The project reached go-live. Your team is using Business Central. Congratulations.
But finance still rebuilds reports in Excel. Processes happen outside the system. Manual work you expected to leave behind has become routine.
Being live isn’t the same as getting the value you expected. Before approving another fix, identify the recurring problems, their business impact, and what needs investigating.
Start with the work your team does around the system
“Business Central isn’t working” describes the frustration. It doesn’t yet define the problem.
Choose a few recurring examples:
- Reports that need manual correction.
- Information entered more than once.
- Transactions that repeatedly need intervention.
- Purchase orders or asset records managed outside the system.
- Tasks that depend on one person’s workaround.
For each, capture what should happen, what happens instead, who is affected, and what has already been tried.
You’re not diagnosing the system. You’re making the problem specific enough to investigate.
A real example: live on Business Central, still relying on spreadsheets
In a completed systems review, 360 Visibility documented three distinct operating gaps: financial reporting assembled in Excel, purchase orders issued outside Business Central, and a fixed-asset register maintained in a spreadsheet. These were documented findings from the review, not claims of completed remediation or measured savings.
The recommendations included a combination of training, configuration, and implementation of additional functionality.
The important distinction is that these were different problems requiring different responses. They did not support one blanket conclusion that the entire system needed replacing.
The assessment documented findings and recommendations. It was not a measurement of completed remediation or realized savings.
What should a Business Impact Assessment give you?
A useful assessment connects the problem to its effect on the business, then explains the proposed action.
For example, the reporting finding in that review followed this structure:
Finding
Financial information was exported to Excel and manually aggregated and formatted.
Business impact
The process took time and introduced opportunities for errors, particularly when accounts changed.
Recommendation
Use Business Central’s Financial Reports functionality, supported by training.
Intended benefit
Reduce manual intervention and make reporting more readily available.
Proposed next work
Include the training in the proposed solutions, with an estimated fee range.
That is more useful than “reporting needs improvement.” It explains what is happening, why it matters, and what work is recommended.
Expected benefits should remain clearly distinguished from measured results.
Don’t assume every workaround requires development
Before approving a customization, establish whether relevant existing functionality has been reviewed and whether configuration or training could address the requirement.
Equally, training should not be presented as the answer without investigating whether the setup supports the required process.
Our guide to Business Central configuration, training, or partner issues explains what evidence should support those recommendations.
Agree on what needs attention first
A useful plan separates operational problems from improvements that can wait.
Define the desired result precisely. Instead of “improve reporting,” identify the required output, the manual steps being targeted, and how the result will be checked.
You need priorities, not just a longer list of issues.
If essential work was never completed, consider how to recover a stalled Business Central implementation. If the support relationship no longer fits, explore changing Business Central partners without starting over.
Your team shouldn’t have to keep filling the gaps
You don’t need the technical answer before asking for help.
Our Business Central rescue service starts with what isn’t working and what you’ve already tried. We’ll discuss whether a scoped assessment would help establish the causes and priorities.
Request a Business Central Rescue Review to document recurring workarounds, assess their business impact, and identify what needs attention first.