In the dynamic landscape of manufacturing, retail and distribution, the selection of the right Warehouse Management System (WMS) holds paramount importance. It’s a pivotal decision that influences operational efficiency by saving time and labor in tracking processes, reducing loss of inventory, prevents loss of sales opportunities, greater productivity & stock control. Hence resulting into greater customer satisfaction and ultimately, business growth. Among the plethora of available options, two prominent choices stand out: D365 F&O out-of-the-box WMS solutions and SATO Global WMS. Out-of-the-box WMS solutions in D365 Finance and Operation offers standardized features designed to suit general warehouse management needs. These solutions are pre-configured and cater to businesses that prioritize simplicity and adherence to standard industry practices. Advantages of D365 F&O Out-of-the-Box WMS: Conversely, SATO WMS along with D365 F&O ERP: SATO WMS is 3rd party software which is tailored for customization and efficiency. SATO WMS is renowned for its adaptability and tailored functionalities. It offers a high level of customization, empowering businesses to mold the system according to their unique requirements. This flexibility facilitates seamless integration with existing processes, ensuring a smoother transition and optimized operations. Key Features of SATO WMS: The decision between SATO WMS and out-of-the-box WMS hinges on understanding the specific needs and priorities of the customer. If a customer prefers standardized processes and does not require extensive customization, an out-of-the-box WMS might be more suitable, offering a cost-effective and efficient solution. However, for businesses seeking a highly customizable solution to align with their unique operational workflows, SATO WMS stands out as the preferred choice, providing adaptability and tailored functionalities that enhance efficiency and productivity. Conclusion: Selecting the right WMS is a critical decision that directly impacts operational efficiency and business growth in the manufacturing, retail and distribution sectors. While SATO WMS offers unparalleled customization and flexibility, out-of-the-box solutions excel in providing standardized, cost-effective options. By comprehensively evaluating factors such as customization needs, operational workflows, scalability, and budget constraints, businesses can make an informed decision that maximizes efficiency and drives growth.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, efficient workflow management is essential for organizations to stay competitive.  Workflow email alerts help organizations stay on top of important business processes by automatically notifying designated individuals when certain tasks are completed or when specific conditions are met.  In this article, we will provide a step-by-step guide for setting up workflow email alerts in D365 FO. Before getting started, it’s important to ensure that email parameters are configured correctly and that you are able to receive test emails from D365 in your inbox.  To check this, navigate to System Administration> Setup > Email > Email Parameters.  1. In the configuration, Enable the email provider as per your requirement.  2. If your using the SMTP setting then enter the outgoing server information, and SMTP port and enable SSL/TLS required button. Set up an email address for the user who will receive alerts and enable workflow email alerts for that user. To accomplish this, go to the System Administration section, select Users, and then click on Users. Highlight and click on the user you wish to enable email alerts for.  If no email address is attached, enter the user’s email address. To enable email notifications, go to ‘User options’ on the ribbon, then click on ‘Workflow’ on the left side and set the option to ‘Send notifications in email’ to Yes. Create an email template or email message. Templates are generic and can be configured while configuring workflows.  Navigate to System Administration> Setup > Email> System email templates. Here you can create a template, such as “Workflow emails.” Assign your email template to the specific workflow. To configure the workflow email alerts, you can navigate to the workflow for which you want to send email notifications, Open that workflow access the basic settings, and choose the relevant workflow template from the dropdown menu. Configure the necessary notifications for the particular task, control, or approval while setting up the workflow steps. Here, you will specify the notification content which will be sent to the user in the email. Configure the batch job to distribute the email notifications. Navigate to System administration > Periodic tasks > Email processing > Email distributor batch.  Since we are now adding a batch job, it can be scheduled to run automatically at specified intervals. To schedule autorun, adjust the ‘Recurrence’ settings as per the requirements. Monitor email sending status. To access the E-mail Sending Status page, go to System administration > Periodic tasks > Email processing > Batch email sending status.  Here, you can monitor successfully sent, pending, or failed email messages. In conclusion, configuring workflow email notification alerts can be a simple yet effective way to stay on top of important business processes.  By following the above steps, you can set up workflow email alerts in D365 FO and start reaping the benefits of streamlined workflow management. Thank you for reading my blog!

Introduction –   A few years ago, Dual Write (DW) was introduced with the objective of providing a reliable integration between Dynamics CRM and Dynamics Finance & SCM. The intent is in the right direction, but the execution of this vision has not been reliable.   In this blog we have talked about some of the challenges we have faced and our recommendations for reliable integration.   Let’s look at some of the challenges we have faced –  Initial Sync Limitations –  Unavailability of solution in few regions –  Enabling Solution issue and missing File –  Billing Rule Error –  Table Version mismatch –  Other Issues –  Recommendations for reliable integrations –  We hope you found this article useful and if you would like to discuss anything you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com 

Introduction: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Opportunities and Processing Sales in Business Central Pre-requisites for creating Sales Opportunities: Create Sales Opportunities You can create opportunities from the Opportunity List page. Typically opportunities are created from a specific contact or salespeople. Globally search “Salesperson” and select related link. Select the salesperson from the list for whom you want to create an opportunity. On the salespeople card page, select opportunities action –> selected salesperson opportunities page will open up –> user can create new by clicking on New action. If opportunity is created through salespeople then salesperson code is automatically generated. Globally search “Contact” and select related link. Contacts list page will open up, user can select the contact for which opportunity has to be created. Click on Home –>Create Opportunity for new opportunity. Click on Contact–> Open Opportunity (To view existing opportunity of selected contact) If opportunity is created through contact then contact name is automatically generated. No. – This field is auto generated based on the set no. series. Description – Description of the opportunity. Contact no. – User can select existing contact or create new. Contact name: Contact name is auto generated based on contact no. Phone/mobile/email: Auto generated from contact card page. Contact company name: This field is auto generated from contact card page Salesperson code: if opportunity is created through salesperson then this field is auto populated, if not then user can manually select the salesperson. Campaign no. User can select specific campaign to link with the opportunity. Priority: The default priority is set as normal. Other priorities are Low and High. Sales Cycle code: This is a setup. (To know more refer part 1 of this blog) Status: The status field is updating automatically. Closed: Specifies if the opportunity is closed. Creation date: Opportunity creation date  Date Closed: Specify the date the opportunity was closed. Segment no.: User can link segment to the opportunity. (If any) Sales cycle stages To start the sales cycle, user can click on “Activate first stage” To move an opportunity through sales cycle stages: Sales cycle stage is automatically updated Fill in the rest of the details as necessary. To Close opportunity When the negotiations are finished, you can close the opportunity. When closing an opportunity, you can specify whether it was won or lost, as well as why it was closed. To specify a reason, you must set up closed opportunity codes. To Create Sales Quote To Create Sales Order To Delete Opportunities After you have deleted an opportunity, it is removed it from the Opportunity List page. Conclusion Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides a robust framework for creating opportunities and processing sales seamlessly. By following this step-by-step guide, you can harness the full potential of Business Central to optimize your sales processes, enhance customer relationships, and drive business growth. Hope this helps!

Introduction: In this blog I will demonstrate the set ups for opportunities. The sequence for setting up opportunity to sales cycle is as follows: Opportunities: Any inbound lead could be viewed as a potential sales opportunity. You can make opportunities and link them to certain salespeople to keep track of possible sales. You must first build up sales cycles and sales cycle stages before you start working with opportunity management. When creating opportunities, you should include details such as the contact, salesperson, sales cycle, and dates as well as your estimates of the opportunity’s sales value and success odds. Set up Opportunity Sales cycle Codes: Set up Opportunity Sales cycle Stages: On the Sales Cycles page, select the line for which you want to set up stages, and then choose the Stages action. The Sales Cycle Stages page opens. Stage: Specify the stage number. Description: A description for particular stage Completed %: Specifies the percentage of the sales cycle that has been completed when the opportunity reaches this stage. Chances of Success %: Specifies the percentage of success that has been achieved when the opportunity reaches this stage. Activity Code: User can select the activity Code for particular stages. (Activities have to be created separately) Quote Request: this check box puts a validation on that particular stage to request quote. Allow Skip:  this check allows user to skip that stage. Date Formula: Specifies how dates for planned activities are calculated when you run the Opportunity – Details report. Comment: Specifies if comments exist for the selected stage. (To add comment on any stage, navigate to Related –> Sales cycle –> Comments) Set up activities with task: You can combine multiple task, in an activity. A task represents a step in the activity. You can assign activities to opportunities, salespeople, or contacts. Assign tasks or activities of tasks to opportunities. The following procedure describes how to assign activity tasks to opportunities. The steps are similar when you assign tasks to salespeople and contacts. I will be demonstrating how to create Opportunity and Process sales Opportunities in part 2. Hope this helps!

In every organization, all kinds of expenses and revenues are tracked under dimensions like cost centers, departments, employees, etc. It is often a business requirement to split expenses or incomes in fixed proportions between two or more dimensions for accurate reporting.  On the other hand, it may be required to assign a dimension only on one GL account, restricting it from others. D365 Finance offers a smooth, flexible and a very easy process to fulfill both kinds of requirements to achieve accurate reporting of the organization’s P&L from a dimension standpoint. The blog assumes the reader is already aware about setting up financial dimensions and using them for regular transactions so the point of focus will be on the advanced features only. The procedures for both requirements are as follows: – Let’s assume that an organization tracks all kinds of office expenses in two dimensions – department and cost center. The organization wants to split the cost in a 70:30 proportion between both. In order to do that, we will use Ledger Allocation Journals. Path – General Ledger -> Allocations -> Ledger Allocation Rules The source defines the main account that will be used to split the amount. The Destination defines the dimensions and the proportion in which the amount will be split between them. In the General tab, we define the validity date for which the rule will be active. The allocation method defines the various methods in which the GL amount can be distributed. Most often, the splitting is in fixed percentages. Turn the Active checkbox to activate the rule. In the source, define the main account. In Destination, define the percentages of distribution. From the above image, we are using a 70:30 distribution ratio between Cost Center and Department.  Here, we have defined a default dimension so that the system will know how to distribute the amount between the cost center and the department only. It will ignore any other dimension. If the default field is left blank, then the user will have to manually select the dimensions at the time of the transaction. In the first distribution, a fixed percentage of 30% is applied to the Cost Center. Create a new distribution again and allocate the remaining 70% to a department dimension. In this example, we are using only 2 dimensions, but the user may define as many distributions between multiple dimensions as required as long as the percentages add up to 100%. Save the rule and close it. Now, create any regular transaction with the GL account, like a general journal. Select the dimensions for the cost center and the department as shown above and post the document. Once posted, go to General ledger -> Ledger Allocations -> Process Allocation Request. Select the allocation rule. In the field Proposal Options, there are two options: – The first option will directly post the entry and allocate it to the dimensions. The second option will keep the entry unposted so that the user may verify the dimensions or make changes to them manually if required. It is always preferable to select the second option. Upon clicking Okay, the system will create an allocation journal as shown below: – Upon clicking open the allocation journal, the accounting impact is shown as below: – The accounting impact can be summarized below as follows: – GL Account/Dimension Description Dr Cr 5103-007 Office Expense – Cost Center 700   5103-257 Office Expense – Department 300   5103 Office Expenses   1000 From the above ledger impact, the GL balance stays the same, but the amount gets distributed between the 2 dimensions in the exact proportion. II. Using advanced rules to assign an additional dimension to a particular GL account only. To understand this requirement, let’s take the example of an organization that has a mandatory Department dimension assigned on all expense accounts. But there may be an exceptional case where one expense GL account requires one more dimension apart from Department.   In this case, if we add a dimension in the account structure, then that dimension will be needlessly assigned to all GL accounts. We must ensure that it should be applicable to the one account only. For this, we use the concept of Advanced Rules. With the help of Advanced Rules, we can configure the Account Structures to accommodate any additional dimension for one particular GL account only. The steps to configure it are as follows: – Go to: General ledger -> Chart of Accounts -> Structures -> Advanced Rule Structures The screen displays all the Advanced Rule Structures present. Create a new one. Select the dimension that is required. In this example, we have selected the dimension of ‘Worker’ and kept it as mandatory. Activate the Advanced Rule Structure and close it. Open Account Structures. From the above image, all the GL accounts here will have a mandatory Department dimension. But let’s assume that one GL account – 4101 will require the dimension for Worker along with Department. For that, open Advanced Rules on top. Create a new rule. Select the Main Account where you want to apply the dimension as shown above. Then in the below section, add the Advanced Rule Structure that was created earlier. The rule works like this: – If Main Account = 4101, then apply Advanced Rule Structure where dimension = Employee. Therefore, in any transaction with the account 4101, it will assign the Worker dimension on it. Let’s take an example where a GL account other than 4101 is used here. In this transaction, for the account 4102, the system is prompting us to select the Department dimension only, as required. Now let’s select the account 4101. As observed from the above image, the system is now prompting us to select the Worker dimension also. Thus, this ensures that only some GL accounts may be configured to enter an additional dimension. We can also configure the rules such that there are combinations of Main Accounts and Dimensions to add any additional dimension. … Continue reading Distributing GL amounts between financial dimensions and using advanced rules to link a dimension to only one particular account →

While electronic methods of payment are becoming increasingly popular everywhere for quick payments, check payments are still popular across the world, especially post dated checks, which can be cashed out only after a specified date, giving them an edge over electronic payment methods. D365 Finance has a very simple process to create post dated checks and account their entries.  Since post dated checks are cleared after a certain date, known as the maturity date, the amount is not directly accounted in the bank account, but to a bridging account instead. A bridging account serves as a ‘bridge’, for the transaction amount between the bank account and the vendor/customer account till the maturity date of the PDC. When a payment entry with a PDC is made, the system will store the amount temporarily in the bridging account till the maturity date. On the maturity date, the system will transfer the amount from the bridging account in the bank account. The accounting process of the PDC is summarized below: – For Vendor:- PDC (Before Maturity) Dr Cr Vendor XX   Bridging Account   XX PDC (After maturity) Dr Cr Bridging Account XX   Bank   XX For Customer: PDC (Before Maturity) Dr Cr Customer   XX Bridging Account XX   PDC (After maturity) Dr Cr Bridging Account   XX Bank XX   The steps to set up and use PDC are as follows: – 7. Select the Account type as Bank. 8. Enable the parameters for Bridging posting and Post Dated check clearing posting. 9. The bridge account gets selected automatically by default based on the one defined in the Cash & Bank management parameters defined earlier. 10. Do the exactly same setup in AR module -> Methods of payment as well. This concludes the setup part. Now we can proceed with the transactions. Process: – Go to Postdated Checks tab and enter the maturity date for the PDC. Until the maturity date is reached, we cannot settle the PDC. So either we can wait till that date or for the sake of testing purposes, we can set the system clock to a future date. This concludes the configuration and process for PDC in D365 Finance.

Personalization stands as a robust feature within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, significantly enhancing consultants’ and users’ experiences while interacting with the platform. Among these personalization options, the workspace stands out as a feature I routinely recommend to end-users. Its advantages span from streamlining daily business activities, time-saving capabilities, and improved visibility into work items that require attention, to the crucial benefit of reducing clicks and navigation across multiple screens. In this blog, I aim to demonstrate the process of creating a new workspace and sharing it with the necessary users. Creating a Workspace To initiate the personalization of your Dynamics 365 experience, follow these steps to craft a new workspace tailored to your specific requirements: Right-click on the right side blank screen and select “Personalize TitlepageContainer.” Your newly created workspace will now appear on the dashboard. After completing the initial steps, it’s time to fine-tune the configuration to suit your operational needs: Navigate to the required form or list page that you wish to include in the workspace. Select the presentation type: Tile, List, or Link. Additionally, you can create a saved view on the required form by applying filters and then add that saved view to the workspace. For instance, from the “All Sales Order” page, applying a filter for invoiced orders and saving that view to be added to the workspace. For this blog’s demonstration, I’ll illustrate adding the “Sales Order Invoice” to the new workspace. Navigate to the “Open Invoice” page. Click on the “Options” tab within the action tab. Select “Add to Workspace.” Choose the workspace created in the first part of the blog. This showcases the output when you click on the Custom workspace in Dashboard Configure Workspace Post workspace creation and configuration, the subsequent crucial step is sharing it with the relevant user groups: Identify User Groups: Determine the teams or individuals who would benefit from accessing this customized workspace. In conclusion, creating and sharing personalized workspaces in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations empowers users with tailored interfaces, offering enhanced efficiency, streamlined workflows, and a more intuitive user experience. I hope these steps will guide you in optimizing your Dynamics 365 experience, boosting productivity, and attaining better outcomes for your business operations.

In any ERP, any accounting user might want to set up periodic journals on a monthly/quarterly/year basis for recording the costs of any services, like AMC charges, rents, subscription fees, etc. It can get tedious to manually create such entries every single time indefinitely. This can lead to errors and unnecessary time consumption if the entries are very long and made to multiple business partners. Dynamic 365 Finance offers an easy way out through the use of periodic journals. Periodic journals help the user create entries periodically in the system. With periodic journals, users can: The process of configuring and using periodic entries is very simple. Setup 1. First, configure a journal name with the Journal type as ‘Periodic’ as shown below: 2. Then go to General Journal -> Journal Entries -> Periodic Journals Here, we define the template for the periodic journal entry to be created in future. Create a new entry. 3. Select the date on which you want the periodic journal entry to be created. 4. Select the GL accounts and their amounts. You can create a single line journal entry with an offset account or you can create a multi-line entry with as many GL accounts as required. 5. Select the Unit. Unit stands for the period of the journal entry – days, months or years. 6. Enter the number of units. This is the frequency of recurrence of the journal entry. For e.g., if you select Unit as months and enter the number of units as 3, then the periodic journal entry will be set to repeat every 3 months from the beginning date. Working 1. Open a General Journal entry. 2. Create a new entry. 3. On the top, click on Period Journal. 4. There are 2 options – Retrieve Journal and Save Journal. Retrieve journal is used for retrieving a periodic journal that we have just setup. Save journal is used if you want to save any existing journal entry as a template for a future periodic journal entry. 5. We use Retrieve Journal to retrieve the template we have created above. 6. In the ‘To Date’, enter the date of recurrence, i.e., the date for which the entry repeats for the period. In the Periodic Journal number, select the Periodic Journal which was created earlier. In the last field, there are 2 options – Copy or Move. Copy will fetch the periodic journal data into the journal entry and update it for use in the next period. Move will also fetch the journal data but will block the periodic journal from being used in future. Use the move option if you know that the periodic journal is not going to be used anymore. 7. The system will load the data as shown below:- 8. As you may notice, the date field is as per the date selected in the Retrieve Periodic Journal, while all the other details like the GL account and amounts are fetched exactly as per the template. 9. Once you post this journal entry, the journal date in the periodic journal template will be updated to the next period, in this case, to 1st of December. 10. In order to check if the date has been updated or not, simply go to the Periodic Journal once more and check the date. As you may have noticed, the date got updated to the next period of recurrence. So when you retrieve this journal for the next time, it will fetch the journal based on this date. This can go on as many times until you select the option to Move instead of Copy. After that, the periodic journal will stop updating and won’t be able to be used again. Through this process, the user can fetch the journal entries periodically instead of creating them manually every time. While the fetching of the data is automatic, the user will have to make sure to run the periodic journals as per their dates. There is an option to automatically generate the entries in the system through Power Automate but that is a separate Add-on to be setup and configured. The standard process is just as good enough to reduce the hassle for making entries manually every period.

Introduction In any accounting software, it is always important to keep track of all real-time bank transactions and record them in the ERP. Since bank transactions are booked manually in the ERP, it is necessary to ensure that the bank statements and ERP records are matched on any given date. This is where bank reconciliation comes into play. Bank Reconciliation Bank reconciliation is an activity done by any finance user for the purpose of reconciling book transactions w.r.t bank statements and ensuring that both are as closely matched as possible. D365 Finance offers two ways of performing bank reconciliations. One is by entering the bank statement amount manually and reconciling the ERP statements for each record against the amount. The other is by importing the bank statement into the system and letting the system match the records of the statement against the ERP based on a certain criteria. The blog is made with the assumption that the reader is already aware of the manual bank reconciliation process in D365 Finance. The second method is undoubtedly easier, flexible, and time-saving for any user. While there are several widely used bank statement format types which can be processed in D365 Finance like MT490, CAMT.054, BAI2 and others, this blog post will be focused on the MT490 format only. Moreover, D365 Finance also enables the user to reconcile not only payments/receipts, but also transactions from the bank’s side, like bank charges, interest fees or reversals and post those entries into the ledger automatically. There is also a flexibility to create a set of rules that can allow for minor amount/date variations of the system w.r.t the bank statement. Steps to perform the bank reconciliation in an automated manner Setup We have to enable the system to accept bank statements in MT940 statement first. In order to do that, navigate to, Organization Administration > Workspaces > Electronic Reporting Click on Repositories. Select Global and click Open on top. Filter the Configuration name by searching for ‘MT940’. The above list of formats will be displayed. Select them all and click on Import. The system will import the bank formats in D365 Finance. Next, we have to map the format in a setup. Go to Cash & Bank Management > Advanced Bank Reconciliation Setup > Bank Statement Format Create a new record and specify the Statement Code, Name and map the Import format which was imported in the previous step. Now this is done, the only part left is to configure the Bank master to enable advanced bank reconciliations for any transactions. Open the Bank Account Master. Turn on ‘Advanced Bank Reconciliation’ and select MT940 in the field Statement format. Once this is done, we are ready to use Advanced Bank Reconciliation. Working To start with advanced reconciliation, we will take a scenario of a bank where the following transactions have occurred: The above 3 transactions are created in the system and will be reconciled with the use of a bank statement. The bank statement will be a notepad file that will be imported in the system. While the bank statement is always provided by the bank, it is important to know the bank statement format so we can setup and test any scenario with dummy records. The above screenshot specifies the structure in which the bank statement is accepted by the system. We will be using this format to import bank records and reconcile them with the system records. From the above image, 3 types of bank transactions have been made in the system with the respective amounts and dates. Now the bank statement file for the above transactions is as follows: As you may observe, all three transactions are recorded one below the other, and the opening and closing figures are manually entered here. In real-time scenarios, this is provided by the bank and the user does not open or make any changes to the file. In order to import the file, go to Bank Account > Bank Statements > Import Statement In the parameters, select the bank account, browse the text file from your PC and click on upload, then click on OK. The bank statement is imported with the above transactions. Select the transactions and click on Validate on top. Now we proceed with the reconciliation. Go back and click on Bank Reconciliation in the Bank Account screen. Create a new reconciliation. Then click on Worksheet at the top. The reconciliation screen is opened. Here, the user is presented with the option to manually match any record to reconcile or let the system match the records based on a certain matching rule. While any variation of rules can be defined, the most commonly used rules are: Based on the above, we will define a matching rule based on date and amount difference and re-import the statement. To define a matching rule, navigate to Cash & Bank Management > Advanced Bank Reconciliation Setup > Reconciliation Matching Rules Based on the above image, the criteria for the match amount and match date is defined where a variation of 2 INR and 3 days will be allowed in reconciliation. Once it is saved, click on Activate. Next, navigate to Cash & Bank Management > Advanced Bank Reconciliation Setup > Reconciliation Matching Rule Sets Create a new rule set and link the matching rule that was created earlier. As you may observe, we can link multiple rules here. This is useful when it is necessary to reconcile statements with a variety of rules instead of a single rule. Next, go to Bank Account > Scroll down to Reconcilation section and link the matching rule set in the Default Matching Rule Set Now we are ready to run the reconciliation once more with some variations of amounts and days in the bank statement. Import the statement once more and validate it. The bank statement is imported as follows: Now create a reconciliation worksheet. On the top, select the option ‘Run Matching Rules’. Once the matching rules … Continue reading Advanced & Auto Bank Reconciliation in Dynamics 365 Finance →