Bam Boom Cloud’s CTO, Steve Brooks, takes us through his top 5 features in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Wave 2 release.
The Wave 2 Release launches in October 2022 and Business Central users can expect to see new features appear over the next 90 days as the updates are rolled out. The complete list and availability timelines from Microsoft detailing exactly what’s new can be found here.
1. Bank Reconciliation Changes
Good news for regular cheque users! Bank Reconciliation now takes into account entries from cheques as well as just looking at bank statement lines. This makes matching much more effective, reducing the need for any manual matching on the bank reconciliation.
There are also now prompts when setting up new bank accounts that inform you about direct posting being turned on. So, if you set up a new bank account posting group with a G/L that has direct posting turned on, the system will warn you that it’s going to make the bank reconciliation more difficult to get right in future.
Two small but powerful changes, both of which make bank reconciliations in Business Central much easier.
2. Account Schedules become Financial Reports
Account schedules have historically been an underused and underappreciated area of Business Central given they provide some super powerful reporting. So, in Wave 2 they’ve had a spruce up and been given a new name – Financial Reports.
You can access a Financial Reports tour in BC that gives you an overview of what’s new and helps you understand how the columns and rows relate to the dimensions, and how to set up your own reports. These tours have been matched with Microsoft Help Files – press F1 to see the help files when in BC.
We really recommend that once your tenant has been upgraded to Wave 2, you set aside some time to properly explore the reporting functionality available in Financial Reports.
We have an upcoming Learning Labs webinar all about Financial Reports on 15 December – Register Here
You can also access the recaps of our previous Learning Labs sessions, including one on reporting in BC here.
3. Jobs and Tracked Items
Jobs (or projects) now allow for tracked items to be included in the lines and calculations, where previously these two features weren’t compatible. It means customers can have tracking of serial and lot tracked items on an individual job, meaning increased accuracy.
This change is really only relevant to customers who use inventory (or item tracking) alongside jobs, so it’s a fairly niche, but still important, change. For example, if you use item tracking and do long-term contracting, you can now use those tracked items in your job planning lines. Where previously they didn’t work together, you now have more granular control over what’s on your individual lines, and more accurate costing for long term projects.
4. VAT Date Field (UK Customers Only)
A long-requested feature by our UK customers, VAT date has now been added to Business Central. You can default it to either posting date or document date, and, crucially, it can be overtyped. The date field shows in VAT and G/L entries and can be changed at a later date if needed. In terms of accuracy, and VAT reporting, and reducing the need for corrections, this is a really cool feature.
5. OneDrive Integration
Microsoft continue to invest in great collaboration features across M365 and D365. You can now edit in Excel directly from the browser thanks to improved OneDrive integration feature.
OneDrive set up is super simple – you just need to toggle on a couple of options. Then once set up you can do things such as: Edit in Excel from a customer list, you can open Excel in a Browser tab rather than downloading the file and opening in Excel Desktop. The same applies to working in Word – the improved OneDrive Integration means you can do more in the Browser tab, allowing you to remain in Business Central.
Attachments can be shared from a page in Business Central and sent via Outlook, copy link or direct share. For example, you can add a customer contract into BC as an attachment file, and when you want to share you have the sharing options from within BC.
These are sort of quality-of-life improvements that may seem small, but these are features that you will use time and time again and will improve the overall user experience and workflow efficiency of Business Central.
”We are super excited about all the new features coming in Wave 2, and we can’t wait to see how they help make life easier for Business Central users. In addition, there is also a raft of improvements planned to the back end of BC. These changes will be less visible to customers, but they are still hugely important because they will make it easier for us to support you.
If you want to learn more about what’s new in Wave 2 from the Microsoft Product leaders themselves, there is a Microsoft Launch Event Webinar scheduled on 12 October.
Steve BrooksCTO, Bam Boom Cloud
If you want to know more from us, or if you have any questions, please get in touch – we love talking all things Business Central!
