We are pleased to announce that a leading US-based non-profit organization has partnered with CloudFronts to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service.  Founded in 2010, the organization is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional offices in Amsterdam, Venlo, and Raleigh, North Carolina. It is dedicated to advancing sustainable product design through its Certified™ program, which emphasizes material health, product circularity, renewable energy, water stewardship, and social fairness. By supporting global organizations, the non-profit plays a key role in creating safer, recyclable, and more circular products that contribute to a sustainable future.  The organization is planning a full migration to the Microsoft ecosystem to have connected systems, eliminating the need for manual data integration. CloudFronts is partnering with the client to design, architect, and deploy Dynamics 365 Customer Service to align with their customer support goals. The initial focus is on implementing a robust ticketing system that improves service responsiveness and operational efficiency. On this occasion, Priyesh Wagh, Practice Manager at CloudFronts, stated: ” We’re keen to work with our customer for their Dynamics 365 Customer Service implementation. This paves the way to long-running engagement on a constantly evolving platform for a robust case management system. CloudFronts Team is looking forward to making a positive impact with this implementation.”  About CloudFronts  CloudFronts is a global Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications, Data & AI, helping teams and organizations worldwide solve their complex business challenges with Microsoft Cloud, AI, and Azure Integration Services. We have a global presence with offices in U.S, Singapore & India.   Since its inception in 2012, CloudFronts has successfully served over 200+ small and medium-sized clients all over the world, such as North America, Europe, Australia, MENA, Maldives & India, with diverse experiences in sectors ranging from Professional Services, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Retail, Logistics/SCM, and Non-profits.    Please feel free to connect with us at transform@cloudfronts.com 

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365 F&O) allows customization through extensions, enabling developers to add new fields to existing tables and forms without modifying the original Microsoft code. This approach ensures upgrade safety and maintainability. In this blog, we’ll cover: Step 1: Creating a Table Extension A table extension lets you add custom fields to an existing table (e.g., CustTable for customers). 1. Create a Table Extension In Visual Studio, right-click your project → Add → New Item. Select Dynamics 365 Items → Data Model → Table Extension. Name it (e.g., MyCustTableExtension). 2. Define the New Fields After choosing the appropriate data type and entering the required information, you can proceed to create the field. 3. Synchronize the Database After adding fields: Right-click the project → Build. Right-click the project → Dynamics 365 → Synchronize Database. Step 2: Extending a Page to Display the New Fields Now, let’s add these fields to the Customer Details page (CustTable form). 1. Create a Page Extension Right-click your project → Add → New Item. Select Application Explorer → User Interface → Forms  → Create Extension. Name it (e.g., MyCustTablePageExtension). 2. Add Fields to the Page You can drag and place where you want. 3. Build and Test Build the project (F6). Run the CustTable form (Ctrl+F5). Open a customer record → Your new fields should appear under “General Tab”. Best Practices for Extensions To conclude, with table and form extensions, you can safely customize D365 F&O without altering base Microsoft code. This ensures smoother upgrades and better maintainability. Try it out and enhance your F&O implementation today! 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.

In the pharmaceutical industry, quality doesn’t stop at the first inspection. Even after raw materials (RM) and finished goods (FG) pass initial testing, they may need to be retested over time to ensure they still meet quality standards. Retesting is done for various reasons—checking product stability, verifying shelf-life, or re-evaluating materials due to storage issues. If not managed properly, it can lead to delays, compliance risks, or even wasted inventory. With our GMP-compliant Quality module in Business Central, the retesting process becomes more structured and efficient. In this blog, we’ll look at how the system helps identify items due for retesting, track test results, and make informed inventory decisions. Items due for retesting Once the QA user completes the quality process and posts the inspection receipt, the system stores the retesting date on the item ledger entry. This ensures that retesting requirements are properly recorded and can be tracked throughout the product lifecycle. Retesting Worksheet The next step is to track and manage items due for retesting. Business Central simplifies this with the Retesting Worksheet, which allows QA teams to efficiently identify materials and products that need to be retested. With this approach, retesting becomes a structured and automated process, helping pharma companies stay compliant and maintain quality without operational bottlenecks. I Hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfonts.com.

In our previous posts, we covered the key stages of production—planning, creating orders, managing materials, and reviewing the final product. Now, let’s focus on an important next step: quality control of Finished product. Quality control is not something we just do at the end of the process; it’s crucial to making sure our products meet the high standards our customers expect. In this post, we’ll explain the essential steps involved in quality control, from inspections to ensuring everything follows the right rules, all to make sure only the best products are delivered. Let’s dive into how we keep our products up to standard and protect the reputation of our brand! Released production order System will automatically create Inspection datasheet with all the item details and list of specification. Inspection Datasheet Inspection Receipt Posted inspection receipt To conclude, our comprehensive quality control, driven by inspection datasheets and receipts, delivers excellent products, traceable records, and customer confidence through verifiable results and Certificates of Analysis. I Hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfonts.com.

We are pleased to announce that Armexa, a leading industrial cybersecurity company based in Houston, Texas, has renewed its partnership with CloudFronts for ongoing Microsoft Dynamics 365 support and maintenance services under a Managed Services Agreement (MSA).  Armexa delivers end-to-end digital security solutions designed to protect critical Operational Technology (OT) and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) infrastructure from advanced cyber threats. The company empowers industrial clients with proactive, timely solutions that provide unparalleled cyber defence and situational awareness — from the plant floor to the cloud.  Learn more about them at https://armexa.com/    This partnership began with the successful  implementation of Services Automation with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Business Central which enabled them to experience significant improvements in its business processes and system efficiency.  Under this MSA, CloudFronts will provide support and maintenance services for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations.  Visit us at https://www.cloudfronts.com/ to learn more about our Dynamics 365 offerings.  About CloudFronts  CloudFronts is a global Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications, Data & AI, helping teams and organizations worldwide solve their complex business challenges with Microsoft Cloud, AI, and Azure Integration Services. We have a global presence with offices in U.S, Singapore & India.   Since its inception in 2012, CloudFronts has successfully served over 200+ small and medium-sized clients all over the world, such as North America, Europe, Australia, MENA, Maldives & India, with diverse experiences in sectors ranging from Professional Services, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Retail, Logistics/SCM, and Non-profits.    Please feel free to connect with us at transform@cloudfronts.com 

In today’s fast-paced business environment, reliable financial reporting is not just a compliance requirement it’s a strategic necessity. Organizations of all sizes, across industries, must make informed decisions quickly to stay competitive, manage risks, and ensure long-term sustainability. At the heart of this financial clarity lie two fundamental reports: the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet. The Income Statement provides a snapshot of an organization’s financial performance over a specific period detailing revenues, expenses, and profits. It answers the critical question: “Are we making money?” We’ll cover the customer journey from implementation to insight-driven strategy and include key steps and best practices. Steps to Achieve goal: Step 1: Understanding the Need – for any Financial Complexity Before deploying any tool, Team should identified key challenges in their financial operations: Step 2.: Configuring the Income Statement Once the foundational setup was complete, configuring the Income Statement enabled the organization to: Configuration Steps: 3. Enable Dimensional Reporting: Use dimensions to drill down into cost centers. 4. Schedule Reports: Automate delivery to leadership teams for weekly snapshots. Step 3: Real-Time Financial Monitoring One of the most significant value propositions for any system is providing real-time visibility. Key Features in Action: Step 4: Strategic Decision-Making with Insights Optimize Routes: Identify profitable vs. underperforming flight paths Financial Reporting Best Practices for Modern Enterprises To conclude, accurate and timely financial reporting is essential for informed decision-making and long-term business success. With tools like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, enterprises can turn financial data into strategic insights that drive growth and efficiency. 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.

In our previous blog, we walked you through the process of procuring high-quality raw materials and the essential quality checks that ensure only the best make it to production. Now that we’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time to ask: What happens next? How do we turn those raw materials into timely deliveries for our customers? That’s where the planning of sales orders comes in! In this blog, we’ll dive into the crucial steps of sales order planning, discussing how we manage demand, and ensure a seamless flow from order placement to delivery. Let’s take a closer look at how this next phase keeps everything running smoothly! Firm plan production order Released production order A Released Production Order in Business Central indicates that the production order has been finalized and is ready to begin production. Once released: Material Issue Production Journal We will continue the Finished good quality in the next blog! I Hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfonts.com.

Event handlers in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365 F&O) allow developers to extend standard functionality without overlying customization. They help in: In this blog, we’ll explore: Types of Form Event Handlers in D365 F&O Triggered by UI interactions (form opens, button clicks, etc.) Event Type When It Fires Common Use Cases OnActivated When form loads Initial validation, default field values OnClosing Closed form Run custom logic on action OnInitialized Create new record Real-time validation OnPostRun Process completion Adding new process in flow To create event handler Step 1: Solution Explorer -> Add new class Give it proper name, so any other developer can recognized it ( Example : CustTableForm_EventHandler ) Use case: Automatically update particular field when user open particular customer details. Step 2: Get event code snippet. AOT-> Forms -> View Designer -> Events -> Copy event handler Paste all code to newly created classs. Additionally, there are separate events for methods also you can use that events to perform certain operation before that method or after that method get called. You can add your custom logic inside your event handler code snippet. In below example if current record has customer no. is equal to specific no. then it will validate particular field and update the form. Pro Tips To conclude, event handlers are powerful tools for customizing D365 F&O while maintaining upgradeability. By: You can build robust solutions that align with business needs. 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.

Software development has been around since the 1940s.We started with punch cards, then machine language, followed by assembly, high-level programming languages, low code, no code, and now AI-assisted coding. Along the way, several tools have been developed to make programmers’ jobs easier, from card sorters and verifiers to debuggers and IDEs. Now, with the advent of AI, we have large language models (LLMs) writing code for us, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet. In this article we’ll see how AI assists developers, what it can do for us today, its limitations, and where it’s headed. The concept of AI began in the 1950s when researchers tried to imbue machines with the magic to think. Early systems followed set rules, but as computers improved and data became more available, smarter methods emerged, such as machine learning, natural language processing, and neural networks. Large Language Models (LLMs) grew from these advances, using huge amounts of data and computing power to understand and create language. This marked a shift from fixed rules to models that learn on their own. By 2025, AI has taken root in most fields, even in places we might not have expected.For example, robotic bees — tiny drones designed to mimic bee behavior, are now being used to assist with pollination in areas where natural bee populations are struggling. These drones combine machine learning and computer vision for navigation, flight control, pollination strategies, and swarm intelligence. Usage Copilot is integrated with both Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio, and it comes with a few LLMs built in by default.Currently, these include Claude Sonnet 3.5, GPT-4o, o3-mini, and Gemini Flash 2.0.If you want to add more models, you’ll need a subscription for Copilot Pro. We can use Copilot Chat to prompt these models directly in the sidebar chat, whether to generate a specific functionality or create an entirely new file. Here, I asked it to create a simple sales order.Notably, it kept the key details — Customer, Item, and Quantity — as parameters without requiring any input. From here, we can click a button to apply the changes to the open file. At the bottom, we can see which file Copilot is currently using as a reference.If we want to stop Copilot from referencing that file, we can click the eye button. We can also ask it to make changes to the generated code. Now, I noticed that while it has parameterized the “Customer No.” for the sales order, it hasn’t actually used it anywhere in the code. If I point this out to Copilot… Instead of using Copilot Chat, we can also get recommendations directly within the file.Here, I’m trying to write a function to delete a sales order based on the given SO No. I can just tab my way into writing the method. One common way I’ve used copilot is to add Guard clauses to methods that I’ve written. For instance –  Here, it is referring to Customer and Item record variables, which don’t exist yet. But if I go to the variables section then it knows what I’m trying to do and suggests the same. Now, if I were to make it handle something complex, that’s when the cracks start to show. For example, pulling data from an API and creating customers would require several steps — authenticating with the API, fetching the data, parsing it, handling errors or logging, and finally creating the customers. We get the following as an output – Here, we can see that while it has a surface-level understanding of the code structure and the steps needed to achieve the goal, it struggles with the details. This could be because, unlike open-source languages like Java, Python, or C++, there isn’t as much publicly available source code for AL. I believe Microsoft Documentation would have helped to some degree, but instead, it tends to guess what the correct methods or fields should be. To its credit, the generated code isn’t far off from being functional, especially considering the simplicity of the input prompt. The structure it provides is still a solid starting point and much better than writing everything from scratch. Another example of these “hallucinations” is when it suggests methods that don’t actually exist, like this- However, once you show it what the correct method is, it suggests that –  To go one step further, I asked the different models to create an entire project based on the below prompt –  Findings: o3-mini 1. The objects it generated had the fewest errors.2. It was the simplest and closest to compiling successfully.3. It returned all the text in a single response, so I had to manually create files from it. GPT-4o 1. Created a Readme.md with project requirement details.2. Automatically generated the necessary project files.3. Farthest from compiling successfully, with most requirements missed.4. There were plenty of hallucinations, including methods that don’t exist in AL at all – like this example below. Gemini Flash 2.0 1. Created a Readme.md with project requirement details.2. Automatically generated the necessary project files.3. Added launch.json, settings.json, and app.json.4. Didn’t meet all requirements but managed to lay some groundwork.5. Struggled with code structure in several places, though still significantly better than GPT-4o.6. Had at least a couple of pages with zero errors. Claude Sonnet 3.5 1. Created a Readme.md with project requirement details.2. Automatically generated the necessary project files.3. Added launch.json and app.json.4. Included a test codeunit, though it had errors.5. Created a permission set for the objects generated.6. All files had one or more errors. In my opinion, Claude and o3-mini are the most useful for coding assistance. HumanEval is a test developed by OpenAI to assess how well language models can write code.It includes 164 programming problems where the model must generate accurate and functional Python code. The HumanEval leaderboard aligns with my assessment as well. Pricing While all these models offer a free trial with a limited set of tokens, they can become quite expensive if you don’t monitor your usage. Below … Continue reading Transforming Development: How Copilot is Revolutionizing Developer Productivity →

Debugging is an essential skill for developers working with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365 F&O). The built-in debugger helps you identify and fix issues in your X++ code efficiently. In this blog post, we’ll walk through how to use the debugger effectively in D365 F&O. Prerequisites Before you can start debugging, you’ll need: Access to a D365 F&O development environment Appropriate permissions (developer role) Visual Studio installed (for some debugging scenarios) Enabling Debugging Set up debugging permissions: Navigate to System administration > Setup > License configuration Ensure the “Debugger” privilege is enabled for your user role Configure debugging options: Go to Tools > Options > Development > Debugging Configure your preferred debugging settings Starting a Debug Session There are several ways to start debugging in D365 F&O: 1. Attaching to a Process Open the Debugger workspace Click on Attach debugger Select the process you want to debug (user session) Click Attach 2. Debugging from Visual Studio Open your X++ project in Visual Studio Set breakpoints in your code Press F5 to start debugging (or use the Debug menu) 3. Using Conditional Breakpoints Navigate to the form or process you want to debug After adding the breakpoint, right-click it in the breakpoints list Select “Edit breakpoint” In the “Condition” field, enter your X++ expression Example: custAccount == “US-001” Key Debugging Features Breakpoints Breakpoints pause execution at specific lines of code. You can: Set conditional breakpoints that only trigger when certain conditions are met Set hit count breakpoints that trigger after a specified number of hits Enable/disable breakpoints as needed Stepping Through Code When execution is paused, you can: Step Over (F10): Execute the current line and move to the next Step Into (F11): Dive into method calls Step Out (Shift+F11): Complete the current method and return to the caller Examining Variables The debugger allows you to: View local variables in the Locals window Add watches for specific variables Quickly evaluate expressions in the Immediate window Call Stack The call stack shows: The hierarchy of method calls that led to the current execution point , Allows navigation to different levels of the call stack Debugging Different Scenarios Batch Jobs To debug batch jobs: Set breakpoints in the batch job code , submit the batch job and Attach the debugger to the batch process Business Events To debug business events: Set breakpoints in the event handler code Trigger the business event The debugger will pause when the event is processed Tips for Effective Debugging Use the debugger’s data tips (hover over variables to see their values) Common Debugging Challenges Solution: Use thread debugging and pay attention to execution order Solution: Replicate the production environment configuration as closely as possible Solution: Use targeted debugging rather than broad breakpoints To Conclude, The D365 F&O debugger is a powerful tool that can save you hours of troubleshooting time. By mastering breakpoints, variable inspection, and call stack navigation, you can quickly identify and resolve issues in your X++ code. Remember to use debugging judiciously in production environments and always follow your organization’s guidelines for debugging in live systems. 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.