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 3rd of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is complete bank account reconciliation faster with Copilot.

Bookkeepers in SMB organizations need to import bank statements and reconcile transactions with their bank ledger entries, making sure all transactions are accounted for. While Business Central already reduces effort through rule-based transaction matching, the residual work to process the unmatched transactions every week remains cumbersome and quickly accrues to lost workdays. Copilot reduces bookkeeping effort by matching more transactions and suggesting G/L accounts to post the remaining transactions.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview:  Nov 9, 2023
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

The bank account reconciliation feature in Business Central has been enhanced with:

• AI-powered transaction matching that complements rule-based matching and further reduces the remaining unmatched transactions that require review.
• AI-powered G/L account suggestions where Copilot suggests the most likely ledger account to post any residual transactions to and offers the opportunity to remember a specific transaction description for the next reconciliation.
• Built-in demo data for evaluation companies that makes it easier to experience and demonstrate this Copilot capability to others. Demo data is available in English with 23.1 and other languages with 23.2.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Complete Bank Account Reconciliation Faster 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 2nd of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is chat with Copilot and learn to use installed add-on apps.

2024 release wave 2 introduced chat: a conversational experience where people can get assistance from Microsoft Copilot to find data, get unblocked, or learn new skills. Most of Microsoft’s customers install one or more ISV add-on apps from Microsoft AppSource to enhance Business Central with industry-specific solutions, localized functionality, or other critical capabilities that meet their needs. Now, Copilot in Business Central is able to explain and guide workers through using functionality of these add-ons, transforming Copilot from a simple “librarian” to an in-house expert that understands your unique Business Central.

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

Feature Details

Copilot’s chat capabilities have been enhanced with the following:

• Users can ask questions about content from installed add-ons, such as new pages, fields, and business processes.
• Copilot explains and guides based on documentation provided by the apps installed to your Business Central environment.

About security, privacy and AI

Copilot is built on Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to enterprise security, privacy, compliance, and responsible AI. Microsoft’s philosophy is that your data is your data: customer data in Business Central is not used to train AI models.
For more information, go to FAQ for Copilot data security and privacy for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform

Looking for more details?

• Read the preview announcement for Chat with Copilot
• Learn about Chat with Copilot
• AI FAQ for 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 1st of the new functionality in the Copilot and AI innovation section is suggest number series with Copilot.

Getting started fast on new implementation and recurring maintenance of certain aspects of Business Central setup saves companies time and money. Copilot can reduce the time it takes to set up initial number series and make their maintenance quick and painless. For example, when updating year or month based numbering many draft and posted documents in Business Central.

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

Feature Details

You can use Copilot for faster creation and updates of number series on the No. Series page. The Generate action opens the Generate No. Series with Copilot dialog, where you can enter a prompt to create new, or modify existing, number series.

Number series setup creation

To help you write the prompt, the Create new action in the Generate No. Series with Copilot dialog provides sets of prompt guides that you can use as inspiration.

When you chooseGenerate, Copilot creates proposals for one or more number series, and you can review the proposals in No. Series Proposals view. You can remove the proposals that Copilot generated that you don’t like, and edit the ones you do. When you’re ready, you can choose Keep it to add or update a proposal. In addition, Copilot updates various setup pages with the number series you decided to keep.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Suggest Number Series 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 Application section is import, export product info using Shopify Metafields.

Metafields are a flexible way to add and store additional information about a Shopify resource, such as a product or variant. You can synchronize and manage metafield data from Business Central either using the UI or using the extensibility model to map fields, attributes, or related entries in Business Central to metafields in Shopify.

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

Feature Details

Shopify’s platform includes data models for fundamental commerce concepts out of the box. However, commerce is diverse and often requires more complex or specific data models. The custom data platform enables you to extend Shopify’s data models and create your own by using metafields. Metafields are a flexible way to add and store additional information about a Shopify resource, such as a product or variant. The additional information stored in metafields can be almost anything related to a resource. Some examples are specifications, size charts, downloadable documents, release dates, images, or part numbers.

Microsoft are adding the ability to import and export data stored in metafields into Business Central. Also, Microsoft are providing an extensibility model that allows developers to map standard or custom fields, attributes, or other related entries in Business Central to metafields in Shopify.

You can see and edit metafields using the Shopify Metafields page, which you open from the Shopify Products and Shopify Variants 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 11th of the new functionality in the Application section is add invoice and receipt documents to e-documents in bulk.

The e-documents framework in Business Central is the cornerstone for exchanging electronic documents and the import and export of data that supports operations and finances. In this release wave, it’s easier for people in accounts payable to import invoices and receipt documents so they can work with them. This speeds up total processing time and ensures a single point of entry for overhead invoices or other documents that use the e-documents framework.

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

Feature Details

Today, you can import e-documents manually, and only one at a time. In this release, Microsoft have extended the e-documents framework to handle the import of multiple files, and importing them from a SharePoint folder. These capabilities drastically decrease the time it takes to import e-documents.

This feature is part of an enrichment of accounts payable scenarios for core bookkeeping. Microsoft are streamlining the processes for bookkeepers and accountants end-to-end, so they can be faster and more precise

My Opinion

It would seem good that Microsoft are extending the e-documents functionality and allowing bulk updates, but it would be nice to have an option for OneDrive for Business rather than just SharePoint.

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 10th of the new functionality in the Application section is capture data from e-docs with Azure AI Document Intelligence.

The e-documents framework in Business Central is the cornerstone for the exchange of electronic documents, and the import and export of data that supports operations and finances. When working with vendor invoices and receipts through e-documents, accounts payable departments can streamline their OCR and document capture with native Azure AI Document Intelligence support in Business Central. They can capture data at the invoice line level, so received invoices and receipts are ready for further processing.

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

Feature Details

In this release, Microsoft are extending the e-documents framework to seamlessly handle and process imported e-documents. For some types of documents, such as PDFs and images, an OCR service must capture the data. In this release, there’s a new modern OCR service in Business Central that uses state-of-the-art technology to process invoices and receipts. This service is powered by a native integration into Azure AI Document Intelligence, which specializes in recognizing invoices and receipts (among other things).

E-documents is the key framework for working with incoming and outgoing documents and data exchange in Business Central. Going forward, Microsoft will enrich e-documents with features to help streamline document transport, processing, and sending/receipt, so document exchange can work smoothly. With the new Azure AI Document Intelligence processing in e-documents, the accounts payable department is empowered to process documents for the channel through which they prefer to receive e-documents

My Opinion

This sounds like Microsoft are extending the e-documents functionality to compete more with the Contina Document Capture extension which is widely used with Business Central. I need to do some testing to see how good a job this does.

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 9th of the new functionality in the Application section is use directed put-away and pick warehouses with projects.

Businesses can use warehouse activities with projects to help drive an effective flow through the warehouse, and to organize and maintain inventory.

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

Feature Details

As a continuation to Microsoft’s multi-release effort to ensure that project management features benefit from the rich warehouse capabilities in Business Central, you can now use locations configured for directed flows with projects.

Business picking items before they’re consumed in different ways. The process depends on how their warehouse is configured. When you want to specify either a default Location Code on the Project and Project Task Lines Subform pages, or enter a Location Code on Project Planning Lines, you can now also use locations where the Directed Put-Away and Pick toggle is turned on.

Now, to create or register a pick document, you can use the Create warehouse pick action under the following conditions:

• The Status of the project is Open.
• The Line Type of the project planning line is Budget or Both Budget and Billable.
• The Type of the project planning line is Item.
• The Project Consump. Whse. Handling is Warehouse Pick (mandatory) , which is now available when Directed Pick and Put-away is selected.

You can also create warehouse picks using a pick worksheet. The pick worksheet lets you organize pick information before you create warehouse pick instructions. You’ll need to fill in the a To-Project Bin Code field on the Location Card page.

My Opinion

it sounds like this enhancement brings project in line with the standard Business Central functionality which should simplify processes for people using project. My experience with projects was for a former employer who had heavily customised the project module; I really need to spend a bit of time and familiarise myself with the standard functionality.

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 8th of the new functionality in the Application section is reconcile payment transactions in Shopify with invoices.

Integrating Business Central and Shopify lets you easily manage your online sales and payments in one place. You can track the different payment methods, such as gift cards, credit cards, and more, that buyers used during checkout, and create customer ledger and general ledger entries to ensure accurate accounting and reporting.

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

Feature Details

When a customer completes their checkout in the online store, the information about their payment is saved as a Transaction. There might be multiple transactions linked to the order, such as when a customer uses a gift card to pay some of the cost and then uses a credit card or PayPal for the remaining amount. The payment transactions in Shopify synchronize with the orders and you can view them on the Shopify Orders page.

There are several options for processing imported payment transactions in Business Central. This release offers an extra option that’s helpful in cases where several payments methods are involved. The gift card scenario is probably the most common.

Example scenario

The scenario involves the following parties:

• The buyer, who is the person who buys goods from your Shopify online store.
• The merchant, which is your company.
• The payment provider, which is the company that facilitates payment processing for you. The provider can be Shopify Payments or a third party.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Reconcile Payment Transactions in Shopify with 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 7th of the new functionality in the Application section is replenish items for projects.

Business Central makes it fast and easy to ensure that you have the items you need to kick off a new project or keep one running smoothly. On the Project Card page, you can create purchase orders for the items by choosing the Create Purchase Order action. Afterward, you can review and edit the orders before you send them to your vendors.

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

Feature Details

The process of creating purchase orders from projects is similar to the functionality you might already be familiar with from the sales area. The process lets you create purchase orders right from a project. It shares the same algorithm as Order Planning worksheet, which means it doesn’t require elaborated setup to produce recommendations, but it’s intelligent enough to analyze demand and supply for required items.

To create one or more purchase orders from a project

To create a purchase order for the quantity of each item the project is missing, use the Create Purchase Orders action.

1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Projects, and then choose the related link.
2. Open a project that you want to purchase items for.
3. Choose the Create Purchase Orders action.
4. The Create Purchase Orders page opens and shows a line for each item on the project. Lines for both fully available quantities and unavailable quantities show by default. Unavailable quantities aren’t available. To show only unavailable quantities, choose the Show Unavailable action.
5. The Quantity to Purchase field contains the unavailable quantity. To purchase a different quantity, edit the value in the field. You can also turn on the Reserve toggle if you want to reserve the quantity on the purchase line against demand.

6. Choose OK.

This process creates a purchase order for each vendor from which you purchase the items on the project, including any quantity changes that you made on the Create Purchase Orders page. You can continue to process the purchase order or orders, for example, by editing or adding purchase order lines.

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 6th of the new functionality in the Application section is export posted sales invoices to Shopify.

Buyers can sign in to Shopify and access all their invoices, regardless of whether the invoices were created in Shopify or in Business Central.

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

Feature Details

You can export posted sales invoices to Shopify as orders by using a new report (batch job). The report is available on the Shopify Shop Card page, or you can use Tell Me search to find it. You can also run the report by using the job queue.

To enable the capability for specific shop, go to the Shopify Shop Card page and turn on the ** Posted Invoice Sync** toggle.

The sync includes invoices under the following conditions:

• The Shopify Order ID field contains 0.
• The bill-to customer has a mapping in the Shopify Customers or Shopify Companies tables.
• The bill-to customer isn’t used as the Default Customer on the Shopify Shop Card or Shopify Customer Template.
• The posted invoice has at least one non-comment line where the No. field has a value.

When you run the report, the following happens in Business Central and Shopify.

Business Central

Update the Shopify Order ID field based on results of sync:

• Successful export – update Shopify Order Id field with ID of order in Shopify.
• Export failed – set “-1”
• Invoice is excluded from sync for a reason listed in the conditions mentioned earlier – set “-2”

The same pattern is used in the Posted Sales Shipment, where the Update Document page lets you replace “-1” and “-2” or “0” to retry the export.

Shopify

The connector uses GraphQL to first create a draft order with header and item lines, and then complete the draft order and convert it to an order.

Headers and lines

The following fields are exported on the order header:

• The mapped bill-to customer/company is used.
• The Fulfilment Status field shows Fulfilled. Tracking Details don’t synchronize.
• The Paid Status field shows Paid or Partially Paid, based on the customer ledger entry linked to the sales invoice. For partially paid, it shows the Remaining Amount field.

The following fields are exported on the order lines:

• Items (item variants) that are mapped export as products.
• Items that aren’t mapped and lines of other types, such as G/L Account or Item Charge lines, export as custom products in Shopify.
• Shipping charges in Shopify aren’t created. The shipping cost is registered as a custom product in Shopify.
• The new setting on the Shopify Shop Card page lets you avoid exporting invoices with non-mapped items. Turn on the Items must be mapped to Products toggle to exclude posted invoices from sync if there’s at least one line of type Item where the selected item isn’t mapped to a product or variant in Shopify.
• Tax amounts. Because the Graph API doesn’t currently support the TaxLine object, the calculated tax is added as a custom product. Tax information from Business Central won’t be available in the tax report in Shopify Admin. To avoid Shopify recalculating taxes, orders are marked as Tax Exempt.
• Quantity, in whole numbers. Shopify doesn’t support fractions.

Impact on the process of synchronizing orders

Synchronization imports the order and checks whether it was exported earlier. If it was exported earlier:

• It marks the order as processed.
• It adds a link to the posted sales invoice (related documents, should happen automatically because the Shopify Order ID is already populated). Shopify might automatically archive Fully Paid and Fulfilled orders, and the synchronization won’t process them.

Deal with updates

In Shopify, because the order is already fulfilled, the only meaningful changes are Notes, Payment Status, and payment transactions. If payments are processed in Shopify, refunds and returns are as well.

In Business Central, changes aren’t tracked. Currently, if you want to mark order as paid, use the Mark as Paid action on the Shopify Order Card page.