User Review
( votes)As part of our review of the second 2020 release wave for Microsoft Dynamics 365, we have covered Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain. These two applications are part of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations suite, which is optimized for large enterprises.
Now we will review upcoming feature releases for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, a solution tailored for small-to-medium businesses.
Here are all the features coming to Business Central between October 2020 and April 2021:
Administration
- Deprecation of the legacy Dynamics NAV Help Server component
- Improved overview and management of the available database and file capacity
- Service-to-service authentication for Automation APIs
- Support for an unlimited number of production and sandbox environments
- Manage irreversible features
- Database access intent changed to read-only for frequently used reports
- Speed up low-level code calculations
- Schedule data update of application features enabled through Feature Management
Application
- Business Central Company Hub
- VAT group reporting
- Default unit cost for non-inventory items
- Track packages from more types of sales documents
- Consolidation file format support for Dynamics 365 Finance
- Auto-resolve Common Data Service conflicts
- Check financial journals in background
- Enhanced email capabilities
- Improved control over how and when you post WIP entries for jobs to the general ledger
- Notify users of high-risk changes in selected setup fields
- Write longer item references
- Use the Copy Journal function on Posted General Journals and control date for reversing entries in Recurring General Journals
- Use Word document layouts to customize outgoing customer documents
- Easier to choose the right Role Center
- Remove coupling of records integrated with Common Data Service in bulk
- Restore synchronization defaults for Common Data Service integration for selected Integration Table Mapping
- Use contact Mobile Phone Number and Email consistently across application
- Use conversion templates to convert contacts to vendors and employees
- Define Retention Policies
- Use recurring journals to allocate balances by dimension values
- Bank reconciliation improvements
Better with Microsoft 365
- Authentication changes for deploying Outlook Add-in
- Business Central in Microsoft Teams
Country and regional
- Expanded country and regional availability
Microsoft Power Platform
- Integrate Business Central and Common Data Service with fewer synchronization conflicts
- Support for latest Microsoft Dynamics 365 SDK
- Common Data Service virtual entities
Migrations to Business Central online
- Continued enhancements for migrating from Dynamics GP to Business Central
- Historical data migration from Dynamics GP to Azure Data Lake
- Migrate from Business Central 14.x on-premises to Business Central 16.x online
- Migrate from Business Central 15.x on-premises to Business Central 16.x online
Modern clients
- Updates to page styling
- Changes to the action bar in dialog boxes
- Improved accessibility for low-vision users
- Page Inspector supports temporary tables
- Pages with FactBoxes are more responsive
- Report request page can open multiple previews
- Update the navigation experience terminology to improve usability
- Role Centers open faster
- Access multiple production or sandbox environments from the mobile apps
Modern development tools
- AppSource apps can store their secrets in Azure Key Vault
- Code documentation comments
- Code region compiler directive
- Delete extension data
- Suppress AL warnings
- Business Central Performance Toolkit
Seamless service
- Ability for developers and end users to override the system setting for maximum time a report can run
- Data audit system fields are added to every table
- Log of admin operations in the Business Central admin center
- On-demand joining of companion tables
- Attach to user session when debugging in sandbox
- Debug extension installation and upgrade code
- Developers can emit telemetry to Application Insights from AL code
- Extension publishers can get telemetry in Azure Application Insights
- Signal about long-running AL execution added to Application Insights telemetry for partners
- Signal from outgoing web service requests added to Application Insights telemetry for partners
- Signal from web service key authentication added to Application Insights telemetry for partners
- Renaming environments in the Business Central admin center
- Restoring environments to a point in time in the past
