Month: March 2023

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The third of the new functionality in the Productive with Microsoft 365 section is Allow application and tenant databases to differ in collation.

On-premises customers can use many different collations for their environment, driven by different requirements for country or different ordering/strings operations. In a multitenant setup, until now it wouldn’t be possible to cohost tenant databases with different collations served by the same Business Central server (NST). With this release, you can easily cohost these databases on the same setup, and therefore administer such multitenant/multilanguage setups more efficiently.

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

Feature Details

The collation of a database controls the ordering and equality operations of strings. In earlier versions of Business Central, a multitenant installation required the application database and the tenant databases to have the same database collation. In this release, the Business Central server (the NST) will work even though the application and tenant databases use a different database collation.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The first of the new functionality in the Reporting and data analysis section is Analyze, group, and pivot data on list pages using multiple tabs.

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

The ability to analyze data directly in list pages 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: Apr 2023
General Availability: TBC

Feature Details

Analysis mode is 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.

When you’re ready to analyze data on a list page (where you might have filtered data using a view or filter pane), simply switch to analysis mode:

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1: Analyze, Group, and Pivot Data on List Pages Using Multiple Tabs”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The sixth of the new functionality in the Governance and administration section is Manage user permissions using security groups.

As businesses grow and change, managing permissions can become increasingly complex. Security groups can simplify the process by allowing administrators to group users by department, job function, or other criteria, and assign permissions to the group as a whole. Using security groups to manage permissions can save time and reduce the risk of human error. Security groups allow for easier management of access control, ensuring that users only have access to the resources they need. This can also streamline the process of onboarding new employees or contractors, as they can be quickly added to the appropriate security groups.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Mar 2023
General Availability: Apr 2023

Feature Details

You can now use Azure Active Directory security groups to manage the permissions users have to access various parts of Business Central.

A prerequisite for using security groups in Business Central is that you must create Azure Active Directory security groups and add members to them either in the Microsoft 365 admin center or in the Azure Active Directory portal.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1: Manage User Permissions Using Security Groups”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The fifth of the new functionality in the Governance and administration section is Delegated admin’s job queue entries are run by user.

Microsoft partners use the delegated admin role to set up and manage certain aspects of Business Central on behalf of their customers. However, the role is restricted in some ways. In earlier release waves, one of these restrictions was the ability to create job queue entries and set them as ready to run for customers. The job queue is an important tool for setting up and configuring companies in Business Central. With this update, delegated admins can create job queue entries and request approval from a licensed user to run them.

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

Feature Details

For Business Central online, people who are not employed by the customer, typically Microsoft partners, can use the delegated admin role to set up and configure business processes for the customers. However, the delegated admin role is not a licensed user in Business Central, and often is only assigned temporarily, so there are some limitations to what they can do. For example, delegated admins cannot set up tasks that might be run after the delegated admin relationship has been revoked, such as job queue entries.

Job queue entries are a useful tool for running setup and configuration processes in Business Central, and delegated admins must be able to create and run them in their customer’s tenant. This release wave adds support for the delegated admin to create job queue entries and set them as ready to run. Then, a licensed user from the customer can start the job queue entry to complete the process that the delegated admin created.

You can now use the Job Queue Entry Approval Workflow template to create a workflow that a delegated admin can use to ask for approval to run job queue entries through the credentials of a licensed user.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1: Delegated Admin’s Job Queue Entries Are Run by User”

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The tenth of the new functionality in the Development section is Extensions that fail pre-upgrade validation get more detailed error insights.

When Business Central prepares a tenant upgrade, all extension versions that will be installed as part of the upgrade go through a prevalidation. To ensure a better understanding of failures as part of the prevalidation process, errors messages will contain more information about incompatible extensions.

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

Feature Details

Error messages from application validation ahead of upgrade will list all incompatible extension IDs, names, and publishers, which ensures a better understanding of any extensions that aren’t compatible with the new version.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The ninth of the new functionality in the Development section is Define regional settings per report using a region property.

Until this release, report formats for date and numerical types depended on client settings for region and couldn’t be configured on the report level. This was confusing because sometimes dates and numbers were formatted incorrectly.

Microsoft have now added the ability for the tenant admin to set formatting of date and numerical types of a report object on the tenant, and also added the ability for users to override the setting when running a report.

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

Feature Details

In this release, Microsoft have added the ability for developers and tenant administrators to set formats for dates and numerical types on report objects on the tenant. If needed, users can change the format when they run a report.

• They’ve added a new compiler property to give AL access to the property and set a metadata default value in the object. This allows the report developer to define region settings.
• They’ve added a new per-tenant configuration using a new region field on the Report Settings table. This can override the setting from AL report metadata.
• They’ve enhanced the Advanced FastTab on the report request page to allow end users to override region setting at report runtime.

My Opinion

More flexibility on reporting dates seems like a good idea, especially with Microsoft’s penchant for US date format being used in non-US locales.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The third of the new functionality in the Country and regional section is Country/regional expansion – Andorra.

Expanding Business Central to new markets across the globe.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: May 2023
General Availability: Jun 2023

Feature Details

Expanding Business Central to a number of additional countries is achieved through partner-led localization. The Microsoft partners create the relevant localization apps that are then published to AppSource. In combination with the built-in language offerings, Business Central is then available to serve customers in the following countries:

• Andorra
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Bahamas
• Bermuda
• Bolivia
• British Virgin Islands
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Cayman Islands
• Ethiopia
• Fiji
• Ghana
• Guernsey
• Isle of Man
• Jersey
• Kazakhstan
• Kosovo
• Liechtenstein
• Macau (SAR China)
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Nepal
• San Marino
• Sao Tome & Principe
• Senegal
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zambia

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The twenty-fourth of the new functionality in the Application section is Save time with automatic account codes.

People in Sweden and Finland who work with documents can save time by using automatic account codes to allocate recurring transactions in a faster way.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Mar 2023
General Availability: Apr 2023

Feature Details

You can use customized posting groups to automate recurring transactions in journals, sales documents, or purchase documents. These posting groups can be used throughout Business Central to trigger automatic postings and allocations across different accounts or dimensions. The following are examples of where to use automatic account codes:

• Automate postings related to payroll overhead. When you post total salary expenses at the end of the month, you can use automatic account codes to assign a percentage of the total salary to automatically post as overhead expenses.
• Trigger cost or revenue allocations across different dimensions. For example, you can set up an automatic account group to split total expenses across three departments when you post an invoice.

The automatic account codes feature is available as local functionality only for Sweden and Finland. Previously it was part of BaseApp, but now it is delocalized and is available as an app.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The twenty-third of the new functionality in the Application section is Use statistical accounts to collect data for financial reports.

Businesses can significantly improve their analyses on G/L data by using additional statistical metrics. You can define statistical values and register them in a separate ledger so that you can analyze the data.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Mar 2023
General Availability: Apr 2023

Feature Details

When posting G/L transactions, the Quantity field alone doesn’t provide much data for statistics and data analysis for the transactions. More data is often needed to increase the relevance of reports.

Statistical accounts improve analyses and progress tracking by letting you add a number-based statistical value to a separate ledger. For example, you might want to add the following information to clarify values on reports:

• Square meters in your building for tracking rental expenses.
• Number of full-time employees.
• Customers served for a given marketing spend.

You register the values for the statistical account in Statistical Accounts Journals, and then find the values in the statistical accounts ledger entries page or by going to the ledger entries for an account from the Statistical Accounts list.

My Opinion

There isn’t much information in this post about the statistical accounts, but on the surface it looks like something I’ve worked with in other systems. Most clients had no need for them, but others found them indispensable, so it is good to see the functionality added to Dynamics BC.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.

The twenty-second of the new functionality in the Application section is Use advanced warehouse functionality with minimal complexity.

You can use several features that were previously available only for locations that use directed put-away and pick, which added advanced processes, without adding unneeded complexity.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: Mar 2023
General Availability: Apr 2023

Feature Details

While the complete set of warehouse features has been available in the Essential license for a long time, to use it you needed to enable directed put-away and pick for selected locations. Enabling directed put-away and picks makes advanced warehouse processes available, which might add more complexity than the business needed. In this release, we’re making various features available:

• Zones
• Movement worksheet
• Calculate Bin Replenishment task
• Bin Capacity Policy
• Warehouse class check
• Special equipment in warehouse documents

Zones

In warehousing, bins can be grouped in zones. Each zone can consist of one or more bins. Most properties assigned to a zone will be assigned by default to bins that are created for the zone.

Continue reading “New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1: Use Advanced Warehouse Functionality With Minimal Complexity”