managing inventory with 2 unit of measures at the same time?

(3) Share

Report

Posted on by Willgart

Hi,

I want to know if it's possible to manage the inventory in BC on 2 unit of measures at the same time.
we have to manage the inventory in multiple recycling facilities.
we talk about tons and bales.
each bale has a different weight, so I can' just put a conversion. (like 1 bale = 1ton)
1 bale may be 0.4tons or 1.1tons.
so I want to track both values at the same time.
the tons is the main unit of measure.

is it possible?

if not, is it possible to allows the users to put the weight sold in each sales order (and others document, like transfers) side by side with the number of bales sold?

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Business Central

I have the same question (0)

All responses (5)

Answers (3)

Verified answer

Jun Wang 8,188 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (1)

Report

managing inventory with 2 unit of measures at the same time?

If you want to use more than 1 UOM at the same time, you need a customization.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

Ben Baxter 6,423 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (2)

Report

managing inventory with 2 unit of measures at the same time?

I hope this suggestion is helpful, and I would encourage you test this in a Sandbox first to see if it addresses your need.

Don't make "Bale" a Unit of Measure, make it a Lot No. within Item Tracking. Then the tonnage is what you track in inventory and each Bale (Lot No.) can have a different weight.

You would then be able to see how many Bales you have in Inventory and the related weight of each Bale. A little more data entry work but would give you better visibility and costing.

Best Regards,

Ben Baxter

Accent Software Inc

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

RockwithNav 8,419 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (1)

Report

managing inventory with 2 unit of measures at the same time?

Business Central supports multiple units of measure (UOM), including separate sales and purchase UOMs, as well as breakbulk handling during storage.

For each transaction, you can select the desired UOM, and during warehouse operation, the system can split quantities based on the UOM .

If you want to view inventory in multiple UOMs on a single screen, a simple customization can enable that. By default, Business Central does not provide a standard screen that shows availability across multiple UOMs at once.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Tech-Lucky 1,261 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (1)

Report
managing inventory with 2 unit of measures at the same time?

Yes, managing inventory in two units of measure simultaneously—especially when one does not have a fixed conversion rate—is a common challenge in Business Central.

Since each bale has a different weight and a fixed conversion (e.g., 1 bale = 1 ton) isn’t feasible, the best approach is to use tons as the base unit of measure for inventory tracking. This ensures that your inventory valuation, costing, and quantities remain accurate and consistent across all processes.

To track both units (tons and bales), here’s an alternative solution:

Set tons as the base unit of measure in the item card so inventory is managed and valued in tons.

Customize your documents (Sales Orders, Transfer Orders, etc.) by adding a new field for Bales.

Users can manually input the number of bales associated with each transaction.

You can also add another field to capture the total weight of those bales if needed for validation

This approach allows users to record both the actual weight (in tons) and the count of bales per transaction.

Note: Since the bale count is not tracked in the inventory itself, you won’t be able to see "available inventory in bales" automatically—only in tons. But all transactional records will still maintain visibility of the bale quantity.

If tracking available bales is important, a more advanced customization or using item tracking (e.g., lot numbers with weight attributes per lot) could be considered, but that would require more effort and complexity.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Gerardo Rentería Ga... 23,665 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (3)

Report

managing inventory with 2 unit of measures at the same time?

Hi, good day
You could rely on some third-party solutions.

Dual Unit of Measure - EOS APP

Encuentre la aplicación adecuada | Microsoft AppSource

Best Regards
Gerardo

Was this reply helpful? Yes No