The release of wave 2 for Microsoft Dynamics Business Central 2021 sees the tech giants deliver updates to areas most requested by their partners and users for improvement, particularly within the finance and supply chain areas.
These key updates include:
- Getting both new and existing users to productive usage faster.
- Expanding the built-in tours for better onboarding of additional business roles.
- Bringing further capabilities to the Business Central and Teams experience as part of the Better with Microsoft 365 investment.
- Continuing the software’s rapid expansion to more countries and regions.
With so many new and exciting updates planned, we’ve pulled together the top three features that we feel will have the biggest impact on our customers and wider audiences.
Let’s get started…
#1
Integrate Business Central and Microsoft Dataverse with more efficient synchronization of multiple records.
The data exchanged between Business Central and Microsoft Dataverse is synchronized based on a schedule. Occasionally, there are situations that require the creation, synchronisation and manual restoration of multiple records on an ad hoc basis. In these instances, the introduction of this new feature will decrease the number of synchronised jobs that run at any one time, increasing the productivity of feature users and making this entire process faster.
When selecting multiple records, Business Central creates one synchronisation job per batch of records. For task schedulers running the background jobs, this massively reduces the load and makes it easier to remain below the queue entry limit. By processing these record batches in smaller sizes, this new method of synchronisation also considers Dataverse request limits.
#2
Show reports from named and shared Power BI workspaces in Business Central.
The need for greater flexibility is fast becoming a make or break for companies, and this is no different for business intelligence and data analysis.
In previous versions of Business Central, users were limited to default workspaces provided by the software. This latest update for Power BI introduces named and shared workspaces, allowing the embedding of reports from any personal or shared Power BI workspace into Business Central.
This new feature enables users to view reports from across multiple workspaces, be that personal, shared team or organisation-wide, and select which of those reports should be embedded into Business Central.
#3
Enhancements to the Microsoft Excel integration.
For many Microsoft customers, Excel remains a core app within their processes for quick data analysis, tabular data sharing, bulk correcting and entering records. Continuing to enhance and mature Excel-related features within Business Central is a fantastic example of Microsoft’s commitment to their users by empowering them to work in a way that’s comfortable for them.
A key features of this update:
- Users are now able to export data into Excel from a report request page.
- Administrators can now configure Business Central and Microsoft 365 to use Centralized Deployment for the Excel add-in to users or groups of users within their organization.
- Lists that are embedded in a part on a page can now be exported to Excel, such as Sales Lines on a Sales Order, list parts on the Role Center, or lists in the FactBox pane. Similar to full-page lists, the Open in Excel action downloads a static copy of your list as an Excel file, applying your filters and sort order.
General availability of wave 2 features will begin in October of 2021, but you can explore here those updates that are available for public preview prior to the official launch. And don’t forget, you can suggest your own improvements to Microsoft Dynamics 365 at any time by visiting their Dynamics 365 Application Ideas forum.
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