Did you know that over 75% of businesses fail and do not maximize the potential of their ERP systems? This shocking statistic highlights the power of keeping yourself updated with the latest ERP features to help your business succeed. By using the new features introduced in Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 2, you’ll have all the essentials for running your business operations smoothly, reducing manual tasks, and milking the power of automation and AI.
As businesses grow, having a powerful ERP system becomes a necessity. This release’s new features focus on enhancing efficiency and simplifying complex processes. The additions and enhancements in Business Central, which include everything from better eCommerce integrations to AI-powered tools, have been designed to facilitate companies in the competitive corporate world.
2024 Release Wave 2 Features in Dynamics 365 Business Central
In the 2024 release of Wave 2 Dynamics 365 Business Central, new features were developed to target user productivity and automation. Microsoft has used the two leading technologies, AI and machine learning, through features available with Dynamics 365 Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central. These will help businesses to make smarter and faster decisions backed by AI.
Let’s take a better look at the functionalities and features in this release:
1. Integration With Shopify
One of the most noteworthy upcoming features is the enhancements offered in integration with Shopify. In today’s digitally advanced economy, having a solid online presence is a must. The new release further augments this integration by adding new features.
The Shopify Shipment Method page now has two more fields: “Shipping Charges Type” and “Shipping Charges No.” These features enable more accurate mapping of shipping fee data to Business Central sales documents.
Moreover, using the original return location for refunds and returns improves the connection between Shopify and Business Central. The connector can locate the original address using the “Return Location Priority” feature.
2. New Subscription Billing and Revenue Recognition Module
This new subscription billing and revenue recognition module is helpful for subscription-based businesses. Managing recurring payments and billing cycles can be difficult, especially when customers have different billing schedules. This feature automates the entire process and assures that billing is always accurate and timely.
In addition, this module handles revenue recognition. You no longer have to worry about manually calculating when revenue should be recognized; the system does it for you and guarantees compliance with international accounting standards. This simplifies financial reporting and gives a clear view of your cash flow and revenue.
3. Copilot Features
AI and automation have all the limelight in the 2024 release Wave 2, mainly owing to Copilot features across Business Central. Here’s how Copilot makes life your life easier:
Create Sales Orders Instantly from Chat
Imagine the power and ease of creating sales orders instantly through chat. That’s precisely the ease that Copilot features in Business Central provides. Copilot uses natural language processing to extract relevant details.
With this feature, users can ask Copilot to locate documents and look for goods on document lines. The “Find document by reference” prompt includes sales blanket orders as source documents.
This feature speeds up the sales process and reduces the potential for errors.
This is very handy for sales teams handling multiple requests simultaneously. You can focus on delivering value to the customer while Copilot takes care of the administrative tasks in the background.
Bank Reconciliation with Copilot
Bank reconciliations can often be difficult, time-consuming, and prone to errors. The “Reconcile with Copilot” feature automatically matches transactions between your bank statements and Business Central’s records, notifying you about any discrepancies for review. This automation saves time and enhances the accuracy of your financial reporting.
Real-time, accurate financial data helps business leaders make proactive and informed decisions. Your finance team can also attend to look after more important tasks, like forecasting and planning.
Streamline Product Information Creation
Maintaining consistent, detailed product information across multiple platforms can be challenging, but it becomes a breeze with Copilot features across Business Central. By reusing data from related products and suggesting variations, units of measurement, substitutions, and dimensions, Copilot helps create and manage product information more efficiently and quickly.
This feature is handy for eCommerce businesses with large product catalogs. Instead of manually updating each product description, Copilot does it for you.
Dynamics 365 CRM Applications in 2024 Release Wave 2
In addition to Business Central, the 2024 Release Wave 2 includes valuable updates to Dynamics 365 CRM applications. These enhancements enrich customer relationship management and field services, making it easier for businesses to connect with customers and improve their operations.
1. Dynamics 365 Field Service New Schedule Board Experience
Field service teams will love the new Schedule Board experience in Dynamics 365. All new users will be moved to the new schedule board experience on October 1, 2024, when the traditional schedule board will be deactivated.
The new board features a working day-of-the-week selector and usability enhancements. The updated schedule board offers a more responsive user interface, shorter load times, and increased usability.
2. Real-Time Journey Forms
New features with real-time journey forms improve contact and lead management by identifying current clients who complete lead forms and avoiding confusion with new leads.
These features let you configure defaults for new forms, link and update lead and contact data, and create sophisticated matches to prevent duplication. Form submissions and predefined default target audience configurations also enable you to update lead and contact data simultaneously.
3. Dynamics 365 Sales Copilot Home Experience
Sales teams will also benefit from the Sales Copilot Home Experience. With its expanded workspace and immersive interface, the Dynamics 365 Sales Copilot home experience enables sellers to access details from multiple records and prioritize their tasks. The wide-screen interface allows sellers to follow instructions, monitor progress, spot important opportunities, prepare for meetings, remain up-to-date with real-time data, and communicate with Sales Copilot.
This feature helps sales teams prioritize their workload and focus on the tasks with the most significant impact.
Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations in 2024 Release Wave 2
The new features in Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 2 encapsulate more than just sales and CRM into finance and operations. It provides businesses with tools to manage complex financial processes efficiently.
1. Advanced Bank Reconciliation Feature
The advanced bank reconciliation feature takes the stress out of managing multiple bank accounts and complex financial transactions.
The updated bank reconciliation statement report has an entire body that contains bank and business reconciled and unreconciled transactions, along with extensive header information with several amount fields.
At reconciliation, a report snapshot is also saved, which lets cash clerks examine data from the snapshot instead of the real-time transaction tables.
2. Enhanced Demand Planning With Copilot
Demand planning is essential for guaranteeing that your business functions efficiently. Copilot in D365 Supply Chain Management improves demand planning by examining changes, trends, irregularities, and other elements affecting demand and displaying the findings in simple language. This enhances financial performance, supply chain operations, and forecast precision.
Hence, with AI’s help, Copilot takes the guesswork out of demand planning, making it easier for businesses to forecast and plan for the future.
3. Trace and Solve Quality Issues With Copilot
Quality control is critical to maintaining customer satisfaction and avoiding costly recalls. With the ability to trace and solve quality issues with Copilot, Field service employees, production managers, and QA managers may efficiently detect problems, delays, and item lifecycles. Users may now dig deeper for additional details and quickly access vital information using Copilot-generated summaries on the Supply Chain Management activity page.
Conclusion
The new features in Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Release Wave 2 provide valuable tools to improve efficiency, reduce manual work, and help businesses make intelligent decisions based on accurate data. Whether you’re striving to automate billing processes or use AI to improve operations, this release has something for everyone.
At Folio3, we understand that implementing these upcoming features can be difficult. Our expert team can customize and deploy Dynamics 365 Business Central solutions that fit your business needs. Whether you’re interested in exploring the features available with Dynamics 365 Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central or need assistance integrating with Shopify, we’ve got your back.
So, if you are ready to enjoy the benefits of Dynamics 365 Business Central, contact us at Folio3 Dynamics 365 Business Central today!
