Year 2023 has been the year of AI. The buzz created by Microsoft’s investment in Open AI and the speed at which Copilots have disrupted every product across Microsoft stack is just unbelievable. This is certainly beginning of a new revolution in the world of computing. Well now that I have caught your attention, I want to summarise some key advancements introduced in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations platform in year 2023 as the product aged from version 10.0.31 to 10.0.37. This is not a complete list but an appreciation and recognition to the great work being done by Microsoft and it’s product teams to ensure that the value of the applications is maximised and all the latest technological advancements are converted into a value proposition for the customers. I’ll share summary information and links for further deep dives on each area.

• Synapse Link: Microsoft Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse now let you choose data from finance and operations apps. The export to data lake microservice is being depreciated and replaced by Synapse link to export data to data lake. You can enable both finance and operations entities and finance and operations apps tables in Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse . Further details can be found on learn page https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/data-platform/azure-synapse-link-select-fno-data . Tech talk series from Microsoft can be found at https://community.dynamics.com/blogs/post/?postid=9d78569b-b08f-ee11-8179-000d3a4fe8f7

• Unified development environments : In September 2023 Microsoft announced public preview of Unified Development Environments which can be directly deployed from Power platform admin center. Developer environments will utilize the storage-based provisioning model that other Dynamics 365 applications rely upon today. This will be a big game changer for developer experience where X++ development will be enabled using local machine and the developer environment will have same power platform connected infrastructure as Tier 2 environments. For more information refer to link https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/it/2023/09/15/announcing-unified-trial-and-developer-environments-for-dynamics-365-finance-and-operations-apps/ and https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powerplatform/the-public-preview-for-the-unified-experience-is-live/ 

• Copilots for Confirmed purchase orders with changes : Copilot made it’s way in D365 F&O apps. The Confirmed purchase orders with changes workspace helps procurement professional quickly and easily assess, manage, and follow up on changes that are made to purchase orders after they’re confirmed. It uses Copilot to generate natural-language change summaries and draft communications for vendors. To enable Copilot follow the below link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/fin-ops-core/dev-itpro/copilot/enable-copilot

• Demand planning App : In October 2023 , Microsoft announced preview of Demand planning app. The Demand planning app for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is Microsoft’s next-generation collaborative demand-planning solution. This app is powered by best-in-class forecasting algorithms and models, and offers immersive user experiences, intelligent reports, and analytics. The Demand planning app is currently in public preview and is free to use for testing and evaluation purposes. When the application becomes generally available, it will be licensed separately, and there will be an added cost to use it in a production environment. For details refer to link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/supply-chain/demand-planning/demand-planning-home-page

• Invoice capture OCR :Invoice capture solution that automatically creates vendor invoices from digital invoice images. The solution became generally available in September 2023. Invoice capture automates the entire AP invoice-to-pay process using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies called Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). With invoice capture, employees scan invoices as they arrive, OCR extracts critical data, and the system matches invoices with purchase orders, identifies exceptions and data errors, and updates financial records Microsoft fast track tech talk can be found at https://community.dynamics.com/blogs/post/?postid=d1bf7f2f-f15e-ee11-be6f-000d3a55bcf1
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• Expense Management Mobile App : The Dynamics 365 expense management mobile app is developed by using a Microsoft Power Apps canvas app and can be accessed from the Power Apps mobile app. The Dynamics 365 expense management mobile app is a powerful solution that’s designed to simplify and enhance the expense reimbursement process and increase user productivity. More details can be found at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/project-operations/expense/new-expense-mobile-app-overview

• Financial tags : Tags were introduced in the 10.0.32 release of Dynamics 365 Finance. The Financial tags (tags) feature eliminates the need to use document numbers, descriptions, or financial dimensions by letting an organization create and enter up to 20 user-defined fields on transactions. Those fields are then stored on the accounting entries that are created for the transactions. Tag values aren’t stored in any subledger tables, the Customer transactions or Vendor transactions table. For more details where financial tags are supported refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/finance/general-ledger/financial-tag

• Warehouse management only mode : Released in Preview in June 2023 , Warehouse management only mode lets you take advantage of the core warehouse management (WMS) functionality that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management offers while you also continue to take advantage of your existing investments in third-party enterprise resource planning (ERP) and order management systems. Regardless of the ERP or ordering systems that you have in place, you can now quickly deploy our advanced WMS functionality without having to set up or maintain areas of Supply Chain Management that you don’t need. You’re then ready to benefit from advanced WMS features such as automation integration, carrier integration, and the Warehouse Management mobile app. More details can be found at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/supply-chain/warehousing/wms-only-mode-overview

• Attribute based pricing : This feature is currently in preview. The Pricing management module provides price attributes. These attributes let price managers and sales promotion managers mark and group price differentiators that are defined for products, customers, and sales order information, and set up the pricing rules. More details can be found at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/supply-chain/pricing-management/price-attributes-overview

• Dynamics 365 HR infrastructure merge : Microsoft had two separate sets of human resources capabilities on two different infrastructures within Dynamics 365. Dynamics 365 Human Resources and The HR module, which is a legacy set of capabilities that was previously part of our Unified Operations licensing bundle. By merging these capabilities onto the same infrastructure, customers will benefit with all the enhancements that MS have added over the last three years, including improved leave and absence, benefit management, and reporting. Improved extensibility through the Microsoft Power Platform and the ability to extend business logic to personalize screens and forms. Improved deployment, updates, and maintenance with consistency in terms of Application Life Cycle Management, Lifecycle Services, Geographic availability, and more. Read more at https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/it/2021/09/15/merging-of-hr-offerings-brings-capabilities-together-for-customers/

Year 2024 looks more exciting. Below are some key features on the roadmap which will further enhance and strengthen the capabilities of Dynamics 365 business applications:

• Revenue recognition replaced by Subscription billing : In January 2024, the Revenue recognition feature will no longer be available. Customers will be asked to move to the improved Subscription billing functionality. The bundle feature, which is part of revenue recognition, will be replaced and released as a separate feature available in 10.0.36. Read more about how to migrate from Revenue recognition to subscription billing using https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/finance/accounts-receivable/sb-revrecsubbillmigration There are also tech talks from Microsoft FastTrack team on the same topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISj9xncsfqE

• Extended planning and analytics for Dynamics 365 Finance :  Announced in May 2023, Microsoft introduced a fully developed, customer-ready extended planning and analytics solution (xP&A). This solution provides Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance customers with user-friendly and rapidly deployable modern xP&A capabilities. This is expected to become generally available on   December 31, 2023. It seamlessly integrates access to unified, near real-time data innovations powered by the business performance analytics capabilities within Dynamics 365 Finance and incorporates automated insights obtained through recent acquisitions in critical business domains, such as AI-driven spend analytics and process mining. Acterys signed a significant licensing agreement with Microsoft to include Acterys’s  xP&A technology with Microsoft’s Dynamics 365  xP&A offering. https://acterys.com/acterys-licenses-xpa-technology-to-microsoft/. Read announcement by Georg Glantschnig, Vice President, Dynamics 365 ERP Applications at this link https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2023/05/31/introducing-extended-planning-and-analytics-for-dynamics-365-finance/

• Dual Write Asynchronous mode: Expected to come in public preview in Feb 2024. By executing bulk create and update operations in asynchronous mode, you can avoid session timeout problems and delays that can occur with blocking synchronous operations. Read more at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/release-plan/2023wave2/finance-supply-chain/finance-operations-crossapp-capabilities/enable-support-asynchronous-operation-dual-write-functionality

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance premium offerings :  The fresh new year of 2024 will bring with it a multitude of opportunities, challenges, and transformative possibilities for financial leaders navigating the ever-evolving landscape of the global economy. We’re introducing the latest advancements in our enterprise resource planning (ERP) portfolio that address these challenges to simplify how you activate business insights at every level of your organization. The new Dynamics 365 Finance Premium offering will provide an easy way to acquire and deploy advanced business management capabilities.

Read more details at https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2023/12/06/enhance-business-performance-agility-with-microsoft-dynamics-365-finance-premium/

• Changes in release cadence coming from next year : Beginning in 2024, Microsoft is releasing four service updates annually, in February, April, July, and October. There are important changes to preview, update, and servicing durations, and a scheduled update to the preview release build is now standard in every release. As of February 19, 2024, the maximum number of consecutive updates that can be paused is being reduced from three to one. However, because release durations are being extended, the same minimum of two service updates per year is maintained.

Thanks for reading the blog and do provide your valuable feedback and comments. Happy Daxing and Happy Holidays.