Summary An Emirates-based marine services firm running Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central found that an approved purchase order had disappeared, along with every record of who approved it. We confirmed the order had been deleted rather than archived, showed why Business Central removes approval entries together with the document, and identified the likely approvers from the approval chain. We then explained how a point-in-time restore of Production into a sandbox recovers the actual approval history, set up the change log so future deletions are recorded in full, and recommended controls that stop approved documents from being deleted at all. Table of Contents Introduction Understanding the Issue Deleted or Archived? How We Confirmed It Why the Approval Entries Disappeared Reconstructing the Likely Approvers Recovering the Evidence with a Point-in-Time Restore Making Future Deletions Traceable Preventing Approved Documents from Being Deleted Business Impact Frequently Asked Questions Conclusion Introduction Approval workflows in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central give finance teams confidence that every purchase order was reviewed before it went to a vendor. That confidence depends on one assumption: the approval history will still be there when someone needs it. For an Emirates-based marine services firm we work with, that assumption broke. The finance team went looking for a released purchase order and could not find it. When they checked Approval Entries, there was nothing there either. A few days later, two purchase invoices were deleted as well, and the change log had no record of them. 1 Approved purchase order missing 0 Approval entries left for it 28 Days available to recover the evidence This post walks through how we investigated the issue, what Business Central does behind the scenes when a document is deleted, and the setup that makes every future deletion traceable. The Lesson In Business Central, deleting a document also deletes its approval history. Audit trails have to be set up before they are needed, not after. Understanding the Issue The finance team came to us with three questions. Each needed a clear, evidence-based answer. 01 Was It Deleted or Archived? The order was in Purchase Order Archives, so it looked as if someone had simply archived it by hand. 02 Who Approved It? The order had been released through an approval workflow, but Approval Entries showed nothing for it. 03 Why Was Nothing Logged? The change log had just been switched on, yet the invoices deleted afterwards left no trace in it. Deleted or Archived? How We Confirmed It Archiving and deleting both leave a copy in Purchase Order Archives, so the archive alone does not tell you what happened. The difference is what remains in the live system. Archived Archive Document A copy is saved to Purchase Order Archives, but the original order stays in the Purchase Orders list, together with its approval entries. Deleted Delete The order leaves the Purchase Orders list. If Purchases & Payables Setup is set to archive orders, Business Central saves an archive copy automatically at the moment of deletion. We worked through the possibilities one at a time: How we ruled out each possibility Not in Purchase Orders → No Receipts, Invoices or G/L Entries → Only in Archives → Version No. 1 → Deleted The Version section of the archived order settled it: Version No. 1: only one archived version existed, so the order had never been archived by hand. This version was created when the order was deleted. Archived By: the user ID that deleted the order. Date and Time Archived: the exact moment of deletion. Figure 1: The archive version details show who deleted the order and when. Why the Approval Entries Disappeared Approval entries are linked to the document they belong to. When the document is deleted, Business Central deletes its approval entries too. The archive keeps the order’s header and lines, but not its approval history. To show this to the client with evidence rather than theory, we reproduced it on a copy of Production using an older released order: 1 Released Order We picked a purchase order that had been released through the approval workflow. 2 Approvals Recorded Its Approval Entries showed three approvals from three different approvers. 3 Order Deleted After the order was deleted, Approval Entries showed nothing for it. 4 Archive Copy Remains The order was still available in Purchase Order Archives, without its approvals. Figure 2: Before deletion, the test order carries its full approval history. Figure 3: After deletion, the approval entries are gone, even though an archive copy exists. Key Insight Purchase Order Archives answer what the order looked like. They do not answer who approved it. Once a document is deleted, that question can only be answered from a backup. Reconstructing the Likely Approvers With the approval entries gone, we looked at the next purchase order raised by the same user. Approvals follow the approver chain set up in Approval User Setup, so an order from the same requester with a similar amount follows the same route. Step Role What Happens 1 Requester Raises the purchase order and sends it for approval 2 First approver Next user in the requester’s approver chain 3 Second approver Next user in the chain, based on the approval limits A Reconstruction, Not a Record This identifies the most likely approvers, but it is not proof. It assumes the approval setup has not changed since, and that the deleted order’s amount did not cross a limit that would have added another approver. Recovering the Evidence with a Point-in-Time Restore Business Central Online lets you restore an environment to any point in time within the last 28 days. A Production environment can be restored as a new sandbox, which leaves Production untouched. In that copy, the deleted order still exists with all its approval entries. Steps We Recommended In the Business Central Admin Center, open the Production environment and choose Restore. Pick a point in time a few minutes before the deletion. Convert the archive’s timestamp to the time zone the Admin Center … Continue reading Recovering Lost Approval History After a Purchase Order Deletion in Business Central →

Summary For a Maldives-based marine services firm running Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central across multiple operating sites, item journals are used to record consumption and disposal of inventory such as diving and water sports equipment, consumables, and spares. The standard item journal does not stop a user from consuming or disposing more than is physically available at the selected location, because the item lookup and the Inventory figure reflect stock across all locations. In this implementation, we restricted item visibility and quantity validation to the location selected on the journal line. Users must select the location first, the item lookup shows only items with stock at that location, and the quantity is validated both when the line is entered and again at posting. We also carried the location onto the Item Journal Batch so that approval workflows can be routed per location. Table of Contents Introduction Understanding the Business Requirement The Challenge with Standard Item Journals Filtering the Lookup vs. Validating the Line Designing the Solution Filtering the Item Lookup by Location Validating Quantity at Entry and Posting Routing Approvals by Location Implementation Approach Business Impact Frequently Asked Questions Conclusion Introduction Many organizations running Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central hold the same items across several locations: properties, stores, warehouses, or project sites. Day-to-day consumption and disposal of that stock is usually recorded through item journals. Consider a storekeeper who opens the item journal to record the use of cleaning supplies. Business Central tells her one thing; her storeroom tells her another. 200 Units shown in Business Central 60 Units on her own shelf 140 Units at other locations Without additional controls, nothing prevents her from posting 100 units from her location. The journal accepts it, the location goes negative, and the difference only surfaces during stock counts or month-end reconciliation. This was the challenge for a Maldives-based marine services firm we worked with. Its sites are spread across separate islands, so equipment and consumables held at one site cannot simply be used at another. We addressed this with one rule enforced at every step: The Rule A user can only consume or dispose of what is physically available at the location they selected. Understanding the Business Requirement Before writing any code, we agreed the expected behavior with the client as concrete scenarios. Each scenario later became a test case for user acceptance testing. Scenario 1 Item Stocked Across All Locations Cleaning concentrate. User selects Location A. Location A60 Other locations140 Company total200 Shows 60 available. Entering 100 is blocked. Scenario 2 Item Available at Several Locations Snorkel mask. User selects Location A. Location A30 Location B5 Location C21 Location D10 Shows 30 available. Other locations are ignored. Scenario 3 No Stock at the Selected Location Kids’ snorkel set. User selects Location D. Location A10 Location B0 Location C0 Location D0 Not available. Consumption and disposal are blocked. From these scenarios, we derived three key requirements: Show only the items and quantities available at the selected location. Prevent any consumption or disposal quantity greater than the location’s available stock. Route approvals to the person responsible for that location. The Challenge with Standard Item Journals Standard Business Central treats the item journal as a general-purpose adjustment tool, and it trusts the user. For businesses with stock spread across sites, three gaps follow from that. 01 Lookup Shows Company-Wide Stock The Inventory figure on the Item List is the total across all locations unless a location filter is applied. A user sees 200 when only 60 is on their shelf. 02 Location Is Just Another Field Users can select the item first and the location later, or leave it blank, so the system has no location context when the item is chosen. 03 Quantity Isn’t Checked by Location Prevent Negative Inventory is often switched off, only triggers at posting, and gives a storekeeper little guidance. Figure 1: The standard item lookup shows total inventory across all locations, not the stock at the user’s location. Key Design Consideration Location needed to be the starting point of every consumption and disposal line, not an optional detail added afterwards. Filtering the Lookup vs. Validating the Line The first instinct is to filter the item lookup by location. That is useful, but it is not a control on its own. Guides Lookup Filtering Points the user to the right items. It does nothing when someone types an item number directly, pastes lines, or uses Edit in Excel. Enforces Validation Runs whenever the field changes, however the value arrives. Every rule shown in the lookup needs a matching check in table validation and at posting. How a consumption or disposal line moves through the checks Select Location → Item Lookup at Location → Entry Check → Posting Check → Line Posts Designing the Solution We reduced the requirement to four rules that apply to every consumption and disposal line. 1 Location First The user must select the Usage Location Code before the Item No. field becomes editable. The location carries over to the next new line. 2 Show Only What Is There The item lookup lists only items with stock above zero at the selected location, with that location’s quantity. 3 Never More Than Is There The quantity cannot exceed available stock at the location, after subtracting other unposted lines for the same item. 4 Check Again at Posting Stock can change between entering and posting a line, so the same rule runs again just before each line posts. Figure 2: Usage Location Code must be selected before the Item No. field becomes editable. Together, these rules form three layers of control: Layer 1 · Lookup Guides the user to items in stock at the selected location. Layer 2 · Entry Check Blocks over-consumption as soon as the line is entered. Layer 3 · Posting Check Confirms availability against live stock before posting. Filtering the Item Lookup by Location Business Central already calculates stock per location. The Inventory field on the Item table is a FlowField that … Continue reading Location-Based Item Based Visibility in Business Central for a Maldives-Based Marine Services Firm →

Inventory is the core of many businesses. Whether you’re selling products, making goods, or managing a supply chain, keeping the right stock at the right time is key. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central helps businesses handle inventory with ease and clarity. 1. Central Item List Item lists are the backbone of inventory management. Business Central lets you create a structured list of all your products—whether you buy them, sell them, or just store them. This organized list becomes the single source of truth across all departments. 2. Real-Time Inventory Levels Business Central keeps track of: This helps businesses plan better and fulfill orders faster without confusion. 3. Multi-Location Tracking If you manage inventory in multiple places (like stores, warehouses, or branches), Business Central supports that too. You can: 4. Reorder and Stock Planning With built-in reorder logic, Business Central tells you when to buy and how much to buy. It considers: This reduces guesswork and supports a smooth procurement process. 5. Purchase and Sales Integration When a purchase order is received or a sales order is shipped, inventory updates automatically. This minimizes the need for manual updates and keeps everyone on the same page. 6. Lot and Serial Number Tracking Business Central supports lot numbers and serial numbers. This helps with: 7. Inventory Valuation Methods You can choose how to value your inventory: This supports accurate financial reporting and cost control. 8. Inventory Transfers Do you need to move items from one location to another? Use transfer orders. You can record: 9. Inventory Adjustments Sometimes physical counts don’t match system data. Business Central allows easy stock corrections for: 10. Reports and Insights With built-in reports and dashboards, you can track: These insights will assist you in making well-informed decisions and planning ahead. Why It Matters Good inventory management helps you: Business Central gives you the tools to manage stock simply and efficiently. If you’re using spreadsheets or disconnected tools to manage inventory, now is a good time to explore Business Central. It gives you more control, better insights, and smoother operations—all in one place. We hope you found this blog useful. If you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com.

A well-structured Chart of Accounts (COA) is essential for achieving accuracy and efficiency in financial management. In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the COA plays a key role in organizing financial data, supporting compliance, and enabling insightful reporting. By implementing effective strategies and tips, businesses can create a reliable and scalable financial environment. Below, we explore practical steps for setting up a successful environment with the Chart of Accounts in Business Central. Understand the Basics of the Chart of Accounts The Chart of Accounts in Business Central provides a framework for categorizing financial transactions. Key components include: Organize accounts into primary groups such as Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, and Expenses. Define Clear Financial Goals Establishing clear financial goals helps align the COA structure with business objectives: Streamline Account Structures To maintain efficiency, simplify the Chart of Accounts structure: Develop a Logical Numbering System A structured numbering system improves navigation and consistency: Configure Posting Groups Posting groups automate how transactions are allocated to accounts: Perform Testing and Validation Ensure the setup supports business requirements by testing thoroughly: Plan for Future Needs Business needs evolve over time, requiring flexibility in financial systems: To encapsulate, creating a successful financial environment with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central’s Chart of Accounts involves careful planning, structured setup, and ongoing maintenance. By simplifying account structures, leveraging dimensions, and ensuring scalability, businesses can build a COA that supports both current operations and future growth. These strategies and tips will help your organization manage finances more effectively and ensure your systems are aligned with broader business goals. If you’d like guidance on setting up dimensions, configuring posting groups, or optimizing reporting, feel free to ask! We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfonts.com.

References Configure Session Timeout – Dynamics NAV | Microsoft Learn Pre-requisites Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. Introduction In this blog, I am going to showcase how to set session timeout on the NAV window. Scenario: The session timeout is 15 minutes; if the client connection is inactive for more than 15 minutes, the connection is lost. Let’s have a look at the setting for session time out. Hope this helps!

Introduction In this blog, I will demonstrate using Standard Journal functionality in Dynamics 365 Business Central. Standard Journal Standard Journals provide users with the benefit of saving transaction details and utilizing them at a later stage. Consider monthly expense payments, users will manually enter the details for the current month’s initial payment and save the journal line entries for future usage. Steps to save Standard Journal Enter the ‘Code’ and ‘Description’ to uniquely identify the journal. Users can even enable the ‘Save Amount’ toggle button to save the amounts on the journal.  Steps to Reuse Standard Journal Please note: The changes made on journal lines will not reflect on the saved template. Conclusion This feature of Dynamics 365 Business Central is very useful for users who are working with Journals that are recurring in nature. Hope this helps!

Introduction Business Central allows various levels of security that can be used to restrict User access to different features or objects. We can use Permission Sets to prevent User access to specific objects like reports or pages. For more refined, row-level authorization we can use Security Filters to restrict access to individual record based on some filters. References Using Security Filters in Business Central – Business Central | Microsoft Docs Pre-requisites Business Central OnCloud or OnPremise Configuration Suppose, you want the User to only be able to access a specific set of Customers. You can either create your own Permission Set from scratch, in which you will describe all the objects that the User will have access to or you can copy one of the existing ones by clicking on “Copy Permission Set” and then entering a new name for the permission set. Do note that you require proper permissions to make changes to Permission Sets as well. Open the Permission Set, by clicking on the “Permissions” action and Scroll to the Right. Click on the three dots next to the Security Filter field. Select the field(s) which you want to filter by clicking on the three dots next to the Field Number and then click on OK. Set a value for the filter in the “Field Filter” field. You can add as many filters as required and any Business Central filter is valid in this field (Except for wildcard characters). Once you are done, click on Close. Click on OK and add (in case there are no other permission sets and you have created your own) or replace (in case you have copied the permission set) the new permission set onto the User in the “User Permission Sets” tab of the User card. Login to the User Account and verify that only the records that match the mentioned filters are visible to the Users. Conclusion Thus we saw how to create and configure security filters in Business Central for maintaining record level security. As a side note, I would like to highlight that in Business Central, in case a User has multiple Permission Sets containing different levels of permissions for the same object then Business Central combines these Permission Sets and uses the least restrictive group of Permissions. As such if you apply a Permission Set with a Security Filter and another Permission Set without the filter on the same object, Business Central will use the one without the Security Filter as it is least restrictive.

Introduction: There can be a case where developers might need to display data from different companies in NAV or Unique view of Tables displaying unique values of a table or Joins from Tables. In such cases, developers can use the “LinkedObject” property of a table. Pre-requisites: VS Code AL Language Extension Microsoft Dynamics NAV Solution: Step 1: Go to SQL Server Management Studio and create a view of the table from where you want to display field values. Here I have created a view of Customer Table to display distinct Customer Names. And saved the view as “AdityaCustomer” Company Name as the prefix. View Step 2: Now, In NAV Development Environment create a table with the same as the view that has been created, Do not include the company prefix. And add the field with the same name of the field included in View. Table in NAV   Linked Object Property Step 3:  When this Table is run, you can see distinct Customer names in the Table. Conclusion:  This way developers can display data from Views using LinkeObject property. Hope this helps!

Introduction: In this blog, I will be attempting to highlight on Suggest Vendor Payment functionality in Payment Journals. Pre-requisites: Microsoft Dynamics Business Central Microsoft Dynamics NAV Demonstration: Last Payment Date: This date is the latest date which can be appeared on Vendor Ledger Entries for making the Payment. Entries that have Due Date or Discount Date before the Last Payment Date will be included in Suggest functionality. Last Payment Date Find Payment Discounts: Find all the Payments which will have discounts. If this field is TRUE then Suggest Vendor Payment functionality will include Payments with Discounts as well as Payments without Discounts. Find Payment Discounts Use Vendor Priority: While making payments, if you want to prepare the entries priority wise, then you will need to set the priority of Vendor under the Payments section. Use Vendor Priority   Priority field in Payment Section in Vendor Card By default, the priority is set to 0. If Vendor priority is not set which means that the Vendor Payments are to be processed in Alphabetically FCFS fashion. Available Amount: If the Available Amount is filled in which means that the maximum amount for the payments will be considered. Available Amount Skip Exported Payments: This boolean is used to skip those payments for which the Payment EFT file has been exported. This is generally used where the Payments are not supposed to be posted but the new payments are to be included in the list. Skip Exported Payments Check Other Journal Batches: This boolean field is used to skip all those payments which have already been included in the different General Journal Batches. This will avoid including duplicate payments. Check Other Journal Batches Summarize Per Vendor: This will make a single Payment per Vendor which will be applied to multiple documents. Also, this boolean will create separate payment entries for payments with different currencies. This feature cannot be used in conjunction with ‘Calculate Posting Date from Applied Entries‘ Summarize per Vendor By Dimension: This will create the entries for which the applied document will have the correct dimension. By Dimension Posting Date: Sets the Posting Date for the General Journal Lines. Posting Date is generally set to today’s date or date after the late payment date. Posting Date Calculate Posting Date from Applied Entries: Sets the Posting Date from Applied Entries based upon the Due Date of the Applied Document. Calculate Posting Date from Application Starting Document No.: Starting No. Series for the Payment Journal. This value will be set to Next No. after current Payment Journal Lines have been created in Payment Journal. This field is generally auto-filled. Starting Document No. New Doc No. per Line: This is used to create a separate Document No. for a separate entry line. When this is set to false, automatically a single Document No. is used for multiple entries of a single Vendor. New Doc. No. per Line Balance Account Type: Balance account type can be a G/L Account or Bank. Bal. Account Type Bank Account No. Used to generate only payments from a specific Bank Account. Vendor Filters: Vendor Filters are basically used to get only those payments related to a particular Vendor. Vendor Filters Conclusion: Thus, Suggest Vendor Payments can be a pretty good tool to deal with Payments where you don’t have to manually go and reconcile for the Vendor Purchase Invoices. There are a lot of variants to get the pending Payments with a lot of filters in Suggested Vendor Payments.

Introduction: Use the Update Block to update existing records in the source or target datastore. While integrating with Microsoft Dynamics NAV as a destination use the Update Merge Block to perform the Update Operation in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The Update Merge block can configured as follows. General Tab Following Options are available under the General Tab. Change the Block Label Add Description Set Batch Processing Options Select the entity to use for this Operation. Matching Criteria Tab Following Options are available under the Matching Tab. Specify one or more fields in your source and target data to select records for this operation. Fields Tab Following Options are available under the Fields Tab. Map the required fields from your source to destination directly or based on some formulae. Note: The following fields must Hardcoded Error Handling Tab Following Options are available under the Error Handling Tab. When an operation fails — If the record cannot be updated, an error is logged. If no matches are found — If the record being processed does not match the criteria in the Matching Criteria Tab, it is not updated, and an error is logged. Errors and Warnings Tab Following Options are available under the Errors And Warnings Tab. Various Errors available are displayed. Once you have corrected the errors click on Validate button to update the Errors and Warnings Tab.