Introduction In any business organization, financial dimensions play a crucial role in identifying the posting routine of payments, sales, purchases, and other transactions in the ledger account.  Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365 F&O) provides the functionality of financial dimensions to help users identify the posting routine with details of the transaction.  However, in the retail industry, financial dimensions need to be configured differently as compared to other industries.  In this blog, we will discuss the importance of financial dimensions in the retail industry and the steps to configure financial dimensions for retail stores and payment methods. Importance of Financial Dimensions in the Retail Industry In the retail industry, financial dimensions are used to categorize transactions such as sales, refunds, discounts, and payment methods.  These financial dimensions help the finance department to analyze the financial data and create reports to monitor the financial health of the retail store.  For example, a retail store can create financial dimensions for different payment methods like credit card, cash, and check.  This will help them to identify which payment method is used the most and which payment method is generating more revenue for the store. Another use of financial dimensions in the retail industry is to track sales by product category.  A retail store can create financial dimensions for product categories like electronics, clothing, and accessories.  This will help them to analyze which product category is selling the most and which product category needs more attention from the store. Steps to Configure Financial Dimensions for Retail Stores and Payment Methods Payment Methods To configure financial dimensions for payment methods in retail stores, follow the below steps: Step 1: Go to Retail and Commerce > Channels > Stores. Step 2: Click on the Action tab and select Set Up > Payment Methods. Step 3: Select the desired payment method, and in the details tab, you can find financial dimensions. Step 4: Map the financial dimensions to the payment method and save the changes. Stores To configure financial dimensions for retail stores, follow the below steps: Step 1: Go to Retail and Commerce > Channels > Stores > All stores.Step 2: Select the desired store that you want to set the default dimensions on the bottom as shown in the image. Step 3: Enabling this will overwrite the financial dimensions that were enabled on payment methods as this will be set as default dimensions for all types of transactions. Conclusion In conclusion, financial dimensions play a crucial role in the retail industry, and configuring them properly is essential for the finance department to analyze financial data accurately.  Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations provides the functionality of financial dimensions for retail stores and payment methods, and configuring them is a straightforward process. By following the above steps, a retail store can easily configure financial dimensions for their stores and payment methods and analyze their financial data accurately.

Introduction A purchase requisition is an internal document that authorizes the Purchasing department to buy items or services. Until now if you wanted to create a Purchase order requisition, D365 Finance and Operations HQ was only an option but in the release wave 2 plan “Microsoft has brought a new feature of creating Purchase order requests from POS.” Business Value The addition of this feature will eliminate the use of multiple tools and make POS the single app for store employees to handle the end-to-end purchase order business processes. Feature Details Create purchase order requests in POS. View purchase orders requests in POS. Edit purchase orders requests in POS. Confirm Purchase order requests in POS. Steps to create a purchase request from POS Step 1 Enable the feature from feature management page as shown in below images : Step 2 Go to Retail and commerce >Retail and Commerce IT > Distribution Schedule and Run 1070 , 1110 , 1090 job. Step 3 Login to POS (MPOS or CPOS) Step 4 Go to Operation “Inbound Inventory” as shown in screenshots  : Step 5 Click on ” +” create new symbol . Step 6 Select Vendors from which you are willing to purchase the products. Step 7 Fill out the necessary details like the Date of delivery, Accounting date, and add a note if required and confirm the order. Step 8 Add the product manually or by scanning the barcode of the product. Step 9 Add Quantity Step 10 Submit request to HQ. Step 11 You can see the Status as Created Step 12 Purchase Order Created and sent for approval at HQ. This completes the process of creating PO requisition from POS itself.

Many retailers, especially high-end specialty retailers, want their sales associates to form long-term relationships with their key customers. The associates are expected to know about these customers’ likes and dislikes, purchase history, product preferences, and important dates, such as anniversaries and birthdays. Associates need a place where they can capture this information and easily find it when it’s required. If this information is available in a ‘single view, the associates can easily target customers who meet specific criteria. For example, they can find all customers who prefer to shop for handbags, or customers who have an important event approaching, such as a birthday or anniversary. Or if a customer had bought a gift for her husband then the cashier/associate can ask the customer if her husband liked the gift. In a nutshell, this will allow the stores to create a relationship with customers on a personal level. This is bound to make customers happy as they will begin to think that they matter and they are being looked after. Such practice will directly impact the sales Here is how you can set up Clienteling in d365 Commerce.  In the Feature management turn on the clienteling functionality in your environment Turn on the Clienteling feature by selecting Enable now. On the Commerce Parameters page, on the Number sequence tab, select the Client book identifier row. Then, in the Number sequence code field, select a number sequence. The system will use this number sequence to assign an ID to client books. Create a new attribute group that contains the attributes that you want to capture for customers who are managed in client books. Define the required attributes as Can be refined. Sales associates can then use these attributes to filter their client book. On the Commerce parameters page, on the Clienteling tab, in the Client book attribute group field, select the attribute group that you just created. To capture activities that occur at the POS, define the activity types on the Activity types page (Retail and Commerce > Customers > Activity types). Add two buttons to the appropriate POS screen layout, so that sales associates can view their own client book and the store client book. (Store client books include clients from all client books of all associates who share an address book with the store.) The corresponding operations are named View customers in client book and View customers from store client books, respectively. Three additional operations that are related to client books are available. These operations determine which associates can add, remove, and reassign customers from the client book. They are named Add customer to client book, Remove customers from client book, and Reassign customers to a client book, respectively. Run the following distribution schedule jobs: 999. After you’ve completed this procedure, sales associates can open the customer details page at the POS, and add customers to their client book, view and capture activities and notes for customers, and target customers by using customer and client book attributes to filter the client book. Cashier can search for a customer and he would be able to see and add notes of customer account which will allow the store person to offer a more personalized experience to the customer Hope this helps!

The Regression suite automation tool (RSAT) is used to reduce the time and cost of UAT (user acceptance testing) of finance and operations.  UAT is typically required before you take a Microsoft application update, or before you apply custom code and configurations to your production environment. RSAT lets functional power users record business tasks by using a Task recorder and then convert the recordings into a suite of automated tests, without having to write source code. RSAT is fully integrated with Microsoft Azure DevOps for test execution, reporting, and investigation. Test parameters are decoupled from test steps and stored in Microsoft Excel files. Configuration: 1. Open RSAT application. 2. Select the Settings button in the upper right to configure RSAT. And next steps will help you to find those required fields input 3. Go to project settings of Lcs for your projects Go to Visual Studio Team Services. Here you need to mention the Azure DevOps project in the Azure DevOps site URL field. In order to do that, click on 4. Open Azure DevOps and create a new organization if there is no existing one. 5. Now create a new project as shown below  6. Now you need to set up a security token by clicking on  account info>security 7. Once you create the token, save it as you will not be able to access it again when you want to use it.  8. Once that is done, go back to the main page and create a new test plan. Name it as RSAT-TT (or you can use any name)   9. Now right-click on RSAT-TT and create a new suite you can name it ‘Demo’. Azure DevOps setup is done. 10. In the Azure DevOps site URL mention the Organization name that you setup in Azure DevOps. And in the Personal access token field paste the token that you had earlier saved. 11. Click on continue to select the project and continue, Save. 12. Now you need to deploy it to the environment  13. Next, open the Regression Suite Automation Tool, Go to settings In the Azure Dev Ops Url field copy it from the LCS Access token should be the security token you had copied. Click on Test connection so the Project name and Test plan will populate. 14. Now run VM. You will find Hostname and SOAP Hostname by going to IIS and then right-clicking on AOSService>Edit bindings. Copy both the Hostname and in Hostname and SOAP Hostname fields paste these values in step 16 15. Admin username should be the username you use to login to your environment. 16. To generate Thumbprint click on New and save at any location and then copy the generated certificate to the VM 17. Open the copied certificate and install it on the local machine at personal and Trusted Root Certification Authorities locations. Now Open the wif file in admin mode in notepad from the given location of VM In the wif file find whether CN name=127.0.0.1 exists or not. If not, copy the selected portion and paste it below the same authority block. Now add modify those lines as follows:-            <authority name=”CN=127.0.0.1″>             <keys>               <add thumbprint=”F46D2F16C0FA0EEB5FD414AEC43962AF939BD89A”/>             </keys>             <validIssuers>             <add name=”127.0.0.1″ />             </validIssuers>             </authority>  ( Note: Add thumbprint of installed Certificate in wif as shown) Final steps include Copy the thumbprint from RSAT settings (which was generated when you click on New) and paste it in wif file in your VM Then Mention the company name And Working directory Set the default browser as internet explorer Save as and ok 18. Next, Go to LCS open business process modeler and create a new Library 19. Name it as RSAT, go to edit and rename the process as required and you may add a child node to it by clicking on Add process. 20. Now go to Finance and operations, go to test recorder 21. Create a recording by clicking on create a recording and perform the operation and then click on the stop button. Name it as per your need then Save it to Lifecycle services or Save this to PC option. Click ok 22. Now go back to LCS in the project library and click on the requirement, tab check it’s syncing 23. Now Sync test cases and VSTS sync 24. Next go to Visual studio DevOps, test cases, click on Add existing 25. Then click on the run query and click on Add test case 26. Now go to regression suite automation and load the test and download test cases. select test and click on new and generate test execution parameter files 27. Then click on the edit option for the older version to edit values in excel For older version For newer version Now edit metadata for test in an excel file and save and close Now Run the test after this step, the automatic session for the test is handled by selenium where the browser will perform steps as test cases 28. Then run the test and after it’s completed successfully click on upload (Note the result as passed) POS RSAT Follow these steps to create a new recording by using the test recorder: Launch Cloud POS. Select the hamburger icon on the left pane and select Settings. Don’t sign in to Cloud POS. The sign in step must be recorded as part of the test recording flow, so you need to launch the recorder before sign in.) On the Settings page, in the Task and Test recorders section, select Open test recorder. Select Create a new recording. 4. Enter a name and description for the recording, and then select Start.The test recorder enters recording mode, and the recording session begins. The test recorder pane shows information and controls that are related to the recording session.  Perform the needed actions in the POS user interface. Download options After you end a recording session, you can download the recording by selecting Save to this PC. Upload that .axtr file in the business library. The .axtr file is saved to the local file system. You must … Continue reading Regression suite automation tool (RSAT) for D365 Finance and Operations, Commerce →

This blog explains how to configure the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce Store Commerce app and applies to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce version 10.0.25. The Store Commerce app in Dynamics 365 Commerce is the next-generation offering for physical stores. It combines Modern Point of Sale (MPOS) and Cloud Point of Sale (CPOS) into a single application, provides deployment choices to retailers, and helps improve performance. At the same, it retains all the functionality of MPOS and CPOS, including extensibility. Store Commerce supports local hardware stations and offline usage, and can be directly integrated with a payment terminal, printer, and cash drawer. The Store Commerce app provides commerce functionality for below first-line workers  Cashiers Sales Associates Inventory Associates Stock Clerks Store Managers Benefits of Store Commerce Store Commerce provides the benefits of both MPOS and CPOS. Performance is significantly improved. POS and extension upgrades are simplified through the Commerce sealed installer framework. Dedicated hardware station is supported. Offline deployment is supported. Application lifecycle management is simplified. Extension or independent software vendor (ISV) code that is developed for MPOS or CPOS by using the Commerce software development kit (SDK) can be reused in Store Commerce with minimal changes. Store Commerce supports two types of deployment topologies: In-app: All the components, such as Modern Point of Sale (MPOS), are deployed locally. Offline mode and local Hardware Station (HWS) are supported. Hybrid: Store Commerce renders the Cloud POS that is deployed in Commerce Scale Unit (CSU) and supports local Hardware stations. However, offline isn’t supported. There are no separate installers for the hybrid and in-app topologies. The deployment options are determined by the parameters that are passed during installation. In-app Deployment For the in-app deployment option, the application content is locally deployed in Store Commerce, just as for MPOS. To update the application content, run the latest version of the Store Commerce installer. The application content won’t be updated if you update the CSU. Therefore, you can manage the updates at individual registers. The in-app mode supports offline mode. Therefore, during installation, pass the –installoffline parameter to deploy the offline database. During offline mode (that is when there is no connectivity), the application won’t be able to connect to CSU or Commerce headquarters and will use the locally deployed CRT. Note: During the installation of Store Commerce, users can pass parameters to select either the hybrid option or the in-app option. The default option is in-app deployment. Hybrid Deployment Store Commerce is a shell that renders CPOS and connects to Headless Commerce and Commerce headquarters by using CSU in online mode. In hybrid mode, Store Commerce app content is rendered from CPOS that is hosted in CSU. When the Store Commerce app is opened, it will prompt for the CPOS URL. To update Store Commerce, just update the CSU. Store Commerce will then automatically receive the update. Because updates are centrally managed in CSU, they don’t have to be managed at individual registers. Setup and Installation Prerequisites Windows 10 version 17763.0 or later, Windows 11 (Pro, Enterprise, LTSC, and IOT Enterprise editions), or Windows Server 2019 (Standard, Essentials) Dynamics 365 Commerce (Commerce headquarters and Cloud Scale Unit) The .NET Framework version 4.7.2 or later. See Install the .NET Framework SQL Server Express, SQL Server Standard, or SQL Server Enterprise (required only for offline mode). For information on which SQL Server edition to use, see Commerce offline implementation and troubleshooting. Device setup in Commerce headquarters For Store Commerce, a new application type that is named Store Commerce has been added on the Devices page (Retail and Commerce > Channel setup > POS setup > Devices). Select this application type when you create a device for Store Commerce. Note: If the Store Commerce application type doesn’t appear on the drop-down menu, try to run the Initialize function from the General tab of the Commerce parameters page (Retail and Commerce > Headquarters setup > Parameters > Commerce parameters). Device installation from LCS Store Commerce can be downloaded from the LCS Shared asset library. On the Shared asset library page, select Retail Self-service package as the asset type, and then find the file that ends with Store Commerce. After the file has been downloaded, follow these steps to install the app. Go to the folder where you downloaded Store Commerce and open PowerShell in administrator mode. In PowerShell, find the Store Commerce installer, and pass the install parameter to install the app. To install offline components, pass the –installoffline parameter. (For example, enter Store_Commerce Installer_exe_name install –installoffline.) If you want to enable debugging mode during installation, pass the –enablewebviewdevtools parameter. Store Commerce installation parameters You can also use the help command in PowerShell to find information about all the parameters. In PowerShell, find the Store Commerce installer, and then enter Store_Commerce Installer_exe_name help install. Parameter Description installoffline Deploy the offline database. sqlservername Specify the name of the SQL Server instance that Store Commerce uses in offline mode. If you don’t specify this parameter, the installer will use a default instance. skipsqlfulltextcheck Skip validation of the SQL Full-Text Search that is required for offline deployment. trustsqlservercertificate Trust the SQL Server certificate when a connection is established to SQL Server. To help avoid security risks, you should never use this argument for production deployments. By default, the SQL Server certificate isn’t trusted. enablewebviewdevtools Enable developer tools for Store Commerce. If you don’t specify this parameter, developer tools will be enabled only if Windows Developer Mode is enabled. retailserverurl Specify the default Retail Server URL to use for Store Commerce. If you don’t specify this parameter, the user will be prompted to enter the Retail Server URL during device activation. useremoteappcontent Use the remote application content to download the Store Commerce app content from CPOS that is hosted in CSU. By default, the local application content that is deployed with Store Commerce is used. skipversioncheck Skip the validation during downgrade. skipurlcheck Skip the validation of URLs that are passed to the installer. logdirectorypath Specify the path of the log’s directory. config Specify the path of the configuration file that will be used as part of the installation. verbosity Deploy the offline database. help Show parameter information. version Show information about the app version. … Continue reading Dynamics 365 New Store Commerce App Overview, Setup, and Installation →