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First Look: Exciting New Features in Microsoft Dynamics Business Central 2024 Release Wave 2 (v25)

Monday, July 29, 2024
Reading time: 5 minutes

Microsoft has recently unveiled a sneak peek into the upcoming Dynamics Business Central 2024 Release Wave 2 (v25), and I couldn’t be more excited to share some of the standout features with you. While this is just a high-level overview from a consultant’s perspective, stay tuned for more detailed blog posts and webinars as we get closer to the release date. For those who want to dive into all the new features, you can find the full release plan here.

New Module: Manage Subscription Billing and Revenue and Expense Recognition

One of the most highly anticipated features in this release is the new module for managing subscription billing and revenue and expense recognition. Historically, setting up recurring invoicing in Business Central has been a manual process, requiring users to create invoices each month. This new feature automates that process, making it easier to handle subscription-based billing. Businesses can now efficiently manage recurring invoices, streamline revenue recognition, and ensure accurate financial reporting.

Additional highlights of this module include:

  • Automated Revenue Recognition: Ensure compliance and accuracy with automated recognition of revenue over time.
  • Expense Recognition: Manage expenses effectively by recognizing them in the appropriate periods.
  • Simplified Billing Cycles: Set up and manage billing cycles for subscriptions with ease.

For more details, check out the full article.

Enhanced Field Service Integration with Service Management

Building on the integration introduced in v24, where we saw the integration between Field Service and Projects, the latest release further enhances the connection between Business Central and Dynamics 365 Field Service. This time, the integration extends to the Service Management module, providing a more logical and streamlined approach. This update ensures that service management operations within Business Central can directly interact with Field Service, improving coordination and efficiency, effectively giving you a choice if you wanted Field Service integrated with Projects or Service Management in Business Central.

With Service Management being a feature of Business Central Premium, this effectively makes it possible to integrate to Field Service irrespective of whether you are using the Essentials or Premium version of the product.

More details can be found in the full article.

New Features in Service Management

Two notable features in the Service Management module include:

  • Item Availability from Field Service Work Orders: This feature allows users to see item availability in Business Central directly from Field Service Work Orders. This real-time information helps optimize work order scheduling and reduce unnecessary costs.
  • Archiving Capabilities: Like existing sales and purchase areas, Service Management now includes automatic document archiving, simplifying record-keeping and ensuring important data is preserved.

Improvements in Project Management

Project management capabilities continue to evolve with several new enhancements:

  • Creating Purchase Orders from Projects: This feature allows users to create purchase orders directly from projects, using a familiar process like the sales area. The intelligent algorithm analyses demand and supply, making recommendations without requiring extensive setup.
  • Warehouse Integration for Projects: Businesses can now use locations configured for directed flows with projects. This integration allows specifying default location codes and managing warehouse configurations more effectively.

Expanded Financial Reporting

Financial reporting is becoming more robust with the introduction of new demo reports in Business Central. These reports serve as ready-to-use templates or can be customized to fit specific business needs. The update includes:

  • Five New Standard Reports: Expand your reporting capabilities with new standard financial reports.
  • New Row and Column Definitions: Combine new definitions to create over 25 unique reports, providing deeper insights into financial data.

For the v25 release the demo reports will only be in the US version, fully mapped to the chart of accounts, in other countries, you would have to map the demo reports to your Chart of Accounts manually for the reports to work. This will be done for us in future releases.

Enhanced Shopify Integration

The integration between Business Central and Shopify has been further refined to manage online sales and payments more effectively. New features include:
  • Tracking Multiple Payment Methods: Easily track various payment methods used during checkout, such as gift cards, credit cards, and PayPal.
  • Accurate Accounting and Reporting: Create customer ledger and general ledger entries to ensure precise financial records.
  • Synchronizing Payment Transactions: View and process imported payment transactions from Shopify orders, simplifying the management of complex payment scenarios.

Other

The last features I didn’t cover in this article you can find links to here and read more about them.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the standout features in the upcoming Microsoft Dynamics Business Central 2024 Release Wave 2 (v25). Microsoft continues to innovate, making Business Central more powerful and user-friendly with each release. As we get closer to the official release, we will dive deeper into these features and more, providing you with comprehensive insights through my blog posts and webinars.

Stay tuned for our next post, where I’ll explore the new development features in this release, followed by more blog posts looking at other changes in the Administration of Business Central. For a complete overview of all the upcoming features, check out the full release plan.

Berny During
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