New Role with Ocean Dynamics as a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralIt doesn’t seem that long since I joined 4PS Construction Solutions and started working with Business Central, so this was not an article I was expecting to write any time soon, but I have, as of today, taken up a new role with Ocean Dynamics, a Microsoft partner for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, as a functional consultant.

I am grateful to 4PS for the opportunity to cross-train to and work with Business Central, but felt that my future was elsewhere. I wish 4PS and the team there all the best for the future.

Ocean Dynamics are a long-time Business Central, and, before the product re-brand, Dynamics NAV, partner with specialties in the fashion, furniture and Pubco sectors.

Ocean Dynamics also work with Continia Document Capture and Jet Reports as well as Jet Analytics so I have transferable skills alongside Business Central.

Jet Reports with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central by Ian Grieve

I am looking forward to getting involved at Ocean Dynamics with client projects implementing Business Central over the coming weeks, months and years.

As well as the vertical industries mentioned above, Ocean Dynamics also works with clients on standard Business Central, so if you’re a Microsoft Dynamics GP user looking to migrate to Business Central, then please get in touch as the combination of myself and Ocean Dynamics has a wealth of experience with both systems and can easily help you with the change in systems.

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2: Modify Texts on the Welcome Banner and Skip Banner Intro State

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2.

The first of the new functionality in the Onboarding section is modify texts on the welcome banner and skip banner intro state.

Partners can give new users a warm welcome experience by showing personalized greetings in the welcome banner.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Sep 2023
General Availability: Oct 2023

Feature Details

The welcome banner in Dynamics 365 Business Central greets the user with a message when they sign in. The banner has two static contents used for evaluation and non-evaluation companies, respectively. The welcome banner is great for welcoming users because it helps them feel recognized and appreciated, and it provides information that helps people get started with Business Central. Partners can dynamically modify the message in the banner to suit their customers—for example, based on their type of company. Shaping the welcome message creates an experience that’s even more customer-centric, especially when they do so in combination with the sign-up context and customer profiling features.

My Opinion

I can see some benefits for this, again depending on how it works and is updated.

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2

In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Inventory and Warehouse Management), how do I… Create Bins in Bulk

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Inventory and Warehouse Management), 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.

In an earlier article, I covered creating bins for a location manually, but Business Central does contain a function which allows you to create bins for locations in bulk.

This function is the Bin Creation Worksheet; however, before you can use this function you first need to create the worksheet and bin templates.

To do this, search for Bin Creation Worksheet Templates. Enter a Name and Description for the template and set the Type to Bin; once you’ve done this, make sure the line is selected and click Related » Template » Names:

Bin Creation Worksheet Template page

Continue reading “In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Inventory and Warehouse Management), how do I… Create Bins in Bulk”

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2: Large Companies to Report Payment Times

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2.

The third of the new functionality in the Legislation section is large companies to report payment times.

In countries where it’s required, companies can report payment times as defined by local authorities.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Sep 2023
General Availability: Oct 2023

Feature Details

Each year, Swedish companies with 250 and more employees must report to the Swedish Companies Registration Office what payment times they have for purchases from companies that are smaller than themselves. Similar acts exist in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, so this app is a global feature for this kind of reporting.

This new feature sorts vendors based on size or payment terms, and provides reporting for the vendors for the following as required by local authorities:

  • The average agreed payment period.
  • The average actual payment term.
  • The proportion of invoices paid after the end of the agreed payment period.

You can select the period for which you want to run a calculation and to find details based on a grouping you choose. For each of these groupings, you can find sourced entries.

My Opinion

It will be interesting to see how this works as, to the best of my knowledge, Business Central does not have a field for invoice receipt date, which would be a requirement for keeping track of when an invoice was received compared to when it was paiD. You cannot use entry date for this as the invoice could have been entered several days after it was received (not because of nefarious dealings, but because an invoice received on a Friday, may not be entered until the Monday or later depending on bank holidays).

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2: E-documents Core as a Global Solution

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2.

The second of the new functionality in the Legislation section is e-documents core as a global solution.

The Dynamics 365 Business Central E-documents module enables different models of electronic invoicing required by different countries.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Sep 2023
General Availability: Oct 2023

Feature Details

The Continuous Transaction Control (CTC) package is a relatively new term that’s used to describe mandatory “real-time” invoice reporting and validation by the tax authorities through e-invoicing or transaction listings. This model of invoicing is becoming the standard method of communication, but in some countries it’s already mandatory by law.

Business Central’s new E-documents module is the foundation layer for all e-invoicing standards covering most common processes, but the idea is to be used in the future for other electronic documents. The module is easily extendable with the country-based e-invoicing apps. The E-documents app covers both sales and purchase processes and can have different lifecycles from standard invoices in Business Central. The system has an additional set of configurations including different codes, methods, schemas, and security models and can also track specific e-invoicing processes, like statuses, logs, changings, and versions. This module covers both clearance and post-audit models.

My Opinion

There are often very specific requirements around e-Invoicing, so it will be interesting to see how capable this enhancement is.

One I’ve recently been involved with is for a client in Saudi Arabia with specific requirements around English/Arabic text and a QR code, which I would expect to be outside the possibilities of this enhancement.

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2: Digital Vouchers

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2.

The first of the new functionality in the Legislation section is digital vouchers.

You can have one or more sourced documents for each of GL register as proof of a transaction and a full audit trail. You can set up the system to enforce attaching documents if this is required by law.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Sep 2023
General Availability: Oct 2023

Feature Details

You can choose to require mandatory vouchers or to use this feature voluntarily. When you attach the document to the specific transaction, the document is added as an attachment to the GL Register after the transaction is posted. If the system is configured to enforce the use of vouchers, the system will prevent the document, journal, or other type of posting if an attachment doesn’t exist. You can set up enforcement per transaction type. When there isn’t a space to upload a specific document—for example, a cost adjustment or an adjusted exchange rate, and this is still required by the law—the system can be configured to create a source document based on required transaction and upload it to the related GL register automatically.

After the document is uploaded, it can’t be deleted or modified as an attachment during the Retention Policy period. You can also set up the Max. Document Size to prevent uploading big documents and a Retention Policy to set the requirements for keeping attached documents.

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2

In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Inventory and Warehouse Management), how do I… Process Stock Using Bins

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Inventory and Warehouse Management), 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.

When you have a location configured for and with bins added, users must now use the bins whenever they transact against the location.

The configuration I’ve gone through so far with bins, has been basic inventory processing. While there is more advanced bin functionality available, which I will cover in future articles, with the basic bin setup done so far, processing against the bin is very straightforward.

In the example of a purchase order, and it is the same with most other transactions, the only difference to processing without bins, is that when you enter the lines, the user will need to select the bin into which the goods will be placed:

Purchase Order entry showing the Bin field

In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, how do I…

In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Inventory and Warehouse Management), how do I…

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2: Cancel Cloud Migration Replication Runs

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The planned features for this release wave have been updated and this feature appears to have been removed.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2.

The third of the new functionality in the Governance and Administration section is cancel Cloud Migration replication runs.

Administrators can cancel an ongoing replication run to make changes to the Cloud Migration setup without having to wait for a replication run to finish.

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

Feature Details

The first replication run for a Cloud Migration typically migrates the largest amount of data, and can take some time to complete. Whenever an administrator realizes a mistake was made in the setup of the Cloud Migration but the first replication run has already started, they’re forced to wait until the run completes before they can restart. By introducing the possibility to cancel ongoing replication runs, Microsoft are making it easier for administrators to correct their mistakes quickly and try again.

My Opinion

Sounds like an edge case, but potentially a useful one to minimise the time it takes to correct an issue.

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2: Improved Update Release Processes

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2.

The second of the new functionality in the Governance and Administration section is improved update release processes.

Improved update release processes ensure that updates run as close to the start of the update window as possible and that updates are made available globally more gradually.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Oct 2023

Feature Details

During 2023 release wave 2, Microsoft are improving their update release processes. Customers who don’t manually schedule their environment updates can expect updates to start quickly after the start of the environment update window.

To deploy updates more gradually to environments that don’t manually reschedule the update to a different date, update availability and default scheduling will vary per region.

My Opinion

I would encourage clients to keep an eye on release dates and schedule updates for when is going to be suitable for them rather than letting Microsoft control when updates happen. Clients need to get it installed in a sandbox and test everything first before rolling it into the production environment.

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2: Assign More Granular Administration Rights

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2.

The first of the new functionality in the Governance and Administration section is assign more granular administration rights.

Administrators’ access rights can be better controlled by assigning roles that exclude access to other Microsoft products and apply extra restrictions on Business Central environments.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Oct 2023

Feature Details

A new Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) role gives customers more granular control over their delegated administrators’ access rights. The Dynamics 365 Business Central Administrator role lets you manage all aspects of all Business Central environments but doesn’t grant access to other Dynamics 365 products. Customer administrators can now grant access to individual environments to users from specified partner tenants via the Business Central admin center. This feature better supports scenarios where multiple partners are supporting different environments for the same customer.

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2