Execution & Control Cost Control (2026)

Overview

The video is a 4-minute walkthrough of cost control for manufacturing in Business Central. It starts on the item card, where item cost is shown as a roll-up rather than a single number: materials come from the production BOM and capacity comes from routing operations.

It then shows the cost shares view, the BOM cost share distribution report, and work center rate setup. It ends on production order statistics, where expected and actual costs are compared and the effect of manual flushing and extra time posted is visible.

Key points

• Cost control starts on the item card, before the production order is opened.
• Business Central supports FIFO, LIFO, specific, weighted average and standard cost. Standard cost defines theoretical cost and is used to account for production variances. The demo item uses FIFO.
• The replenishment method decides whether the item’s cost is the purchase price or the actual production cost. The item card also defines how cost is posted to the general ledger.
• The cost shares view on the item card breaks cost into material cost, capacity cost, manufacturing overhead, scrap and total cost. Materials come from the production BOM and capacity from routing operations.
• The BOM cost share distribution report shows a chart and a table of how components and operations contribute to total cost, separating materials, capacity and overheads.
• Work centers define direct unit cost, indirect cost percentage and overhead rate. Capacity cost is based on posted time in minutes, so a wrong rate or extra posted time changes order cost.
• Production order statistics compare expected and actual cost for material, capacity and overhead.

Features

Every feature below: status not stated, demoed.

AL objects mentioned

As heard in the captions. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.

• other “Airpod coffee maker” at 0:10
• other “work center 100 assembly department” at 2:25

Quotes

• 0:10 “In Business Central cost control starts before we open the order. It starts on the item card.”
• 0:46 “Depending on the replenishment method defined, we will account for the purchase price or the actual production cost.”
• 1:15 “Item cost is not one number. It is a roll up. Materials come from the production bomb. Capacity comes from routing operations.”
• 1:26 “Business Central separates material cost, capacity cost, manufacturing overhead, scrap, and total cost.”
• 2:50 “If the rate is wrong, the order cost will be wrong. If the time posted is higher than planned, capacity cost will move, too.”
• 3:14 “Material cost was expected at 12,296, and capacity is accounted for 324, plus the 10% overhead.”
• 3:33 “As some of the flushing methods were manual, we can see the material cost was higher, and production spent more time.”