It is a month until the new wave of Dynamics 365 Business Central Updates starts to roll out.
In addition to improved security, more responsive pages, and navigation improvements; the below highlights some of the expected features this update will include.
Group VAT Reporting
With the new VAT Group Reporting feature, organisations that are part of a VAT Group can now submit group VAT returns quickly and seamlessly.
We will cover this in detail when there is a (pre-release) version to show how it works.
Check for Journal Posting errors before posting
You now have an option to have your Journal perform a “Background Error Check”. When enabled (per batch), the Journal will display a FactBox highlighting any common errors found on the line (like Dimensions not being included).
To help quickly identify problem lines, you can easily filter the journal to only show lines with errors.
Journal Line details
Staying with journals, a nice new FactBox that highlights key information about the line will be available. This lets you quickly jump to the account and see posting group info.
Enhanced email capabilities
Microsoft has added support for more modern email integration with Business Central. This is welcome as the existing architecture was built on much older technology.
The new approach will allow for better attachment management and distribution groups. Attached emails will be quickly previewed, making for a more seamless experience.
We will cover the details when we have run through the pre-release version.
Notify when key fields are changed
A new “Monitored Fields” option will enhance the existing Change Log functionality. You can now choose to be notified when specific fields have been changed (e.g. Vendor Bank Account details).
Any field can be chosen and marked to notify when changed.
Set a Reversing Date in a Reversing Journal
Huzza! Finally, you can specify the reversal date in a reversing journal. Using the same date formula approach as the Posting Date, you can prepare the date that you want the journal to be reversed on. Previously it always reversed on the following day, meaning the Posting Date always had to be a period end date.
Restore to a prior point in time
A typical drawback of cloud solutions is restoring to a prior point in time. It is very rare, but sometimes this is needed due to a user or developer really messing things up.
Microsoft will now allow Administrator access to restore production or sandbox environments to a specific point in time for Business Central. This will let you go back 30 days and restore that backup to an existing or new environment. This will allow you to first check it is the correct restore point before you overwrite your production or sandbox data.
This is expected to be rolled out sometime in Jan 21.
Business Central in Microsoft Teams
An exciting integration that will make conversations and decisions on the information held in Business Central faster and easier. While part of Wave 2, this feature is scheduled for the end of the year.
We will post more details when we know more (probably sometime in (late) October).
Integration to the Common Data Service
This will give an awesome foundation for integration to the Microsoft’s Power Platform. Allowing for better automation, easier Dashboard building and extending workflows with custom (but integrated) Apps.
Microsoft is committing to exposing the tables (entities) in Business Central to their Common Data Service (CDS) as “virtual entities” via Business Central “APIs”. This will mean an increased amount of data in Business Central will be visible to CDS and – therefore – any other solution that integrates to that, like the Power Platform and other Dynamics 365 solutions.
Note that these are planned features, some may not make it into production.
Microsoft’s site has the full list of what is planned to arrive in Business Central 2020 release wave 2.
