Business Central Spotlight

Key Business Central updates

Spotlight will highlight the to be released updates and new functionality, included deep dives and other related media that will provide our clients on new features.

July 2024 Edition

Key Features

1. Access Reminder Terms Setup:

Navigate to the Reminder Terms Setup page in Business Central.

Here, you can define the terms and conditions for sending reminders to customers with overdue payments.

2. Define Reminder Terms:

Reminder Terms allow you to control the reminder process. You can set up multiple terms based on your business needs.

Each term includes Reminder Levels, which specify when reminders are sent, any fees to charge, and whether to calculate interest.

3. Set Up Reminder Levels:

Reminder levels determine when reminders are sent, the content of the reminders, and any associated fees or interest. For example, the first reminder might be a gentle nudge, while subsequent reminders could include late fees or interest charges.

You can also set a grace period to avoid sending reminders for recently paid invoices.

4. Customize Communication:

On the Reminder Terms Setup page, you can create custom email messages and attachment texts for each reminder level.

Ensure that the messages are tailored to the tone and content appropriate for each level.

Assign Reminder Terms to Customers:

1. Go to the Customer card.
2. Find the Reminder Terms field and select the appropriate reminder term code you created.

Automating the Reminder Process

1. Access Reminder Automation:

Go to the Reminder Automation page to set up automated processes for creating, issuing, and sending reminders.

2. Define Automation Steps:

Create individual actions for each step of the reminder process: creating, issuing, and sending reminders.

You can set filters for reminder terms and actions to customize the automation.

3. Set Cadence and Job Queue:

Specify how often the automation runs using the Cadence field (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly).

By selecting the Cadence as “Custom Schedule” you can use the Job Queue Entries page to adjust the recurrence and ensure the automation runs as scheduled.

4. Attach Invoices and Customize Emails:

You can attach outstanding invoices to reminder emails as PDF files.
Select the “Send Reminder” in the reminder Action on the “Reminder Automation” Page.

Customize email texts for each reminder level to align with your business’s collection policies. That Can be set up in the Reminder Term Setup page.

Managing and Reviewing Reminders

1. Review Reminder History:

Access the history of reminders to track which reminders have been issued by the “Issued Reminder” page.

Handle any errors that occur during the automation process by accessing the log entries from the Reminder Automation setup page.

2. Adjust Reminder Settings:

If needed, adjust the settings for reminder actions to ensure they align with your business requirements.

Use the Move up and Move down actions to change the order of automation steps.

Business Value

The Modern Action Bar aims to streamline user interactions by organizing actions in a more logical and accessible manner. This helps new users quickly learn the product and allows experienced users to tailor the interface to their specific needs.

Key Features

1. Improved Organization:

The action bar groups related actions together, reducing clutter and confusion. This is particularly beneficial for new users who might find the previous layout overwhelming.

The Navigate menu, which was previously available on some pages, has been retired. Its contents have been integrated into the entity menu. This entity menu, named after the entity, displayed on the page (e.g., Customer on the Customer Card or Order on the Sales Order), is now the main menu for accessing information related to the current record.

By default, Pinned:

With documents, cards, worksheets, and listplus pages, the action bar is now presented in the pinned state when opened for the first time.

2. Split Buttons:

Split buttons combine a button and a menu, providing quick one-click access to the first action in a menu and access to other related actions via a dropdown. This feature is familiar to users of other Microsoft products, enhancing usability.

On document pages that have Post and Release actions, the actions are now presented as split buttons in the Home tab.

3. Customization and Flexibility:

Users have more flexibility in customizing menus to suit their preferences. Previous limitations on which and where actions could be moved no longer apply, empowering users to personalize pages and configure profiles more effectively.

4. Prominent Actions:

Based on user feedback and usage statistics, frequently used actions are placed in more prominent locations on the action bar. This reduces the number of clicks needed to reach these actions, making them more discoverable.

5. Subpage

With document pages that have a Lines subpage, or any other page having a subpage, the subpage’s actions are now visible right away, without requiring a click on “More options.”

6. Integration with Copilot:

The 2024 release wave 1 introduced the Copilot icon to the action bar, allowing users to open a Copilot prompt directly. This integration enhances productivity by providing quick access to AI-driven assistance.

7. Legacy Action Bar Option:

For users who prefer the previous layout, there is an option to toggle the legacy action bar on or off. This can be managed through the My Settings page or by administrators on the User Settings page.

User Settings

Conclusion

The Modern Action Bar in Business Central represents a significant step forward in enhancing user experience and productivity. By organizing actions more logically, providing customization options, and integrating AI tools, it helps users navigate the system more efficiently and tailor it to their specific needs.

April 2024 Edition

Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 1: What’s New?

The release of Business Central 24 is rapidly approaching and as part of Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 2024 release wave 1, marks a significant enhancement in AI capabilities, taking the functionality of Copilot to new heights. This advancement empowers users to streamline their workflows and expedite task execution with greater efficiency.

Ask Copilot for help with fields

In this release, the Learn More link is replaced by an Ask Copilot link that triggers the Copilot chat pane to open and automatically post in the chat on the user's behalf, asking about the meaning of the field in question. By doing so, field-specific help is only one click away, which makes it much easier to understand the value and impact of fields and settings.

Chat with Copilot

Copilot offers assistance in the following ways:

Natural Language Data Retrieval: Simply articulate your data needs in conversational language to swiftly navigate and access your information. You can find specific pages or records by stating their names, attributes, and parameters. For instance, instruct Copilot with commands like, “Display the most recent sales order for Adatum.”
Guidance and Explanation: Gain insights into Business Central’s principles or learn how to execute particular tasks by leveraging comprehensive online documentation. Pose questions to Copilot such as, “What steps are involved in preserving my list filters for future use?

Block items or variants from service transactions

To ensure specific items, their variants, or service items are excluded from service management transactions—including service contracts, orders, and invoices—you can implement restrictions. This approach is beneficial for controlling the use of certain items or services, particularly in cases of discontinued support, scarcity of inventory, or specific contractual stipulations.

Archive projects

Archiving capabilities for projects are similar to the functionality you might already be familiar with from the sales and purchase areas. You can set up projects to archive automatically so that you don't need to think about it. With automatic archiving, Business Central creates a new version of the archived document when people do the following:

Change the status of a document, or delete it.
Print, download, or send a document by email.
Post an invoice.

You can reuse earlier versions of archived projects if needed. For archived projects where the original still exists and isn't posted, you can use the Restore action to overwrite the current project with an archived version.

Assemble to project

In the latest update of Business Central, a new feature enhances project management with assemble-to-order items. When such an item is linked to a project, the system automatically creates a corresponding assembly order. This order is informed by the item’s assembly Bill of Materials (BOM), which calculates the necessary components and adjusts their quantities based on the specific project order.

These assembly details are accessible and modifiable on the Assemble-to-Order Lines page. It’s important to note that these assembly orders are exclusively for project use and cannot be posted directly. Business Central ensures consistent item tracking by synchronizing data between the project planning lines and the assembly orders.

Additionally, this feature is integrated with warehouse management systems. This integration facilitates a seamless transition from the assembly phase to delivery, promoting an efficient and uninterrupted workflow.

Assign salesperson to customer ship-to addresses

In the new release, you can assign a salesperson on the Customer card page by choosing Customer, and then Ship-To Addresses to open the Ship-to Addresses List page.

By allocating sales representatives to the delivery points instead of the billing addresses, you can achieve more accurate sales analytics that truly represents the geographical spread of your transactions. This approach not only enhances the precision of your sales insights but also improves the distribution of your resources and fosters targeted expansion within your market.

When you choose the Alternate Shipping Address option as a Ship-To location on a sales document, the Salesperson Code updates to match the salesperson from the Ship-To Address rather than the Bill-To Customer.

Create projects you can invoice to multiple customers

When handling projects with several clients, accurately invoicing each customer for their respective project contributions can be intricate and time-consuming. Business Central simplifies this process by enabling you to designate the bill-to and sell-to customers for individual project tasks. This detail on each task line streamlines the creation of invoices, ensuring they are automatically issued to the appropriate customers.

Define the default location for the project or project phase

In this release, you can set a default Location Code and Bin Code on the Project and Project Task Lines Subform interfaces. This practice, akin to the one in production order workflows, introduces default values that expedite the data input process for project tasks, project planning lines, and project journal lines, enhancing overall efficiency.

Invoice a customer for multiple projects

Streamline your billing operations by consolidating multiple project charges into a single invoice. This not only diminishes the need for manual input but also heightens precision.

Effortlessly incorporate project planning lines from various projects into one sales invoice. This method mirrors the ease of generating a sales invoice directly from a project planning line and supplementing it with an entry in the Append to Sales Invoice No. field. Simply select the Get Project Planning Lines option on the sales invoice to initiate this process.

Simpler Shopify connection

Business Central and Shopify have collaborated to enhance the online retail experience for customers. Shopify delivers a user-friendly e-commerce platform for merchants, while Business Central brings robust management tools covering finance, sales, service, and operations. Their integrated systems ensure real-time synchronization of orders, inventory, and customer details, enabling merchants to expedite order fulfillment and elevate customer service. This partnership underscores Business Central’s dedication to integrating data, empowering businesses to evolve swiftly, operate intelligently, and achieve peak performance.

It's easier to get the Shopify URL
Retrieving your Shopify store’s URL has been simplified. You can simply copy the URL directly from your Shopify Admin page, like https://admin.shopify.com/store/, and the Connector will automatically transform it into the format needed.

Skip blocked or sales-blocked items and variants
The Connector now skips blocked items and variants automatically, so you don't need to filter them on the Add Item to Shopify request page.

New stock calculation method
The Free Inventory method is simple and efficient. The method takes the current inventory and subtracts what's reserved from the inventory. It ignores expected receipts or demand.

Decide whether fulfillment synchronization should trigger a notification
Send Shipping Notifications lets you control whether Shopify sends a notification when posted shipments synchronize to Shopify. The notification might be useful, for example, if your company sells services.

Use currencies when posting employee transactions
When recording transactions in general journals for employee accounts, like expense reimbursements, you have the option to designate the transaction currency by using the Currency Code field. This allows you to access the same functionalities available for recording transactions in both customer and vendor accounts.

Use deferral codes in purchase and sales journals
You can set a deferral code on sales and purchase journal lines, which allows you to post deferral transactions while you work in these journals. Deferral works the same way on sales and purchase journals as it does for general journals.

Improve accuracy with general ledger account revaluation
With a new setup on the G/L account card, you can now run G/L Revaluations for accounts with transactions in foreign currencies. This enables you to generate a more accurate financial statement with little need to keep separate spreadsheets.

Use new Excel layouts for 35 selected reports
In the latest update, Microsoft has introduced eight innovative Excel report templates tailored for financial, customer sales, and vendor purchase analysis. These templates enhance your ability to craft custom Excel report layouts by providing not just the reports themselves, but also the associated data from the report request pages and translation data for each layout. For reports drawing from various tables, the layout is conveniently segmented into separate worksheets, simplifying the process of tracing data back to its source.

Use standard terminology for project management
Microsoft making it easier to work with project accounting by updating the terminology Microsoft use for its features in the product and documentation. Specifically, renaming things that were called “jobs” to “projects.” The goal is to improve the user experience, the clarity of the documentation, and the consistency of the terminology across the application.

View incoming documents in archived quotes and orders
The newly added feature that allows you to access incoming documents linked to sales and purchase quotations and orders, even post-archiving, significantly boosts document handling efficiency. This capability ensures uninterrupted retrieval of vital documents, aids in making well-informed choices, and cuts down on administrative tasks.

Improvements for developers
Microsoft is dedicated to enhancing developer productivity, particularly for those utilizing GitHub, Visual Studio Code, and the AppSource marketplace. New code refactoring tools have been introduced, simplifying the process of functional and performance testing. Additionally, there’s now a streamlined method for integrating ISV and bespoke code with AL GO on GitHub.
The release of the new updates that make up Dynamics 365 2024 release wave 1 will continue until October 2024. For the details of this release wave, go to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/release-plan/2024wave1/smb/dynamics365-business-central/

February 2024 Edition

AI has arrived in Business Central, scheduled for new Business Central version release for First half of 2024 will be Copilot, Microsoft developed AI tool.

Copilot will become one of Microsoft premium AI tools and over time will become a groundbreaking way to interact with all types of software from traditional office products through to business software such as Business Central.

To provide a taste of what is to come, Microsoft will be adding Copilot to Business Central in the first half of 2024 update.

So, what can I use Copilot for in Business Central.

Have you ever heard the term natural language, you need to find information quickly without having to navigate through multiple menus or to run a report.

All you need to do is ask Copilot a question like “Show me recent quotes for customer Alpine” This is a game changer in terms of efficiency and speed of getting to the right information fast. Copilot can also provide insights on the business, simply ask the question, and allow Copilot to draw on your data and provide a summary based on your question.

You may be aware that Business Central has multiple locations for which you can segment stock, but did you know that there are multiple configuration options around warehousing available in Business Central.

Improve efficiencies around the receipt, storage, and shipping of goods through the many options available in warehousing, an option to suit your type of business and logistics needs.

Take a closer look at what can be achieved in warehousing in Business Central in this edition of Spotlight.

Learn More

January 2024 Edition

In this edition of Spotlight we focus on functionality that has been available for some time in Business Central but may not be used by many.

December 2023 Edition

You may have seen the menu available in Business Central relating to Shopify and wondered how this works and how you might be able to take advantage of this built in Shopify connector for Dynamics 365 Business Central.

This is accordion content!

In this edition of Business Central Spotlight we will provide some detail on the functional capabilities and the various process flows which are managed by the Business Central Shopify Connector.

For more detail click on the Download Fact Sheet Button

Download Fact Sheet

A new feature introduced into V23 of Business Central is the reservation worksheet, previously the application of a reservation was dealt with as a default policy setting or manually on the order document line.

Now with the introduction of a reservation worksheet, there are tools that will allow the order planner to run processes that will suggest how demand should be reserved against material stock on hand.

With this tool ensuring that the reservations are applied in an Optimally will go a long way to a better order management and better outcome for customers.

Download Fact Sheet

November 2023 Edition

Unlock Efficiency and Growth: What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Release Wave 2

Business Central 2023 Wave 2 is the latest release of Microsoft’s cloud-based business management solution. It brings many new features and enhancements that will help you run your business more efficiently and effectively. Some of the highlights of this release are:

Add More Columns to Pages for Better Insight

This update empowers you to harness personalization by letting you tailor what information is on what pages by dragging fields or columns from a list onto a page.

Easier navigation between order, receipt, and invoice documents

This feature will allow us to easily explain to customers how to navigate from sales/purchase orders to shipments and invoices and vice versa. We will now be able to drill down from a sales/purchase order to the shipments or the invoices from the quantity received and quantity invoiced:

Availability Overview Helps You Calculate Quantities in Your Warehouse

You can now access real-time information about the availability of items in your warehouse from source documents such as sales orders, production orders, assembly orders, jobs, and more. You can get even more specific by tracking additional factors that might affect availability like dedicated or locked bins and reserved or pending shipments. You can review all of this in Business Central with the picking log.

Configure How to Handle Different Warehouse Operationsvailability Overview Helps You Calculate Quantities in Your Warehouse

Upgrades to how you can define warehouse handling are designed to make things easier for you. You can now define warehouse handling on the location card based on the following new fields:

Production Consumption
Production Output
Assembly consumption
Job consumption

Edit in Excel On Item Journals and Warehouse Worksheets

You can now use the Edit in Excel action on item journals and warehouse worksheets to change records in Excel. You can then publish the changes back to Business Central easily. You can enable the latest data from Business Central.

If your organization has configured OneDrive for system features, the Excel workbook opens in your browser by using Excel for the web. If you aren't using OneDrive for system features, the workbook downloads to your device. From there, you can open it using either the Excel desktop app or Excel online, depending on what you have.

Expansion of Item References and Improved Processes for Inventory

The Item Reference No. field is now available in basic tables and pages, to Identify related items quickly and accurately to manage your inventory more efficiently.

Improved Processes in Warehousing and Inventory

Improvements to warehousing and inventory include:

Create warehouse employees during testing and presale without leaving the page.
Create item journal lines based on the actual contents in a bin.
All fields on the item template are considered when you convert a catalog item.

Suggest the Next Steps for Sales and Production Orders

Through the Business Central reservation worksheet, you can reserve and allocate incoming goods to ensure quantities are available for your sales and production orders. Based on the quantities you have reserved, Business Central will display a status so you can quickly determine the next steps.

Sync Document and Posting Dates for Sales and Purchases

The Sales and Receivables Setup and Purchases and Payables Setup pages now help you comply with accounting standards and ensure accurate financial calculations. They do this through the Document Date and Posting Date fields.

Use Advanced Pick and Put-Away Features in Basic Warehouse Configurations

You now have the capability for basic warehouse configurations like put away and pick. Before, these were advanced configurations only available if you configured the location. Now, Business Central will suggest the most appropriate bin for items at any given time.

Print and scan barcodes

Streamline your processes with barcode technology.

Print Label

With this release of Business Central, we are adding a Print Label report action on multiple pages.

Scan Barcodes With Business Central Mobile App for iOS and Android

Warehouse users can work faster with the barcode scanner control, which lets them scan barcodes with the device camera or a separate scanner.

There are a few key updates to how you can use your general ledger, including:

When businesses have payable and receivable transactions that are not standard, such as bad debts, they may want to use a different G/L account than the one on the customer or vendor posting group. Controllers can set up policies for these transactions, and accountants can modify them when they post.

In Business Central it’s Allowed to have Multiple Posting Groups – Users can change default customer or vendor posting groups by switching a toggle on the appropriate pages.

2. Predefine General Ledger allocations – Users can reduce errors by automating the distribution of costs and revenue across G/L accounts for recurring posting types.

Integrating Microsoft Copilot with your Dynamics 365 Business Central environment provides you with some exciting new features:

• Complete bank account reconciliation

AI capabilities help you improve accounting automation and reduce human oversight on data input.

• Marketing text suggestions

Includes various improvements to address customer feedback in multiple languages, marketing text on Price, List reports, and improvements to content moderation.

With Copilot, you quickly get a text suggestion that's automatically generated for you. The AI-generated text is tailored to the item and provides a good starting point. The text is based in part on the following information:

Attributes are defined for the item—for example, the description, color, dimensions, material, and so on.
Selectable style preferences like tone of voice, format, and length.

Copilot is designed to save you time and help you write creative and engaging text that reflects your brand and is consistent across your product line. Start by generating a suggestion, then change the suggested text as needed

The 2023 Wave 2 Release for Dynamics 365 Business Central provides you with some incredible updates in reporting and data analysis. These enhancements include:

Analyze, Group, and Pivot Data on Queries Using Multiple Tabs

This feature was part of the 2023 Release Wave 1 but is taken a step further to make it possible to analyze data from any query the same way you can on a list page.

The ability to analyze data directly on queries expands the range of data analysis that you can do without having to switch applications. The data is analyzed in real-time and respects the data security that has been set up for the users.
When a page is in analysis mode, it’s split into two areas:

The main data area (including a tabs pane)
The field modifier area.

We will then be able to modify the way the data is displayed similarly to a pivot table (pivot mode) in Excel, grouping field types and summing values.

Pages Load Faster in Client

In this release, Microsoft optimizes two essential areas of the Business Central client:

Opening a new tab.
Rendering the navigation bar and action bar on all pages.

Add Existing Table Fields to Optimize Your Pages

As a Business Central user, you know you already have a great set of tools to hide, show, or move various UI elements. With this update, you can now unlock table fields so users can easily add them to their pages without having to develop a code extension.

Search For Data Anywhere in Business Central

Updates to this feature mean you can search from the Tell Me dialog by using the Alt+Q shortcut key combination from anywhere in Business Central.

Customized Field Editability from UI

You can now take advantage of the following updates:

Make fields non-editable or read-only
Make fields editable
Users can personalize their workspace

Tell Me Experience in Mobile App

Users can now access the popular Tell Me experience from their mobile devices through the Business Central App. It also provides access to your built-in data search and functions the same as it would on a desktop.

Distinguish Between Browser Tabs When Multitasking

Within Business Central, you now have access to a simple naming convention for browser tabs and windows that includes:

Context
Readability
Current
Multi-company

This update will help to distinguish one open window from the next, making it easier to switch contexts. Some name examples will be “Items”, “Item Card – 1896 ∙ ATHENS Desk” and “Sales price”.

Share Readable Deep Links to Pages and Records

Your Business Central environment comes equipped with a simple and consistent naming convention for deep links when you copy a URL from your browser or use the Copy link action and paste it into a rich text editor. It includes Context, Readability, and Multicompany.

Use Actions to Navigate or Fix Errors from the Inline Validation Dialog

Validating your data reduces inconsistencies and gives you a strong base of data to fall back on in a variety of business scenarios. In a previous release wave, we introduced actions on error messages that provide you with fixes to errors or have BC fix them for you. Microsoft has taken it a step further by putting those same capabilities into validation dialogs.

Access Worksheet Pages from Mobile Phones

Users now have special, simplified access to “worksheet” pages from their mobile phones. In the past, users could only access those on tablets or desktops.

Contact us to discuss the new features in Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Business Central Spotlight

July 2024 Edition

Streamline Your Collections with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central’s Automated Reminder Functionality

Boost productivity with the modern action bar

Business Value

April 2024 Edition

Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 1: What’s New?

Innovations in AI and the Dynamics 365 Copilot

Ease of Creating Sales Lines with Copilot

Accelerate Insight Discovery with Copilot-Generated Analysis Tabs

Adapt faster with Power Platform

Application Improvements

February 2024 Edition

AI has arrived for Business Central!

Did you know that advanced warehousing is standard in Business Central?

January 2024 Edition

Use Machine Learning to Turn PDF and Image Files into Electronic Documents and covert Document records in Business Central

Use General Ledger Allocations to distribute costs and revenue more efficiently

December 2023 Edition

Shopify Connector for Dynamics 365 Business Central

Advanced Predictive Analytics

November 2023 Edition

Unlock Efficiency and Growth: What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Release Wave 2

Application Updates

General Ledger Enhancements

Copilot and AI innovation

Reporting and Data Analysis

User Experience Enhancements

Solutions

Industries

Resources