What’s Coming Soon in Dynamics 365 Business Central – Features & Enhancements We Are Most Excited About
One of the many benefits of Dynamics 365 Business Central is that its SaaS model allows for continual updates, fixes, and improvements by Microsoft. These updates are automatically applied and available for users without roping in IT for a ‘planned update.’ This convenience also means that Business Central administrators should stay plugged into planned and upcoming features, to ensure they are always getting the most from their solution.
Our favorite places to scan for upcoming features in Business Central:
We were very excited to learn that Microsoft has some rather notable features and enhancements coming out at the end of 2020 and the start of 2021, so we decided to outline our most anticipated for you here.
Note: This post outlines select enhancements and new features planned for release in Dynamics 365 Business Central from October 2020 through to March 2021. Please note that delivery times may have changed since this was posted, so we recommend using the links provided below to find the most current estimated delivery dates.
1. Business Central in Microsoft Teams
Slated for public preview in October 2020 and general availability in December 2020, the Business Central in Microsoft Teams enhancement will allow users to bring Business Central data into Teams chats and conversations to make collaborating and decision-making faster.
Why we love it: With so much work and discussion happening remotely, this enhancement will make incorporating company Business Central data into the conversations so much easier and reduce the need for constant screen sharing.
2. Restoring Business Central Environments to One Point in the Past
Slated for public preview in November 2020 and general availability in January 2021, this long-awaited feature will help Dynamics 356 administrators to restore their Business Central environments to a set point within 30 days in the past. This data recovery feature will help protect data and business continuity, allowing companies to leverage their backups and recover from any irreversible developer or issue errors made to either sandbox or production sites.
Why we love it: Besides the obvious data protection and business continuity this feature offers, we love that Business Central is further defining itself as a flexible and practical application. Because data loss is often unintentional and results from normal developer or application user errors, this feature allows companies to explore and try new things, without as much worry as before.
3. Company Hub
Slated for general availability in October 2020, the Business Central Company Hub does exactly what it says. It is an extension that gives users who access multiple Business Central companies an easy overview of these companies and way of accessing them. Business Central Company Hub gives you a list of the companies you work in. You can easily add new companies by just providing a URL and a name for the company. The list of companies contains a few KPIs for the company displayed for the user if they have the needed access. You also have a list of assigned user tasks for a given company, so you can keep track of work required for each company.
If you use Dynamics 365-Accountant Hub today, this will not be new and you will have to migrate to Company Hub – Accountant Hub will be deprecated in this release wave.
Why we love it: We still have lingering trauma from logging in and out of companies in Dynamics GP so this feature was particularly exciting to us. This is also an easy migration for anyone already using Dynamics 365 Accountant Hub. this means the folks who will likely make use of this the most can leverage it quickly when it’s available.
4. Auto-resolve Common Data Service Conflicts
Already slated for public preview (August 2020) and available for general release in October 2020, Microsoft is now making it easier to manage the flow of data from multiple systems or processes to Business Central with more auto-resolution to Common Data Service conflicts. This feature means that integration table mappings will include rules that control how synchronization jobs synchronize records in Business Central tables with entities in Common Data Service.
Data conflicts can easily occur when business applications exchange data on an ongoing basis. For example, someone might delete or change a record in one of the applications, or both. When resolving conflicts manually, users typically follow business rules that determine what to do. Business Central can now apply those rules automatically, allowing users to focus on more important tasks.
Why we love it: Data synchronization and automation is the new normal and greatly enhances a company’s productivity and return. Dynamics 365 applications use the Common Data Service to store and secure data used by applications. This enables businesses to build workflow automation and apps using Power Apps and Power Automate, and the Common Data Service directly against your core business data already used within Dynamics 365 without the need for integration. This feature will allow companies to innovate without the risk of corrupting data.
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