SKUs in Business Central

SKUs in Business Central: Stock Control Without Chaos

In Business Central, a Stockkeeping Unit (SKU) isn’t just an “item code”. It’s how you manage the same item differently by location and/or variant—without turning inventory planning into a guessing game.

Stock Keeping Units (SKU) in Business Central

The “Absolutely Not” Explanation (on purpose)

Imagine your warehouse is a massive biscuit tin. Inside are thousands of identical biscuits, all screaming, “I’m unique!” A SKU in Business Central is basically you giving each biscuit a tiny name badge and a dramatic backstory.

This biscuit isn’t just “Chocolate Digestive”. Oh no. This one is “Chocolate Digestive who lives in Birmingham, sits on Shelf 4, gets reordered on Tuesdays, and refuses to arrive unless you promise it a 10-day lead time and a safety stock cuddle”.

So you create SKUs for everything, everywhere, forever. One item, 8 locations, 5 variants? Great. Congratulations, you’ve now created a small novel of stock records/p>.Your planning worksheet starts smoking. Your team starts using “Edit in Excel” like it’s a flamethrower. And someone asks if SKUs control pricing, and you confidently say “yes” while the system quietly judges you.

In short: SKUs are inventory astrology. You invent enough “rules”, and eventually stock will align with the moon.

Previous Glossary Term: FactBoxes

The Proper Explanation

In Dynamics 365 Business Central, a Stockkeeping Unit (SKU) is a supplementary inventory record that lets you store item-specific settings per Location and/or Variant—things you can’t reliably manage from a single Item Card when operations differ by site.

Think of an SKU as an “item card extension” for a specific combination:

• Item No.

• Location Code (optional, but common)

• Variant Code (optional)

What SKUs are used for

SKUs are mainly about planning and replenishment control. They allow different rules depending on where the stock sits (or which variant it is), such as:

• Replenishment and planning parameters (reorder point, reorder quantity, safety stock, lead times, etc.)

• Location-specific handling details (for example, different shelf/bin references depending on your setup)

• Cost defaults can exist at SKU level in Business Central for some scenarios, complementing the Item Card.

The key behaviour most people miss

If an SKU doesn’t exist for a given item/location/variant combination, Business Central will typically fall back to the defaults on the Item Card. That’s why you don’t need SKUs for everything – only where differences matter.

How you create SKUs (practically)

You can generate SKUs using the Create Stockkeeping Unit process to create the combinations you need (commonly after you’ve set up Items, Locations, and Variants).

After creation, many teams maintain planning fields using controlled bulk updates (Config Packages / Edit in Excel), with proper governance.

What SKUs are not

SKUs are not a pricing tool in Business Central. Prices are handled through pricing/price list functionality, not the SKU card.

When SKUs are worth it (SME reality)

Use SKUs when:

• You stock the same item across multiple sites with different replenishment rules (warehouse vs showroom vs 3PL).

• You use variants (size/colour) where planning differs.

• You want more accurate planning suggestions by site (and fewer “why did it order that?” moments).

Avoid overusing SKUs when:

• Locations behave the same and Item Card defaults are fine.

• You don’t have the discipline to maintain planning parameters—because stale SKUs create confidently wrong planning suggestions, which is worse than no planning at all.

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