Month: February 2024

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1.

The 1st of the new functionality in the Country and regional section is automate IRS 1099 Form submission in US.

The 1099 form is a set of documents mandated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the United States. The upcoming update streamlines the process with automated delivery of 1099 forms through an integration with the IRS. This automation also applies to automated delivery to vendors.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Apr 2024

Feature Details

Business Central’s updated support for 1099 forms streamlines the process by automatically generating new 1099 documents when calculations are performed. Documents with the IRS 1099 calculation will have headers and lines, where each document also maintains an archive. You can make the relevant adjustments and modify the status of the document, such as Open, Released, Printed, Sent, Reported, Approved, or Rejected. Some statuses can be changed manually, while others are set based on specific actions, including Printed or Sent. Business Central also adds a new setup table with boxes and other detail configurations for specific periods. Each organization has the flexibility to update new values without overwriting setup information from previous years.

After a document is created and the manual adjustments are complete, you can initiate the automatic delivery of form substitutes by email, if vendors are configured to receive 1099 forms through email channels. If email isn’t feasible, you can manually print substitutes (no usage of original forms by IRS) and send them. It’s important to know that 1099 copies will be based on templates that you can change the structure of even before Microsoft provides the update. Microsoft won’t change reports on a yearly basis, but will update templates with new information, making full support much better and easier. As 1099 will use documents and the system will keep them archived, you can set the Retention Policy to remove outdated documents.

You’ll be able to submit the forms through the integration with the IRIS system that tracks status updates from the IRS. If the form is successfully received, the document status changes to Approved. If the form isn’t successfully received or some issues exist, it gets the status Rejected and is updated with the rejection information from the IRIS system.

This updated capability is provided as an extension that replaces the existing capability. It adds a more user-friendly experience by improving the workflow efficiency and delivering additional value to users.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1.

The 8th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is learn more about fields with Copilot.

Learning how to use Business Central has never been easier. Getting more information about a given field is now just one click away. Copilot enables you to discover valuable field-specific information from Microsoft Learn without having to search for it. By bridging the gap between Business Central and their extensive Learn content, Microsoft are making it easier than ever for new customers and partners to learn how to use Business Central. Copilot is the AI-powered assistant for work that boosts creativity and improves productivity for Business Central users.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Apr 2024
General Availability: –

Feature Details

The introduction of the Copilot-powered chat (see link here) feature in Business Central has changed the game for how people learn and interact with the product. Copilot explains and guides people to learning about Business Central concepts and how to accomplish tasks, based on Business Central’s extensive online documentation. This significantly reduces the time it takes to get unblocked or ramp up your Business Central knowledge.

This Copilot experience can be initiated by asking a question in the chat, or by other UI elements that trigger the chat functionality based on an action. One such action is to click a link in a tooltip. Today, the Learn more link in a tooltip opens the Help pane which shows page-level help. 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.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Learn More About Fields with Copilot”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1.

The 7th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is create product information faster with Copilot.

In a business landscape that changes fast, companies often need to evolve the portfolio of products they sell. Whether it’s a handful of new products, modifications to existing products, or entire new product lines and categories, it’s often time consuming to create and manage product (item) information. Copilot can significantly reduce this effort and accelerate the time to market for new products to meet customer demand. This means more time for you to focus on what matters most, your business. Copilot is the AI-powered assistant for work that boosts creativity and improves productivity for Business Central users.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Jul 2024
General Availability: –

Feature Details

Because product (item) information in Business Central is spread out across several tables, creating and managing this information can be a time-consuming task. The effort involves looking up information based on existing items, pasting values, and ensuring the new product is ready to transact. Creating variants, dimensions, units of measure, and other item-related information also takes time that delays market readiness for new products.

Copilot can help you create item-related information based on similar items. To begin with, Copilot can suggest the following item-related information:

• Variants
• Units of Measure
• Substitutions
• Dimensions

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Create Product Information Faster with Copilot”

This post is part of the In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Sales), how do I… series and of the wider In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, how do I… series which I am posting as I familiarise myself with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

I recently received a query from one of my old contacts who was using Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly known as Great Plains) and who was now migrating to Business Central.

In Dynamics GP you need to mark boxes in the setup to keep historic transactions; in other words, when a sales order is shipped and invoiced, if the keep history box isn’t marked then the PO will be removed from the system. When the box is marked, the PO will be moved to a history table, so that it can be viewed in the future.

My contact wanted to know if I could advise them if the same functionality was present in Business Central. It is present and works very much the same way.

In Business Central, unless you mark some options to archive data, then the sales transactions will be moved to history when they are deleted (which can happen when they are fully shipped and invoiced).

In the Purchases & Payables Setup page there is an Archiving fasttab containing four options (for quotes, orders, blanket orders and return orders) which need to be marked to have the transaction moved to the archive instead of deleted:

I always make sure these (and similar) options are marked so that historic transactions are retained; even if not required for regulatory purposes, clients generally want to be able to look back and report on previous transactions.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1.

The 6th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is complete bank account reconciliation faster with Copilot.

Bookkeepers in SMB organizations need to import bank statements and reconcile transactions with their bank ledger entries, making sure all transactions are accounted for. While Business Central already reduces effort through rule-based transaction matching, the residual work to process the unmatched transactions every week remains cumbersome and quickly accrues to lost workdays. Copilot reduces bookkeeping effort by matching more transactions and suggesting G/L accounts to post the remaining transactions.

Enabled for: Users by admins, makers, or analysts
Public Preview:  Nov 10, 2023
General Availability: Apr 2024

Feature Details

The bank account reconciliation feature in Business Central has been enhanced with:

• AI-powered transaction matching that complements rule-based matching and further reduces the remaining unmatched transactions that require review.
• AI-powered G/L account suggestions where Copilot suggests the most likely ledger account to post any residual transactions to and offers the opportunity to remember a specific transaction description for the next reconciliation.
• Built-in demo data for evaluation companies that makes it easier to experience and demonstrate this Copilot capability to others. Demo data is available in English with 23.1 and other languages with 23.2.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Complete Bank Account Reconciliation Faster With Copilot”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1.

The 5th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is get to insights faster with Copilot-generated analysis tabs.

Copilot is the AI-powered assistant for work that boosts creativity and improves productivity for Business Central users.

Copilot can help reduce the time it takes to identify trends and anomalies in your business data by enabling you to express your analysis as a simple sentence, and without ever leaving Business Central.

By describing how you want to structure your data analysis, such as “show me vendors by location sorted by amount of purchases,” you can quickly get to insights instead of spending time on the clicks and keystrokes needed to construct analysis views. This feature can help you make informed decisions and take action based on the insights you gain from your data. For example, you can use this feature to identify which vendors are supplying each of your warehouses, and then take steps to optimize your supply chain or negotiate better deals with your vendors.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Apr 2024
General Availability: –

Feature Details

There are several ways that Copilot can speed up your analyses:

• Create: Starting from any list in Business Central, put Copilot to work by providing keywords or a description, indicating the columns, groups, pivots, filters or sorting that you want to use to present fields from the table. Copilot uses AI to understand your desired layout, and helps you refine and build upon the generated analysis when you provide more keywords. Copilot also suggests a name for your new analysis tab.
• Update: Quickly adjust an existing analysis tab by expressing your desired changes in natural language.
• Explain: Copilot summarizes the information presented in the analysis tab as a concise sentence—a useful reminder or quick overview whenever your coworkers share analyses with you.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Get to Insights Faster with Copilot-Generated Analysis Tabs”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1.

The 4th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is extend Copilot using richer development tools.

Developer tools for Copilot in Business Central empower partners to bring generative AI experiences to their extensions.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Apr 2024

Feature Details

The developer tools for Copilot in Business Central include signature UI elements, an AI module for connecting to Azure OpenAI Service with your own service key, guides, sample, and telemetry. For more information about the toolkit, see Easily integrate generative AI with your AL solutions.

With 2024 release wave 1, developers can take advantage of the following opportunities in their extensions:

Enhancements to the prompt dialog

• New Copilot-branded action icons are contextually displayed to draw attention to your Copilot capabilities and launch your prompt dialogs.
• Placeholder text displayed within multiline input text fields can be used to provide concise prompt instructions and help users get started.
• Add one or more prompt guides that act as prompt templates to help users understand the breadth of prompts that your prompt dialog accepts.
• Turn the prompt dialog into a drop target, so that users can easily drag and drop files as part of prompt input.

Enhancements to AI module

• Support for calling AI functions and defining function hierarchies.
• When registering your AI capabilities, provide information about supported languages for customer administrators to easily identify.
• More accurate token counts when AI-powered features use Azure Open AI GPT models.

Coming later during the wave

• The ability for users to refine generative output by prompting directly on the prompt dialog content output screen.

Get started with developer tools

• Overview for developers
• AI transparency note

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1.

The 3rd of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is create sales lines easily with Copilot.

The introduction of Copilot in Business Central adds a significant enhancement to the sales document processes. It expedites the creation of sales documents and minimizes time spent on repetitive tasks and lookups. With its ability to accept various input methods, including free text, files, or prebuilt prompts, Copilot understands the input and can use it to create sales lines. This Copilot assistance drives operational efficiency in creating and managing sales documents and contributes to potential revenue growth by getting sales documents into the hands of the customers faster. Copilot is the AI-powered assistant for work that boosts creativity and improves productivity for Business Central users.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Jul 2024
General Availability: –

Feature Details

In this Business Central release, Copilot can suggest and assist with creating sales lines on sales documents like Sales Quote, Sales Order, and Sales Invoice based on structured input or natural language. This drastically relieves the user of manual input and drives operational efficiency.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Create Sales Lines Easily with Copilot”