The 2021 release wave 2 for Business Central has been released
Microsoft releases new features and functionality for Dynamics 365 Business Central twice a year. The 2021 release wave 2 is set to be released between October 2021 and March 2022 and includes new features, updates, and enhancements to the cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. In this post we will outline key new features and updates that are planned to be released during this wave.
Microsoft Teams and Business Central
The latest release of Business Central includes improvements to the Microsoft Teams integration as well as new functionality that allows users to share a record link in Microsoft Teams. The 2021 release wave 2 includes a new wizard that guides users through installing the BC app for Teams as well as new sign-up experience for users who do not have a BC subscription.
As a part of this release, Microsoft released new functionality that allows users to share a record link from BC to Microsoft Teams. The Business Central web client includes a new action to share to Microsoft Teams. This action allows users to type a message, choose recipients such as team members, groups or channels, and send their message with a link to the Business Central record. This will help users save time from reduced app switching and boost collaboration with coworkers on Teams.
Improved user experience with Excel
In the 2021 release wave 2, Business Central continues to mature Excel-related features for exporting to Excel and working with the Excel add-in, making them more easily discoverable and reachable through the new Share menu.
- New home for Open in Excel & Edit in Excel – Introduces the Share icon and menu in which users will find Open in Excel and Edit in Excel. These new options will appear on list pages, such as the Items list, and also to list parts that display a full menu, such as the Lines part on a sales order.
- Downloading embedded lists to Excel – Lists that are embedded in a part of a page can now be exported to Excel. 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 just as shown on screen.
- Exporting reports to Excel – From a report request page, users can export report data to Excel. The Excel file will only include the raw data, not the report layout.
- Captions – The captions of columns in Excel now match the captions shown in the web client and are displayed in the user’s current language.
- Error-messages – The Excel add-in now includes more detailed error messages to help troubleshoot issues faster.
Synchronization enhancements between Business Central and the Dataverse
The latest release of Business Central includes new features to improve the integration between BC and the Microsoft Dataverse. Users can now couple records while synchronizing data in bulk. Bulk-coupling speeds up the process of coupling multiple records, while letting you define rules to control how the couplings are made. When users couple the records that they want to synchronize data for in each application they can filter and choose the data to synchronize using the new Coupled in Dataverse column.
Additionally, this new feature makes ad hoc syncing more efficient by ensuring batches are processed in smaller sizes. When selecting multiple records to sync, Business Central creates a single job per batch of records, making it easier for users to stay below the limits for queue entries and reduces the load on the task scheduler who runs the background jobs.
Bank and payment reconciliations
Bank and payment reconciliations are key processes for all businesses by providing an overview of whether the cash flow is accurate, and that all transactions have been accounted for. In this release wave, Microsoft enhanced the Bank Reconciliation page with the following capabilities:
- Bank ledger entries are now filtered so only ledger entries after the statement’s ending date are shown
- The layout of the test report has been cleaned up, making it simpler to read
- When applying auto-matching, users can decide to not overwrite any of the already matched entries, or to overwrite all
- Many-to-1 matching is now possible so many bank statement lines can be matched against one bank ledger entry
- When you transfer differences to be posted in a general journal, the entries will be auto-matched when you return to the bank reconciliation, reducing the redundant manual step
Show reports from named and shared Power BI workspaces in BC
Previously, Power BI introduced named and shared workspaces. However, in Business Central, users could only see the default workspaces that were provided in BC. In the latest release, users can now embed reports from personal or shared Power BI workspaces into Business Central. With this feature, when selecting which Power BI reports to show in Business Central, Power BI returns the list of workspaces that the user has access to and the reports in the workspaces. Users can then choose one of the reports and have it embedded in Business Central.
Other application updates
In each release wave of Business Central, Microsoft takes user feedback into account and makes changes in the most requested areas for improvement. Some key application functionality changes and new features include:
- Ability to add additional columns through personalization on various pages
- Ability to add non-inventory items on requisition and planning worksheets
- Set a default line type on sales and purchase documents
- Group general ledger and VAT entries in posting preview
- New flexibility with address information data entry
- Added control over currency rate adjustments
- New ability to use multiple units of measure when synchronizing items and resources to Dynamics 365 Sales
Want to learn more?
Microsoft published the 2021 release wave 2 plans for Business Central that includes numerous updates and enhancements in addition to the ones listed above. Many BC users work with a Microsoft certified partner to review all the new features and updates and identify the ones most beneficial to their organization. Additionally, the right Business Central partner can provides training for users to optimize these new features and enhancements.