Category: Dynamics

This 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.

While I was writing the articles on consignment stock being held by the customer in their warehouse or in your own warehouse, I have dealt with several clients who hold stock on vans.

One example, I worked with a housing association who had operatives driving vans going to do housing maintenance with stock in the van to use for the jobs.

If I was doing this in Business central, I would, as with consignment in the customers own warehouse, create a new location identified as a van; I’ve seen a few variations of location names, from van registration places, operative names and initials, but the one that seems to work best is simply issuing each van with a numeric or colour identifier. The problem with using something like a name or registration plate, is that people leave and vans get replaced. An identifier based on the operative is particularly tricky; what if he changes vans, even if only for one day while his usual van is replaced.

Separate locations can be defined with an Inventory Posting Group and related Inventory Posting Setup which allow you to account for van stock in a different G/L account than the warehouse, if you so choose.

In addition, I’d suggest configuring these van locations with only basic inventory and no warehouse configuration (they’re too small to require anything other than the basics).

Stock would be transferred to the vans using the Item Reclassification Journal; this would be done for general stock on the van as well as items for specific jobs (such as a sink or boiler).

Consumption would depend on the way in which the stock had been consumed:

• Used for work to the customers benefit – a sales order line could be raised for the quantity of stock used. For example, fitting a new sink.
• Consumed for a non-rechargeable repair (like some repairs by a housing association) where the customer is not responsible for the cost of the good, or where the items used are classed as an incidental (such as some sand for cement) which might be subsumed into the cost of the overall work; this stock could be removed from the van by way of a negative adjustment on an Item Journal.

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 Application section is Use deferral codes in purchase and sales journals.

Entering sales and purchase journals is sometimes associated with data entry for transactions that require deferrals. The process of entering data is smoother because you can specify a deferral code on sales and purchase journals, without having to create a general journal.

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

Feature Details

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. To learn more about deferrals, go to Defer Revenue and Expenses.

Note that sales and purchase journals validate the source code. The validation requires that the source code for sales and sales journals, and purchase and purchase journals respectively, aren’t identical when you’re using deferrals. If it’s set up to be identical, you can work around this limitation by creating a template and batch that uses another source code.

My Opinion

I’ve not had a need to delve too much into deferrals yet, but it is surprising that you couldn’t already use deferral codes on sales and purchase journals. It’s good to know that the functionality is coming.

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 2nd of the new functionality in the Application section is usability improves for service and projects.

Productivity increases when processes are easy, so Microsoft have improved the usability of several areas within project and service management. For example, you can save a step by automatically releasing source documents, and in several places data is easier to access and digest.

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

Feature Details

Based on feedback from their customers, Microsoft have made it easier to complete several business processes in service management and accounting.

The PowerBI and Project Details FactBoxes are available on the Project List page, so you can access project details from the list. The Power BI content that’s currently available isn’t changed.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Usability Improves for Service and Projects”

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 Application section is archive projects.

Projects often change and evolve during their lifecycle. The archiving capability gives you control over your project data through audit trails and version control.

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

Feature Details

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’re in full control of archiving. The following table describes the options you can choose when you set up automatic archiving on the Project Setup page.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Archive Projects”

This 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 the previous article of this series, I discussed a process we helped a client setup for the process of consignment stock, whereby our client had a customer who held stock in their own warehouse, but only purchased it when they sold it on to their own customers.

That’s actually fairly straightforward to do using additional sites and a simple basic warehouse configuration. what about if the consignment stock was still held at the customers warehouse where they still had responsibility for managing the stock, including receiving, put-away, pick and shipment?

Well, the process will vary somewhat depending on the requirements of the consignment location.

In most cases, the consignment location is likely to be a section of the warehouse; if large enough, bins could be required to allow for efficient management of goods.

I would still recommend creating this section of the warehouse as a separate location within Business Central, as it gives you control over the financial aspects of the inventory as well as the physical, which simply using bins would not accomplish.

When ordering goods, which you know to be to refill the consignment location, the consignment location could be selected on the purchase order, thereby receiving goods directly to it. If goods are being generally ordered and need moving to the consignment location after receipt, then an Item Reclassification Journal can be used to move goods to the consignment location.

If the consignment location was particularly large, you might enable advanced warehouse functionality on the location such as receipts, put-aways, picks, shipments or any combination thereof to best manage the warehouse processes.

Sales orders would be raised against the consignment location as discussed in the previous article.

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 18th of the new functionality in the Application section is manage work orders in Field Service, invoice them in Business Central.

This integration is particularly valuable for organizations that provide professional services. It offers a seamless and integrated solution for managing service tasks, consumption, and financial transactions, which benefits service technicians, service managers, and finance teams. It’s a powerful solution for managing work orders and consumption in Field Service and efficiently invoicing and fulfilling them in Business Central. This integration adds value to organizations by streamlining service operations, improving financial management, and enhancing overall operational efficiency.

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

Feature Details

Microsoft are excited to announce the integration with Field Service. You can manage work orders and consumption in Field Service, and efficiently invoice and fulfill them in Business Central. This integration streamlines the end-to-end process of managing service operations and ensures a seamless flow of information between the two systems.

You can easily create and manage work orders in Field Service, track the progress of service tasks, assign resources, and capture consumption details. When the service tasks are complete, the integration enables the smooth transfer of data to Business Central for further processing.

The integration also facilitates the invoicing and fulfillment of work orders in Business Central. You can generate accurate invoices based on the service activities performed and the consumption recorded in Field Service. This ensures timely and accurate billing, which improves financial management and customer satisfaction.

By integrating Business Central with Field Service, you benefit from a unified and efficient workflow. The integration eliminates the need for manual data entry or duplication, which reduces errors and saves valuable time. It also provides a comprehensive view of service operations and financials, which improves decision-making and operational efficiency.

My Opinion

Interesting to see that Microsoft are integrating Field Service with Business Central; I’ve always been a little puzzled by the lack of native integrations between Business Central and other products from Microsoft. It’s good to see this type of integration introduced, as it can simplify life for both users and partners.

This 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.

This was a question which came up recently from a client for a new project. They have some larger customers who hold stock in their own warehouse, under a system referred to as consignment stock, but which they have not yet purchased; it will only be purchased then this customer sold the goods to their own customers and the questions was how to manage this consignment system within Business Central.

The cleanest was to create a new location in Business Central, using the customer name as the Location Name and to use the Inventory Transfer functionality to transfer stock from a company warehouse to the consignment warehouse.

When the customer sent confirmation that some of the goods had been consumed, a sales order was raised for the consignment location, thereby reducing the stock on hand.

This consignment warehouse was setup with no specific warehouse functionality setup for receipts, put-aways, picks or shipments, so processing of transfer receipts and shipments were done from the relevant document pages.

The benefits of doing it this way, was that by using a location named after the customer, an Inventory Posting Group with related Inventory Posting Setup were created which allowed different G/L accounts and therefore reporting to be used, while the ownership of the stock remained with the company rather than the customer.

This post is part of a series on the new functionality available in Wave 1 of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024. There are two release waves for Business Central each year, with functionality being released over the six months of the wave.

In this series of posts, I am going to take a look at what is new with Business Central in this release wave. My understanding is the announced new functionality will become available in the six months of the wave, so not all of it will be available immediately. When posting about some new functionality, I’ll try to indicate where something will be available in October or later. Microsoft do reserve the right to withdraw announced functionality before release; when this happens, I’ll try to publish an article on the removed functionality and update the original article I published.

This series index, below (assuming you’re reading this on azurecurve | Ramblings of an IT Professional), will automatically update as each post in the series goes live, so make sure you bookmark this post so you can keep up-to-date with this series.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Series Index”