This Release Wave 1 includes new features and capabilities that help companies streamline their operations and improve their business results. In this article, we’ve listed these key changes for you. View the full release plan here for Dynamics 365 Business Central.
1. Managing and Synchronizing Master Data Across Companies
In a multi-company environment, keeping shared data consistent is always a challenge. A challenge for which there are several third-party solutions… that are used through a process of trial and error.
In this release, Microsoft is introducing an initial version of the ‘MDM-in-ERP’ concept. Its full scope is not yet known as of this blog’s publication, but more details will likely become clear in the lead-up to the actual release. Want to know more?
P.S.: This is another one to look forward to: Ship and receive non-inventory items on warehouse documents
2. Expansion of Company Hub
Company Hub provides a concise KPI overview of a number of predefined companies. This list offers a quick snapshot of these companies’ status, without having to open them or resort to external BI tools.
In this release, additional KPIs have been added to the overview.
3. In-tool analysis: No more exporting to Excel for pivot analyses
In list screens, enable the "Analyze" option using the button in the menu. "Analyze" allows you to create pivot tables within the application, just as you did previously in Excel.
Using the "Columns" option on the right side of the screen, you can intuitively use the functionality of an Excel PivotTable to calculate totals.
4. Posting example available in multiple journals
Until now, Microsoft had arbitrarily chosen to make the Posting Preview (or Posting Example) available on certain document screens (orders/invoices) and journals (miscellaneous journal). In this new release, the availability of the posting preview has been greatly expanded.
For example, the posting example has been made available in the Item Journal so that, in addition to the logistical transaction (i.e., the quantities used to update inventory), the accounting impact of this operation can also be estimated and verified prior to the actual posting.
5. Simplified Overview of General Ledger Accounts
This release will include a new field Reviewed in the General Ledger Entries table. To speed up the period-end closing process of reviewing and reconciling general ledger accounts, you can view the general ledger entries for a specific general ledger account and mark the entries as "Reviewed.".
6. Localizations as an extension: a major release coming soon?
Managing multiple localizations (i.e., integrating country-specific adjustments for local compliance) is a game-changer. Until now, it was not possible to run multiple localizations in a single environment without making significant compromises.
In this release, Microsoft is making the Swedish localization available as an extension. For the Belgian market, this is of course a relevant addition only for a few users, but it likely heralds the possibility of integrating foreign localizations into existing solutions.
We're keeping a close eye on it for you.
7. UX: Simplified File Upload
The file upload dialog box in Business Central has been improved with a clearly marked drop area where users can drop a single file using drag-and-drop.
Regardless of which business process requires document uploads, users can choose between dragging and dropping a file or using the more traditional file browser.
8. UX: Customize your menu, even in dialog boxes
Microsoft has expanded menu customization options so that users can better tailor menu structures to their needs and align them more closely with their day-to-day work.
In addition to the action bar at the top of pages, menu options for subsections in the order window (purchase orders) can now also be customized, so that entering lot numbers or checking surcharges requires far fewer clicks in this release.
9. UX: All fields available in Personalize
It has always been an arbitrary distinction: why are some fields not available to add to a screen via "Customize," even though the information is definitely in the table?
Starting with this release, this difference is a thing of the past. It will be possible to add all fields (including those from table extensions) to the user interface.
