The Business Central application is a business management solution designed for small and mid-sized organizations. It automates and streamlines various business processes, offering a wide range of features and high adaptability. With Business Central, companies can efficiently manage their finances, supply chain, manufacturing, shipping, project management, services, and more. The application allows for easy customization to support specialized industries and region-specific requirements. It boasts fast implementation, easy configuration, and a focus on simplicity throughout the product design, development, implementation, and usability.
In the 2023 release wave 1, Business Central introduces enhancements to support the management of multiple companies, including improvements to the intercompany features. These enhancements aim to reduce customer onboarding time by providing seamless onboarding experiences supported by quality content from Microsoft and their partners. The release also focuses on helping organizations comply with government regulations through automated regulatory tasks, enabling businesses to concentrate on their core operations. For example, the W1 version will include support for non-deductible VAT, which will be subsequently added to Microsoft country versions that support VAT in phases. Usability remains a priority, and this release aims to boost efficiency when working with lists of records. Users can personalize columns by adding any field from the table, utilize bulk actions on multiple rows, and access more comprehensive views for faster and smarter work.
Furthermore, Business Central invests in enhancing the productivity of developers and consultants. The introduction of Visual Studio Code AL Explorer facilitates seamless collaboration on development through GitHub, while also providing self-service capabilities for administrators managing apps and environments. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) will gain the ability to perform transactions through the AppSource marketplace.
The application encompasses various functional capabilities that assist customers in managing their businesses effectively. In the 2023 release wave 1, Business Central continues to modernize financial and operational processes to offer customers advanced features as their businesses grow.
Specifically, in the area of financial management, there is a focus on simplifying accounting tasks for multiple companies in an intercompany setup. The Intercompany Postings feature has been improved to enhance setup, provide better overviews, and make intercompany transaction processes more seamless and flexible.
For accounting period-end processes and analysis, Statistical Accounts have been introduced alongside dimensions. Statistical accounts allow users to enter numerical data for general ledger (G/L) transactions, facilitating comprehensive analysis. Additionally, the G/L Settlement feature simplifies the reconciliation tasks by enabling bookkeepers to apply general ledger entries.
Continuing their efforts to enhance inventory features, Business Central has made improvements to setup and demo data, simplifying configuration and providing a better data migration process. The focus is on seamless processes across various areas, including the development of warehouse and item tracking capabilities.
Moreover, this release includes several customer-requested improvements and feature enhancements. These additions have been implemented based on ideas submitted by the community through the aka.ms/bcideas page.
Application:
Add more columns to pages for better insight :
Business value
Different businesses and users need different information to complete business processes. Personalization is a powerful tool that lets people tailor the information that pages contain by dragging fields or columns from a list to the page. Based on feedback from our community, Microsoft has added more fields and columns to choose from on several pages.
Feature details
The Gen. Bus. Posting Group, Gen. Prod. Posting Group, VAT Bus. Posting Group, and VAT Prod. Posting Group fields can be added by personalizing the Lines FastTab on the following sales and purchase documents:
- Purchase orders
- Purchase invoices
- Purchase quotes
- Blanket purchase orders
- Purchase return orders
- Posted purchase credit memos
- Posted purchase invoices
- Purchase order archive
- Purchase quote archive
- Purchase return order archive
- Sales orders
- Sales invoices
- Sales quotes
- Sales credit memos
- Blanket sales orders
- Sales return orders
- Posted sales credit memos
- Posted sales invoices
- Sales order archive
- Sales quote archive
- Sales return order archive
- Service invoice lines
- Service invoices
- Service credit memos
- Service credit memo lines
- Posted service credit memos
- Posted service invoices
The Inventory Value Zero field is available through personalization on the Item Template and Item Card pages.
The Source No. and Source Type fields are available through personalization on the Item Ledger Entries page.
The Vendor Order No. field is available through personalization on the Purchase Orders page.
The Your Reference field is available through personalization on the following sales and purchase documents:
- Sales orders
- Sales invoices
- Sales quotes
- Purchase order
- Purchase orders
- Purchase invoices
- Purchase quotes
The following fields are available through personalization on the Bin Content page:
- Pick Quantity (Base)
- ATO Components Pick Qty (Base)
- Negative Adjmt. Qty. (Base)
- Put-away Quantity (Base)
- Positive Adjmt. Qty. (Base)
- Available Qty. to Take
- Cross-Dock Bin
The Shipment Date field is available through personalization on the Inventory Picks page. The Expected Receipt Date is available through personalization on the Inventory Put-aways page.
The Assigned User ID is available through personalization on the Inventory Picks, Inventory Put-away, Inventory Movement pages.
Avoid document number errors when you post item journals:
Business value
To avoid or fix errors related to the order of document numbers when you post item journals, you can use the Renumber Document Numbers action before you post.
Feature details
On the Item Journals page, the Document No. field is editable so that you can specify different document numbers for different journal lines, or the same document number for related journal lines.
If a number series is specified in the No. Series field on the item journal batch, document numbers for individual or grouped lines must be in sequential order when you post an item journal. If they aren’t, you can’t post the journal. To avoid problems with posting, you can use the Renumber Document Numbers action on the Item Journals page before you post the journal. If related journal lines were grouped by document number before you used the action, they’ll stay grouped but might be assigned a different document number.
The Renumber Document Numbers action also works on filtered views.
Bin Code and Zone Code fields are dynamically shown on warehouse documents:
Business value
When you set up warehouse locations for the processes your warehouse requires, your settings show the fields that make sense for your processes and hide those that don’t. The Bin Mandatory toggle is one of those settings. When you require bins, your warehouse employees need access to the Bin Code and Zone Code fields on all relevant warehouse documents. Having those fields readily and consistently available makes it easier for warehouse workers to do their jobs and make fewer mistakes.
Feature details
Depending on whether you turn on the Bin Mandatory toggle for a location, the following documents include the Bin Code and Zone Code fields:
- Warehouse receipt header
- Warehouse receipt lines
- Warehouse put-away lines
- Warehouse shipment header
- Warehouse shipment lines
- Warehouse put-away lines
Catalog items use standard number series, can include in blanket sales orders:
Business value
It’s now easier for businesses to manage catalog items. In addition to adding catalog items to sales orders and quotes, you can assign them to blanket sales orders.
Feature details
Catalog items are items that you don’t manage in Business Central until you sell them. When you use the Select Catalog Item action to add a catalog item to a line on a sales order, quote, and now also a blanket sales order, the catalog item is converted to a regular item.
You can decide how to convert vendor item numbers to the item numbering structure that you use. You can use the number series defined in the item template that is assigned to a catalog item, or use the number series defined in the Item No. field on the Inventory Setup page. The number series defined on the item template takes priority.
Specify how to convert catalog item numbers to your numbering system
Before you can convert a catalog item to a normal item, you must specify how to convert vendor item numbers to your item numbering system. To do that, on the Catalog Item Setup page, fill in the No. Format field with the option you prefer.
Add catalog item to a blanket sales order and convert it to a normal item
- On the Blanket Sales Orders page, choose the New action.
- On the General FastTab, fill in the fields as you would for any blanket sales order.
- On a new sales line, in the Type field, select Item, but leave the No. field empty.
- Choose the Line action, and then choose the Select Catalog Items action.
- On the Catalog Items page, select the catalog item that you want to sell, and then select OK.
The catalog item is converted to a normal item. A new item card prefilled with information from the catalog item and a relevant item template is created.
Define an invoice posting policy for various users:
Business value
Different companies often have unique processes for invoices and shipments. For example, processes can vary from one person posting everything on a purchase order to multiple employees, each working with their own pages. A new setting on the User Setup page lets you specify how each user can process invoices.
Feature details
To restrict users from posting invoices or require that invoices are posted together with shipment or receipts, on the User Setup page, in the Sales Invoice Posting Policy and Purch. Invoice Posting Policy fields, choose one of the following options:
Allowed (Default): Keep the current behavior, where a user can choose the posting option, such as Ship, Invoice, and Ship and Invoice.
Prohibited: Prevent the user from posting invoices. Business Central will show a confirmation dialog that provides only the Ship or Receive options.
Mandatory: Allow the user to post invoices together with receipts or shipments. Business Central will show a confirmation dialog with the Ship and Invoice or Receive and Invoice options.
The setting affects the following documents:
- Sales orders
- Sales return orders
- Purchase orders
- Purchase return orders
- Warehouse shipments
- Inventory picks
- Inventory put-aways
Define content of created warehouse documents with filters:
Business value
You can provide more information for your warehouse team by defining filters on fields on source document lines when you create inventory put-away, pick, and movement documents. The additional information lets you be more specific about the actions to take in the warehouse.
Feature details
Microsoft added more filters to the Create Inventory Put-away/Pick/Mvt batch job. In addition to the source document type and number, you can filter by location, item, job task, and production order line. The extra filters let you be more specific when you create inventory pick and put-away documents for the team in your warehouse.
You can also filter source document lines by date.
- Purchase orders and purchase return orders: The Planned Receipt Date of the purchase line.
- Sales orders and sales return orders: The Shipment Date of the sales line.
- Job usage: The Planning Date of the job planning line.
- Outbound transfer orders: The Shipment Date of the transfer line.
- Inbound transfer orders: The Receipt Date of the transfer line.
- Production output: The Due Date of the production order line.
- Production consumption: The Due Date of the production order component line.
- Assembly consumption: The Due Date of the assembly line.
Demo tool and data for warehouse and inventory scenarios:
Business value
To help partners demonstrate the advanced capabilities of Business Central, Microsoft made a demo tool that provides setup and data for warehouse and inventory scenarios.
Feature details
The Contoso Coffee app provides a demo tool and a related set of demo data for warehousing scenarios. You can install the extension in any environment. Presales specialists can run the tool on Cronus or MyCompany and get the setup and demo data needed to demonstrate various scenarios. For Business Central on-premises, the demo tool and data are available on the product media as source code.
The Contoso Coffee app provides three locations that are optimized for different scenarios:
- SILVER: This location is configured to use bins. It can be easily configured to support basic or advanced warehouse flows.
- YELLOW: This location uses the advanced warehouse configuration, but doesn’t use bins. It can be reconfigured to support basic configurations.
- WHITE: This location uses the advanced warehouse configuration with directed put-aways and picks. Directed put-aways and picks let businesses use rules to control how items move throughout a warehouse.
Scenarios
The Contoso Coffee warehousing demo data supports the following scenarios for testing and training:
- Walkthrough of inbound and outbound flow in basic warehouse configurations.
- Walkthrough of inbound and outbound flow in mixed warehouse configurations.
- Walkthrough of inbound and outbound flow in advanced warehouse configurations with directed put-away and pick.
To learn more about the Contoso Coffee extension, go to Introduction to Contoso Coffee Demo Data.
Easier to create opening balances for item tracked inventory:
Business value
Businesses can easily move the inventory they track with serial and batch numbers into Business Central.
Feature details
As the flow of goods in today’s supply chain becomes more complex, keeping track of items is increasingly important for businesses. For example, monitoring an item’s transaction flow is a legal requirement in the medical and chemical supply industries. Other businesses might want to monitor products with warranties or expiration dates for customer service reasons.
In this release wave, Microsoft has simplified the first steps, such as creating opening balances for items where item tracking is required. Because you can choose different warehouse configurations, there are two new options:
- You can enable specific batches on the Item Journal page to let people enter serial, lot, and package data directly on journal lines.
- For locations where the Directed Put-away and Pick toggle is turned on, you can use the Warehouse Physical Inventory Journal page to make all item tracking fields available. The fields that are available now include the Warranty Date and Expiration Date fields.
Item journal
- Search for the Item Journals page, and then choose the related link.
- Choose the Name field to open a list of item journal batches.
- Choose New to create a new batch, and then turn on the Item Tracking on Lines toggle.
- Choose OK to select the batch you created.
- Fill in the fields on the item journal line as necessary. Notice that the Lot No., Serial No., Expiration Date, Warranty Date, and Package No. fields are available (if the feature is enabled).
- Choose the Post action to adjust inventory.
Warehouse physical inventory journal for locations where directed pick and put-away is turned on
- Search for the Warehouse Physical Inventory Journal page, and then choose the related link.
- Fill in the fields on the item journal line as necessary. Notice that the Lot No., Serial No., Expiration Date, Warranty Date, and Package No. fields are available (if the feature is enabled).
- Choose the Register action to make the inventory adjustments. Remember that you’ll need to synchronize the adjusted warehouse entries with the related item ledger entries. To learn more, go to synchronize the adjusted warehouse entries.
For bulk import, you can use configuration packages to import data to the journals.
You can’t use Edit in Excel to create journal lines with tracking information.
Easier to set up price synchronization for Shopify:
Business value
Based on user feedback, Microsoft released the next set of improvements related to synchronization of product prices from Business Central to Shopify.
Feature details
When defining the prices to export to Shopify, the following settings affect what’s displayed to the buyer:
| Field | Description |
| Customer Price Group | Determine the price for an item in Shopify. The sales price of this customer price group is used. If you don’t specify a price group, the price on the item card is used. |
| Customer Discount Group | Determine the discount to use when calculating the price of an item in Shopify. Discounted prices are shown in the Price field, and the full price is shown in the Compare at Price field. |
| Allow Line Disc. | Specifies whether a line discount is allowed when calculating prices for Shopify. This applies only for prices on item cards. Prices defined for customer price groups have their own toggle on lines. |
| Prices including VAT | Specifies whether the prices calculate for Shopify Include VAT. Learn more at Set up Taxes. |
| VAT Business Posting Group | Specifies which VAT. Bus. Posting Group to use to calculate the prices in Shopify. Use the same value that you use for domestic customers. Learn more at Set up Taxes. |
| Currency Code | Enter a currency code only if your online shop uses a different currency than the local currency (LCY). The specified currency must have exchange rates configured. If your online shop uses the same currency as Business Central, leave the field empty. |
The following list describes other improvements:
- With the exception of the currency code, all settings are available on the Price Synchronization tab.
- To make it easier to set up the integration, Microsoft removed the dependency on the Customer template and the Gen. Bus. Posting Group field.
- Microsoft added the Sync Prices action to the Shopify Shop Card so it’s easier to start a manual update after you change settings—for example, if you select a different customer discount group.
Intercompany posting provides a one-stop-shop setup experience:
Business value
Intercompany posting lets you manage accounting activities for a group of companies. Setting up the workflows and relationships between the companies can be complicated, so to make it easier to get started Microsoft has consolidated the various steps into a single page. Plus, Microsoft has added a validation that helps you find things you might have missed in your setup.
Feature details
Intercompany posting has a new Intercompany Setup page that gives you an improved overview of your setup, and gives you fast access to various setup and task pages. In the online version of Business Central, you can validate your intercompany posting setup to determine whether you’ve missed any settings across partner companies.
Microsoft has improved intercompany posting in the following ways:
- Manage your intercompany setup on one page that includes intercompany partners, an intercompany chart of accounts, and intercompany dimensions.
- Handle bank transactions on the IC General Journals page.
- IC general journals are included on the G/L Register page.
- The experience when working with the intercompany inbox and outbox is smoother, and the Handled Inbox now lets you open documents.
- Role Center cues are added to give an overview.
New Business Central customers can search for Intercompany Setup to find the new setup page. Existing customers with upgraded tenants can turn on Feature Update: Automatically accept intercompany general journal transactions on the Feature Management page to make the page available.
Navigate easier between warehouse and inventory documents:
Business value
Warehouse documents such as put-aways and picks typically aren’t standalone. They’re almost always generated by the need to receive something for a purchase order, ship something for a sales order, or move something for a transfer order. To provide insight into the warehouse work that’s associated with an order, you can quickly access warehouse documents directly from the order.
Feature details
The first column is clickable on various pages
You can use the Return shortcut or double-click to open a document in several lists. The new Show Document action with the Return shortcut replaces the Card action with Shift+F7 shortcut on the following pages:
- Warehouse Activity Lines
- Warehouse Activity List
- Sales List
- Purchase List
- Service Document Registers
- Production Order List
- Sales List Archive
- Returns-Related Documents
- Service Contract List
- Purchase List Archive
- Service List
- Whse. Receipt Lines
- Whse. Shipment Lines
Go to Warehouse Pick/Put-away from the source documents
To make it easier to get to details about what’s happening in the warehouse, you can open warehouse put-away or pick documents right from purchase, transfer, and sales documents. The following table provides an overview of the pages where the actions are available.
| Page | Action |
| Transfer Order | Warehouse Put-away/Pick Lines |
| Transfer Orders | Warehouse Put-away/Pick Lines |
| Purchase Order | Warehouse Put-away Lines |
| Purchase Order List | Warehouse Put-away Lines |
| Purchase Return Order | Warehouse Pick Lines |
| Purchase Return Order List | Warehouse Pick Lines |
| Sales Order | Warehouse Pick Lines |
| Sales Order List | Warehouse Pick Lines |
| Sales Return Order | Warehouse Put-away Lines |
| Sales Return Order List | Warehouse Put-away Lines |
| Service Order | Warehouse Pick Lines |
| Service Orders | Warehouse Pick Lines |
Post multiple transfer orders at the same time:
Business value
Instead of posting individual transfer orders one by one, you can select multiple non-posted documents in a list to post them immediately or in a batch according to a schedule, such as at the end of the day. For example, this can be useful if only a supervisor can post documents created by other users, or to avoid system performance issues that might happen if you post during work hours.
Feature details
To batch-post multiple transfer orders
The following procedure explains how to post transfer orders in a batch.
- Search for the Transfer Orders page, and then choose the related link.
- On the Transfer Orders page, select the orders to post.
- In the No. field, open the context menu and choose Select More.
- Select the checkbox for the lines for each order that you want to post.
- Choose the Posting action, and then choose Post Batch.
- On the Batch Post Transfer Order page, fill in the fields as necessary.
For transfer orders that use an in-transit location, you can choose either Ship or Receive. Repeat this step if you need to do both. For orders where Direct Posting is turned on, both options work in the same way and post the order completely.
- Select OK.
- To view potential issues, open the Error Message Register page.
To create a job queue entry for batch posting of sales orders
Alternatively, you can use the job queue to schedule posting to happen at a time that’s convenient for your organization. For example, it might make sense for your business to run certain routines when most of the data entry is done for the day.
The following procedure shows how to set up the Batch Post Transfer Orders report to automatically post direct transfer orders at 4 PM on weekdays.
- Search for the Job Queue Entries page, and then choose the related link.
- Choose the New action.
- In the Object Type to Run field, select Report.
- In the Object ID to Run field, select 5707, Batch Post Transfer Orders.
- Select the Report Request Page checkbox.
- On the Batch Post Transfer Orders request page, choose the Ship option, filter on Direct Transfer, and then select OK.
Important
It’s important to set filters. Otherwise, Business Central will post all documents, even if they aren’t ready. Consider setting a filter on the Status field for the value Released, and a filter on the Posting Date field for the value ..today. For more information, see Sorting, Searching, and Filtering.
- Select all checkboxes from Run on Mondays to Run on Fridays.
- In the Starting Time field, enter 4 PM.
- Choose the Set Status to Ready action.
Transfer orders that are within defined filters will now be posted every weekday at 4 PM.
Preview item journals and 20 other journals and documents before posting:
Business value
The Preview Posting action helps you avoid mistakes by giving you the chance to review the types of entries that will be created when you post item journals or other inventory documents before you commit the changes to your database.
Feature details
When you post item journals or other warehouse documents, such as inventory picks and put-aways and warehouse shipments and receipts, you create different types of G/L entries. The following are examples:
- Item entries
- G/L entries
- Value entries
- Warehouse entries
To avoid mistakes upfront, use the Preview Posting action on journals and documents to review the types of entries that you’ll create before you post them.
List of pages where Posting Preview was added:
- Warehouse Shipment
- Transfer Order
- Assembly Order
- Production Journal
- Warehouse Receipt
- Item Journal
- Inventory Pick
- Item Reclass. Journal
- Job Journal
- Phys. Inventory Journal
- Output Journal
- Inventory Put-away
- Consumption Journal
- Physical Inventory Order
- Revaluation Journal
- Invt. Shipment
- Invt. Receipt
- Recurring Job Jnl.
- Capacity Journal
- Recurring Consumption Journal
- Recurring Capacity Journal
Review general ledger accounts faster:
Business value
During the process of closing a period, it’s often necessary to go through all transactions for a G/L account to ensure they’re correct. The G/L Review action makes the review process faster and easier.
Feature details
To speed up the period-end process of reviewing and reconciling G/L accounts, you can review the G/L entries for G/L accounts and mark the entries as Reviewed.
Setting up G/L account reviews is easy. On the G/L Account Card page for each account, specify how to allow reviews in the Review Policy field.
| Review Policy | Description |
| None | You can’t mark entries for the account as reviewed. For example, use this option for accounts such as payables, receivables, and bank accounts where there are other ways to review their amounts. |
| Review allowed | You don’t have to include entries in a review, and the amounts of the debit and credit entries don’t have to balance. You remove a review, for example, if you’ve made a mistake. |
| Review allowed and match balance | The total amounts of the debit and credit entries in the review must match. The Debit and Credit fields show those amounts, and the Balance field shows the total. This setting also lets you remove a review. When you remove a review from one or more entries, the debit and credit entries must still balance. |
To start a review, from the Chart of Accounts page, select a G/L account and then choose the Review Entries action. You can also open the Ledger Entries page for the account and choose Review Entries.
If you’re upgrading or have migrated, you can review in bulk to mark all entries that were posted before a given date as reviewed.
Set default dimensions on locations, inventory documents, and journals:
Business value
Dimensions are values that categorize entries so you can track and analyze them using various reporting tools. For example, dimensions can indicate the department or project an entry came from. Having default dimensions on entities helps people avoid making mistakes and having to enter dimensions manually on the transaction level if all goods come from a single location and department.
Feature details
In this release Microsoft completes the Default Dimension on Location feature they introduced several releases ago.
You can set default dimensions for a location on the Location Card page by choosing the Dimensions action. When you choose the location on a line in one of the following documents, its default dimensions are copied to the document:
- Transfer Order
- Physical Inventory Order
- Inventory Shipment
- Inventory Receipt
- Item Journals
If needed, you can delete or change the dimension on the line.
You can require that people specify dimensions for specific locations before they can post an entry. You can also include location dimension values in Default Dimension Priorities and Dimension Combinations for combinations of priority and dimension rules.
Because transfer order documents and reclassification journals deal with more than one location, the order in which you enter data is important. Default dimensions are copied from the last location field (In-Transit Location is ignored). The following examples illustrate the default dimension that will be used.
You have the following dimension settings:
- Location EAST. Department dimension is ADM
- Location WEST. Department dimension is PROD
You specify the location on a transfer order as follows:
- From Location = EAST
- To Location = WEST
The PROD dimension will be copied from location WEST.
You fill in the fields in the opposite order, as follows:
- To Location = WEST
- From Location = EAST
The ADM dimension will be copied from location EAST.
Set up and sync master data across companies:
Business value
Business Central makes it easy to move one company’s setup to another company in the same environment. You can also synchronize master data between the companies.
Feature details
Master data management is intended for scenarios where you want to move the setup in one company to another company in the same environment. It’s also built as a data synchronization engine that lets you keep data in the companies synchronized after the initial move.
The following capabilities are added for managing master data:
- Moving master data works when a company subscribes to data from another company.
- You can define the tables and fields to synchronize. For more control over the synchronization, you can filter on table records. You can also set up more advanced synchronization couplings.
- Changes in the main company are immediately pulled to the receiving companies by the job queue.
- Users in the receiving company can review synchronization logs.
- You enable the master data management feature from the Master Data Management Setup page, where you can also access the synchronization tables and logs, and can initiate synchronizations.
Ship and receive non-inventory items on warehouse documents:
Business value
Warehouse employees can ship and receive non-inventory items, such as insurance or cost, on sales or purchase orders along with the physical goods on the orders.
Feature details
Sales and purchase orders often have various types of things on their lines. For example, they might have general ledger items, accounts, and fixed assets. For configurations where you handle physical goods in warehouse documents, such as inventory put-aways, warehouse receipts, inventory picks, or warehouse shipments, you can also post some types of non-inventory items. In the previous version, you had to post non-inventory items separately.
Microsoft has added two capabilities:
- Post all non-inventory lines on the source document as soon as at least one item is posted by the warehouse document.
- Post non-inventory lines of the source document linked to the item through the Attached to Line No. field when the item is posted by a warehouse document.
To start using this feature in the inbound warehouse flow, fill in the Auto Post Non-Invt. via Whse. field on the Purchase & Payables Setup page.
To start using this feature in the outbound warehouse flow, fill in the Auto Post Non-Invt. via Whse. field on the Sales & Receivables Setup page.
For the attach scenario, you must attach non-inventory lines to physical items in the sales or purchase document by using the Attach to inventory line action.
Shopify connector becomes extensible:
Business value
Tailor Shopify Connector to address the specific needs of your business.
Feature details
Shopify Connector has been nonextensible, but Microsoft changed that. Microsoft is offering a few points of extensibility. Now they will keep the number of points to a minimum so Microsoft can follow the rapid development on the Shopify side without introducing breaking changes.
Microsoft’s opening for extensibility for specific scenarios, based on feedback from our partners and customers. Please share your scenarios as comments to the following product suggestion: Allow extensibility of the new Shopify Connector Extension.
For more details, please follow this repository on GitHub. Note that even though extensibility is limited, you can submit improvements directly.
Undo transfer shipments:
Business value
Sometimes people post incorrect quantities on transfer orders. For example, you may have made a transfer order with the incorrect number of items and then posted it as shipped, but not received. This feature lets you undo the quantity posting, make the necessary corrections, and then post the correct quantity.
Feature details
If you discover a mistake in a quantity after you’ve posted a transfer order, as long as the shipment isn’t received you can easily correct the quantity. On the Posted Transfer Shipment page, the Undo Shipment action creates corrective lines:
- The value in the Quantity Shipped field is decreased by the quantity you’ve undone.
- The Qty. to Ship is increased by the quantity you’ve undone.
- The Correction checkbox is selected for the lines.
If the quantity was shipped in a warehouse shipment, a corrective line is created in the posted warehouse shipment.
To complete the correction, reopen the transfer order, enter the correct quantity, and then post the order. If you’re using a warehouse shipment to ship the order, create and post a new warehouse shipment.
Usability improvements to Financial Reporting pages:
Business value
Use financial reports to do custom reporting on your general ledger. In this release, the pages are easier to use and provide a more efficient workflow.
Feature details
Microsoft has improved the Financial Reports page, and related pages:
- The Financial Reports list is extended to show row and column analysis views. In most cases, the two analysis views must be identical for row and column for the report to work. If you don’t use analysis views, you can hide these columns.
- The Financial Report page has a Show action that lets you show or hide the Options and Dimensions FastTabs, which leaves more space for the report.
- You can directly access the row and column definitions. You’ll be notified that your changes will affect the use of the financial for all users.
- When you’re working in a financial report, you can access default settings directly by using the Edit Defaults action. Editing defaults is the same as opening the report in edit mode, and your changes will affect all users.
Usability improves for item tracking codes visibility, creation of new entries:
Business value
Productivity increases when processes run smoothly, so Microsoft has improved the usability of tracking codes. For example, you can save a few steps when adding a new entry.
Feature details
Item tracking codes
The Item Tracking Codes page implements a List-Card pair. When you choose the New action, the Item Tracking Codes page opens and shows all fields.
The SN Warehouse Tracking, Lot Warehouse Tracking, and Package Warehouse Tracking toggles are turned on automatically when you turn on SN Specific Tracking, Lot Specific Tracking or Package Specific Tracking. These toggles have no effect until you decide to use advanced features in warehouse management. Turning on these toggles in advance makes it easier to start using more advanced features.
The SN Specific Tracking and Lot Specific Tracking toggles are available by default to help you better understand tracking details without having to open the item card.
Usability improves for transfer order select multiple items, mandatory fields:
Business value
Productivity increases when processes run smoothly, so Microsoft has improved the usability of transfer orders. For example, you can save a step by adding multiple items to the document.
Feature details
The mandatory fields in the header on transfer orders help clarify how to work with the document.
When you’re creating a transfer order, you can use the Select items action on the Lines FastTab to select and add multiple items to the order.
Usability improves for warehouse, inventory, and tracking areas:
Business value
Productivity increases when processes are easy, so Microsoft has improved the usability of several areas within inventory and warehouse management. For example, you can save a step by automatically releasing source documents, and in several places data is easier to access and digest.
Feature details
Based on feedback from our customers, Microsoft made it easier to complete several business processes.
Automatically release documents
Source documents, such as sales orders, purchase orders, and transfer orders, are released automatically when you choose the Create Warehouse Receipt, Create Warehouse Shipment, or Create Inventory Put-away/pick actions on source documents. This saves unnecessary clicks.
These actions are available on the following source documents:
Sales orders
- Sales return orders
- Purchase orders
- Purchase return orders
- Assembly orders
- Service orders
Shipping Details FactBox
The new Shipping Details FactBox on Inventory Pick documents provides details about the shipping address and shipping agent.
Improved experience in warehouse and value entries
The default sorting of data in the Warehouse Entries and Value Entries reports aligns with the Item Ledger Entries report, in that the latest entries display at the top.
On the Warehouse Entries page, the Location Code field is available by default.
The SN No., Lot No., and Package No. fields on the Warehouse Entries page open the Serial No. Information Card, Lot No. Information Card, or Package No. Information Card pages, respectively. You can also use new actions that will open related pages.
Improved Bin Contents page
The Bin Contents page replaces the Item Bin Contents page to unify the experience and give access to more fields. You can add more fields to the Bin Contents page by personalizing it. Regardless of how you get to the page, for example, from the list of bins or from the list of items or item cards, you can do the following:
- Define bin contents.
- Set up default or fixed bins.
- Select units of measure.
- Update minimum and maximum quantities.
Automatically populate tracking details in warehouse pick documents
When selecting serial, lot, or package numbers on a Take line, Business Central updates the tracking details in the related Place line. The related line is identified based on the source document line and quantity.
Package No. field is available on the Physical Inventory List report
The Phys. Inventory List report shows the lines that you have calculated on the Phys. Inventory Journal page. Use this report during physical inventory counts to record the actual quantities on hand in the warehouse and compare them to what’s recorded in Business Central. Turn on the Show Item Tracking Numbers toggle to show lot, serial, and, starting with this release, package numbers.
To work with package numbers, enable the Use tracking by package number in reservation and tracking system feature update on the Feature Management page.
Use advanced warehouse functionality with minimal complexity:
Business value
You can use several features that were previously available only for locations that use directed put-away and pick, which added advanced processes, without adding unneeded complexity.
Feature details
While the complete set of warehouse features has been available in the Essential license for a long time, to use it you needed to enable directed put-away and pick for selected locations. Enabling directed put-away and picks makes advanced warehouse processes available, which might add more complexity than the business needed. In this release, Microsoft has made various features available:
- Zones
- Movement worksheet
- Calculate Bin Replenishment task
- Bin Capacity Policy
- Warehouse class check
- Special equipment in warehouse documents
Zones
In warehousing, bins can be grouped in zones. Each zone can consist of one or more bins. Most properties assigned to a zone will be assigned by default to bins that are created for the zone.
Movement worksheet
Use movement worksheets to plan movements of inventory in your warehouse.
Routine movements are the movements you plan to replenish the bins with the fastest moving inventory. When you calculate bin replenishment, Business Central finds bins with a higher bin ranking that must be replenished from lower ranking bins and creates lines for the movements. You can decide to create movement instructions for all suggested replenishments, or you can delete some of the lines before you create instructions. You might do this if you know that your employees only have time to perform a limited number of movements before the warehouse closes for the day.
Plan movements that wouldn’t usually be suggested. For example, if you want to sample random items from several bins for a quality check or move items to the Open Shop Floor Bin.
After you plan an inventory movement, or edit the suggested replenishments, you can create a movement to send the lines to a warehouse employee so they can take action. For directed put-away and pick locations, Business Central creates a Warehouse Movement document. For others, Business Central creates Inventory Movement documents (which is new).
Special equipment
For locations with bins, you can specify the equipment that you want employees to use when they work with a particular zone, bin, item, or SKU. In the Special Equipment field on the Location Card, choose where Business Central should look for special equipment to be used in warehouse activities such as warehouse put-aways, picks, or movements.
Bin capacity policy
Bin capacity policies define how Business Central handles bin capacity in cubage and weight. You can define the Max Cubage and Max weight on the bin. For item units of measure, Business Central calculates cubage based on the Length, Width, and Height fields, and the weight based on value in the Net Weight and Qty. per Unit of Measure fields on the Item Card page.
Warehouse class
You can assign a warehouse class code to a zone, bin, or item. You can turn on the Check Warehouse Classes toggle on the Location Card page for any location that uses bins. Business Central ensures that each item is stored only in bins that have the same warehouse class.
Warehouse setup
Microsoft gave the Warehouse Setup page a hidden improvement. The Require Shipment, Require Receipt, Require Pick, Require Put-away toggles are removed from the page, making sure the user focuses on the important fields. The fields allow warehouse handling with a blank location, which provides fewer capabilities and less flexibility compared to a normal location. They can also become a blocker if a company decides to use multiple locations. Our recommendation is to always use a location code.
Use enhanced mail merge with Word templates:
Business value
Creating emails or documents based on Word templates saves businesses time and resources. For example, rather than creating individual communications for each customer or vendor, they can create the same communication for all of them. Emails or documents based on Word templates ensure consistency in messaging and branding, which can help establish strong brand identity and recognition. Emails and documents based on Word templates are templated, but businesses can personalize them by including customer-specific information. For example, their name, order history, or preferences. This can help build stronger relationships with customers and increase customer loyalty.
Templated emails and documents can be used for marketing and sales purposes, such as promoting new products or services, offering discounts, or announcing upcoming events. This can help increase customer engagement and drive sales.
Feature details
You can create Word templates and apply them by choosing the Apply Word Templates action for specific customers, vendors, and contacts, or for specific interactions that you have with them. You can:
- Add multiple levels of related and unrelated tables for a selected record to make data in Business Central available for use in Word templates by choosing the Add unrelated entity action on the Word Templates Related Entities page.
- Change prefixes for related and unrelated entities in the Prefix column. Specifying prefixes makes it easier to work with merge fields in Word templates because it’s easier to determine the Business Central table that the data is coming from.
- Pick the fields to include or exclude for base, related, and unrelated tables to limit the amount of fields that appear on the Insert Merge Fields menu in Word. Word currently supports up to 250 merge fields.
- Include standard calculated fields, such as formal and informal salutations, in the list of fields in the Insert Merge Field menu in Word.
- Use calculated fields to help make communications more personal, and unrelated entities that allow for more consistency when sending templated emails or documents.
Use statistical accounts to collect data for financial reports:
Business value
Businesses can significantly improve their analyses on G/L data by using additional statistical metrics. You can define statistical values and register them in a separate ledger so that you can analyze the data.
Feature details
When posting G/L transactions, the Quantity field alone doesn’t provide much data for statistics and data analysis for the transactions. More data is often needed to increase the relevance of reports.
Statistical accounts improve analyses and progress tracking by letting you add a number-based statistical value to a separate ledger. For example, you might want to add the following information to clarify values on reports:
- Square meters in your building for tracking rental expenses.
- Number of full-time employees.
- Customers served for a given marketing spend.
You register the values for the statistical account in Statistical Accounts Journals, and then find the values in the statistical accounts ledger entries page or by going to the ledger entries for an account from the Statistical Accounts list.
Usability improves for Shopify Connector:
Business value
Business Central has teamed up with Shopify to help our customers create a better online shopping experience. Shopify provides merchants with an easy-to-use e-commerce solution, and Business Central offers comprehensive business management across finance, sales, service, and operations teams in a single application. The seamless connection between the two systems synchronizes order, stock, and customer information to ensure that merchants can fulfill orders faster and better serve their customers. The joint effort furthers the commitment of Business Central to connect data to help businesses adapt faster, work smarter, and perform better.
Feature details
In this release wave, Microsoft has made improvements in the user interface based on feedback from customers and to address changes in the Shopify platform.
Switch from configuration templates to item and customer templates
To create customer or item data quickly and accurately, use templates to standardize settings for new records. For example, standard settings help ensure that posting and reporting are set up correctly, so that productivity isn’t interrupted when people are entering data.
Configuration templates require technical expertise and aren’t always easy to use. Instead, you can switch to simpler item and customer templates that make it easier to create item and customers from list pages, or convert contacts to customers.
Control whether to release created sales document automatically
If you prefer to release sales documents manually—for example, because ordered items are not available for shipping yet—you can use the new Auto Release Sales Order toggle to control the behavior of the system.
Shopify actions in the Item Card and Item List
The Add to Shopify shortcut works similarly to the Add item to Shopify task and adds selected item to the Shopify Shop. If several shops are configured, the connector will ask you to select the target shop.
Shop product in Shopify opens the product page in the Shopify shop.
Item marketing text as part of product description
For any item registered in Business Central, you can write marketing text about the item. Although marketing text is a kind of a description, it’s different than the item’s Description field. The Description field is typically used as a concise display name to quickly identify the product. The marketing text, on the other hand, is a more rich and descriptive text. Its purpose is to add marketing and promotional content, also known as copy. This text can then be published with the item if it’s published on a web shop, like Shopify.
There are two ways to create the marketing text. The easiest way to get started is to use Copilot, which suggests AI-generated text for you. The other way is to start from scratch.
Enable the Sync Item Marketing Text toggle to specify whether you want to synchronize marketing texts to Shopify.
Changes in Shopify API affect how order source is displayed
The Source Name field is not populated by Shopify anymore. It’s replaced with:
- App Name: The name of the app used by the channel where you sell your products. A channel can be a platform or a marketplace such as an online store or POS.
- Channel Name: The name of the channel where you sell your products. A channel can be a platform or a marketplace such as an online store or POS.
You can use Channel Name in Sync Orders from Shopify.
There is no data upgrade. All orders will have Source Name populated, while the new orders will use new fields.
Export customers to several shops
You can now export Business Central customers to the Shopify shops. The new Shop ID field was added.
Use attachments from document lines while sending emails:
Business value
Adding attachments from source document lines makes it easier to provide more information or clarification to customers or suppliers about the order details, such as requirements, guidelines, instructions, or terms. It also enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty by showing professionalism and transparency while improving communication and collaboration in the order fulfillment process.
Feature details
When adding attachments to an email you are sending, you can easily include files from document lines by choosing Add file from source document on the Email editor page.
Click OK on the Related Attachments page to add the selected attachments to the email you’re drafting.
You can review the attachments in the email draft and their file size in the Attachments part of the Email editor page.
Synchronize returns and refunds from Shopify:
Business value
In an integration between Shopify and Business Central, it’s important to be able to synchronize as much business data as possible. That makes it easier to keep your financials and inventory levels up to date in Business Central. Microsoft has expanded the data you can synchronize to include returns and refunds that were recorded in Shopify Admin or Shopify POS.
Feature details
You import the returns and refunds that you record in Shopify to Business Central when you synchronize orders.
Setup
The Shopify Shop Card page has a new Return and Refund Processing tab, where you define locations for returns and G/L accounts for refunds for goods and other refunds.
You can also specify how you’ll process returns and refunds:
- Blank specifies that you don’t process returns and refunds.
- Import only specifies that you import information, but you’ll manually create the corresponding credit memo.
- Auto create credit memo specifies that you import information and Business Central automatically creates the credit memos. This option requires you to turn on the Auto Create Sales Order toggle.
Processing
Returns and refunds are imported with their related orders, so you don’t need to import returns them separately. You can go to imported orders from the Role Center, Shopify Shop Card, or from sales orders. Returns are imported for informational purposes only.
The financial and, if needed, inventory transactions are via refunds.
Refunds can include products and amounts.
Adjust exchange rates easily, replace the built-in batch job:
Business value
When companies operate in multiple countries or regions, it’s important that they can do business and run financial reports in more than one currency. Because exchange rates often change, businesses must periodically update the rates in Business Central. This update gives accountants additional control over how they adjust exchange rates. At the same time, partners can now extend and customize the exchange rate adjustment to meet the needs of specific industries or markets.
Feature details
You can now preview the effect that an exchange rate adjustment will have on posting before you actually post by choosing the Preview action on the Adjust Exchange Rates report request page. Specify if you want a detailed posting to the general ledger by entry or a summarized posting by currency. Just pick the Summarize Entries field on the Adjust Exchange Rates report. You can also specify how the adjustment will handle dimensions for unrealized gains and losses postings by choosing one of the following options in the Transfer Dimension Values field:
- Source Entry: G/L entries for unrealized gains and losses will have dimensions values transferred from the entry being adjusted.
- By G/L Account: G/L entries for unrealized gains and losses will have dimensions values transferred from the unrealized gains and losses G/L account’s dimension settings source entry.
- No Transfer: G/L entries for unrealized gains and losses won’t have dimensions values.
Use different general ledger accounts for payables, receivables:
Business value
Sometimes businesses want to post payable and receivable transactions to a different general ledger (G/L) account than the one that is specified on the customer or vendor posting group—for example, in a case where a transaction is for a bad debt. Controllers can define policies for posting these nonstandard transactions, and accountants can change them during posting.
Feature details
You can enable alterations of default customer or vendor posting groups by choosing Allow Alteration of Posting Group on the Sales and Receivable Setup and Service Mgt. Setup pages for customer posting group changes, and the Purchases and Payables Setup page for vendor posting group changes.
On the Customer Posting Groups or Vendor Posting Groups pages, you can specify the posting groups to allow as substitutes by choosing Substitutions. Substitute posting groups can replace the default customer or vendor posting group specified for a customer or vendor.
After you set this up, you can pick among allowed substitute posting groups and change customer or vendor posting groups when posting sales or purchase documents and journals. Changed, non-default, customer or vendor posting groups are copied to posted documents and journals, and payable or receivable G/L entries are posted to the G/L accounts specified for the substitutes.
For example, when you apply an invoice and a payment that are posted with different customer or vendor posting groups, resulting in different G/L accounts, Business Central transfers amounts between the G/L accounts to balance them.
You’ll also be able to run the Suggest Vendor Payments report using a vendor posting group as a criteria for suggesting payments.