these out; collects feedback; and manually incorporates any corrections. This not only takes time but is also prone to errors.

With Planner 365, the structure is set up once and can be reused in subsequent years at the touch of a button. An integrated approval process ensures transparency: every change and approval is documented in a traceable manner – something that manually created spreadsheets simply cannot achieve.

What ‘integrated’ actually means

For Lars Böhlen, the product brings two things together above all else: compliance and data integration.

Sales, purchasing and financial accounting no longer plan in isolation from one another, but within a single system. For management, this means: less effort spent on reconciliation, no more scattered shadow lists and clear access rights.

Three mechanisms make this possible:

• When sales volumes are planned, Planner 365 automatically calculates the corresponding turnover.
• This turnover can be transferred directly to general ledger accounts – the basis for the profit and loss account.
• If the sales department plans to sell 50 units of a product, the purchasing department knows immediately that these 50 units must be procured.

In Business Central, each of these steps still requires manual data transfer in the standard system.

There is an additional benefit for retail businesses with a large product range: C-items no longer need to be costed individually. They can be grouped with other items or general ledger accounts to set an overall sales target. Planner 365 then automatically breaks this target down into the individual items.

Until the architecture is right

Good architecture often takes several attempts: the data model for Planner 365 was completely redesigned four times during development.

“I’d imagined it to be less complex at the start,” Lars Böhlen admits frankly. Clearly separating planning areas, automatically calculating quantities and being able to trace approvals seamlessly: what sounds like a simple requirement actually involves massive computational logic behind the scenes.

Testing sessions with partners revealed where the original concept was reaching its limits. The team decided against half-hearted compromises and chose instead to rebuild the foundations from scratch. Whilst this effort remains invisible to users in the finished product, it ensures stability during live operation.

Where Planner 365 stands today

The first release version of Planner 365 is now available.

Partners can download the first release version. Some have already presented the product to customers. At the same time, CKL is holding direct discussions with users to gather further feedback and requests for future versions.

Those interested can find an up-to-date factsheet here..

For anyone who wants to find out more

If you’d like to see Planner 365 in action, you can sign up for one of the upcoming CKL webinars. You can find the latest dates and registration details here.

FAQ

1. What is Planner 365? Planner 365 is a planning solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. It integrates sales, purchasing and financial accounting within a single planning environment, whilst addressing compliance requirements such as data segregation and approval processes.

2. What is missing from the standard Business Central planning functionality? Business Central has planning functions for sales, purchasing and financial accounting – but these areas plan independently of one another. Transitions between the areas require manual work. Furthermore, there is no segregation of responsibilities: by default, every planner can see all the figures, not just their own.

3. How does Planner 365 solve the Excel problem in management accounting? Instead of the controller having to create separate lists for each department, collect feedback and manually update changes, the planning process is set up once and then runs automatically year after year. An integrated approval process documents who changed and approved what, and when.

4. How are sales, purchasing and financial accounting linked in Planner 365? When sales volumes are planned, Planner 365 automatically calculates the turnover. This turnover can be transferred directly to general ledger accounts – forming the basis for the profit and loss account. And when the sales team plans a volume, the purchasing team knows immediately what needs to be procured.

5. Who is Planner 365 designed for? Planner 365 is aimed at retail and SME businesses that use Business Central and wish to move their planning process away from Excel. The solution is particularly relevant for companies with multiple planning areas, compliance requirements and a large number of items. Replenishment data is available. However, for a commercial assessment, this information must be combined with stock levels, inventory values and valuation rules.