What’s New in Dynamics 365 Finance?

Dynamics 365 Finance is a robust financial management application for medium to large organizations that simplifies and modernizes business processes. As with all Dynamics 365 applications, there are two release waves each year of new functionality and updates. Finance release wave 1, rolling out from April to September, focuses on the users’ experience out-of-the-box machine learning, including when customers are predicted to pay, forecasting the budget, and viewing forecasted cash positions based on actual accounts payable, accounts receivable and project transactions, and predicted outcomes.

Below is a summary from our team of experts on the most important updates from release wave 1.

• Adjustment wizard for asset leases – this feature streamlines the adjustment process for parent leases and helps prevent errors by automatically calculating the effect of the adjustment. Additionally, it provides transparency into the adjustment entry by letting you preview the adjustment before it’s posted.
• Budget plan narrative – Sometimes it’s necessary for budget planners to include a description or summary in a budget plan that will help managers, accountants, and other stakeholder understand the reasoning and data in a budget plan. This new narrative feature allows planners to create content in a rich text HTML editor with the ability to change fonts and format text for use in a budget plan narrative report.
• Cash flow forecasting, project integration – Cash flow forecasting has been upgraded with this new feature to allow predictable project costs and revenues for inclusion. Costs that were forecasted in project management and accounting are now shown in the cash flow forecast available in cash and bank management.
• Vendor collaboration bank changes – Users will be happy to use this new feature to save time setting up bank information for paying vendors electronically. Vendors are now able to set up their own information directly into your Dynamics 365 Finance deployment. After a vendor enters their information, the user can review and approve it.

Public preview for these new insight features begins in July with full functionality out in September.

• Customer payment predictions – Optimize the start of collection activities by predicting when a sales invoice will be paid or which customers will pay on time or late
• External data for cash flow forecasting – Import external data from supporting systems into the cash flow engine to improve the accuracy forecasting.
• Forecast bank balance – Based on recurring activities and information from customer payment and vendor payments, the new bank balance forecast feature will help treasurers more accurately understand the availability of funds at specific times.
• Intelligent budget proposal – Users can now create a draft budget automatically, but with a high degree of confidence from the use of historical data.
• Treasurer workspace – Treasurers can utilize a new workspace that includes all necessary elements for completing analysis and managing their organization’s cash.

Governments are increasingly turning to electronic invoicing as a key component of the digitalization of tax and effort to minimize tax evasion. In fact, electronic invoicing is now required in over 60 countries. Businesses are also moving to electronic invoicing as it lowers costs and reduces manual data entry while also improving traceability and reducing end-to-end processing time.

Microsoft previewed an out-of-the-box add-on for electronic invoicing in October and it rolled out in April across several Dynamics 365 products including Finance. The new service enables configurable formats, processing of electronic invoice documents, and configurable document exchange. It allows companies to:

• Provide a consistent experience in electronic invoice processing and exchange across different geographies
• Quickly and cost-effectively configure and exchange electronic invoices in the required local formats
• Accelerate invoice delivery by going paperless, speeding up processes, and improving traceability
• Simplify adherence to the latest electronic invoicing standards in different countries and regions

To start utilizing this new wave of features, contact Rand Group to schedule and configure your system update. Looking to get your organization up and running with Dynamics 365 Finance? For more information, talk to our experts today.