Author: Ian Grieve

One of the pieces of new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 is Master Data Management which allows you to sync setup and/or master data between companies in the same environment.

We’ve made some use of his functionality on a recent project, but encountered a problem when trying to enable it for the tables and fields we had selected:

You do not have permissions to create or run scheduled tasks

We looked into the issue and identified it as being that I had a partner licence for the clients system and creation and running of job queues is not permitted for this type of licence. The “workaround” is to either have an account on the client system created for the duration of the project and assign it a full Business Central Essentials licence or to have someone from the client do anything which requires a job queue.

Neither of these options is especially useful, but it is a result of a restriction put in place by Microsoft. I’m not sure why the restriction is in place, but it is a very inconvenient one.

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 section is deferral accounting – posting the original amount as correction – Czechia.

The deferrals functionality lets you automatically defer revenues and expenses over a specified schedule and multiple accounting periods, giving accountants more control over when people post deferrals. Deferral accounting in such a way that the derecognition of the original amount entered does not increase turnover.

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

Feature Details

You can define periods during which you allow people to post deferrals for specific users on the G/L Setup page, and for users on the User Setup page by entering dates in the Allow Deferral Posting From and Allow Deferral Posting To fields. This lets people post deferral entries in a future period, even though the Allow Posting From/To fields block other entries. Within this new Czech functionality, accrual accounting is implemented in order to avoid increasing the turnover by de-recognizing the originally entered amount.

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 14th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is get usage telemetry on Copilot extensions as an ISV.

Providing developers with a way to collect telemetry data on customer usage of their extensions to Copilot empowers them to understand the adoption, success, and safety of the extensions. Telemetry makes it easier and more effective for developers to gather this data and make timely adjustments..

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

Feature Details

Prior to this release wave, if a method in a system module was instrumented with telemetry, any call from AL to the method wouldn’t be sent as a telemetry event to the app publisher’s telemetry pipeline.

This condition has now changed. A telemetry event from the system module (as long as Scope == All) is sent to the Application Insights resource defined in the app.json manifest of the calling app/extension. This capability is particularly beneficial for the Copilot system module.

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 13th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is experience enhancements to chat with Copilot.

For our customers, much of their workday revolves around chatting with coworkers, customers, and vendors to get insights and solve problems. Now, Dynamics 365 Copilot helps them continue the conversation in Business Central with AI-powered chat alongside their data. Copilot in Business Central transforms how people approach business applications by empowering workers to express themselves using their own language.

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

Feature Details

In this wave, Microsoft evolve chat with Copilot (first announced for 2024 release wave 1) based on community feedback:

• Faster: Copilot fetches records more quickly.
• Better at data inquiries: Copilot generates analysis tabs directly from the Chat pane to help you get to insights about your data. Copilot takes this approach whenever you ask questions that are best illustrated by grouped records or simple math such as totals or averages. Try entering, “In which countries are my top customers?”
  
• Awareness of the current page: Copilot responds to requests to find data from the currently open page, using its ability to filter, sort, and generate analysis tabs to help you get to insights. Try entering, “Which products are blue on the current page?” while the Items list page is open.
• Interconnected AI: Copilot helps you understand how it can provide additional AI-powered assistance on the current page, identifying built-in features as well as extensions to Copilot. Try entering, “What can Copilot do on this page?”
• More knowledgeable: Copilot uses more sources of information from Microsoft Learn to explain and guide. For example, it now searches learning paths and release plans.
• More examples: The prompt guides (displayed at the bottom of the chat pane) include new example prompts and a link to tips and tricks to improve your prompt skills.
  

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Experience Enhancements To 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 12th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is display errors and messages in Copilot prompt dialogs.

Users learning to work with Copilot often need a simple and effective feedback loop to help them experiment and make the most out of their AI-powered assistant.

Copilot features that display a prompt dialog can now show errors and messages directly inside the dialog. While prompt dialogs aren’t intended for conversational experiences, the integrated feedback keeps users focused on the dialog without distraction.

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

Feature Details

Errors and messages that are thrown by the code logic in Copilot prompt dialogs now surface directly inside the dialog rather than in a separate pop-up dialog. There’s no additional work required by developers to enable this feature, apart from authoring proper error handling and warnings as you already do today. Both the classic Dialog.Error() and Dialog.Message(), as well as the newer ErrorInfo patterns are supported. In the case of the latter, the title and description will both be shown.

If the code throws more than one message, only the latest will be shown, but the user is told that there were multiple issues. Also, as has already been the case, if an error is thrown, a subsequent message will be suppressed. If the error or message contains line breaks, these are ignored, as opposed to rendering in dialogs.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Display Errors And Messages In Copilot Prompt Dialogs”

While working with a client to help them implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central they reported an error to me when trying to process an assembly order in the Assembly Orders (902) page. When they entered the details of the assembly and clicked post, they received an error message:

Location Code must have a value in Item Journal: Journal Template Name=, Journal Batch Name=, Line No.=0. It cannot be zero or empty.

Continue reading “Location Error Entering an Assembly Order in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central”

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 Copilot and AI innovation section is raise awareness of Copilot actions on Card, Document, and ListPlus pages.

In 2024 release wave 1, the developer tools for Copilot in Business Central introduced Copilot prompt actions, a new way to draw attention to Copilot capabilities in your extensions. A prompt action is a standard action, which is rendered with greater prominence on the page, such as in a floating bar, and is connected to the Copilot brand.

In the first iteration, Business Central supported Copilot prompt actions on List, ListPart, Worksheet, and StandardDialog page types. To help with more Copilot experiences and address partner feedback, we’re now introducing support for Copilot prompt actions on Card, Document, and ListPlus page types.

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

Feature Details

You can now use Copilot prompt actions on Card, Document, and ListPlus page types to nudge users to use your Copilots on such pages. The required AL code follows the same model as when adding Copilot prompt actions to list pages.

As an example, this code adds four prompt actions to the Customer Card via a page extension, where two of the Copilot prompt actions are nested in a group.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Raise Awareness Of Copilot Actions On Card, Document, And Listplus 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 22nd of the new functionality in the Application section is use a default quantity of 1 for accounts on documents.

Some people prefer to enter a specific quantity on document lines, while others like to have a default value entered for them that they can overwrite. To accommodate the latter preference, Business Central lets you specify that you want lines for general ledger accounts on sales documents to have a quantity of 1 by default.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview:  Sep 6, 2024
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

Default values on documents can speed up data entry. If you want new lines for general ledger accounts on sales and purchase documents to have a quantity of 1 by default, on the Sales & Receivables Setup and Purchase & Payables Setup pages, turn on the Default G/L Account Quantity toggle .

My Opinion

A small change, but a nice level of control for when adding purchase or sales documents using a G/L account. I can see a few clients using this, especially on the purchasing side for overhead invoices.

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 21st of the new functionality in the Application section is add extended text to project planning lines.

Add detailed, customized information to project planning lines for items, resources, standard text, and general ledger accounts. You can use extended text to communicate information about special prices, terms, or instructions for your projects with your customers, vendors, and employees.

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

Feature Details

You can extend the description for items, general ledger accounts, and resources by adding extra lines as extended text on purchase and sales documents. Now, you can add extra lines on project planning lines. You can have multiple extended texts, and automatically or manually add them to documents using criteria that gives you an extra capability to communicate important information to customers, vendors, and employees.

For example, you can automatically add a particular text, such as details about a special price, to project planning lines on all your German projects for a limited period.

To define extended text for an item

1. Open the card for an item that you want to add extended text to, and then choose the Extended Text action.
2. Choose New.
3. Fill in the Code and Description fields.
4. If you want to apply extended text only for projects in a specific language, fill in the Language Code field. To use all language codes, select the All Language Codes checkbox.
5. To limit the dates on which the extended text is used, fill in the Starting Date and Ending Date fields. The Document Date defined in the project planning line is used as a filter.
6. In the Text field, write the extended text.
7. Select the relevant checkboxes for the document types where you want the extended text printed. To include projects, select Projects on the Sales FastTab.
8. Close the page.

You can activate the Automatic Ext. Texts to automatically add an extended text on sales, purchases, or project documents for an item. You can also add the extended text to documents manually.

To add an extended item text on a project planning line

1. Open a project, and then choose a project task with a line for an item that has extended text.
2. Select the line, and then choose the Insert Ext. Text action.

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 20th of the new functionality in the Application section is use specific prices and discounts when synchronizing prices in Shopify.

The latest release of the Shopify connector adds individual prices and discounts that complement the global and customer price group/customer discount group prices and discounts. Individual prices and discounts give you more flexibility and personalization for B2B customers.

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

Feature Details

If you use Shopify B2B, you can configure the connector to synchronize prices for Shopify catalogs that are linked to B2B customers. The following steps explain the process.

Sync catalogs from Shopify

1. Select the Tell Me icon, enter Shopify Catalogs, and select the related link.
2. Select Get Catalogs.
3. Select the entry for which to define and export prices, and then fill in the fields as necessary.

You can use two strategies. One is the default strategy, where you can use settings similar to the ones for synchronizing the Price and Compare at Price fields for Shopify products (Shopify variant). The following table describes settings for the default strategy.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Use Specific Prices And Discounts When Synchronizing Prices In Shopify”