Thanks to the upcoming Microsoft 2023 first release, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations customers can breathe a sigh of relief. The new and enhanced features in the first wave of this year’s Dynamic 365 updates are certain to bring much-needed improvements in the popular finance and supply chain management solutions that businesses use globally.
From historical data archiving and automated invoice capture to improvements for easy global tax calculation and electronic invoicing, and time-phased forecasting, the Microsoft 2023 First Release for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is all set to take Finance and Supply Chain applications to a whole new level of functionality. What this blog covers are Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and Dynamics 365 Project Operations.
Here’s a sneak peek into all the top features and updates in the Microsoft 2023 first release for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations:
1. Improve System Performance With Historical Data Archiving
a. Archive Finance Data
Archiving historical financial datasets can drastically improve system performance and optimise storage. Reduced datasets can, in turn, boost productivity and efficiency.
With the existing automation in Dynamics 365 Finance, admins can archive past data with more ease, consistency, and safety. On the one hand, this ensures higher cost savings, quicker performance, and improved convenience working with active data; on the other, it also provides easy access to historical data for reporting and analytics requirements.
Public Preview from July 2023
b. Archive Inventory Transactions and Sales Orders
Data archiving is not merely limited to Finance. With Microsoft’s 2023 First Release for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, this feature also appears in Supply Chain Management for inventory and sales transactions. This will help companies use the archival rules to separate historical inventory and sales data from the day-to-day operational data.
The system uses Dataverse to store all historical data that will still be accessible in read-only format so that users can readily access key data from the past. Meanwhile, data archives reduce storage costs and boost system performance while still facilitating daily operational data requirements.
Public Preview from April 2023 | General Availability from June 2023
2. Drive Workflow Efficiency With Fully Automated Accounts Payable With Invoice Capture and Invoice Automation
a. Automated Accounts Payable and Invoice Capture
Manual processing of invoices and data capturing come with their own drawbacks. Not only there is a strong possibility of manual errors and data duplication, but there is also a waste of precious time and associated overhead costs.
To streamline this repetitive and cumbersome task of capturing invoices, Microsoft’s 2023 first release for Finance and Operations brings automation enhancements to invoice capture and accounts payable. This functionality that came to public preview for the Purchase Order (PO) Invoice in the 2022 first release wave now adds support for non-PO invoices and vendor invoice journals. This will unburden businesses from investing significant resources in high-volume accounts payable workflows with continuous intelligent automation that reads and recognises vendor invoices.
General Availability from April 2023
b. Invoice Automation to Process Vendor Invoices During Import
Also, part of invoice automation functionality, this feature automates additional background processing to free up accounts payable staff. This way, they can focus their efforts only on exceptions and errors. It also eliminates errors that may occur during multiple manual steps like applying prepayments, matching and validating invoices, and workflow management.
By processing vendor invoices automatically during import, accounts clerks will no longer have pending vendor invoices in the system, thus expediting the workflow.
General Availability from July 2023
3. Solve Tax Complexities Using Simplified Integration With Tax Solution ISVs
Operating in multiple tax jurisdictions means managing different tax rates and complying with complex tax calculation rules. So, businesses often look for ISV solutions that integrate with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations apps to automate and simplify these processes for time and cost efficiencies, save time, tax compliance, and fewer errors.
With this feature, ISV tax solution providers will have a generic tax calculation API that drastically simplifies tax complexities. It also makes it easier for them to develop their tax solutions and connectors, so Finance and Operations customers have more ISV solutions to pick from.
This tax calculation service provides an extensible tax calculation service that is configurable, Azure connectivity, address validation, and PO tax tolerance validation.
Public Preview from July 2023
4. Automate Electronic Invoicing With Global ISV Last-Mile Connector
Focusing on the impact of tax digitisation and invoice automation on global electronic invoicing, Dynamics 365 Finance already provides end-to-end automated e-invoicing that compiles with regulations in several countries. That said, some authorities still stipulate intermediate certified operators to monitor and validate digital invoices for business transactions.
To streamline this invoicing requirement, the Microsoft 2023 First Release for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations introduces a last-mile connector for global e-invoicing. This connector enables finance managers to automate regulatory e-invoicing workflow for the geographies where authorities require further tax validation from certified third-party regulators. It also extends e-invoicing coverage for non-Microsoft localised countries with access to the popular e-Invoicing exchange frameworks.
Public Preview from April 2023 | General Availability from June 2023
5. Simplify Tax Currency Conversions With Additional Exchange Rate Types
Businesses often need to declare tax payments in the local currency with specific exchange rates. But in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, tax calculations are only based on the transaction currency. The system then converts that amount into the default reporting currency.
This new feature will support more tax-specific exchange rates and automatically converts a transaction currency amount into the required tax amount based on the prevalent exchange rates. As a result, you will have less room for tax errors, and the accountant can better focus on critical tasks.
General Availability from July 2023
6. Reduce Lead Times and Drive Efficiency With Improved Prospect-to-Cash Integration Between Supply Chain Management and Sales
Sales reps, whether they’re in the office or out in the field, need seamless access to the latest Supply Chain Management data for efficient customer engagement and fulfilment. Likewise, account and warehouse managers also need quick access to Sales data for inventory management and proper invoicing. This requires an integrated process and data flow between Dynamics 365 Sales and Supply Chain Management, which was enabled by the dual-write integration between the two Dynamics 365 apps.
Earlier, this prospect-to-cash feature only allowed sales quotations and sales orders to be created separately instead of within the end-to-end workflow. But this enhancement improves on that and brings additional support for seamless data flow between the two systems in real time for better alignment between quotations and sales orders.
This allows all workflow stakeholders to revise sale quotations and state transitions to ensure that sales quotations flow seamlessly between Supply Chain Management and Sales. Not only will this expedite prospect-to-cash workflow, but also ensure better transparency by aligning sales quotations with sales order line pricing. This way, managers can drive efficiencies, reduce lead times, and ensure accuracy in their sales and fulfilment workflows.
Public Preview from April 2023 | General availability from June 2023
7. Prevent Overselling by Making Soft Reservations From Sales Orders
Without a single source of truth for inventory levels, companies can sometimes risk double-booking or overselling. This can keep them from meeting their fulfilment obligations in time, thus, impacting the customer experience and company reputation.
However, this inventory visibility enhancement in the Microsoft 2023 First Release for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations will help companies prevent overselling by allowing users to make soft reservations. Using Supply Chain Management, users can directly make soft reservations from sales orders and trigger them instantly or on a batch. It will also let users track failed soft reservations so further remedial actions are unambiguous and quick. All in all, this feature will provide a scalable service to enable real-time changes in inventory levels as well as visibility across all inventory and sales order data on all channels.
Public Preview from April 2023 | General Availability from June 2023
8. Take Better Control of Projects With Time-Phased Forecasting
Project managers need to track and monitor the project expenses and progress so that they can have better control over its scope and finances.
This key Project Operations capability allows project managers to get a clear view of spending and progress status as well as targets for real-time comparison. With the ability to generate detailed forecasts based on current project expenditure, project managers and owners can compare actual spending with budgeted and forecasted spending. This will allow them to perform earned value analysis to better understand how the project is performing and progressing. Additionally, they will also be able to revise and adjust their budgets based on new information and continue tracking the actual data against the forecasted data.
Public Availability from September 2023
9. Create Quotes, Wins, and Contracts More Easily
Salespeople need an easy and quick way to create quotes with accurate estimates and prices. The more simplified this process is, the faster the project outcomes are delivered.
This feature enhancement will help salespeople do just that. Improvements in Quotes and Contracts will deliver better intuitive grid experiences for easy and quick changing of prices, hours, and resources, along with a visualisation of such changes to the key project metrics like profitability and value.
General Availability from September 2023
10. Improve Project Invoicing Workflow With Usability and Performance Improvements
Projects with large scopes and repeat-lifecycle often involve thousands of transactions involving multiple resource mixes like time, expense, and materials. Creating invoices for all these transactions is critical to ensure fast invoice delivery and smooth project operation.
This feature update will allow project managers to quickly review and validate the resource usage during a project invoicing period. It will also enable them to make necessary corrections to billable hours and chargeable aspects of transactions for greater invoice accuracy. What this does is create a strong business value ensuring a seamless service-centric workflow.
General Availability from September 2023
11. Improve Expense Approval Workflow with the New Expense Mobile App
Sellers, marketers, and other employees may need to spend money on travel and hotel costs, mileage costs and so on while out on the field for business purposes. In order to be compensated for such expenses, they need to catalogue and submit the receipts and get approval from their admins.
This new Expense mobile app will improve that workflow and make it more simplified, flexible, and actionable for field workers as well as admins. While filed workers can itemise expenses and add entries breaking them down into desired granularity like rates and hours, admins can review, approve, and add additional actions to these expense reports in real time. It also provides instant notifications for both admins and field staff for prompt follow-up actions, making the entire expense entry and approval workflow quicker, easier, and effortless.
General Availability from September 2023
12. Do More With Less Leveraging Flexible User Experiences for Time Entry
Project managers and consultants can always get productivity and efficiency benefits when they can do more with less. And an improved user experience in project time entry can deliver just that.
With the Microsoft 2023 First Release for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations comes the feature update for the time entry grid experience that will align it with the new OneGrid control. It will modernise the user experience with added functionality for inline editing for header and time entries and in-table record creation. Moreover, it will support field customisations and enhance usability, accessibility, and extensibility with subsequent feature improvements on the release pipeline.
Public Preview from June 2023 | General Availability from September 2023
What’s Next
Microsoft’s 2023 first release for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations enhances the already advanced functionalities of the popular enterprise resource management solution for complex global organisations. From advanced analytics to streamlined financial management, this release has something for all modern-day businesses. For a more comprehensive view of all the new and enhanced updates for Finance and Operations, read the complete release notes here for Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and Dynamics 365 Project Operations.
Note
The features listed here are planned for release from April 2023 through September 2023. However, the delivery timelines may change, and the listed functionality may not be released. For more information, go to Microsoft policy. Also, read our 2023 first release highlights for other Dynamics 365 applications and Power Platform.
