What’s new in Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management 2023 wave 2

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O), comprised of Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, has been a cornerstone in business management solutions. With each update, it continues to evolve and offer enhanced functionalities to its users. The 2023 wave 2 release for Finance and Supply Chain Management’s latest iteration brings exciting features and improvements that promise to elevate businesses’ efficiency, accuracy, and user experience worldwide.

As organizations look to support their growth strategies and navigate the increasingly complex business environment, they require business agility, particularly in the face of increased competition and cost-cutting pressures. Dynamics 365 Finance 2023 release wave 2 is designed to deliver just that. It focuses on achieving rapid innovation through automation, creating high-performing teams that can work smarter with AI, optimizing costs, and taking action faster with planning, forecasting, analytics, and insights.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance 2023 release wave 2 updates include several exciting features. For example, the general availability of extended planning and analysis brings together operational and financial planning to continuously plan, act, and analyze. The general availability of business performance analytics streamlines financial reporting by centralizing data from multiple business processes in an easy-to-use interface.

Enhancements to invoice capture and AP automation, bank foreign currency revaluation, bank statement importing, and bank statement management further improve the system’s efficiency. Additionally, the country coverage has expanded to include additional LATAM countries, and regulatory updates have been made to comply with tax digitization requirements, including e-invoicing and SAF-T for Denmark, e-reporting for France, and e-invoicing for Australia, New Zealand, and Spain.

The latest release contains a seamless integration to Dynamics 365 Finance, allowing you to model, contribute, and approve financial plans and forecasts using Power BI and Excel. Connecting operational planning with economic impact lets you continuously plan, act, and analyze in a preferred experience. Drive agile decision-making and gain a competitive advantage with our continually updated companywide budgets. Our planning capabilities include the ability to plan for revenue and expense, bottoms-up and top-down, driver-based, short- and long-term scenarios, human resources, and sales. Our powerful capabilities include direct connection and integration of Dynamics 365 Finance, the ability to copy plans to run what-if scenarios to accelerate business decision-making and reduce risk, and a familiar user experience using Power BI.

Automating the upload of bank statements is a valuable feature that can save considerable effort for the accounting team. Previously, users had to upload bank statement files when they arrived manually. However, with this new feature, a batch job can be scheduled to pick up the bank statement files and upload them automatically. Instead of manually uploading bank statement files, users can now share them in a SharePoint folder. The batch job will periodically pick up the files and upload them automatically. This feature eliminates the need for manual uploads, saving time and effort for the accounting team. Instead of manually uploading bank statement files, users can now share them in a SharePoint folder. The batch job will periodically pick up the files and upload them automatically. This feature eliminates the need for manual uploads, saving time and effort for the accounting team.

Replacing the out-of-the-box prebuilt model in Invoice capture with a custom prebuilt model for OCR is essential for administrators. Due to the complex layout of customer invoices, the prebuilt model often fails to provide an accurate recognition result, causing accounts payable to spend significant effort reviewing and correcting such invoices. Administrators can create a custom prebuilt model in AI Builder document processing by uploading sample invoices, tagging fields, and training and publishing the model to improve the ability to recognize complex invoices. Once the custom prebuilt model is ready, it can be selected from the dropdown list to replace the default prebuilt model. In addition, the custom prebuilt model allows users to extract additional fields not provided by the default prebuilt model. However, configuring the other field mapping between the model and invoice is required. Once mapped, the fields can be automatically extracted and transferred from Invoice capture to Dynamics 365 Finance to meet the unique business needs.

Supply Chain Management has been included as it continues to optimize business processes to deliver the agility and resilience needed for businesses to thrive. Manufacturers will enjoy greater flexibility, and warehouse processes related to counting, customer returns, and product receipts will be improved. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management provides capabilities for end-to-end processes that manufacturers, distributors, consumer product groups, and retailers require to meet their supply chain needs.

This release wave focuses on optimizing and enhancing business processes to provide companies with the agility and resilience to navigate an increasingly complex business environment. With the addition of compound charges, order classes, and advanced order holds the sales process has become more agile. New export control capabilities help companies manage compliance with export restrictions. The reimagined approval experience for purchase orders and purchase requisitions makes the approval process broadly accessible and increases the agility of the procurement process. Manufacturers that must comply with multiple inventory accounting practices across multiple currencies continue to benefit from enhancements to the Global Inventory Accounting Add-in. Improvements in material picking and handling last-minute manufacturing changes increase agility on the shop floor.

The increased efficiency of warehouse operations is driven by the optimization and automation of critical processes related to counting, customer returns, product receipts, and the re-waving of orders. The new interfaces and streamlined processes allow companies to deploy Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and use only the warehouse management capabilities, making these broadly available to companies using third-party ERP or order management systems.

Product bundles are a game-changer for efficient order entry. By combining two or more items into a single unit with a combined price, a bundle saves time and effort for both the seller and the buyer. The bundle comprises a main item and additional components, and the sales order is entered by selecting the main item. This process is quick and efficient, allowing for a seamless ordering experience. Regarding shipping, the bundle is treated as a single physical item, but the picking lists and packing slips show all the individual components of the bundle. However, the sales confirmation and invoice only show the main item, so everything is clear for the buyer. Moreover, the bundle structure ensures that the selling price is allocated proportionally from the main item to each component item. This means that the customer always gets invoiced the correct amount for the bundle. The bundle is an effective way to sell multiple items at once and to streamline the ordering process.

With the pricing management workspace in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, you can effortlessly review upcoming price rule status changes and modify pricing policies to align with your business goals. This workspace is equipped with tiles that provide a quick summary of the price records that require your attention, such as those with upcoming expiration dates. You can also access a tabbed list section that lists the impacted price records for each price component type. With just a few clicks, you can turn price records on or off or adjust their pricing rules by opening a record from the workspace. This intuitive and user-friendly interface makes it easy to stay on top of pricing changes and make informed decisions to help your business stay competitive.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management 2023 wave 2 release offers enhanced functionalities that will take your organization’s efficiency, accuracy, and user experience to the next level. With its focus on achieving rapid innovation through automation, creating high-performing teams that can work smarter with AI, optimizing costs, and taking action faster with planning, forecasting, analytics, and insights, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is the perfect solution for organizations looking to support their growth strategies and navigate today’s complex business environment.

Rand Group is your support partner to ensure your company fully utilizes the new functionalities and that all users are trained to maintain peak Finance and Operations performance. Our Finance and Operations experts will work with your team to highlight critical features most beneficial to your organization and train your users to ensure maximum return on investment.