Top 10 New Features in the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 1
It’s that time of year again when Microsoft announces a slew of new features and functionalities as part of the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 1.
Tons of enhancements will help your business work faster and more efficiently. In this release, Microsoft says these enhancements will help organizations focus on their bread and butter while staying compliant with government regulations by automating regulatory tasks, among many other innovations.
In this blog, we will highlight 10 exciting new features in Dynamics 365 Business Central and explain how they can help your business by empowering your team to focus on the work that matters most to them. Find the full release notes from Microsoft here.
New AI Functionalities in the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 1
More and more workers are using AI to help reduce time-consuming and repetitive tasks. While AI has been a challenge for small to mid-size businesses to implement in the past, Microsoft is making that easier with Copilot for Dynamics 365. Here are five new AI-powered capabilities you will soon be able to use:
Create Sales Lines
This new feature’s ability to accept various input methods, such as free text, files, or prebuilt prompts. Microsoft Copilot drives operational efficiency and accelerates the delivery of sales documents to customers, potentially boosting revenue. The AI-powered assistant intelligently suggests and assists in creating sales lines, relieving users of manual input, ensuring accuracy, and saving time through advanced processing capabilities that consider customer sales history.
Enhanced Development Tools
Copilot developer tools in Business Central offer signature UI elements, an AI module for seamless connection to Azure OpenAI Service with your service key, along with guides, samples, and telemetry. This feature gives extension developers exciting opportunities, including:
- Copilot-branded action icons to highlight capabilities
- Improved prompt dialogs with placeholder text and guides
- The ability to turn the prompt dialog into a drop target for easy file drag-and-drop.
Other additions include support for calling functions, language information for administrators, and more accurate token counts when using Azure Open AI GPT models. Anticipated later in the release is the capability for users to refine generative output by prompting directly on the content output screen of the prompt dialog.
Faster Bank Account Reconciliation
Reconciling bank statements can be a challenge in Business Central, even with rule-based matching. Copilot addresses these concerns by leveraging AI to match transactions more efficiently and suggesting G/L accounts for unmatched entries. Enhancements include:
- AI-powered transaction matching, G/L account suggestions
- Built-in demo data
- A new AI-powered action on the Bank account reconciliation list page named "Reconcile with Copilot"
Currently available in public preview for Business Central online, users can access this feature with Update 23.1 and try it out on the Bank Account Reconciliations page. Upgrade customers will automatically receive this feature with Update 24, but administrators can enable it as early as Update 23.1 through Feature Management.
Create Product Information Faster
Businesses dealing with a dynamic product landscape often face challenges in quickly creating and managing product information. Copilot, as the AI-powered assistant in Business Central, significantly reduces the effort and accelerates time-to-market for new products, allowing companies to meet customer demands more efficiently.
By suggesting item-related information such as variants, units of measure, substitutions, and dimensions, Copilot streamlines the process, ensuring faster readiness for transactions and freeing up time for businesses to focus on core activities.
Additional New Features Included in the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 1
Here are five other key enhancements to Dynamics 365 Business Central are included in this release wave:
Power Automate Copilot Integration with Business Central
When integrated with Power Automate in Business Central, Copilot streamlines the process of building automation flows using natural language input. This feature allows for open-ended and conversational experiences within Power Automate, helping in refining flows, answering questions, and making changes based on natural language descriptions, ultimately shortening the path to automation and improving overall productivity in business processes.
Improve Approval Processes with Power Automate
Ensuring a straightforward approval process for documents and data changes is crucial in a modern company. Microsoft has enhanced this experience by updating the Approval User Setup page, integrating it with Power Automate to streamline approver definition, and logging user actions back into Business Central. Your feedback on these improvements is valuable as we strive to meet business users' expectations and continue innovating in this area.
Assemble to Project
Assemble to project enhances inventory management by facilitating assembly only when needed for customization in projects. When entering an assemble-to-order item on a project planning line, an assembly order is automatically generated based on the item's assembly BOM, and details can be customized on the Assemble-to-Order Lines page. The integration with warehouse management ensures a smooth workflow from project assembly to delivery, supporting various warehouse configurations.
Despite limitations such as non-availability for closed projects and the inability to undo an assembly, Assemble to Project optimizes inventory handling.
Invoice a Customer for Multiple Projects
Enhance your invoicing efficiency by consolidating multiple projects into a single invoice, minimizing manual tasks, and improving accuracy. This feature allows you to effortlessly add project planning lines from various projects to a sales invoice in one step. Simply create a new sales invoice, fill in relevant customer details, and use the "Get Project Planning Lines" action to select billable project planning lines for inclusion.
While this streamlined process simplifies invoicing, it's important to note limitations such as the unavailability of the feature on sales orders or quotes and the inability to filter based on Ship-to Code or Contact No. Share your feedback to help us improve this functionality.
Automate IRS 1099 Form Submission in US
Business Central's enhanced support for 1099 forms simplifies the process by automating the generation and delivery of these IRS-mandated documents. The update ensures that 1099 documents, complete with headers and lines, are automatically created during calculations, allowing for adjustments and status modifications such as:
- Open
- Released
- Printed
- Sent
- Reported
- Approved
- Rejected
A new setup table offers flexibility for specific period configurations, and organizations can initiate automatic delivery via email or manual printing based on vendor preferences. The integration with the IRIS system facilitates form submission, tracking status updates from the IRS, and enhancing the overall user experience with improved workflow efficiency.
Want to Learn More About the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 1?
Please reach out to our team! Our experts can help you navigate these new changes and help you use them to optimize your business, increase efficiency, and drive growth.
You can also see the full release wave on the Microsoft website.
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