Even experienced SAP Business One users still discover new functionalities in the system from time to time. In this blog, three functionalities that every user really should know about.

Regularly, new users tell us, "Now that we are using the system once, only now do we understand how many options there actually are." And that's true: SAP Business One has unprecedented capabilities that can move your organization forward. Three functionalities you really should know and use.

Every field available in every language 2.

Global language support is a setting found under Administration > Company Details> Basic Initialization tab. Check "Support more than one language. This setting adds a globe icon to each field you click on (see the image below).

Once activated, this handy feature allows you to display field data in more than one language. For example, when you go to Inventory > Item Master Data > and search for an item. Now each field you click on will display a globe icon. Click on it and a menu titled "Translations" will appear.

Above you see a list of saved languages and translations for a term you have saved.

From the drop-down list, you can add new translations, and although SAP Business One does not automatically translate, you can very easily type a word into Google translate and then copy and paste the translated term into the form.

This is especially useful for companies expanding their operations into new international markets to ensure that users can work efficiently with a system that speaks their native language.

Using alternative items 2.

If a stock item ordered by a customer is sold out, you can instead show other stock that is a suitable alternative for your customer. How to do that.

Under Modules, click Sales and then click Sales Orders. Start by creating a sales order for the customer.

In the Item Number field, users can enter a number of alternate items that are predefined. To access the alternate items, users can press Ctrl+Tab on their keyboard to bring up the Alternate Item Selection Criteria.

So when an item runs out, display a list of replacement items a customer might consider. Offering alternatives keeps customers happy - even if a popular item is sold out.

Furthermore, you can show the number of items in stock, show customer-specific prices and show a match percentage. Once you have selected an alternative, it will be put back into the sales order.

Where do you set this up?

Alternate items can be associated with an item in the Alternate Items window. This window can be found under Warehouse Management > Item Management > Alternate Items.

Hard allocation of items 3.

The next feature again comes from Sales Orders and allows users to "hard assign" available items to a particular order. Please note that this only works for items for which batch or serial control is enabled.

Press Ctrl+Tab again in the Number field. This time, however, SAP Business One displays a list of serialized inventory. This shows whether any of the items being ordered have already been assigned to other order.

Then you can select the serial numbers you want to assign to this order. In this way, you have the ability to quickly assign inventory to specific customers. The inventory allocation is also recorded in inventory reports.

Under modules, go to Warehouse Management > Stock Reports > Serial Number Transaction Report.

Select the Articles group from the drop-down menu and then you can view allocations by order number, giving business users more insight into your inventory at a glance.