Introduction: Automation APIs provide capability for automating company setup through APIs. Here we are going to use the Automation APIs to create a new company in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and then view the existing companies information using the same. Pre-requisites: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Postman Steps: 1. Create a Company: To create a company we make use of the automation Endpoint available. Here we create a post request in Postman which is in the following format: POST https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/api/microsoft/automation/{api version}/companies{company id}/automationCompanies For this we make use of OAuth 2.0 Authorization(Bearer Token). 2. To View Information about existing Companies in Business Central Retrieves the properties and relationships of an automationCompany object for Dynamics 365 Business Central. Here we use the GET request from Postman which has the following format: GET https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/api/microsoft/automation/{api version}/companies{company id}/automationCompanies For this we make use of OAuth 2.0 Authorization(Bearer Token). Conclusion: Thus, by making use of these existing Automation APIs we can automate the initial setup process of creating companies, packages, users, permission sets etc.

Steps to Perform Transfer Out on Dynamics 365 for Retail: Go to Picking and Receiving –> click on + icon and click Transfer out. Select the store to which you want to transfer out, Delivery date and mode of delivery. Add or scan all the products and its quantity. Click on + icon to add more products to the transfer order. You can save the products added by clicking on Save icon. The status of the order will be in Draft. You can continue adding products when it is in Draft state by clicking on + icon. Once you are done adding all the products click on commit icon. Once the order is committed the status will change to created and you will not be able to add products. Click on ship all icon to ship the products. This will change the ship now column with values to ship. Then click on commit. This will change the status of the order to shipped. When the store Where the order is shipped to selects on Receive all icon the order will be complete.

Setting up custom status messages in Microsoft Teams was awaited for long but it is finally here. As Microsoft released Teams as Skype for Business replacement it was also right to say that Microsoft Teams must have the useful features of Skype for Business. Since the feature of setting up custom status messages was available in Skype for Business, it was long awaited in Microsoft Teams but it is here finally. Now, Teams users can set their own status messages to inform colleagues about their status for the next few hours, days or on a continuing basis.  This status is different from the user’s presence status (Available, Away, Be right back, etc). In this status message you, an add up to 280 characters and can provide more detailed information. To set the status, hover over your profile picture at the top right-hand corner and select Set status message. You can mention your status message and then you can select till when you want to display the status messages to your colleagues. Guest users can also set the status message in Microsoft Teams. For viewing the status message on Teams, you can view the users’ card. You can also view each users’ card from the Manage team option of a Team so that you can see the whole members and then hover over each member. In the below image, you can see I have set my status message as ‘break’ and when one of the user viewed my people card, status is reflected.

I have led several Office 365 implementation projects from scratch like from migrating emails to Office 365 to implementing various features of Office 365. When it comes to choosing the Office 365 subscriptions, I have seen that many of the organizations go with Office 365 Business Premium or Office 365 Business Essential subscriptions as both of these subscriptions are almost identical, the only difference is Office 365 Business Essential doesn’t contain Microsoft Office applications. In the below table you can find the list of features available with Office 365 Business Premium & Business Essential subscriptions. While in this article I am not actually highlighting the difference, I am just trying to provide the list of features available in these two subscriptions. I have also mentioned the Security & Compliance features which I have seen that most of the organizations don’t actually use but are very beneficial and I always try to convince my clients to use all these features. S. No. Features Features (Office 365 Business Premium) Features (Office 365 Business Essential)     1 Office Application Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote Not included     2 Services Included Exchange Online, Skype for Business, OneDrive, SharePoint, MS Teams Exchange Online, Skype for Business, OneDrive, SharePoint, MS Teams     3 Max Users 300 300     4 Mailbox Size 50 GB (Exchange Online Plan 1) 50 GB (Exchange Online Plan 1) Security & Compliance Features 5 Protect access to data and service Configure Multi-Factor Authentication Configure Multi-Factor Authentication Device Management (Enroll devices, Device Wipe) Device Management (Enroll devices, Device Wipe) 6 Prevent data loss Not Available Not Available 7 Manage data governance Import Data Import Data Archiving feature for Emails Archiving feature for Emails Retention for SharePoint & OneDrive Retention for SharePoint & OneDrive Retention (EAC) Retention (EAC) 8 Protection against threats Anti-Spoofing Anti-Spoofing Anti-Spam & Anti-malware Policies Anti-Spam & Anti-malware Policies Email encryption Email encryption Quarantine email messages Quarantine email messages Submitting malware to Microsoft for analysis Submitting malware to Microsoft for analysis 9 Search for content Content Search in Office 365 Content Search in Office 365   10 Manage legal investigations eDiscovery in Office 365 eDiscovery in Office 365   11 Audit Log Audit Log search in Office 365 Audit Log search in Office 365 Enable mailbox auditing Enable mailbox auditing 12 Monitor Security & Compliance Alerts in Office 365 Alerts in Office 365 Quarantine in Office 365 Quarantine in Office 365 Check secure score Check secure score Office 365 Service Health Office 365 Service Health Monitor reports (access and usage reports) Monitor reports (access and usage reports) Note: Many security features are not available within the subscription, but we can procure add-on licenses to enhance the security. Apart from these features, Microsoft also offers other services with these subscriptions. MS Teams– Platform that combines workplace chat, meetings, collaborate on files and especially the guest access feature in Teams is awesome. Exchange Online– Exchange for email services, also there is a lot you can do with Exchange Admin Center. OneDrive for Business– Storage for documents SharePoint Online– Document Management & Real-time Collaboration with attractive modern sites, document versioning, web parts & lot more. Hope this article helps you to easily find out the list of all features so that you can implement the same when you purchase any of the subscriptions and keep your organization secure.

Time based E-mail subscription feature is available for all Power BI Reports and Dashboards, For both in Power BI Pro and Premium Subscriptions. Now, you can set up an email subscription to run daily, weekly or any specific day of the week. Also, you can schedule for a particular time of the day. You have the flexibility to set it on the schedule you need. Now you can schedule a data set refresh at certain time and you can schedule subscription on another time. To set the Subscription, Click on the “Subscribe” button in toolbar above the dashboard or report. You can create a new email subscription, or you can edit the existing subscription email. Now, we will see subscription by default as in time-based schedule. Refer below screen capture: Now you have option to select frequency option as Daily, Weekly and After data refresh (once daily).

Introduction: In Dynamics 365 Business central, an item can be marked as blocked for sales, blocked for purchase and you can block it from being posted in any transaction. Block inventory items for sales: Choose the search icon, enter Items, and then choose the related link. Select the item that you want to block, and then choose the Edit action. To block the selected item for sales transactions, on the Price & Sales Fast Tab, select the Sale blocked check box. If you try to enter the item on a sales document or journal line, you will now get an error message that the item is blocked. Block inventory items for sales: Choose the search icon, enter Items, and then choose the related link. Select the item that you want to block, and then choose the Edit action. To block an item for purchase transactions, on the Replenishment Fast Tab, select the Purchase blocked check box. If you try to enter the item on a purchase document or journal line, you will now get an error message that the item is blocked. Block inventory items for transaction: Choose the search icon, enter Items, and then choose the related link. Select the item that you want to block, and then choose the Edit action. To block an item for transactions, on the Item Fast Tab, select the blocked check box. If you try to enter the item on a purchase document or journal line, you will now get an error message that the item is blocked.

Introduction: There have been instances where we feel the need of deleting some records in bulk. I was looking at options of doing advanced search and saw that there were 500+ records showing up. Also, at a time Advanced Find allows to delete 50 records in one go. We definitely needed a better option and Data Management provided that option to delete records in bulk. Use Case: I created a Project Task in a project. This was the only task in the project on which I booked all the resources in my company for 8 hours per day until dec-2022 from June-2018. There were around more then 500+ allocations done for all the Resources. Somewhere, I figured out that this was not the task I wanted to allocate and then I tried many ways deleting the allocations. Below is what all I tried. Option 1: I tried to open the schedule board and delete the allocations from there from month view. But. Deleting it from schedule board takes lot of time to delete the allocations even for one month and imagine we have so many months allocation to delete. Hence, this was not a feasible option. Option 2: I tried deleting the allocations from Advanced find by selecting the criteria as shown below in the screen shot. But, it allowed me to delete only 50 records in a go which was again an issue. After trying above 2 methods and doing some research we came across Bulk Delete option in Data Management Module. Below is the solution to the issue. Solution: Step 1: login on CRM and navigate to Settings module and Data Management in there as shown below. Step 2: Click on Bulk Record Deletion option. Step 3: Bulk deletion wizard opens Step 4: Define your search criteria that selects the records to be deleted. It is similar to the Advanced Find tool. Step 5: Name the Bulk deletion job and schedule the same. You  can also tick the check box to notify via email when the job is completed successfully. You are done with the process and it will take some time for the process to delete the records. Conclusion: This blog reflects my personal findings and based solely on my experience of using PSA for last 3 years. For those who are looking for a platform that can track and manage the entire procedures of sales and project managements, I would highly recommend them to try Microsoft dynamics 365 for project services automation. According to my opinion, implementation of Microsoft dynamics 365 for project services automation is one of the best things that we did in CloudFronts Technologies. We have gained a lot with this implementation because we save time and money due to easy access resources and ability to manage them.

Introduction: In this article, I will explain the steps to enable on-demand workflows [JG1] in Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement’s Unified Interface. With the release of D365CE apps version 9.0, Microsoft has introduced a new user experience – UCI, Unified Client Interface, or Unified Interface – which uses responsive web design principles to provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience for any screen size, device, or orientation. The Unified Interface brings an enriched experience to any client who is using it currently. And it is responsive enough to produce similar experiences on browsers, tablets or phones. Now I’ll show you one of the important capabilities needed to run on-demand workflows in a D365CE Unified Interface app. Scenario After clients are upgraded to D365CE V9, users are unable to use “classic app” functionality to run on-demand workflows[JG2] . This proves to be a showstopper since it encompasses routine tasks and is a much-needed feature. Steps: Below are steps to be performed for enabling on-demand workflows. 1. An admin user should enable the “Microsoft Flow” option for all the users.   a. Navigate to users in Office 365. Post the navigation [JG3] and open a specific user.   b. Enable the license for “Flow for Dynamics 365” in the D365 CE plan (shown in the screenshot below). 3. Enable settings to show Microsoft Flow in the sitemap.   a. Navigate to Settings è Administrator è System Settings by System Administrator Role User   b. Open Customization Tab and enable the Microsoft Flow option 4. Navigate to the entity, shown below, for Account access and open the account entity record.   a. Navigate to the Flow button on the ribbon and expand options. You will be able to view all on-demand workflows for the entity under the run workflow header. Conclusion: This process demonstrates how to enable Microsoft Flow settings on specific environments to allow users to run on-demand workflows in UCI apps for D365CE. I hope this demonstration can help to make these processes easier for your team.

Introduction: ERP solutions are complex and hence it is significant for any enterprise to analyse the necessity and extract the complete understanding of the solution so as to derive the full benefits of it internally before it decides to deploy one. Having said this, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one such platform which rather offers a clarity on the solutions. Microsoft now offers two ERP based solutions on Dynamics 365 Platforms. D365 Business Central D365 Finance & Operations The companies planning to implement D365 ERP need to choose prudently which product will suit their business requirements or best, consult their IT partner for the same. Here is the table comparison of two products which will help the decision makers to take the right decision. I have listed down product features with a general comparison view so that it is easier to understand them in a better way. General Comparison: Product/Feature D365 Business Central  D365 Finance & Operations Multiple Legal Entities Yes Yes Intercompany Postings and Consolidated Statements Yes (only within same country/localization) Yes Complete ERP with – Finance (AR/AP), Manufacturing, Logistics, Inventory, Warehousing Yes Yes Supplier Evaluation Module No Yes Quality Management Module No Yes PowerBI Embedded for Analytics No Yes Dynamics 365 Talent (Core HR, Attract, Onboard) No Yes Dynamics 365 Sales with Integration to ERP No Yes Dynamics 365 Customer Service No Yes Dynamics 365 Marketing No Yes Dynamics 365 Social Engagement (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc) No Yes Dynamics 365 Customer Satisfaction Surveys No Yes Dynamics 365 Customer Support Portal No Yes Mobility (Apps for iOS/Android) Yes Yes Browser-based (Chrome, Edge, Safari) Yes Yes Dev and Production Environments Only Production Yes Minimum User License requirement No Minimum 20 Licensing Cost (US $ per user/month) $100 $200  Module Wise Comparison   D365 BC D365 FOE General Customer Type Small to Medium Medium to Large Deployment Period Short Long   Financial Management Auto Elimination Accounting – Available Consolidation Available Available Budgeting Available(Basic) Available(Advanced) Budget Control – Available Fixed and Variable allocations Available Available Ledger Allocations – Available Fixed Assets Available Available Cost Accounting Available Available Multicurrency Available Available Financial Dimensions Available (Upto 8 dimensions) Available (Unlimited) Multi-company Available Available Multi language Available Available Bank Reconciliation Available Available Electronic Funds Transfer Available Available Global Chart of Accounts – Available Multiple Posting Layers – Available Supply Chain Management Sales Orders Available Available Returns Management Available Available Sales Tax Available Available Purchase Orders Available Available Requisitions Available Available Serialized inventory Available Available Bins Available Available Assembly Available Available Inventory Transfers Available Available Procurement and sourcing – Available Global Customer & Vendor – Available Global Products – Available Advanced Warehouse Management License Plate Tracking – Available Basic Warehousing Available Available Aisle, Rack & Shelf – Available Transport Management – Available Quality Management – Available Warehouse Monitoring – Available   Production Basic Production Available Available Process Based manufacturing – Available Lean manufacturing – Available Multi Plant & Multi Schedule Planning – Available Human Resource Employee Master Available Available Recruitment Process – Available Attendance – Available Payroll – Available Performance – Available Training – Available Skill Sets – Available Project Management Job Costing Available Available Project Accounting – Available Employee Timesheets Available Available Employee Expenses – Available Schedule Board – Available System-wide Capabilities Office 365 Integration Available Available Microsoft user interface Available Available Workflows Available Available Web/mobile client Available Available E-mail Integration Available Available Document Management Available Available

Introduction: I have worked on several D365 Retail implementation projects. The largest one being for one of the clients in South Asia who was a sports goods retailer and owned several stores across the region. Just in case any body needs introduction, Dynamics 365 for Retail provides mid-market and large retailers with a complete head office and point of sale (POS) solution that includes support for online and brick-and-mortar stores. It can help retailers increase financial returns, improve service, manage growth, reach customers, and streamline efficiencies. A lot of retailers approach us with the requirements related to the induction of Coupons in Retail stores. It is a set up that is done to provide coupon in Retail stores. For this, I have decided to list down detailed process of the Store code set up Manual. Store Code Set up Manual Process: Step1: Create Barcode Mask Character for Coupon Code: Step 2: Create a New Barcode. Mask set up. Keep the type as Coupon. Step 3: Create Bar Code for Coupon. Assign the Mask ID which was created in step 2. Step 4: Create Number Sequence for Coupon Code ID and Coupon Number. Step 5: Set the Retail Parameters for Coupon. Assign the Mask ID that was created. Step 6:  Create a New Discount. Mention the discount Price, Products in Lines, Price group, Valid Discount Account and enable coupon code required. Step 7: Create a new Coupon. Mention the usage limit, usage type, associate discount to the coupon, Create a new line for coupon. Activate the Coupon. The Barcode will be generated. Make a note of the Barcode.   Next, To Redeem the Store Coupon Code: Scan the product that is under Discount. Scan the Barcode or Manually inter the Barcode. The discount will be applied to the product along with the discount name. Make Payment. This is it! Hope the above information helps! 😊