Transform Your Quality Assurance Process with Business Central

Welcome and agenda

Hey, good afternoon and morning everyone. This is Mark, and today I’m going to take you through how to do quality inspections within Business Central, specifically using our Quality Inspector solution as part of our suite for Business Central.

We’ll do a quick PowerPoint on who we are, explain what Quality Inspector is, then do a demo (probably a bit more than 45 minutes, depending on how excited I get about the features). We’ll also cover licensing at the end.

If you have questions as we go, feel free to put them in the question box in the GoToWebinar panel. I’ll do my best to answer them as we go, and if I don’t get to your question, we’ll answer it via email afterward.

About Insight Works and related apps

Really briefly about Insight Works: we’ve been around just over 10 years, and we work primarily in manufacturing and distribution—places where you want to do quality inspections. We typically work through reseller partners, so if you have questions or want to try this out, reach out to your partner. If they’re not one of our resellers, give us a shout and we’ll help where we can.

We have a lot of applications for Business Central, especially on the warehousing and manufacturing side, and a good subset of those apps are free. We also have a set of free apps and add-ons that support manufacturing and warehousing environments.

Some examples include enhanced planning worksheets (for better purchasing calculations than the standard planning worksheet), forecasting worksheets for sales forecasting, and technical tools like cloud printing, automated printing, data management, and barcode generation.

On the more commonly used side, we have Graphical Scheduler (drag-and-drop scheduling for production orders and other documents), Doc Extenders (drag-and-drop document management integrated with SharePoint), Ordership Express (domestic parcel shipments with labels, rates, tracking, and carrier printing), WMS Express (free barcoding for core warehouse processes), and Safety Logbook.

Quality Inspector integrates with several of these tools, including Graphical Scheduler and Safety Logbook. For example, moving something in the scheduler can prompt a Quality Inspector questionnaire, and safety events can trigger related quality inspections to capture follow-up actions like engineering change requests.

What Quality Inspector does

Quality Inspector works with any table in Business Central, which means you can create inspections against receiving, production, inventory movements, and also against people, fixed assets, custom tables—whatever you need. You can trigger inspections automatically or manually.

It’s highly configurable and customizable. You can build forms for quality inspections, NCRs, CARs, ECRs, and other records, including calculations, lookup fields, and the typical tools you’d need for comprehensive inspections tied to whatever record you’re working with.

We also support grading, which is useful in environments like chemicals or foods where parameters can change the product grade (for example, moisture content producing Grade A vs. Grade B). Instead of only pass/fail, you can define grading tolerances and have the system automatically grade a lot or item as results are entered.

There’s AQL sampling for environments where you test samples instead of every unit, including capabilities like lot skipping. We can also support first article inspections, including bubble/balloon style approaches.

Finally, integration with Business Central workflows, Power Automate, and Teams gives you a lot of flexibility to tailor the end-to-end process to match your internal workflows.

Moving from paper to electronic inspections with AI

A common challenge is moving from paper-based quality documents into an electronic system. Quality Inspector supports taking existing paper quality forms (if they’re in a reasonable format) and importing them. We use Azure Document Intelligence and Copilot to read the form and turn it into an electronic version by creating the fields needed to record the inspection.

If you want a gradual change, you can keep using paper on the shop floor or in receiving. People can fill it out by hand, scan it, import it into Business Central, and it will OCR the form and fill in values automatically. There’s also a hands-free entry option using Copilot—for example, if you’re measuring with calipers, you can speak results and have the system fill them in.

Quality Inspector setup in Business Central

When you install from Marketplace (formerly AppSource), the setup wizard asks whether you want to import sample data. If you do, you’ll get a basic sample configuration similar to what I’m showing here.

In the Quality Inspector setup, there are lots of configuration options that control how tests are created and how the UI behaves. One area I want to call out is the personal device interface, which lets you define what shows up on phone/scanner devices. That also ties into Teams integration—if you share an inspection in Teams, these settings control what fields are shown there, even for people without a Business Central license.

A key configuration is how inspections are triggered. For receiving, you can set defaults like creating incoming inspections when a warehouse receipt is posted, when a purchase order is posted, or even earlier at release depending on your process. Similar trigger settings exist for production (including frequency rules like every X units or every hour), and for inventory movements (for example, moving inventory into a QC bin triggers an inspection automatically).

Beyond the defaults (receiving, production, inventory movement), you can trigger tests on almost anything in the system, automatically or manually.

We also support granular permissions per Quality Inspector user. Standard Business Central permissions still apply, but within Quality Inspector you can additionally control things like whether someone can reopen tests, delete tests, or create retests.

Grading, lot/serial control, and sampling

Grading isn’t just for reporting—it can determine what you’re allowed to do with a product. For example, if a lot is “In Progress,” you might block shipping until the test is completed. If it fails, you can prevent shipping. If it passes and someone signs off, then the lot becomes available for transactions.

This provides more granular control than simply blocking a lot number entirely, because you can control what transactions are allowed based on the inspection state or grade.

For AQL sampling, you can define sampling codes, lot sizes, and inspection levels that drive sample size selection. If you don’t want the full AQL configuration, you can also do simpler sampling like a percentage (for example, test 10%).

Tools and calibration tracking

Quality Inspector also includes tooling records so you can track tools or equipment required for inspections, including calibration dates. You can create views to track what’s coming up for calibration.

You can attach documents to tools (like calibration certificates or purchase orders) using drag-and-drop document attachment integration. You can also enforce that a tool identification number is recorded during an inspection, so you capture which specific tool was used when the inspection was performed.

Test templates and defining inspection fields

The core of the setup is test templates. A test template is essentially the data entry form for an inspection. If you ran the setup wizard and imported sample data, you’ll see several templates already created. You can also build your own templates, including templates for non-inventory inspections like work center inspections.

On a template, you can specify things like number series (so receiving tests, production tests, and other tests can have different numbering), and template types. For first article inspections, you can use balloon/bubble markings to tie inspection points back to drawing references.

Templates also support sampling settings (fixed quantity, percent, AQL). You can add instructions for a field (including detailed guidance or links to external documents) and define required tooling. You can attach SOPs and other documents to the template so they’re available when the actual test is created.

Each “field” on the template is effectively an individual test. You can define allowed entry ranges and pass criteria using Business Central filter-style operators. For example, a decimal value might allow entry between certain limits but define pass criteria as a tighter range, or a text criteria might pass if it starts with a specific character.

Field types include drop-down choices, text, calculated values, dates, and more advanced options like lookups into other Business Central tables. You can reuse existing fields across templates, detect fields from a scanned picture/document, or use AI to suggest fields based on context (for example, generating a checklist for shipping a bicycle).

For sampling scenarios, templates can display sample summaries (like averages) and evaluate pass/fail either per-sample or as an overall result.

Using formulas for dynamic tolerances

A useful capability is dynamic pass criteria using formulas. This avoids needing thousands of templates for thousands of items with different tolerances. For example, you can pull a field like gross weight from the item card and automatically set pass criteria to plus/minus a percentage of that value.

You can pull values from item attributes, routings, customer details, vendor details, BOM data, and more. If you’re using routing quality measures, you can also use min/max tolerances from those measures. You can use formulas and logic (including if statements) and even reference other inspection fields to build dynamic criteria.

Test generation rules

To determine what gets inspected and when, you use test generation rules. These rules define conditions like vendor, item, location, and other filters to automatically create inspections when certain events occur.

For example, you can create a rule that says when buying a specific item from a specific vendor, create a receiving inspection automatically when the purchase order is received. You can also filter on item-table fields that don’t appear on the purchase line, such as a custom “QA required” field on the item card.

Rules can also use item attributes (for example, only inspect when a color attribute is orange). You can set triggers as automatic or manual, depending on your process.

What inspections look like in practice

When a test is created, you enter values directly on the inspection, using typing or lookups. Fields can be simple yes/no values, drop-down lookups, text entries, or calculated values with tolerance criteria displayed.

Each inspection also captures control information that links the inspection back to its originating document and line—such as the sales order or purchase order, vendor, customer, and other context fields. This allows reporting, such as tracking failures by vendor or by customer shipments.

Inspections can be set up as multi-step, where one person performs the test and another person (like QC) signs off to finish it. Once finished, grading rules apply and the lot/serial becomes available for the allowed transactions based on its status.

Receiving demo example

In the receiving example, posting a receipt triggers an inspection automatically. If item tracking is required, you’ll follow standard Business Central behavior to assign lot numbers or tracking before posting.

After posting, the inspection can pop up automatically depending on setup. In many environments you keep that off so the receiver isn’t interrupted, and QC handles the tests. For demos it’s useful because you immediately see the newly created inspection with lot number, item number, vendor, and purchase order details already populated.

From purchase orders and other documents, you can view existing tests, create tests manually if no rule exists, and manage inspection history as needed.

Importing a completed paper inspection into a test

For the 5S inspection example, fields were created by importing a scanned paper form. You can also create an inspection manually (for example, against a work center), then drag and drop a completed paper checklist into the inspection.

The system analyzes the document, detects checkboxes and text, and proposes values. You can adjust anything that doesn’t match, confirm it, and the inspection is populated—so you still get electronic records without retyping everything.

Disposition actions and automation

When a test passes or fails, you can handle disposition actions manually, such as creating return orders, transfers, or internal movements. You can also automate these actions using Business Central workflows or Power Automate.

With workflows, you can trigger actions based on events like “test finished” and conditions like a specific template and pass/fail outcome. For example, if a finished inspection fails, you can automatically move inventory into a quarantine or return-to-vendor location, block the serial/lot, and create a follow-up inspection like an NCR or CAR to capture more detail and start corrective processes.

You can also automate movement into a QC location as soon as a test is created, so received inventory is separated from normal availability until QC is complete.

Power Automate and extending Business Central pages

Power Automate provides more flexible automation options, including creating custom actions on pages. For example, on the lot number information page, you can add a “Create test” action using the Automate button by connecting a flow. That allows you to create an inspection directly from that page without navigating elsewhere.

After running the flow and refreshing, the test appears and you can open it like any other Quality Inspector test.

Sharing inspections in Teams

You can share an inspection to Teams, and the preview can work even if the recipient doesn’t have a Business Central license. What’s shown in Teams is controlled by the personal device interface settings in Quality Inspector setup.

Power Automate can also send notifications to Teams (or email, texts, and many other services) when inspections change, including detailed inspection information. You can also use Power Automate to create documents or kick off related processes like engineering change request flows when a test fails.

Entering inspection data directly in Teams

Another option is posting newly created tests into Teams and allowing users to enter inspection data right in Teams. A flow can trigger on test creation, post the inspection into a Teams channel, and provide a form-like experience with drop-downs and fields.

After entering and saving the data in Teams, the inspection updates in Business Central, and refreshing the inspection shows the values captured through Teams.

Mobile and device interfaces

Quality Inspector also works on tablets, phones, and handheld scanners. If you’re running Warehouse Insight, you can expose Quality Inspector within that environment as well.

Business Central quality management and licensing

Microsoft is coming out with their own quality management module in Business Central. That module is based on our solution licensed to Microsoft, but it’s a stripped-down version. Once the final release is out, you’ll be able to see the differences.

One approach could be starting with Microsoft’s free module and customizing it to add features like formulas. On the other hand, Quality Inspector licensing is not user-based—it’s per company, with no user limit, and it’s around $200 per month (pricing is listed on the website). We can also do fixed price implementation to train you and help you get set up.

If you use the AI features, you need your own Azure AI subscription. Other than that, it’s relatively low cost and integrates with Shop Floor Insight, Warehouse Insight, phones, tablets, Power Automate, and Teams.

For more information, you can go to qcfordynamics.com or our main website and look for Quality Inspector under the apps area. If you have questions, contact us through the website or talk to your partner.

Q&A highlights and closing

There were a bunch of questions in the box, so I’ll spend a few minutes answering what I can, and for anything we don’t get to, we’ll follow up by email. The recording will be available afterward.

On licensing: it’s per company, any number of facilities. You could have a hundred facilities and it’s still the same per-company subscription.

One question came up about a mismatch between a displayed description and the tolerance formula (for example, bike weight). That can happen if the description is a default label that doesn’t match the actual tolerance logic. You can override the description, but typically it’s better to keep it aligned with the real tolerances.

On AI accuracy: it’s generally very accurate, but it depends on the quality and complexity of the paper forms. Standard tabular sheets work very well; very complicated forms can be more hit-and-miss.

On inspection queues: you can use views to see unassigned inspections, open inspections, inspections assigned to you, finished inspections, and filter those down by receiving tests, production tests, and other categories. There’s also reporting and analysis available, including charts and line charts. SPC/SQC reporting isn’t currently included, but it’s planned to be added.

Alright, I’ll end there. If you didn’t hear your question answered, we’ll follow up by email. Thank you for attending—hopefully that was useful, and we’ll talk again soon. Thanks everyone.