Tag: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1

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 5th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is get to insights faster with Copilot-generated analysis tabs.

Copilot is the AI-powered assistant for work that boosts creativity and improves productivity for Business Central users.

Copilot can help reduce the time it takes to identify trends and anomalies in your business data by enabling you to express your analysis as a simple sentence, and without ever leaving Business Central.

By describing how you want to structure your data analysis, such as “show me vendors by location sorted by amount of purchases,” you can quickly get to insights instead of spending time on the clicks and keystrokes needed to construct analysis views. This feature can help you make informed decisions and take action based on the insights you gain from your data. For example, you can use this feature to identify which vendors are supplying each of your warehouses, and then take steps to optimize your supply chain or negotiate better deals with your vendors.

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

Feature Details

There are several ways that Copilot can speed up your analyses:

• Create: Starting from any list in Business Central, put Copilot to work by providing keywords or a description, indicating the columns, groups, pivots, filters or sorting that you want to use to present fields from the table. Copilot uses AI to understand your desired layout, and helps you refine and build upon the generated analysis when you provide more keywords. Copilot also suggests a name for your new analysis tab.
• Update: Quickly adjust an existing analysis tab by expressing your desired changes in natural language.
• Explain: Copilot summarizes the information presented in the analysis tab as a concise sentence—a useful reminder or quick overview whenever your coworkers share analyses with you.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Get to Insights Faster with Copilot-Generated Analysis Tabs”

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 4th of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is extend Copilot using richer development tools.

Developer tools for Copilot in Business Central empower partners to bring generative AI experiences to their extensions.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Apr 2024

Feature Details

The developer tools for Copilot in Business Central include signature UI elements, an AI module for connecting to Azure OpenAI Service with your own service key, guides, sample, and telemetry. For more information about the toolkit, see Easily integrate generative AI with your AL solutions.

With 2024 release wave 1, developers can take advantage of the following opportunities in their extensions:

Enhancements to the prompt dialog

• New Copilot-branded action icons are contextually displayed to draw attention to your Copilot capabilities and launch your prompt dialogs.
• Placeholder text displayed within multiline input text fields can be used to provide concise prompt instructions and help users get started.
• Add one or more prompt guides that act as prompt templates to help users understand the breadth of prompts that your prompt dialog accepts.
• Turn the prompt dialog into a drop target, so that users can easily drag and drop files as part of prompt input.

Enhancements to AI module

• Support for calling AI functions and defining function hierarchies.
• When registering your AI capabilities, provide information about supported languages for customer administrators to easily identify.
• More accurate token counts when AI-powered features use Azure Open AI GPT models.

Coming later during the wave

• The ability for users to refine generative output by prompting directly on the prompt dialog content output screen.

Get started with developer tools

• Overview for developers
• AI transparency note

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 Copilot and AI innovation section is create sales lines easily with Copilot.

The introduction of Copilot in Business Central adds a significant enhancement to the sales document processes. It expedites the creation of sales documents and minimizes time spent on repetitive tasks and lookups. With its ability to accept various input methods, including free text, files, or prebuilt prompts, Copilot understands the input and can use it to create sales lines. This Copilot assistance drives operational efficiency in creating and managing sales documents and contributes to potential revenue growth by getting sales documents into the hands of the customers faster. Copilot is the AI-powered assistant for work that boosts creativity and improves productivity for Business Central users.

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

Feature Details

In this Business Central release, Copilot can suggest and assist with creating sales lines on sales documents like Sales Quote, Sales Order, and Sales Invoice based on structured input or natural language. This drastically relieves the user of manual input and drives operational efficiency.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Create Sales Lines Easily with Copilot”

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 Copilot and AI innovation section is map e-documents to purchase order lines with Copilot.

As procurement processes become more digital, the e-documents feature in Business Central plays a key role in automating the vendor invoice reception and processing. Copilot can assist in this process by improving the mapping and matching of vendor invoices to purchase orders. This reduces time-consuming tasks that would normally include extensive search, lookup, and data entry. The benefit is compounded by the fact that vendor invoices often don’t relate exactly with purchase orders, in which case Copilot is better positioned to identify the corresponding purchase orders. Enhanced matching capabilities particularly benefit small and midsized organizations that need efficient document tracking for purchase order lines. Copilot is the AI-powered assistant for work that boosts creativity and improves productivity for Business Central users.

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

Feature Details

In the initial release of the e-document app, Microsoft introduced fundamental scenarios for e-documents for the entire sales process. However, there’s a need for enhancements and automation in handling the received documents, especially in the context of purchase processes. Copilot refines how you manage e-documents in the purchase process, particularly with respect to purchase orders. The e-documents framework lets you specify the type of purchase document to create for each vendor when you receive e-invoices from them. Previously, the only option was to create a purchase invoice, either as a document or a general ledger journal.

You can now update an existing purchase order in Business Central with the information received in the e-invoice.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Map e-Documents to Purchase Order Lines with Copilot”

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 17th of the new functionality in the Application section is use currencies when posting employee transactions.

You can use general journals for employee accounts to register employee expenses and reimbursement transactions in foreign currencies, and then easily track the amounts and compare them to receipts. Leave your calculator in your desk drawer—Business Central can adjust the exchange rate for you.

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

Feature Details

When you use general journals to post transactions for employee accounts, such as when you reimburse expenses, you can use the Currency Code field to specify the currency for the transactions. Specifying a currency lets you use the same features as when you register transactions in the customer and vendor ledgers. For example, employees can register an expense in euros but get paid in dollars.

To ensure that the exchange rate for the amounts is up to date, you can adjust employee balances when you run the currency exchange rate batch job. If you want to use the exchange rate table, but settle employee balances in your local currency, you can exclude employee accounts when you adjust exchange rates.

My Opinion

Again this is one of the enhancements which strikes me as unusual that it isn’t already available, as it isn’t unusual for me to deal with clients who have people in several countries. Perhaps this is more of a European thing, but at least 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 16th of the new functionality in the Application section is Use standard terminology for project management.

Microsoft are making it easier to work with project accounting by updating the terminology Microsoft use for its features in the product and documentation. Specifically, Microsoft are renaming things that were called “jobs” to “projects.” The goal is to improve the user experience, the clarity of the documentation, and the consistency of the terminology across the application.

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

Feature Details

For a long time now, Microsoft have referred to project accounting features as “jobs,” which has caused confusion in their community because that’s not the term that people who work with project accounting expect. Microsoft are happy to announce that they’re addressing this legacy problem. To clarify the true nature and purpose of the project accounting features for various types of businesses, Microsoft are replacing the term “job” with “project” in the user interface and documentation.

For example, entities such as job tasks, job journals, and job planning lines are now project tasks, project journals, and project planning lines. The renaming won’t break existing integrations and customizations because Microsoft are only updating the captions in the user interface and the terms in their documentation. Microsoft aren’t touching the names of the underlying table and field objects.

My Opinion

It might be a small change, but I do like that jobs are being renamed to project, as this is a term much more widely used by clients. Microsoft do note that the change is only a surface change and the underlying objects will retain their name of Jobs so as to not break existing integrations or reports.

This is a good idea in general, but I do worry that future additions end up being called projects rather than jobs, thereby complicating the naming convention behind the scenes.

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 15th of the new functionality in the Application section is use new Excel layouts for 35 selected reports.

Running reports to analyze and present business information is a frequent task in any business. Now you can use the Excel report layouts to interactively generate analyses and present learnings

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

Feature Details

Microsoft have added 35 Excel reports with new report layouts for finance, sales (customers), and purchases (vendors). To give you more options in creating your own Excel layouts for the report, you also get data from the report request pages and data for translations of a layout. If the data in the reports comes from multiple tables, the report layouts show the data in multiple worksheets, which makes it easy to understand where the data originated.

The reports are flexible, and you can use them in the way that best fits your needs:

• Use the reports as-is to get insight about your business.
• Use pivot tables to slice and dice data for analysis.
• Use them as a template to create your own Excel layouts for the same data.

Over the course of 2024 release wave 1 Microsoft expect to add more layouts to cover areas like Fixed Assets, Inventory Jobs (Projects), and Service Management. You’ll find examples, typical use cases, and a description of the data for each report in their documentation.

My Opinion

Since starting to work with Business Central, I have to admit that I’ve not been very impressed with the quality, or in fact the number, of reports available in the system. This feature may improve things a little, but the reporting standard in Business Central remains quite poor.

I understand more now why third-party products like Jet Reports are popular with Business Central.

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 14th of the new functionality in the Application section is invoice a customer for multiple projects.

Simplify your invoicing process by sending one invoice for multiple projects, which reduces manual effort and improves accuracy.

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

Feature Details

Add project planning lines from multiple projects to a sales invoice in one go. This process is similar to creating a sales invoice from a project planning line and entering a value in the Append to Sales Invoice No. field.

Here’s an overview of the process.

1. Create a new sales invoice, and fill in the Sell-to Customer No. field. If needed, also fill in the Bill-to Customer No. and Currency Code fields.
2. On the Lines FastTab, choose the Get Project Planning Lines action. The Get Project Planning Lines page shows billable project planning lines from projects for the sell-to customer, bill-to customer, and invoicing currency where the quantity to invoice is more than zero.
3. Choose the lines you want to add to the invoice, and then choose OK.

You can repeat these steps to add another set of project planning lines. You can also delete the invoice or its lines and start over.

There are these noteworthy limitations:

• The Get Project Planning Lines action isn’t available on sales orders or sales quotes.
• You can’t filter on the Ship-to Code or Contact No. fields.

My Opinion

This sounds like it could be a decent time saver, allowing for the production of consolidated invoices for a project.

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 13th of the new functionality in the Application section is assemble to project.

Assemble to project helps you improve inventory management by assembling to order only when it’s required, and enable other ways to customize projects.

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

Feature Details

When you enter an assemble-to-order item on a project planning line, an assembly order is automatically created. The assembly order is based on the project planning line, and its lines are based on the item’s assembly BOM. The quantity of components on the assembly BOM is multiplied by the order quantity.

The Assemble-to-Order Lines page shows details about the linked assembly order lines. The details can help you customize the assembly item. As in sales, you can’t directly post linked assembly orders. The created assembly order is reserved for the project, and Business Central synchronizes item tracking between project planning lines and assembly orders. The feature integrates with warehouse management features to make assembly and shipping easier, and ensure that the workflow from project assembly to delivery runs smoothly.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1: Assemble to Project”