As you might have seen or heard, the new Microsoft release rolled out a few days ago. The company updated Dynamics 365, and whether you’re already a user or simply curious, these are the features in Finance and Operations and Business Central I think you should look out for. Keep reading to find what will enhance your operations and improve your company’s productivity.
Dynamics 365 for Sales now with LinkedIn embedded
Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn partnered up to give you an easier way to search for customer insights. With LinkedIn Sales Navigator embedded in Dynamics 365 for Sales, users can view basic customer profiles and updated information, without an extra subscription or configuration. This integration is easy to install right from the Dynamics 365 for Sales settings.
Dynamics 365 for Sales joins forces with Microsoft Teams
Closing a deal can take a village. Because of this, Dynamics 365 for Sales developed an app that you can plug in your Microsoft Teams account. Collaborate on documents, share files to and from Teams and Sales with the assurance that all your data will be available in either one. Access your Sales data on the go thanks to Teams’ mobile app. Get more done effectively with this partnership between Dynamics 365 for Sales and Microsoft Teams.
Stay tuned to learn about Microsoft Teams in a coming blogpost.
Finance and Operations keeps going Global
Microsoft understands companies with businesses in other countries must keep their processes up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible. Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is working towards a more integrated functioning for international operations. New configurable invoices have been added to keep up with regulations in countries like Brazil and Mexico. Electronic reporting has several updates, including PDF templates that can be edited and the set up of parameters for each required legal entity.
Microsoft also updated Global Tax Engine (GTE), currently only available in India. It has improved its configuration to reduce lookups, to simplify setup maintenance (with an Excel integration) and to keep previous data on tax currency and sales tax codes.
Customer Service updates
The two biggest updates for Customer Service are Dynamics 365 Customer Service Insights and Dynamics 365 Customer Service Virtual Agent. The former enables a direct data connection to Salesforce, Zendesk and ServiceNow, making it easier for your workers to access crucial information for the customer.
The latter allows of each of the company’s department to create their own virtual agent, customized to different needs and approaches according to each department’s operations. Certain topics can be automated using the Virtual Agent conversation editor without the need of AI experts or professional developers.
Updates for Finance and Operations Financial Management
Financial Management is a crucial aspect of Finance and Operations. Therefore it is continually upgraded to meet users’ demands. These are three of the updates.
First, automatic ledger settlements allow you to match credit and debit transactions in the general ledger, or mark these transactions as settled. Microsoft is adding the ability of creating rules that will allow additional filtering of information and the automatic settlement of transactions.
Second, revenue recognition management within Finance and Operations provides automation that helps the accounting and finance departments to comply with International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 15 and Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 606.
Lastly, as more public companies use Dynamics 365, Microsoft added new capabilities specifically for this sector. Starting on April and up to September Budgeting, Accounts payable, cash and bank management and the general ledger (among others) will all be upgraded to certain degrees.
Updates for Finance and Operations Warehouse Management
If your company belongs to the food processing and distribution industry, this is the most important update for your operations. The system will now allow you to process catch weight products easily. Products will be weighed and invoiced in inventory unit (kg, lb, or oz) but handled by their catch weight unit (box, each, pallet). This feature also lets you create a catch weight tag that will correlate the inventory unit with the catch weight unit.
Finance and Operations also added a Work line details page with additional information that lets you better manage and adjust the warehouse’s workflow.
Integrated business events in Finance and Operations
Events exist in Finance and Operations, but were only functional within the solution. This new feature allows Finance and Operations to capture business events as business processes are happening, and then send the event to an external system or application. This also allows Finance and Operations to integrate external business processes to specific business events within the solution, so you’ll be notified when they happen.
Finance and Operations upgraded Platform
Microsoft is committed to improving user experience. Consequently, Finance and Operations upgraded its platform to make it more customizable, modern and user-friendly. These are just a few of the updates to the Finance and Operations platform.
First and foremost, the navigation bar changed to align its design with the Microsoft Office suite. This will provide a cohesive experience for all Microsoft apps users. The following is a screenshot of how Finance and Operations will look moving forward.
You can also edit and improve reports hosted in Power BI and include data from external sources. Share your changes or revert them to the original report with just a few clicks.
Configure, update and delete printer settings for all organizations within Finance and Operations in the same page with a simplified process.
Now you can create several personalization’s per form. In addition, you can save them with different names to identify them quickly and publish them. This way others can see and use them.
Business Central ups its Productivity
Since its launch in 2018, Business Central has become one of the cornerstones of the Dynamics 365 suite. The April release improves several aspects of its basic functioning to make it more intuitive and user-friendly. Apply “focus mode” to documents you’re editing so any information you don’t need at the moment is hidden. Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate and work within Business Central.
Buttons to filter information in “focus mode”
Another great update is the improved search for Partner’s solutions, so you can find Pangea’s Localizations, or any other third-party solution, easily without leaving your current window.
Business Central strengthens its functioning with Sales
Everyday more Business Central users also choose to work with Dynamics 365 for Sales. Microsoft noticed this and it improved the level of integration between both. They updated the synchronization feature to avoid conflicts and easily solve the issues that may arise. Dynamics 365 for Sales and Business Central implemented Sales order and Sales quote synchronization. So, whatever information you generate in one will be available in the other.
Shared interface between Business Central and Dynamis 365 for Sales
This update also allows sharing AI-generated data and insights back and forth between Business Central and Dynamics 365 for Sales.
I hope this blog post has been useful and informative! Keep checking our page for more information and updates about Dynamics 365.