Dynamics 365 Business Central: 2023 Release Wave 1 Coming Attractions

With every release of Dynamics 365, Microsoft continues to enhance the usability, accessibility, performance, and reliability of the platform. To help you plan and prepare for what’s coming over the next six months in the Business Central 2023 Release Wave 1 update, here’s a quick rundown of all the new functionalities Microsoft plans to deliver between now and September in Release Wave 1.

Leading off, Business Central will feature improved support for managing multiple companies, including streamlined intercompany transactions and the ability to run general ledger settlements among intercompany entities. It’s also easier to manage accounting tasks across multiple entities.

You will also find it takes less time to onboard customers, and you can automate regulatory compliance tasks. For example, Microsoft is adding support for non-deductible value-added taxes. Your users will also find it easier to work with record lists as they can personalize columns by adding any field from a table, use bulk actions on multiple rows, and get access to more comprehensive list views.

Key Enhancement for Developers

For your developers, they will appreciate the introduction of Visual Studio Code AL Explorer, which offers improved collaboration through GitHub and adds self-service capabilities for administrators to manage apps and their development environments, such as a modernized permissions system that makes it easier to define and maintain permissions.

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Microsoft is also moving Business Central entirely to Visual Studio Code to enhance developer productivity. This will make it easier to create simple, per-customer extensions, and developers get better compiler resource management and code analyzer performance.

Improvements for Your Warehouse and Accounting Teams

Additional updates in Business Central 2023 Release Wave 1 will also make processes easier for your warehouse and accounting teams:

• Approval Workflows—make it easier to automate approval processes, and Microsoft is providing sample apps to help Power Apps users get started.
• Supply Chain—improved optimizations enable you to run your inventory and warehouse processes more efficiently.
• Inventory and Warehouse—improved set-up and demo data make it simpler to configure inventory features, such as item tracking.
• Reporting and Data Analysis—a new mode on list pages enables users to analyze and pivot data directly in the client.
• Accounting Analysis—in addition to Dimensions analysis, you can add data for analytics, using statistical accounts, which lets you enter numerical data for general ledger transactions that you can use for analyses.
• Period-End Processes—it’s now easier to get an overview of progress in the period-end process, and

the G/L settlement feature allows you to apply general ledger entries during reconciliation tasks.

For users just starting out with Power BI reporting, be sure to look for the set of sample files that will be added to aka.ms/bctech. Users can access it directly in PowerBI.com with their Business Central license, customize the files using data from the new API model, or even enhance the model with other data and then use it for reporting.

Another productivity boost will come from Teams as there are now enhanced adaptive cards with an optimized thumbnail view and better permission experience. There’s also a new settings page for configuring security controls for Teams Cards. 

To Learn More

Each of the capabilities above will become available over the next six months. To learn more about the entire set of capabilities that will be delivered, check out the 2023 Wave 1 Release Plan for Dynamics 365 Business Central. And if you need assistance in understanding how the functionality of Business Central can drive your business to operate more efficiently, Velosio is glad to help.