In an era marked by increasing interest rates, high inflation, and economic uncertainty, empowering CFOs with financial planning tools and data analytics (FP&A) has become essential. These resources aid decision-making by providing comprehensive financial analysis, forecasting, and budgeting capabilities helping organizations to consolidate and analyze financial data, and create accurate financial models. At Microsoft, we are dedicated to delivering advanced FP&A solutions that seamlessly integrate innovative new features with traditional capabilities, empowering CFOs with impactful tools tailored for the modern era. Our objective is to usher in a new generation of planning capabilities for CFOs by unifying data across business processes, delivering near real-time insights to anticipate the future, and using the latest advancements in AI and natural language processing to provide a solution that goes beyond traditional FP&A solutions and redefining how finance operates.

Today, we are thrilled to announce significant strides toward realizing this vision. Microsoft is introducing a fully developed, customer-ready extended planning and analytics solution (xP&A). Our solution will provide Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance customers with user-friendly and rapidly deployable modern xP&A capabilities. Empowered by our new solution, organizations can continuously plan, looking across the enterprise at timely operational and financial data with AI-assisted insights providing critical strategic direction to accelerate innovation and guide their businesses toward sustainable success.

Outdated and overly complex solutions hinder finance’s strategic execution

Over the past decade, CFOs have reaped the benefits of various FP&A tools offering invaluable support. However, these tools inherently possess limitations that impede their ability to meet the strategic demands of modern CFOs. Challenges such as integration complexities, restricted data sets, and infrequent data updates severely curtail their effectiveness, rendering agile planning difficult if attainable. Their implementation tends to be sluggish and costly, demanding advanced skill sets to derive actionable insights. Moreover, their inflexibility and reliance on rigid user interfaces constrain customization possibilities and do not cater to specialized customer requirements. Lastly, these tools, in their present state, often lack advanced analytics and AI capabilities to better predict and model scenarios to anticipate future needs.

Equipping Finance with the planning tools of the future

To address these challenges, our xP&A solution will utilize advancements across the Microsoft product portfolio. It seamlessly integrates access to unified, near real-time data innovations powered by the business performance analytics capabilities within Dynamics 365 Finance and incorporates automated insights obtained through recent acquisitions in critical business domains, such as AI-driven spend analytics and process mining. Additionally, our solution includes the latest advancements in natural language processing, enabling interactive and embedded AI experiences that actively guide finance and operations leaders toward better decisions. This unique combination of technologies positions Dynamics 365 Finance as a disruptive force in ERP (enterprise resource planning) and the opportunity to lead in the financial planning and analytics category. By embracing our solution, finance teams can confidently navigate the era of AI and may experience significant growth.

Traditional FP&A solutions with the innovation needed for success

While our xP&A solution aims to be visionary, we acknowledge the importance of meeting the foundational expectations established by industry-standard FP&A tools. In addition to offering these essential capabilities, our new xP&A solution provides access to a diverse range of customizable use cases and templates designed to address various financial requirements, facilitate a quick start for customers, and enable fast deployment.

Whether teams require support for budgeting and forecasting, sales and operations planning, cash flow forecasting, financial close, or workforce planning, our solution delivers proven workflows that are highly adaptable. Our solution prioritizes critical modern capabilities that are top of mind for today’s CFOs, such as predictive forecasting, zero-based budgeting, what-if analysis, and uncovering hidden drivers with AI-powered insights.

Dynamics 365 Finance xP&A capabilities go beyond traditional finance processes by extending the scope of data to encompass cross-domain datasets, including supply chain, human resources, sales, and more. This holistic approach supplies a comprehensive view of operational performance, empowering informed decision-making.

Familiar user experiences and the power of Microsoft Cloud

Most importantly, our xP&A solution provides customers with a familiar and user-friendly environment, delivered through the well-known and easily customizable experiences of Power BI and Excel. These applications have become ubiquitous among Finance users as their go-to analytics environment for daily work. Our solution allows them to seamlessly work within their preferred experiences without extracting and transforming data from their ERP. Gone are the days when finance teams were confined to rigid and outdated user experiences in traditional ERPs. With our solution, finance teams can fully embrace innovation from dedicated product teams while enjoying the familiarity and efficiency of the tools they have relied on for decades.

Finally, backed by the full power of the Microsoft Cloud and data platform, our xP&A solution will use innovations across the Microsoft portfolio. With robust collaboration capabilities embedded into Microsoft Teams and recently announced Dynamics 365 Copilot natural language processing functionality to deliver interactive insights embedded into the flow of work so users of all skill levels can securely access, share, and collaborate with timely data within the same tools they already rely on daily.

A new era of planning capabilities for the CFO

Today’s announcement of extended planning and analytics (xP&A) for Dynamics 365 Finance represents a significant advancement in providing CFOs with AI-driven financial planning tools and data analytics capabilities. Imagine a world where finance teams can engage with embedded natural language processing models in planning tools, enabling them to initiate what-if scenario planning iterations by asking critical questions and modeling their impacts. This empowers finance teams to anticipate and adjust for various outcomes proactively.

For instance, what if Finance users could prompt Dynamics 365 Copilot by asking questions like, “What is the predicted growth rate for product A and B?” These predictions are then seamlessly integrated into planning models, generating detailed scenarios that offer valuable insights into how the growth of specific products may influence staffing needs, revenue, and margins.

To address modern economic challenges, a new age of sophisticated planning and analytical tools is essential for CFOs to anticipate risk, drive innovation, and guide their businesses toward short-term and long-term success. With Dynamics 365 Finance, CFOs now have the tools to address these challenges and keep their organizations strong for the future.

Learn more

Begin your AI journey today! Learn more about Dynamics 365 Finance.

The post Introducing extended planning and analytics for Dynamics 365 Finance appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Introduction

Effective labelling processes and configuration play a crucial role in optimizing warehouse operations. There are several reasons why accurate labelling and configuration are important.

Firstly, proper labelling and configuration enhance efficiency in a warehouse. When items are labelled and organized accurately, warehouse staff can quickly locate and identify products, reducing the time spent searching for items and ultimately boosting productivity.

Furthermore, clear and accurate labelling also reduces the likelihood of picking or shipping errors, which can lead to improved customer satisfaction and decreased costs associated with returns and corrections.

Lastly, proper labelling and configuration contribute to safety and compliance in a warehouse. By adhering to regulations and ensuring that hazardous materials or items with specific storage requirements are handled and stored correctly, the risk of accidents can be reduced.

As technology continues to advance, so do the tools available to improve labelling and configuration processes in warehouses. In Wave 1 2023, Microsoft Dynamics 365 SCM released several enhancements to support more advanced scenarios and bring extra capabilities to the labelling process.

License plate label layout

In 10.0.31 Microsoft Dynamics 365 SCM, a new License plate label layout was introduced for designing license plate labels. This feature lets you build more advanced license plate label layouts. Now LP layouts can have repeating structures and include header, body, and footer elements (for example, if you want to print item labels out of receiving or shipping work (similar to how wave labels currently work)). You can set up custom data sources with joined tables to print information from the related tables and define custom date, time, and number formats. This capability provides more flexibility in designing labels and removes some of the customization work needed to add data to the labels.

Custom label layouts

In 10.0.33 Microsoft Dynamics 365 SCM a new Custom label layout feature was released. 

This feature introduces a new Custom label layout type that allows you to build layouts from any data sources. A new Print button will be displayed automatically when layout exists for corresponding source. Users can print labels for any data including but not limited to Product labels, Location labels, Customer labels and many more.

It gives you the tool you need to create your own labels based on the business requirements. As well as configuring and printing any labels from any source.

Print labels using an external service

In 10.0.34 Microsoft Dynamics 365 SCM provides a quick and simple method for linking Dynamics 365 to many of the most popular enterprise labeling platforms. With Microsoft Dynamics 365 SCM’s seamless integration and flexible configuration options make for a pain-free, rapid implementation. It allows you to create a seamless flow of communication and transactions to optimize your printing workflow.

It allow you to configure the HTTP(S) request that you make, allowing for the integration with cloud native and on-premise (if the firewall is opened or an Azure API created) label printing services, including Zebra’s cloud printing service (https://developer.zebra.com/apis/sendfiletoprinter-model), Loftware NiceLabel Cloud or Seagull Scientific BarTender configured with REST APIs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the continued evolution of technology is providing ever more sophisticated tools for improving labelling processes and configuration in warehouses. The enhancements released in Wave 1 2023 are just the latest example of how Microsoft Dynamics 365 SCM is staying at the forefront of this evolution and providing users with the tools they need to optimize their warehouse operations.

---

Would you like to learn more?

Print labels using an external service – Supply Chain
Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

Print labels using the Loftware NiceLabel label service
solution – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

Print labels using the Seagull Scientific BarTender® label
service solution – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

License plate label layouts and printing – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

Custom label layouts and printing – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

Print labels using an external service – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

Not yet a Supply Chain Management customer? 

Take a guided tour.

The post Improve Labelling processes with new enhanced capabilities appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Introduction  

Account structures in Dynamics 365 Finance use a main account and financial dimensions to create a set of rules that determine the order and allowed values when entering account numbers in transactions. Once an account structure is defined, it must be activated. Historically, the account structure activation process has been time consuming. It was also difficult to view the activation progress or to view any errors with the new configuration. If an account structure configuration change caused an error, a user could not find the root error message on the account structure page, but rather needed to dig through batch job logs to find the error message to understand the problem with the new account structure configuration.  

Feature details  

In order to solve these problems, we have recently released an enhancement to the account structure activation process in application release 10.0.31. This performance enhancement lets you activate account structures more quickly by allowing multiple transaction updates to happen at the same time. An added benefit of this new feature enhancement is allowing the structure to be marked as active immediately after it is validated and before the remaining unposted transactions are updated to the new structure configuration. This allows transaction processing to continue while the existing unposted transactions are updated to the new structure.  

To view the status of the activation, select View activation status above the grid on the Account structures page. You can also view the activation status by selecting View on the Action Pane and then selecting Activation status on the drop-down menu. 

Enable the feature 

In order to use this new functionality, enable the feature “Account structure activation performance enhancement” from within feature management.  

Learn more

More information about this feature can be found at this location: Account structure activation performance enhancement – Finance | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn 

The post Account structure activation performance enhancement  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

A key component of the Subscription billing feature is the Recurring contract billing module. Recurring contract billing allows customers to manage their recurring billing contracts through billing schedules which contain the financial details of a contract. Recurring billing contracts can be managed across one or many customers based on how a contract is drafted. The new feature Customer split allows Dynamics 365 Finance users to split billing schedules across multiple customers based on a percentage of the invoice. This feature reduces the risk of incorrect billing, as a single billing schedule can manage the billing for all customers that are to be billed.

What is Customer Split

Customer split allows a single billing schedule to be billed across multiple customers. For example, let’s consider a scenario where a contract should be billed to two customers: one is responsible for 60% of the bill and the other is responsible for 40%. Customer split allows users to configure a scenario such as this and reduce additional manual entry as well as reduce risk of inaccurate billing. 

The feature is enabled by setting the Customer split parameter in Recurring contract billing parameters page to Yes. 

 
Once the Customer split feature has been enabled in the Recurring contract billing parameters, the customer split can be set up on a billing schedule. The billing schedule header contains the primary customer responsible for the invoice, including the Bill to address on the Address tab. 

The Customer split option under Billing schedule in the action pane can be used to add additional customers and their responsibility for the bill at the header level. Customer split can also be added on a line-by-line basis.  

When creating the record for the customer split, the billing schedule parent customer will get billed the remainder of what is not defined. In our example, that will be 60%. When defining the customer split a start date, end date, customer reference, customer requisition, end user account, end user name, delivery address, and bill to address can be entered. 

When generating invoices for a billing schedule that has customer split defined, a sales order will be created for each customer defined in the customer split as well as the billing schedule header customer. 

Customer split is available on a billing schedule or billing schedule lines when: 

• Billing schedules have an Invoice transaction type of Sales order
• Billing schedule line is a service item 
• Billing schedule is not linked to a project 
• Billing schedule line is not configured for unbilled revenue

How to get started 

This functionality is available in 10.0.29 and later of Dynamics 365 Finance.  
Read the documentation for a more detailed look at the feature: Customer split on billing schedules.

The post Split recurring contract billing across multiple customers  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.