Tag: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 2

This 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 Service and platform section is get Power BI reports for reporting and data analysis on finance, sales, and inventory.

End users can get Power BI reports for reporting and data analysis on the finance, sales, and inventory areas.

KPIs in Power BI reports can be consumed with Power BI metrics to track them over time.

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

Feature Details

In each of the functional areas of sales, finance, and inventory, Microsoft will do the following:

• Add (API) queries that can be analysed directly in the client.
• Build Power BI reports and package them into a Power BI app that is available on AppSource.
• Expose select queries as reports with Excel layouts.
• Document how KPIs can be shown and tracked in a Power BI metrics scorecard, which can be embedded in the client.

My Opinion

Power BI is increasingly popular with clients, so I’m sure this enhancement will be welcome.

This 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 Reporting and data analysis section is discover report and data analysis content easily.

End users can now discover report and data analysis content, including queries, reports, and Power BI pages, by using navigational search (Tell Me) or the new report explorer page. This feature minimizes the effort of finding report and data analysis content, making it more accessible and user-friendly.

Enabled for: Users by admins, makers, or analysts
Public Preview: Sep 2023
General Availability: Oct 2023

Feature Details

Business Central comes with many options for reporting, business intelligence (BI) dashboards, and data analysis. In this release, Microsoft aim to make this content much easier to discover for users through search and a new report explorer page.

My Opinion

It is quite difficult at times to find reports which may be relevant. Anything which makes this easier is welcome and I look forward to reviewing how this enhancement can benefit users.

This 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 Reporting and data analysis section is analyze, group, and pivot data on queries using multiple tabs.

End users and data analysts can analyse data from queries directly in the client without the need to open the page in Excel or run a report.

The ability to analyse data directly on queries raises the bar for what you can do without having to switch applications, while still allowing customers and partners to do more in report objects, Excel, Power BI, or other data analysis applications.

Enabled for: Users by admins, makers, or analysts
Public Preview: Sep 2023
General Availability: Oct 2023

Feature Details

Analysis mode was introduced as a public preview feature in 2023 release Wave 1 as a new way of interacting with data on list pages. Instead of running reports using different options and filters, you can simply add multiple tabs that represent different tasks or views on the data. Examples could be "My customers," "Follow-up items," "Recently added vendors," "Sales statistics," or any other view you want.

In this release, Microsoft take this concept even further:

• It’s possible to analyse data from any query the same way as on a list page.
• From any analysis tab, you can share a link to the tab with co-workers.
• Shared links can also be used as a click-once installation of good out-of-the-box analysis.

My Opinion

I’ve not seen the analysis mode introduced in 2023 Wave 1 yet, so I think I need to explore that in advance of this new feature becoming available.

This 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 Productive with Microsoft 365 section is enhancements to Excel add-in.

Bulk editing, co-authoring, and analysing data in Excel are common tasks for many back-office users. Microsoft say their research shows that workers often rely on Excel for mission-critical activities and therefore expect a high degree of reliability as they edit in Excel, refresh data, and push changes back to Business Central. In this wave, Microsoft address feedback about the reliability of the add-in in specific use cases.

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

Feature Details

This release wave includes the following enhancements to the Business Central add-in for Excel:

• Dimensions are included on more pages when using the Edit in Excel feature.
• Increased accuracy of filters when they’re transferred from Business Central to Excel.
• Improved reliability and performance of data refresh and publish through the latest OData V4 technology.
• The add-in now supports on-premises deployments that have a dedicated server instance specifically for OData feeds.

My Opinion

Making dimensions available in more pages sounds like a good addition, as everyone I’ve worked with using Business Central uses dimensions. Improved reliability and accuracy also sounds like a really good thing.

This 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 Onboarding section is set initial role before first sign-in for a better first-run experience.

Trial and onboarding experiences that are based on the sign-up context can pivot using prospect profiles to set the initial role for users when they sign up.

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

Feature Details

By default, everyone who signs up for a trial version starts with the Business Manager (Evaluation) role center when they sign in for the first time. Now, partners can specify the role that’s the best match for the user, which provides a better first-run experience. This mechanism also provides a better way to set user roles through code.

My Opinion

This could be quite useful as Business Manager isn’t always the appropriate role for users to be using when using a free trial, although I’d like to see some details to understand fulLy how it works.

This 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.

This 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).

This 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.

This 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.

This 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.