This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 5th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is summarize any record with Copilot.

Whether you’re looking at customer details, a large order, or any other record, you might spend a considerable amount of time on understanding the current state of your data and the fields that matter. Microsoft Copilot is the AI-powered assistant that helps spark creativity, boost productivity, and eliminate tedious tasks. Copilot summarizes any record into a couple of brief and understandable sentences, greatly reducing the effort needed to get an overview of your data and plan your approach.

Enabled for: Users by admins, makers, or analysts
Public Preview: Jan 2025
General Availability: –

Feature Details

Ask Copilot for a concise and textual summary of any record, even for data from custom tables. You can interact with the summary to immediately go to highlighted fields or related data or get assistance with next steps by chatting with Copilot. To view the record summary alongside the thumbnail and important fields, you can peek into related records. Developers can write AL code to enhance summaries with even more insights.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Summarize Any Record with Copilot”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 4th 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 adding new products, changing existing products, or adding 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, which means you have more time to focus on what matters most, your business.

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

Feature Details

Because product (item) information is spread out across several pages, 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 add items by reusing information from similar items. Copilot can suggest the following information:

• Variants
• Units of Measure
• Substitutions
• Dimensions

When you manage product information, Copilot can assist by suggesting data from similar products (items). Copilot assistance not only reduces the time it takes to create a product, but it also ensures that your products are ready to transact faster than ever before.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Create Product Information Faster with Copilot”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 3rd 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, automatically
Public Preview:  Nov 9, 2023
General Availability: Oct 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 2: Complete Bank Account Reconciliation Faster with Copilot”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 2nd of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is chat with Copilot and learn to use installed add-on apps.

2024 release wave 2 introduced chat: a conversational experience where people can get assistance from Microsoft Copilot to find data, get unblocked, or learn new skills. Most of Microsoft’s customers install one or more ISV add-on apps from Microsoft AppSource to enhance Business Central with industry-specific solutions, localized functionality, or other critical capabilities that meet their needs. Now, Copilot in Business Central is able to explain and guide workers through using functionality of these add-ons, transforming Copilot from a simple “librarian” to an in-house expert that understands your unique Business Central.

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

Feature Details

Copilot’s chat capabilities have been enhanced with the following:

• Users can ask questions about content from installed add-ons, such as new pages, fields, and business processes.
• Copilot explains and guides based on documentation provided by the apps installed to your Business Central environment.

About security, privacy and AI

Copilot is built on Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to enterprise security, privacy, compliance, and responsible AI. Microsoft’s philosophy is that your data is your data: customer data in Business Central is not used to train AI models.
For more information, go to FAQ for Copilot data security and privacy for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform

Looking for more details?

• Read the preview announcement for Chat with Copilot
• Learn about Chat with Copilot
• AI FAQ for Chat with Copilot

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 1st of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is suggest number series with Copilot.

Getting started fast on new implementation and recurring maintenance of certain aspects of Business Central setup saves companies time and money. Copilot can reduce the time it takes to set up initial number series and make their maintenance quick and painless. For example, when updating year or month based numbering many draft and posted documents in Business Central.

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

Feature Details

You can use Copilot for faster creation and updates of number series on the No. Series page. The Generate action opens the Generate No. Series with Copilot dialog, where you can enter a prompt to create new, or modify existing, number series.

Number series setup creation

To help you write the prompt, the Create new action in the Generate No. Series with Copilot dialog provides sets of prompt guides that you can use as inspiration.

When you chooseGenerate, Copilot creates proposals for one or more number series, and you can review the proposals in No. Series Proposals view. You can remove the proposals that Copilot generated that you don’t like, and edit the ones you do. When you’re ready, you can choose Keep it to add or update a proposal. In addition, Copilot updates various setup pages with the number series you decided to keep.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Suggest Number Series with Copilot”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 12th of the new functionality in the Application section is import, export product info using Shopify Metafields.

Metafields are a flexible way to add and store additional information about a Shopify resource, such as a product or variant. You can synchronize and manage metafield data from Business Central either using the UI or using the extensibility model to map fields, attributes, or related entries in Business Central to metafields in Shopify.

Enabled for: Users by admins, makers, or analysts
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

Shopify’s platform includes data models for fundamental commerce concepts out of the box. However, commerce is diverse and often requires more complex or specific data models. The custom data platform enables you to extend Shopify’s data models and create your own by using metafields. Metafields are a flexible way to add and store additional information about a Shopify resource, such as a product or variant. The additional information stored in metafields can be almost anything related to a resource. Some examples are specifications, size charts, downloadable documents, release dates, images, or part numbers.

Microsoft are adding the ability to import and export data stored in metafields into Business Central. Also, Microsoft are providing an extensibility model that allows developers to map standard or custom fields, attributes, or other related entries in Business Central to metafields in Shopify.

You can see and edit metafields using the Shopify Metafields page, which you open from the Shopify Products and Shopify Variants pages.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 11th of the new functionality in the Application section is add invoice and receipt documents to e-documents in bulk.

The e-documents framework in Business Central is the cornerstone for exchanging electronic documents and the import and export of data that supports operations and finances. In this release wave, it’s easier for people in accounts payable to import invoices and receipt documents so they can work with them. This speeds up total processing time and ensures a single point of entry for overhead invoices or other documents that use the e-documents framework.

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

Feature Details

Today, you can import e-documents manually, and only one at a time. In this release, Microsoft have extended the e-documents framework to handle the import of multiple files, and importing them from a SharePoint folder. These capabilities drastically decrease the time it takes to import e-documents.

This feature is part of an enrichment of accounts payable scenarios for core bookkeeping. Microsoft are streamlining the processes for bookkeepers and accountants end-to-end, so they can be faster and more precise

My Opinion

It would seem good that Microsoft are extending the e-documents functionality and allowing bulk updates, but it would be nice to have an option for OneDrive for Business rather than just SharePoint.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 10th of the new functionality in the Application section is capture data from e-docs with Azure AI Document Intelligence.

The e-documents framework in Business Central is the cornerstone for the exchange of electronic documents, and the import and export of data that supports operations and finances. When working with vendor invoices and receipts through e-documents, accounts payable departments can streamline their OCR and document capture with native Azure AI Document Intelligence support in Business Central. They can capture data at the invoice line level, so received invoices and receipts are ready for further processing.

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

Feature Details

In this release, Microsoft are extending the e-documents framework to seamlessly handle and process imported e-documents. For some types of documents, such as PDFs and images, an OCR service must capture the data. In this release, there’s a new modern OCR service in Business Central that uses state-of-the-art technology to process invoices and receipts. This service is powered by a native integration into Azure AI Document Intelligence, which specializes in recognizing invoices and receipts (among other things).

E-documents is the key framework for working with incoming and outgoing documents and data exchange in Business Central. Going forward, Microsoft will enrich e-documents with features to help streamline document transport, processing, and sending/receipt, so document exchange can work smoothly. With the new Azure AI Document Intelligence processing in e-documents, the accounts payable department is empowered to process documents for the channel through which they prefer to receive e-documents

My Opinion

This sounds like Microsoft are extending the e-documents functionality to compete more with the Contina Document Capture extension which is widely used with Business Central. I need to do some testing to see how good a job this does.