A Shot of Business Central and A Beer Episode 19
Updated: Aug 17, 2021
A Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central podcast | Episode19 A Shot of Business Central and A Beer
Intro
Welcome back to another episode of A Shot of Business Central and A Beer, presented by Solution Systems, a Gold Microsoft Partner.
To be truthful, this month’s episode should be called A Shot of Business Central, Bourbon, and A Beer podcast. Why? Because our special guest Nirav Shah from To-Increase wanted to help us expand our drinking pallets by bringing in a hard to find bourbon for us to try. So, not only are you going get the latest Business Central news and a beer review in this podcast, we’ve also tried out the Microsoft Teams integration with Business Central, Nirav will talk about To-Increase’s Business Central Apps, and we might even throw in a bourbon review. Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” So let’s get started and get moving forward.
Segments
Intro and Beer Reviews
A Shot of Business Central News
Featured App: Interview with Nirav Shah from To-Increase
Featured Segment: Microsoft Teams Integration
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A Shot of Business Central and A Beer Show Notes
Segment 1: Beer Review
Thoughts
Has that tasty Octoberfest taste.
Lighter than most Octoberfest beers.
One of the things that is a little bit unique about this Sierra Nevada Octoberfest is that they have a different recipe, a different brew, every year.
Over two weeks they estimate that approximately 16 million pints of beer are consumed during the main Octoberfest event in Munich.
They say that there are only 6 local breweries that serve beer at Octoberfest in Munich.
6.0% Alcohol
28 IBU
190 Calories
17.2 Carbohydrates
2.2g protein
BeerAdvocate score of 86
Ratings
Ken: 87
Michael: 88
Nirav: 85
Segment 2: Shot of Business Central News
Release Wave 2
Updates have been rolling out all month.
Details on key new features and timing of release below…
App Source
– now over 1,000 Apps (1,033)
BC UG – some good sessions. Most popular for BC:
Directions (partner conference) scheduled for April (San Diego, CA)
Upcoming webinar
Collection Management & Payments for Dynamics 365 Business Central from iSolutions
The iSolutions application stack makes the time-consuming task of collections management easy with AR automation. You can also process payments easily, securely, and affordably, allowing you to sell how your customers want to buy. Both modules integrate seamlessly within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, ensuring a positive customer experience.
Register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4000987983221340429
Jet Reports Promo
Runs through December 18th.
20% off Jet Reports & Jet Analytics foundation packages
Annual subscription and perpetual licenses, subscription discount is first-year only
50% off Jet Reports & Jet Analytics add-on licenses (new and existing customers)
Annual subscription and perpetual licenses, subscription discount is first-year only
Jet Basics users will be able to upgrade to Jet Reports for the low price of $135/month
Annual subscription discount, breaks out to $135 monthly
Microsoft new information on maintaining apps and per-tenant extensions for Business Central.
Microsoft is providing resources to help app publishers stay current with their update responsibilities
Release plans about what’s new and planned
Access to pre-release bits
BC Partners have access to the next major, next minor, and daily pre-release bits in Docker. These bits can be used to test apps against upcoming updates.
Information about what will be deprecated (See Fields Marked as Obsolete)
Policy definitions and terms
Training and coaching
Microsoft provides a set of tools, training, and documentation to help partners find the info they need to keep up with these responsibilities on continuous integration and continuous deployment. External providers, including ISV Development Centers, MasterVARs, and training centers, can provide in-person training and coaching.
Service notifications
Business Central online will support app and per-tenant extension (PTE) publishers with extra warnings about potential technical incompatibility. If publishers respond to these notifications in due timing and avoid incompatibilities repeatedly, Microsoft will stand with these publishers to help where needed. If a publisher includes a telemetry key in their app, then, starting with 2020 release wave 2, Business Central also provides publishers with telemetry about upgrade failures that happen in production because of issues in the publisher's upgrade code.
Microsoft will notify you about incompatibilities
Fields Marked to be Obsolete
United States
The following fields are marked as ObsoleteState:Pending in the US version.
Definition
Fields marked as Obsolete:Pending
Partner impact: None in the current release, this is just a heads-up that a change is coming.
2020 Wave 2
· Deploying on/around 10/30
· Features divided into the following groups: (76)
o Administration (12)
o Application (21)
o Better with Microsoft 365 (2)
o Country and Regional (4)
o Microsoft Power Platform (3)
o Migrations to Business Central Online (4)
o Modern Clients (10)
o Modern Development Tools (9)
o Seamless Service (11)
· Following features not being deployed in October per online 2020 Wave 2 plan page:
o November 2020
o December 2020
o February 2021
o TBD
· Administration (Admin Center)
o Capacity
§ Database and Storage capacity and availability broken out separately
§ Use and availability of environments and sandboxes
§ List of Tables per environments and size/record counts to analyze database usage
o Operations
§ Shows history of environment renames, restores, and App updates
§ Related to new ability to do a restore of BC to any point in time in the past 30 days (emergency use only)
o Admin – new Dynamics Admin role can be assigned to BC users within the MS CSP portal so that users can access the BC Admin Center page without having to be defined as a Global Admin (which likely would give them a lot more permissions on the MS account than one might want)
· Features
o New “Feature Management” tool – be aware because not all features are enabled as soon as the new release is deployed.
o Enhanced Email document delivery features/capabilities (use users Outlook, etc.)
o Four new system fields are added to all tables:
§ SystemLastModifiedOn, SystemLastModifiedBy, SystemCreatedBy, SystemCreatedOn
o Financial journals background check (new Fact Box on journal pages)
o Ability to reverse posted General Journals or Registers (and apply a new Posting Date, Document No., or reverse signs)
o Bank Rec improvements
· Service/Performance
o Improved page launch performance
o Run a report multiple times without having to reopen the report Request Page
o Run reports on a database replica to improve performance. Parameter set to confirm where to run reports. List of 25-30 reports already set to use the replica (Aged AR, Aged AP, Inventory Valuation)
o Data Retention Policies – limit how long certain log entries remain (Change Log – delete after 6 months, etc.)
Segment 3: Featured App, To-Increase
Interview with Nirav Shah
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Do you have any hobbies? Do you like beer? If so is there a particular type that you prefer? If not, what’s your drink of choice?
2. Is there any background information you can give us as to how the company To Increase came to be and when it started?
3. What product do you offer for Business Central and what problem does it solve?
4. Is pricing something that you can give our listeners now or would you recommend they engage their Microsoft partner and you to determine this?
5. Where can we go to find out more about To Increase and the products and services they offer?
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Ratings
Ken: 97
Michael: 95
Nirav: 98
Nirav: It has to be aged in new charred barrels. They have to be new. The difference in whiskey they’ll reuse barrels from other spirits and age their spirit in there to make the whiskey. In Bourbon it has to be charred and new barrels.
Nirav: All bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon.
Nirav: Business Central, although it has jobs, it has manufacturing, it has service, they’re kind of in their own silos in a sense and what we do is bring it all together for a pure project manager or anybody in management or different players in the organization that look at jobs and need access to jobs to see different aspects of what’s happening. They can see it all within the job at one time. That’s where we make it really easy for the end user.
Ken: So kind of fair to say what you’ve done is you’re taking the standard BC processes, manufacturing, jobs, or services and your adding a layer so to speak or more advanced functionality and integration between them all to provide them all with a clearer picture.
Nirav: (Microsoft Embed Program) We can control a mixture of licenses from our standpoint. We could say that if you’re going to have X number of users that don’t need manufacturing but you need X number of users that do need manufacturing we can configure a unique pricing model.
Segment 4: Feature - Microsoft Teams Integration
Microsoft Teams now has a Business Central app that you can download to create an integration between the two.
Installation
Installation was simple and straight forward but does have the possibility for a few hiccups along the way. For instance:
Changing the Business Central login user
Once logged into the Business Central App through teams I found it impossible to switch users. Tried deleting the app, tried logging out, and each time Teams would automatically log me back in with my previous credentials.
Pasting the Business Central Link
Once the Business Central app was installed in Teams you just paste a url link from the web browser that is running your Business Central cloud and Teams creates the integration and displays the Business Central information.
I had to paste this link 3-5 times at first for it to work.
Functions and Features
Works in both desktop and mobile apps.
What are you able to see in Teams?
You are able to see List Pages and Card Type pages from Business Central.
The List Page type displays records from an underlying table, either as rows and columns or as individual tiles. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-designing-list-pages?tabs=about
The Card Page type displays selected fields from an underlying table. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-designing-card-pages?tabs=about
Pages Tried That Work
General Journals
G/L Account Card
G/L Account Categories
Cash Flow Forecast Card
Account Schedules
Account Schedule
Sales Quotes
Purchase Orders
Contact Card
Vendor Card
Customer Card
Item Card
What can you do with Business Central inside Teams? Sales Quote Example.
Make changes on the page.
Create a new entry.
Delete the information.
Make Order: Convert the sales quote to a sales order.
Make Invoice: Convert the sales quote to a sales invoice.
Copy Document: Copy document lines and header information from another sales document to this document. You can copy a posted sales invoice into a new sales invoice to quickly create a similar document.
Statistics: View statistical information, such as the value of posted entries, for the record.
Dimensions: View or edit dimensions, such as area, project, or department, that you can assign to sales and purchase documents to distribute costs and analyze transaction history.
Comments: View or add comments for the record.
Attachments: Add a file as an attachment. You can attach images as well as documents.
Approvals: View a list of the records that are waiting to be approved. For example, you can see who requested the record to be approved, when it was sent, and when it is due to be approved.
Send by Email: Prepare to mail the document. The Send Email window opens prefilled with the customer’s email address so you can add or edit information.
Print: Prepare to print the document. A report request window for the document opens where you can specify what to include on the print-out.
Release: Release the document to the next stage of processing. When a document is released, it will be included in all availability calculations from the expected receipt date of the items. You must reopen the document before you can make changes to it.
Customer: View or edit detailed information about the customer on the sales document
Contact: view or edit detailed information about the contact person at the customer.
Get Recurring Sales Lines: Get standard sales lines that are available to assign to customers.
Copy Document: Copy document lines and header information from another sales document to this document. You can copy a posted sales invoice into a new sales invoice to quickly create a similar document.
Create Customer: Create a new customer card for the contact.
Create Task: Create a new marketing task for the contact.
Calculate Invoice Discount: Calculate the invoice discount that applies to the sales quote.
Archive Document: Send the document to the archive, for example because it is too soon to delete it. Later, you delete or reprocess the archived document.
Predict Payment: Predict whether the payment for this sales document will be made on time. Predictions are available only if the Late Payment Prediction extension is enabled.
Sales Promotion Report: View the sales promotions that you have set up using the prices option on the sales pull-down menu on the item card. This report can show future sales promotions that have been set up but have not yet occurred, as well as sales promotions that have occurred but have not been deleted.
Customer/Item Statistics: View statistics about what items have been purchased by which customers.
Helpful Resources
Closing
Thanks everyone for listening.
Please subscribe to the podcast, share it, or tell a friend about it.
See you next month!
