Inventory periods are used to keep track of when inventory adjusting entries are posted. Unless inventory periods are closed on a monthly basis, adjusting entries will post in the same period as the original transaction. Inventory adjustments will not be posted in that period if you create and close inventory periods. If the initial transaction was posted during a closed inventory period, the adjustments’ value is posted on the first day of the first open inventory period. This ensures that once the financial statements have been printed for a month, the G/L value of inventories, costs, and cost of goods sold do not change. CREATING INVENTORY PERIOD Many companies manage inventory the same time they manage accounting Period. Steps to access inventory period: Go to ‘Accounting Period’ Click on ‘Process’, there you find ‘inventory period’  OR You can simply Go to ‘Inventory Period’ from Global Search. STEPS TO CREATE AN INVENTORY PERIOD. Click On the search icon and enter Inventory Period, select relevant link.  Create a new line In the Ending Date Field, enter the last date in the inventory period that you want to define. When the period is closed, you will not be able to post inventory changes before this date. Enter a descriptive name in the Name field. CLOSING INVENTORY PERIOD. The Closed parameter specifies whether the inventory period is closed to changes in inventory value. This field is not editable. You can close any inventory period if the following conditions are met In that time period, there are no open outbound item ledger entries, showing negative inventory. The Adjust Cost – Item Entries batch job was used to adjust the cost of all goods. This means that any outbound transaction quantities must be applied to existing inventory numbers, such as those from sales orders, outbound transfers, sales invoices, buy returns, or purchase credit notes. TO CLOSE AN INVENTORY PERIOD Before closing an inventory period, choose the Adjust Cost – Item Entries action to ensure that all cost adjustments are posted.Run the Close Inventory Period – Test report to determine if there are any open outbound item entries within the inventory period or any items whose cost has not yet been adjusted. Choose the Close Inventory Period – Test action.Run the Post Inventory Cost to G/L batch job to ensure that all costs are posted to the general ledger. Choose the Post Inventory to G/L action. On the Inventory Periods page, select the inventory period you want to close. Choose the Close Period action. After the inventory period has been closed, you cannot post inventory changes before the ending date. The cost of all items must be adjusted with the Adjust Cost – Item Entries batch job before you close the inventory period. Choose the Yes button to confirm that you want to close the period, or choose No to cancel the closing. The inventory period is closed and a confirmation message is displayed when it is finished. REOPEN INVENTORY PERIOD It is not possible to delete an inventory period once it has been closed. You can, however, reopen it if you want to allow posting before the inventory period’s expiration date. When you reopen a period, it also reopens other inventory periods with ending dates later than the reopened period. TO REOPEN AN INVENTORY PERIOD Choose the icon, enter Inventory Periods, and then choose the related link. Select the inventory period you want to reopen. Choose the Reopen Period action. Confirm that you want to reopen the period. All inventory periods with ending dates later than the period you selected are reopened. Thank you for reading. Hope this helped. 🙂

If you find a mistake in a posted bank reconciliation, you can correct it using the Undo action on the Bank Acc. Statement page. Steps to undo a Bank reconciliation: 1. Go to ‘Bank Account’ from the global search icon. 2. Select the bank account for which you want to undo the statement. 3. Open the Bank account Card Page, select ‘Bank Account’ and then ‘Statement’ 4.Select the statement for the bank account reconciliation that you want to reverse, and select Undo. 5. Select Yes When you undo a previously posted bank reconciliation, the entries are relocated to the Bank Reconciliation page and are marked as Open, indicating that they have not been reconciled. The bank reconciliation can then be corrected and re-posted. The bank account card provides the bank statement number and the balance from the last bank reconciliation. This indicates that the new bank reconciliation has a different number than the cancelled one. You can use the Change Statement No. action on the Bank Acct. Reconciliation page to use the same number as the cancelled bank reconciliation. Follow these steps to modify the number of a bank account reconciliation: 1. Go to Global Search icon and type in Bank Account Reconciliation, and then select the relevant link. 2.Change Statement No. after selecting Actions. 3. Enter the number you want to use in the New Statement No. area, then click OK. The Last Statement No. and Balance Last Statement fields on the bank account card are updated after the bank reconciliation is posted. This means that if the bank reconciliation you just completed isn’t the most recent, you may need to manually edit the Last Statement No. and Balance Last Statement fields on the bank account card. Thank you. Hope this helps! 🙂

CREATION OF ACCOUNTING PERIOD. Step1. Globally search “Accounting Period” and click on the related link. Step2. To create a new accounting period, select process and then click Create year. Step3. By default, system will have a starting date as per the last created accounting period. The no. of periods is 12 by default Period length usually is 1M but can be modified to weeks or quarters. Click ok and a new accounting period is created. CLOSE ACCOUNTING PERIOD Step1. Select Process action and then click on Close Year Step2. System pops up a message stating the start and end date and once the period is closed it cannot be undone. Once you click OK, the closed and data locked column is check true. After Closing the accounting period, we need to close the Income Statement. Step1. Globally search “Close Income Statement” and select the related link Step2. The Fiscal year ending date is automatically filled by the system Step3. Select the journal template you need to post. For Journal batch, create a new batch that can be uniquely identify year end. Step4. Fill in all the necessary details. Click OK and Journal lines are created Step4. Navigate to General Journal and select the batch name Check if the balance is correct before posting.  (First preview post the entries to verify the G/L entries) Step5. Post the journal lines. After posting check the retaining earning account. Hope this helps! Thank you.

Introduction LS Central Scheduler Jobs are used for automatic background processing. These jobs use the NAS Service under the hood. We are going to see how to configure the NAS Service for LS Central. References https://help.lscentral.lsretail.com/Content/LS-Insight/Setup/LS-Central-In-Cloud-LS-Insight-In-Azure/3-Machine-Or-VM.htm Pre-requisites LS Central v16.4 – OnPrem Data Director Configuration Create a new Server Instance and name it appropriately.  Ensure that the account for this new Server Instance is set to User and the User has Administrator privileges.  In the General tab, update the “Service Default Company” and “Service Default Time Zone.” In the NAS Services tab, set the following fields: Run NAS Services with Admin Rights: True Startup Argument: NASID,TYPEFILTER=,LOG=1,REPEAT=1 Startup Codeunit: 99001468 Startup Method: LSRSCHEDULER Restart the Server Instance. Open the Scheduler Setup in LS Central and set the “Enable NAS Scheduler” to true.  Refresh the page. Conclusion: Thus we saw how to configure NAS Services in LS Central. Happy Coding!

Introduction: While using Business Central Web Services or APIs, we often use POSTMAN for testing the request and the responses. Today we’ll see how we can automate this testing to a certain extent using the inbuilt features of POSTMAN. We can have testing logic that runs before every request, after every request or logic that tests on particular request. In the below demonstration, we’ll write automated test to check for GET, PUT, POST and DELETE operations for a single record on a custom API. Postman itself provides a bunch of standard procedures or boiler plate code which we can modify as per our requirements. As this uses Javascript we can also use additional JS features here. Pre-requisites: Postman Business Central OnCloud or OnPremise References: Writing tests | Postman Learning Center Announcing Postman for the Web, Now in Open Beta | Postman Blog Configuration: Post Request – So first we are going to be creating a record in the Customer Table with the following fields. One of the common things to be testing with Custom APIs is to verify whether the request is being created successfully (1) and what we are sending and what is being stored in the record are the same(2). As we are using Javascript, the response is stored in the jsonData variable and we can access any of the fields of the response as a property on the jsonData variable.  As the rest of our automated tests are doing to be performed on this same record, we need to store the Identifier for this record inside some variable which exists outside the scope of this request, here we are using a variable with the Collection scope. If you want to use the same variable outside of this collection, you can also define Global variables.  GET Request – In a simple GET request, the only thing we are concerned with here, is whether the request is executed successfully or not. For this we are simply going to be checking the Status Code. PUT Request – In a PUT request, we are going to be modifying the record that we previously created, here I’m going to update the name of the record. A common test-case for PUT requests would be to ensure that (a) the request is completed successfully and (b) what is being sent in the request is what is updated on the record and is available in the response. DELETE Request – In a simple DELETE request, the only thing we are concerned with is whether the requested is executed successfully and here we will be simply checking the Status Code returned. Once all the Automated Tests are written, you can either execute them from the Collection Level or from a folder level. Here we will be executing our tests from the folder level.  We can also define the Run Order for the requests.  Once the Tests have run, we can get a summary of the results as well as detailed version of the results.  Conclusion: Thus we saw how to use Automated Testing in POSTMAN to reduce re-work and increase efficiency while testing. A bonus tip – you can now use POSTMAN Web Version to create requests instead of download the POSTMAN app and the entire blog above was written using the Web App of POSTMAN. Do note that not everything that can be done on the Windows App can be done on the Web App. Happy Coding!

Introduction: In Business Central, we can use Task Scheduler to utilize background processing to ensure that Users do not have to wait for completion of long operations. Task Scheduler provides us an easy to use and monitor way to offload tasks from the main thread. It creates separate sessions for processing and it allows creating multiple sessions which can be used to run tasks in parallel. It also allows us to define the company in which the processing will happening which is useful when we have to perform operations across all available companies, for example initialization of certain fields or creation of certain records on extension installation. Pre-requisites: Business Central OnCloud or OnPremise References: TaskScheduler Data Type – Business Central | Microsoft Docs Task Scheduler – Business Central | Microsoft Docs Configuration: The following procedures are available for the Task Scheduler data type: CanCreateTask() – Checks whether it is possible to create a new task in this session. CreateTask() – Creates a new task with the specified codeunit, we also specify which Codeunit to run if the main codeunit fails, whether the starts of this task would be Ready when it is created, the company this task will be running under and the time after which this task is to be run. TaskExists() – Checks whether the specified Task exists or not. SetTaskReady() – Sets the specified task status to Ready, a Task can only begin processing if it is in Ready state. CancelTask() – Sets the specified Task’s status to Cancel. A Task can only be set to cancel if it is in pending state. A task that is in progress cannot be cancelled. In case the main Codeunit hits an exception then there are two cases: The exception is retriable :- Business Central will re-try the main codeunit a specific number of times with a specific time interval, if it is unable to complete then the task is failed. The exception is not retriable :- The task fails and the session is deleted. Further if there is a failure codeunit defined then Business Central will run the Failure codeunit instead of failing the task and similarly if the Failure Codeunit hits an exception that is it unable to handle then there are same two cases: The exception is retriable :- Business Central will re-try the main codeunit a specific number of times with a specific time interval, if it is unable to complete then the task is failed. The exception is not retriable :- The task fails and the session is deleted. I have created an action which creates a simple task for all the companies available to the User. After that action is called, we can see that there are four separate sessions created with the same codeunit for different companies. The below is the screenshot of the page – Scheduled Tasks Conclusion: Thus we saw how to create and use Scheduled Tasks in Business Central for background processing. Business Central OnPremise requires some configuration before Task Scheduler can be used you can refer to the below link for the same.Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Server Configuration – Business Central | Microsoft Docs

CUSTOMER POSTING GROUPS Customer Posting Groups determines the account receivables account.  1. In the search option, enter Customer Posting Groups and then choose related link. 2. In the Code Field, type unique identifier. 3. In the description field, type description of Customer posting group. 4. In each relevant account field, enter the G/L account  that will post the transaction accordingly. Receivable Account: This is a summary account where all the entries from customers will end up in balance sheet. Service Charge Account: This is a fee account where any fee you Charge to the customer when invoicing will end up here. Payment Discount Dr. Account: This account represents cash discounts given to the customers, then the sum representing the difference in original amount and what they’ve actually paid. This will be in debit field. Payment Discount Cr. Account: This account represents cash discounts given to the customers, then the sum representing the difference in original amount and what they’ve actually paid. This will be in credit field. Interest Account: It is an account to which, if you issue reminders or finance charge memos with interest on them, this interest revenue will be posted to this account. Additional Fee Account: This is where the reminder fees and finance charge momos will be posted when they are issued. Add. Fee per line Account: This is where reminder account will be posted if you have a reminder amount on each line of your remainders. Invoice rounding Account: This is where invoice rounding will be posted. Debit Curr. Appln. Rndg. Acc/ Credit Curr. Appln. Rndg. Acc: Both accounts are same except one is Dr and other is Cr. This account is particularly used when you are applying an entry on your customers from different currencies. E.g. Invoice is in USD but payment is in EUROS, in this case rounding difference will be posted to this account. Debit Rounding Account/ Credit Rounding Account: This is same as above mention field except the difference is of same currency and needed a slight adjustment. These accounts will therefore be used to Debit or Credit respectively.  Payment tolerance Debit account/ Payment tolerance Credit account:  These accounts are used to have a payment tolerance towards customers. e.g. If the customers is Invoiced USD 105 but customer pays only USD 100, and you have set a tolerance for 5USD which means the difference will be posted to these two accounts.  Assign Customer Posting Groups to Customers 1. In the search option, enter Customers and then choose related link. 2. Open a Customer Card. 3. Expand Invoicing Tab, in Customer posting group field enter relevant details. VENDOR POSTING GROUPS Vendor Posting Groups determines the account payable account. 1. In the search option, enter Vendor Posting Groups and then choose related link. 2. In the Code Field, type unique identifier. 3. In the description field, type description of Vendor posting group. 4. In each relevant account field, enter the G/L account  that will post the transaction accordingly, Payables Account: This is a summary account where all the transaction from vendors will end up in balance sheet. Service Charge Account: This is a account where you can put any service charge that might come from the vendor. Payment Discount Dr. Account: If you pay your vendor ahead to time and get a cash discount, a debit entry will end up in this account. Payment Discount Cr. Account: This account represents cash discounts given to the customers, then the sum representing the difference in original amount and what they’ve actually paid. This will be in credit field. Invoice Rounding Account: This account is used when an invoice from the vendor has to be rounded. Debit Curr. Appln. Rndg. Acc/ Credit Curr. Appln. Rndg. Acc: This account is used when the different Currencies have to be applied to each other and rounding has to be carried out. Debit Rounding Account/ Credit Rounding Account: This is used when you settle the outstanding amount in same currency but a little rounding off is to be done. Payment tolerance Debit account/ Payment tolerance Credit account: These accounts are used to have a payment tolerance towards vendors. Assign Vendor Posting Groups to Vendors 1. In the search option, enter Vendors and then choose related link. 2. Open a Vendor Card. 3. Expand Invoicing Tab, in Vendor posting group field enter relevant details.

Introduction: Business Central provides us with Web Services which we can use for CRUD operations on specific tables. However it also provides us with different methods of accessing specific records for CRUD operations. Pre-requisites: Business Central On-Premise or OnCloud. References: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/properties/devenv-odatakeyfields-property Usage: In Business Central, if we do not specify the ODataKeyFields as a property on the Page that we’ll be using as Web Service, then by default we have to use the Primary Key. However if we specify the “ODataKeyFields” in the page, we can use the field we have specified as the key for pulling the record in Web Services. While there are no limitations on which field can be used as key field, keep in mind that Business Central fetches the first record matching that field. For instance if you use the “Buy-from Vendor No.” as the ODataKeyField, then the Web Service will fetch the first matching record sorted by the Primary Key. Standard Business Central APIs use the “SystemId” field as the ODataKey field. You can also use multiple Keys in ODataKeyFields and use them for fetching records. Conclusion: Thus, we saw how we can use ODataKeyFields property for fetching records and performing CRUD operations. As a side note, you can also use multiple keys in ODataKeyFields.

References: Data Access – Business Central | Microsoft Docs Database.SelectLatestVersion Method – Business Central | Microsoft Docs Explanation: Caching is one of the methods which systems use to improve performance and respond to requests rapidly. In a Business Central system, caching is done at two levels: Business Central Server Instance Data Cache SQL Server Data Cache. Whenever a User requests data from Business Central, it firsts check whether The data is available in the Server Instance’s cache, If not, then it checks the SQL Server Data Cache, And if not here then it fetches the data from the database. The Business Central Server Instance’s Cache is accessible to all the Users connected to that Server Instance. There are two types of cache stored here, Global Cache Private Cache Global cache is the one which is accessible to all the Users connected to the SQL Server. Private cache is only accessible over a transaction, for a particular User, for a particular company. This cache is cleared as soon as the transaction is completed. Which cache is to be used for which User depends on whether the Table from which the User is requesting data is locked or not. In case it is locked, Private Cache is queried else Global Cache is queried. The following procedures in Business Central support using Cache: GET GETBYSYSTEMID FIND FINDFIRST FINDLAST FINDSET COUNT ISEMPTY CALCFIELDS Whenever we make a call to the “FIND” functions, 1024 records are cached. The Data Cache size in Business Central can be changed using the “Data Cache Size” setting of the Business Central Server Configuration file. The default value is set to 9 which is equivalent to 500mb. Increasing the value by 1 doubles the cache size. If we want to latest data from the database to be fetched, i.e. if we want to bypass the cache, we can use the “SelectLatestVersion” procedure. The results from Query objects in Business Central are not cached. If there are multiple Server Instances over a single database, Business Central synchronizes the cache every 30 seconds by default. We can change this by using the “CacheSynchronizationPeriod” parameter in the CustomSettings.config file. Conclusion: Thus we saw how to Caching works in Business Central and how we can optimize it usage for maximum performance in Business Central.

Introduction: One of the scenarios where you want the Person A approval request should be approved by Person B and Person B approval request should be approved by Person A. How to achieve this goal: Go to Workflows page I want to create a Purchase Order Approval Workflow from Templates. Go to New-> New Workflow from Template Then select the Purchase Order Approval Workflow from Workflow Templates Click on Add record restriction in the Response field Select the Create approval request option from the Response tab and then set the values Approve Type to be Approver and Approver Limit Type Direct Approver which means whoever is approver the request will go that user only. And then enable the workflow. Then now go to Approval User Setup where we are going to assign which user’s approval request will be sent to which user. Now I will assign my approval request should be sent to the manager and the manager approval request should be sent to me. Now let’s test it  go to Purchase order I am currently in my account and send the approval request from Purchase Order Now my manager will get the request which I have sent. The manager will sign in on his account and then go to the Request to Approve page and approve the request which I have sent. And then once the request is approved by my Manager I will get the status as approved in Purchase order-> Orders-> Approval Let’s try vice versa as well repeat the same steps for the manager as well Now I will be able to see the request from the Manager in the Request to Approve Page Conclusion: Thus we saw how we can set the request approval to be send one on one in Business central Thank you very much for reading my work. Hope you enjoyed the article!