Business Central Wave 1 Release: Our Highlights

February 25, 2022

An improved customer experience is coming for Dynamics 365 Business Central users! Microsoft upgrades Business Central twice a year – in a Spring and Fall release. In the spring release, there are 48 new features being introduced for Business Central, with 15 of them coming from the Microsoft community through the ideas page! We highlight our favourites below.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Logo

Changing default settings

Two key updates allow for more personalization with the way default settings works. First, this release allows overriding the default bank account displayed on documents such as invoices. Choosing which bank account is listed on sales and service documents can minimize time spent on manual edits. For example, when working with international clients or issuing invoices for different divisions of your company. 

Secondly, default dimensions can be set based on locations. Dimensions are effective way to segment financial data (eg: territories, departments, etc…).   Setting default dimension values associated to a location can streamline how entries are categorized. When the location fields are used in an entry, default dimensions will be copied across journals and documents

Integrations Updates in Wave1 Release

With the Wave1 release, integrations help Business Central users on two fronts. First, to dissolve islands of data, and second, to help users avoid task switching between apps, which are both key in productivity.

Microsoft and Shopify

Now, you can link your Business Central ERP directly to your Shopify eCommerce portal, improving the e-commerce experience. This connector, while previously available through 3rd party add-ons, develops the partnership between Microsoft and Shopify. Its goal is to synchronize your supply chain accounting with customer-facing store. Information that’s in your accounting space can connect to your e-commerce space, eliminating the need for repetitious updates on either end.

Enhanced Integration with Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (Sales CRM)

There has historically been out-of-the-box integration between CRM and ERP; this got even better with an updated way to synchronize sales quotes and orders between Business Central and Dynamics 365 Sales. Orders created in Business Central can flow back into D365 Sales – and vice versa, saving you and your team form switching between apps to get the job done. With bi-directional syncing, tasks originating in either app can be accessible by team members in either platform.

Improved the integration with MS Teams

We know it’s a productivity drain when your users need to go between Business Central to update records and find information and MS Teams for collaboration. In this release, Microsoft addresses context-switching. Now, you will be able to launch, edit, monitor, and modify client records, tasks, and projects directly from compact cards in Teams. Want to make sure your top clients or time-sensitive projects are getting the attention they need? You can pin their Business Central Cards to be able to see and monitor them.

Outlook add-in

As a main communication tool between you and your customers, important client information is often sent through email. This includes things like PDF invoices, customer bids in Word documents, or inventory lists in Excel. The Outlook add-in saves time and reduces app switching by allowing you to connect email attachments to a Business Central record, without leaving Outlook. The add-in will use the contact record in Outlook that matches the sender’s email address from Business Central to identify the customer or vendor in Business Central. The email automatically creates a Purchase Invoice or Sales Order and attaches document from email to the record.

Rollout of these update has already started in certain areas, with the general availability beginning April 1st, 2022. In March, sandbox versions will be available to test. Any questions about what this means for you? Let us know!