Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central—Spring Release Features

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central’s Spring Release is here, and it is full of powerful, meaningful changes that partners need to understand. This release introduces several key features and enhancements that will impact business customers of all sizes. These improvements will boost efficiency, give your customers better business insights, and help them adapt to our constantly-changing global market.

This article shares what you need to know about how Business Central now more tightly integrates with Microsoft 365 and all the important system changes you need to be aware of as a trusted Microsoft Partner.

Adopting Features from Microsoft 365

Connecting your business and productivity apps will always make your teams more effective. Business Central will now integrate even more tightly with Microsoft 365 apps and services, especially Teams, OutDrive, Outlook, Excel, and Word.

With this Spring Release, Microsoft is pushing more Business Central capabilities in Office 365 products. In Teams, your customers can link their Business Central service with an application. You can have a Teams tab to see all open sales invoices. If you want quick access to that information, you can see it right in Teams and other Office 365 apps.

Access BC menus and actions with new keyboard commands

Not only are some Business Central capabilities coming to Microsoft 365, but some long-sought-after productivity features are now coming to Business Central.

When data entry is critical, every keystroke and mouse click counts. Business Central now adopts the familiar keyboard command experience of Microsoft 365 applications to boost efficiency for keyboard-first users.

Access Keys help users carry out essential Business Central workflows in just a few keystrokes. Access Keys allow them to trigger actions, navigate menus, and interact with other UI elements. Pressing ALT will reveal key tips alongside UI elements indicating which keystrokes you can use to carry out workflows efficiently. Access Keys will be available for action bar actions and navigation menu links, for the moment, only in English, but other languages are on the way.

System Changes

Enhanced Microsoft 365 integration and functionality are only the surface. The Spring Release, of course, brings many new features.

Sync master data between companies

Master data management makes it easy for Partners to move one company setup to another in the same environment. Then once set up, it can automatically keep them synchronized.

This would allow you to configure vendors for one company, copy them to another company, and then keep those vendors updated across all. So, for example, you do not have to worry about the vendor numbering series getting out of sync.

You can now define tables and fields to synchronize in the new Spring Release. You can filter table records and set up more advanced synchronization couplings for additional control. Users at the receiving company also get full sync logs to review and verify.

Drag and drop files

Microsoft is moving toward making drag-and-drop functionality easier for end users right out of the box. To establish a system of record, companies frequently need to capture specific documents and files. Whereas users previously needed to navigate through the file explorer window, now they can simply drag that file onto the upload dialog in Business Central.

By itself, this enhancement provides a minor boost in productivity and is convenient. But more importantly, Microsoft has indicated it plans to move toward broader, more user-friendly file upload experiences in future releases—a welcome sign.

Analyze, group, and pivot data on list pages using multiple tabs

The new Analysis mode provides powerful methods for working with list page data. Users can now analyze data from list pages directly in the client without opening the page in Excel or running a report.

Instead, users add tabs for the views they want or tasks they carry out. For example, you could create views for “All customers,” “TODO items,” “New vendors,” “Sales KPIs,” and more.

New Financial Features

The Business Central Spring Release, of course, includes many powerful new financial features.

Review accounts

Analysts frequently need to review all G/L account transactions during period close. The new G/L Review action makes that process significantly more efficient.

You can now review and reconcile all entries simultaneously for a given account. The G/L Review action does not require double-entry bookkeeping to review all entries for a given transaction. You can easily remove the reviewed flag if you find an error.

Use statistical accounts to collect data for financial reports

We could always put in statistical accounts. They just had to sit within your chart of accounts. As you can imagine, most users wanted to do something other than that. Now, new statistical metrics significantly improve your G/L analyses. You can also now define and register statistical values in a separate ledger.

Customer & vendor posting accounts change

Sometimes you may need to post transactions to different G/L accounts than the one specified in a posting group. For example, in a case where a transaction is for a bad debt. Now, controllers can define nonstandard transaction policies that accountants can follow when posting these transactions.

New Inventory & Transfer Order Features

 Last but not least are the robust new inventory and transfer order features.

Intercompany posting setup

Intercompany posting setup lets you manage accounting activities for a group of companies. Setting up workflows between companies used to be complicated. Now all the steps are consolidated onto a single page in Business Central. Validation also helps you find changes you might have missed during setup. Intercompany posting also has a new dedicated setup page that provides an improved overview and easy access to various task pages.

Set default dimensions on locations, inventory documents, and journals

Microsoft has completed the Default Dimension on Location feature with this Spring Release. Dimensions are custom values you can set in Business Central that categorize entries for your reporting needs. For example, dimensions can indicate the department an entry came from. Their purpose is to enhance tracking and analysis.

Preview journals and documents before posting

The new Preview Posting action lets you review types for posted item entries before you commit any changes. When you post journals or other documents, such as inventory picks and put-aways, you can create different G/L entries, including:

• Item entries
• G/L entries
• Value entries
• Warehouse entries

Ship and receive non-inventory items on warehouse documents

Inventory management received a significant boost in this release. Sales and purchase orders often need to include many different line items. Warehouse employees can transact non-inventory items such as insurance on sales and purchase orders.

In previous versions of Business Central, you had to post non-inventory items separately. In the Spring Release of Business Central, Microsoft has added two capabilities:

• Post all non-inventory lines on the source document as soon as the warehouse document posts at least one item.
• Post non-inventory lines of the source document linked to the item through the Attached to Line No. field when the item is posted in a warehouse document.

Business Central is Getting Even Better

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central was already a robust platform for companies of all sizes. And with its Spring Release packed with new features and functionality, it is getting even better.

Stratos Cloud Alliance can guide Partners on selling, implementing, and supporting Business Central. We are the only Indirect Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (ICSP) specializing in Dynamics 365 business solutions.

We provide you with all the sales support, enablement, and services you need to build a profitable cloud solutions business.​ So whether you are a new Partner just starting or a seasoned managed service provider with a big lift and shift Dynamics project to tackle, Stratos Cloud Alliance provides all the resources you need free of charge.

Are you ready to help your customers leverage the latest features in Business Central? Contact us today.