Microsoft have released a preview of some of the functionality slated for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.
The functionality has been broken down into four areas:
Continue reading “Preview of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 Investment Areas”
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 User experiences section is Access worksheet pages from mobile phones.
Expanding access to more Business Central areas from a mobile device is essential these days as more users are choosing this way of working. Until now, you couldn’t open worksheet pages from your phone. Now you can, making it more convenient to work with Business Central from anywhere using the device of your choice.
Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Apr 2024
General Availability: Apr 2024
With this feature, we’ve enabled special, simplified access to pages of the type ‘worksheet’ from mobile phones. Previously, this page type was only available on the Business Central mobile app from tablets or desktops.
Using a method similar to document pages, worksheet pages are rendered in a simplified version that includes a shortened header section, all worksheet lines, and a footer summary section.
To edit data, simply tap the desired area, make changes, and confirm using the Save or Back button. This feature allows even complex worksheet pages to be easily operated on mobile phones.
This feature requires Business Central version 24.0 or later and applies to Android phones and iPhones.
I am not a huge fan of using a mobile phone for anything complex as I think that the screen is far too small to work effectively. However, I also know many other people who will happily do quite involved things on their phone, and this enhancement looks to be for that type of person; it is good to see that more and more of Business Central is becoming widely available on devices of all sizes.
I was doing some work with a client a while ago and encountered a problem with Excel where it was showing me the formula in a call, rather than the result of the formula. I have no idea if the spreadsheet was sent to me with the formulas set this way (I’m not sure if this is possible) or if I inadvertently hit the keyboard combination to enable the setting at some point (Alt + M and then Alt + H).
It took me longer than it should have done to revert Excel back, so I am posting this as a reminder should it happen again.
To switch this setting off, select the Formulas tab on the action pane and, under Formula Auditing, click Show Formulas, which will toggle the setting off (or on if it is currently off):
While working with a client recently to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, they reported an error to me during UAT when trying to test the sales process. They’d raised and shipped a sales order and were now trying to use the Get Shipment Lines function on the Sales Invoice page, but when selecting the shipment lines they were receiving this error:
VAT Bus. Posting Group must be equal to '' in Sales Shipment Line: Document No.=100022. Current value is 'UK'.
I did a little investigation with them and discovered that the error was for a single customer; shipment lines for other customers could be selected without problem.
It turned out the root cause was that the customer did not have a VAT Bus. Posting Group selected on the customer card; this field would default to the sales order header and then pull through to the order lines as they are added. Because it was missing, the user had manually added the VAT details to the order lines, but not the header. When the sales invoice was raised, the VAT Bus. Posting Group did not default to the header, so when the shipment lines were selected there was a mismatch resulting in the error message.
Once the VAT was added to the header (and the customer card so it would default in future), the sales shipment lines could successfully be added to the invoice.
I had advised the customer that customer templates should be used to default in the required fields on customers as they are created, but they had not done this. A customer template created for each geography (UK, EU, ROW) would have allowed the VAT Bus. Posting Group, and other posting groups and fields like payment terms, to default when the customer was created.
I helped a client implement the Fixed Asset Management module in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central recently; during training I showed them how to configure and use the module and also created configuration packages for them to import both the fixed asset itself as well as the acquisition and depreciation to date.
After importing the assets into Business Central with a net book value up to the last day of the previous month, they tried to run depreciation for the assets, but encountered a problem where no depreciation was calculated:
The depreciation has been calculated
No journal lines were created.
They keyed a new asset onto the system and tried depreciation and that asset did depreciate so there was obviously no general problem with the setup of the module, depreciation book or assets.
Looking at the data in the table, there was no obvious difference between them; there were a few fields different such as dates, values and similar in the Fixed Asset (5600) and FA Depreciation Book (5612) tables, but nothing which would impact the depreciation. It actually took a colleague to spot the difference, as I was reading the field as being the net book value (which is actually in the Book Value field, but was in fact the Ending Book Value field, which is used to set a residual amount for depreciation, below which the asset won’t depreciate.
When the client populated the configuration package, they had not remembered my mentioning this field during training, and for what it was intended, and entered the same value in both the Book Value and Ending Book Value fields, so Business Central was treating the assets as depreciated as far as they should depreciate. A quick configuration package update to the Ending book Value and the assets were able to be depreciated as required.
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.
Business Central allows pictures to be attached to each item on the Item card page, but doing it individually through this page will be a very slow process, even for quite small systems. Fortunately, there is a function which allows the bulk import of pictures for items.
To use the import, all you need is a zip file containing the items, where the name of the file is the Item Number and the file is an image file such as bmp, jpg or png (the help files aren’t especially helpful as to acceptable types, but I have seen these three used). I would recommend that the images imported not be too large; use a reasonable resolution image and be run them through a minifier to use the best encoding.
When you have your import ready, open the Inventory Setup page and select the General » Import Item Pictures action:
I’ve been doing some work with a client recently to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. We created a number of different configuration packages to import data into different areas of Business Central which were used without issue.
However, when we came to import the fixed assets, we received an error during import:
The package code in all sheets of the Excel file must match the selected package code, GL-FIXED-ASSETS. Modify the package code in the Excel file or import this file from the Configuration Packages page to create a new package.
While implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central for a client, they reported an issue during UAT where they couldn’t set the No. for new items as the field was missing from the Item Card (30) page.
My initial thought was that the user had inadvertently removed the field from the page using personalise, but they had asked other users to try and they had the same issue. The other potential cause, was a profile personalization which had removed the field for all users, but this was also not the case, as the field wasn’t available to add back.
I did a test with a role containing no changes and found the same issue:
This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.
The 9th of the new functionality in the Desktop Flows section is view attended desktop flow runs using picture-in-picture execution mode.
The flow run does not interfere with the user’s work on the machine as makers can run attended desktop flows in a virtual window that replicates the main desktop.
Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Feb 2024
Early Access: –
General Availability: Apr 2024
Makers can trigger attended and local attended desktop flows within an isolated Windows session in picture-in-picture mode. You can trigger the picture-in-picture mode through the Power Automate console, or through the desktop flows connector.
This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.
The 8th of the new functionality in the Desktop Flows section is connect your own virtual network with hosted machine group.
Users can run desktop flows using a hosted machine group connected to their own virtual network (VNet) in order to execute RPA jobs that require access to on-premises networks.
Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Mar 2024
Early Access: –
General Availability: Apr 2024
Users can now seamlessly integrate a hosted machine group (HMG) with their own VNet. This integration enables users to run desktop flows and execute RPA jobs that require access to on-premises networks. By leveraging their own VNet, users can ensure secure and reliable connectivity between the hosted machines and the on-premises networks.