AL Catch Weight Management

Overview

AL Catch Weight Management brings variable-weight (catch weight) handling to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. You operate in a handling unit (pieces/cases) and price and post in an accounting unit (weight) on the actual weight, staying inside standard Business Central logic. On posting it generates Weight Ledger Entries linked to the Item Ledger Entries, for full weight traceability and shrinkage/yield analysis.

Variable-weight products (meat, cheese, fish, produce) are moved by piece or case but priced and costed by weight. AL Catch Weight closes that gap while reusing the standard price lists and posting engine.

Key features

• Dual unit of measure - a handling (operational) unit and an accounting (weight/volume) unit, on the item and on every line.
• Accounting quantity and price from the actual weight - computed from the handling quantity plus the actual net weight, with bidirectional synchronisation (also on quantities to ship/invoice/receive and returns).
• Price from standard BC price lists - a temporary UoM swap lets the standard price calculation run on the accounting unit, then restores it; all standard events preserved, no custom pricing engine.
• Weigh page - capture weights per lot/package/pallet: manually, calculated from dimensions (length/width/height/diameter/area/cubage), or from the platform measurement interfaces (scales on the AL Message Passing bus, barcode via AL GS1). Weigh and Assign Lots captures the weight and assigns tracking in one step.
• Weight on posting - net/gross weight on the Item Ledger Entries plus a Weight Ledger Entry per Item Application Entry (inbound vs outbound) - the basis for shrinkage/yield KPIs.
• Full coverage - sales, purchase, transfer, production, inventory and warehouse.

Business benefits

• Prices and costs on the real weight, not a nominal piece weight.
• Weight traceability and yield analysis - Weight Ledger Entries compare inbound vs outbound weight (shrinkage/yield).
• Standard pricing and posting - the accounting price comes from the standard price lists and posts through the standard engine.
• Flexible weight capture - manual, from dimensions, or live from scales via the platform bus.
• Tracking in one step - capture the weight and assign lot/package/pallet together.

Typical scenarios

• Food and beverage - meat, cheese, fish and produce handled by case, priced and costed by weight.
• Distribution and logistics - receive and ship variable-weight goods with weight traceability.
• Production - weight/volume raw materials with accurate accounting quantity.

What makes AL Catch Weight different

• Standard price lists, not a parallel engine - a temporary UoM swap reads the price on the accounting unit with all standard events preserved.
• Weight Ledger Entries in and out - linked to the Item Ledger Entries for shrinkage/yield.
• Weight from dimensions - computed from length/width/height/diameter/area/cubage.
• Platform measurement interfaces - live weight from scales arrives over the AL Message Passing bus (and AL GS1 for barcodes), not a built-in driver.

Technical information

• Supported product - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (25.0 or higher)
• Availability - Cloud (SaaS)
• Languages - English (en-US), Italian (it-IT)
• Weight capture from scales - through the platform measurement interfaces on the AL Message Passing bus (and AL GS1 for barcodes)
• Dependencies - AL Tracking (required), AL Foundation App, AL Message Passing, AL License and Trial Management
• AppSource certification - in preparation