A popular question we often get from companies is; Can I implement Microsoft Dynamics Business Central on my own? Historically we often see companies having issues implementing the software to meet their customized business needs.

Today’s discussion features a recap of a virtual Interview with Andrew King, Managing Director at WebSan Solutions Inc., as he sits down with Sunil Kumar, Founder of The Amazing Chickpea, to discuss his experience trying to implement Business Central and working with WebSan.

Sunil was previously using QuickBooks for basic reporting but was looking for a business solution to manage the production, planning and financial reporting for his medium-size company. Dynamics 365 Business Central became the front runner as the best option for The Amazing Chickpea to manage inventory, production orders and financial records.

After signing up for Dynamics 365 Business Central a year ago, Sunil believed he could implement it entirely on his own because he has a background in IT. The interface seemed to be very user-friendly; however, he faced business challenges in retrieving necessary financial reporting that was critical to his business operations.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are complete, integrated systems that manage all aspects of a production-based or distribution business, aligning financial management, human resources, supply chain management, and manufacturing. An ERP suite is a substantial investment for any business, and best practices demand that the ERP software selection process be rigorous and thorough. However, there are so many factors in play when choosing an ERP system that it can be daunting to choose the right one.

If you feel a bit confused about the variety of ERP vendors and many software products on the market today, you are not alone. We’ve come up with a comparative chart showing the difference between two popular ERP systems: Dynamics 365 Business Central and NetSuite.

In this webinar, Andrew King and Ryan Bennett provide an introduction into Jet Reports and Jet Hub. The discussion features an overview of Jet Reports and Jet Hub, overview of our offering and an in-depth look into sample reports/demo of Jet Reports.

Jet Reports is a business reporting solution built for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central which gives you the flexibility to create reports in real-time. This allows for you to get the latest information from your database. Additionaly Jet Reports integrates into excel allowing you to extract real-time data efficiently while also eliminating errors and risk.

As organizations figure out what to do with their infrastructure, many companies that currently have Dynamics GP are deciding whether they want to migrate to Dynamics 365 Business Central or stay On-premise. Moving to a cloud-based ERP solution gives your business the flexibility to scale up or down, increase collaboration, accessibility and cuts out the high cost of hardware.

The decision to migrate from GP to Business Central is based on several factors can that include accessibility, cost savings, add-ons, and an updated modern user interface. Here is a comparison of both ERP solutions based on the criteria mentioned above:

     1. Cloud vs On-Premise

Business Central is a cloud-based solution, which means you can access the software anywhere, anytime, from any device. Upgrades are managed by Microsoft and rolled out automatically with no installation required. In comparison, Dynamics GP was designed to be an on-premise solution, and upgrades need to be done manually.

Once you have gone live with Business Central it's important to start looking at additional modules and custom offerings that allow you to streamline your business processes. We will have a look at a selection of our own apps and third-party apps which can improve your user experience and increase company productivity. Utilizing these apps can assist your business by improving inventory management, facilitating transactions between trading partners, increasing employee productivity, and creating reports in real-time.

Warehouse Management (Barcode Scanning App for WMS)

Our Barcode Scanning App for WMS is designed to help your business become more productive. This application will improve your inventory management, picking accuracy, and warehouse efficiency. Put an end to frequent overages, shortages, and stock-outs and improve your inventory control. We can also customize the app for customizations done in Business Central 

It's that time of the year again! The wave 1 release for Microsoft Dynamics 365 has been launched. The release includes hundreds of new features and innovations across the Dynamics 365 applications from April 2021 through September 2021.

Here is a highlight of a few top features that will offer new capabilities and added functionality for your business.

Dynamics 365 Sales

• The latest release wave of updates enables Dynamics 365 Sales users a new mobile experience for sellers that provides quick & easy real-time access to important customer information whenever or wherever they need it with the Dynamics 365 Sales Hub app

• Conversation intelligence will provide insights on top of video calls and calls with multiple participants. New filters in the deal manager workspace will allow sellers to easily find opportunities by searching, quickly setting a column filter, or choosing a time-based slicer. 

• A new pipeline manager workspace now creates a personalized area for sellers to quickly view and interact with their sales pipeline bringing a more intuitive and streamlined way of working.

For a business to be successful, it has to be able to analyze data immediately in real time, and handle the market changes while ensuring that different departments are in communication with each other.

Microsoft has developed a convenient and affordable platform that connects your business processes through Dynamic 365 and office productivity tools.

What is Dynamics 365?

Dynamics 365 is a product line of enterprise resources planning and customer relationship management applications.

Dynamic 365 is a Microsoft-based technology solution that is bringing together all aspects of your business to improve existing workflow, recognize and pursue potential and viable business opportunities and manage the current market to stay ahead of the competition.

Dynamics 365 is a great tool for storing your business data, but if that is all you are using D365 for, then do we have news for you! One of the biggest values of D365 is the ability to create reports gaining valuable insight from your data. These reports can be setup in a variety of ways depending on your environment and organizational needs.

Do any of the above diagrams look familiar to you? If your response is “WHAT ARE THOSE!?” then you, my friend, are missing out! All the above are reports based on D365 data. These D365 reports can be run directly from D365 which gives users ease of access to analysis of business data. There are several types of reporting options available for D365, some are out of the box, while others require a bit more work to setup. With that in mind, many organizations opt to export their data to Excel and then use Excel to create reports, when they could be using these much richer options instead.

D365 out of the box comes with report building functionality, in the form of Charts and Views. Users can setup Dashboards incorporating these components, which can help them take their first step into the world of reporting. The CRM Report Wizard allows users to build reports using filters and conditions, like Views, with a touch more functionality and flexibility over the latter options.

While these out of box options are great, they do have their limitations which is why we also provide external reporting options. SQL and XML Reports are great for generating more complex reports and documents. However, if you are looking for an option that is more robust, and intensely eye-catching, then Power BI is the way to go. Power BI is one the most powerful BI and reporting tools on the market and integrates seamlessly with D365. Power BI allows for powerful drill down capability and smart slicers to filter your data however you like.

Reports are a great way for organizations to better understand performance, and with the various report options available, you are not limited to a specific visualization type. Data can be displayed through bar graphs, pie charts, map representations, grids…just to name a few! Maximizing the reporting options is great for upper management, who want a quick, high-level representation of how the business is doing. But wait there’s more! Automated reports can be generated with a click of a button and often require no additional maintenance once they are setup, reducing time and effort and improving efficiencies.

Dynamics 365 Mobile apps are handy tools which allow D365 users to access and update their Dynamics 365 environment from anywhere and at any time. Beyond that, customizing what is available on the mobile app is key to ensure that the experience is efficient for both the user and the organization.

A user’s security role must include the necessary permissions in order for them to successfully use the mobile app. If you have used (or copied) an out of the box role chances are high that most of these are already set, but it never hurts to check. And if you have created a custom security role, it is particularly important to confirm that the following privileges and access combinations have been configured.

1. The Dynamics 365 for mobile privilege is the first one to confirm. This privilege is in the Business Management tab of a security role within the Privacy Related Privileges section. Verify that Dynamics 365 for mobile is set to Organization.

2. Validate that the following entities have a minimum of Read access at the Organization level, by navigating to the Customization tab of a security role.

• Custom Control
• Custom Control Default Config
• Custom Control Resource
• System Application Metadata
• System Form
• User Application Metadata
• View

3. Next go to the Business Management Tab. Verify that User Settings is set at the Organization level for Read permission, and the remainder of the privileges have a minimum of User access.

There is a standard site map for all Dynamics 365 instances, but chances are the default site map does not scream ease of navigation for your organization. It is important that Users can easily find the entities they need without hunting column by column, and more importantly they see what they need to see, and ONLY what they need to see.

Dynamics 365 provides the ability to modify the standard site map without coding, allowing everyday users to easily modify the layout, making it a better fit for your business. You will need either the System Administrator or System Customizer role to perform the following actions.

To customize the site map, simply go to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System.

You will find multiple site maps under Client Extensions, there is typically one which contains all apps, and then others which are each tied to a specific app.

In this case, we are using the default one which is labeled “Site Map”.

One of the newer modules in the Dynamics 365 family, Field Service, leverages the latest technology offered by Microsoft and combines it into one powerful solution. D365 Field Service is an integrated solution with your current D365 environment, enabling you to be field ready with your already configured environment, filled with customer data.

D365 Fields Service has tools to help organizations optimize their resources, effectively manage team members and automate work order creation to save you time and money. Field Service can even be used with IoT devices to alert you of an issue even before your customers are aware there is one.

In D365 Field Service, Work Order Management, Service Scheduling and Resource monitoring are 3 key capabilities provided by D365 Field Service.

Work Orders in D365 Field Service are records that track service jobs. Work orders can be created automatically based on set criteria from your opportunity or case records or created manually. Within a work order you can track specific incidents types, estimated time required to complete a job and create the bookings for the work orders With Work Orders stored in D365 you also can create rich reports to identify which phases of your services can be improved upon.

Scheduling Service has never been easier with D365 Field Service. With the Field Service Schedule Assistant, all you must do is specify your criteria and the system will find the best resource to get the job done. Field Service considers factors such as skill set, availability and even current location of your resources to help make the best decision possible. If you want to get even more efficient, you can setup up resource scheduling optimization to let the system handle all the scheduling for you.

Setting up the native SharePoint integration in Dynamics 365 can greatly benefit your organization. SharePoint allows users to store files, organize them, and provide ease of access to their colleagues. One of the biggest upsides of enabling this integration is that SharePoint offers much more storage space then D365 Sales, so you do not need to worry about your D365 instance running out of storage, thereby incurring steep costs to increase storage limits.

D365 SharePoint integration allows records in D365 Sales to have their own folders in SharePoint, this ensures all files have their own place in the system. This blog will walk you through the step-by -step process on how to setup your D365 SharePoint integration.

Before you get started, ensure you meet the following criteria so the process runs smoothly.

Requirements:

• Dynamics 365 Sales License with System Admin Access
• Office 365 Global Admin Access

Once you have verified the requirements, log into your Dynamics 365 for Sales web client and go to the Settings tab, in the drop-down menu select Document Management.

Goal management in Dynamics 365 is a tool which provides the ability to manage KPIs in just a few clicks. You can use goals to compare targets and actuals for a defined period. And given the fact that Goals is an out of the box feature with Dynamics 365, you can set them up in no time at all. Additionally, since Goals are native to the system, they work seamlessly with workflows, business rules and other various Dynamics 365 functions.

To help you understand how goals work, consider the following scenario:

Your company sells drywall, you, as the sales manager, want to set a revenue target for the overall sales team and then targets for each individual sales team rep who will contribute to the sales team target. With the given targets you want the ability to monitor progress throughout the fiscal period.

To get the results you desire you will need to utilize a couple entities in Dynamics 365 and create a handful of records:

1. Goal Metric: this allows you to set the detailed measurement (amount or count) for the defined goals. You can create multiple goal metric records to measure different elements, revenue and number of panels sold for example.

DocuSign for Dynamics 365 brings all the benefits of the DocuSign electronic signature solution to your finger tips inside D365. With a seamless integration into Dynamics 365, you can access DocuSign functions directly from your form’s tool bar. Some of the key functions include the ability to sign and get signatures, track document status, and dynamically pull data from records.

The most known function of DocuSign is the ability to capture electronic signatures which are encrypted and secure, allowing for accelerated turn around on getting those all-important signatures. Consider all the sales transactions in your pipeline which are slated to close, why not simplify the process for you and your customers by providing the option to sign electronically. DocuSign takes the hassle out of the traditional pen and paper approach by allowing users to sign on any device and have it integrated back to D365.

An added benefit is that elements of your DocuSign documents can be dynamically populated from your D365 records. This is a real timesaver, eliminating the need for your team to customize the document each time it needs to be sent to a new customer. In addition to being time saving, it also eliminates human error along the way, providing you the confidence of knowing the document was sent correctly the first time.

A final noteworthy feature of the DocuSign/Dynamics 365 integration is the ability to track the progression of your email and document. This level of transparency provides 100% visibility into the entire process, affording you piece of mind every step of the way.

To find out more about DocuSign for Dynamics 365 or to implement it for your business, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. today!

Running multiple business applications is a common practice nowadays, and it is often labor intensive or darn near impossible to make your applications talk to one another. This often leads to an awful lot of open tabs as you perpetually switch between applications updating information, or worse yet data becomes disconnected and disparate.

Microsoft has published their Business Application Platform including Flow, PowerApps and Power BI which are powerful tools that you can use to seamlessly allow your applications to talk to each other. Maybe even more importantly, these applications combine and merge the data from multiple applications, making the most out of your data.

Think of Microsoft Flow as a bridge which connects your applications and performs Actions automatically based on specified Triggers.

There are many out of the box Flow templates, built on applications used daily, which can be consumed. Additionally, you can create your own multi step Flow across several apps using supported Actions and Triggers.

Save time and invest your energy in other areas which require your focus. Let Microsoft Flow handle it, by sending you a notification about something which requires your attention, managing backend processes which up until recently were done manually, handling approvals…just to name a few. All of this can be done from the web, your phone or tablet, or even from your inbox! The functionality afforded by Microsoft Flow works with records stored in SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Tweets and over 100 other applications. The image below is just a small sample of the applications that you can connect with Flow.

Did you know that there is an auditing feature which comes standard out of the box with Microsoft Dynamics 365? All you need to do is enable and configure it to your needs and going forward all enabled actions will be logged. Auditing allows organizations to easily track high level record changes, granular field level changes, and user log in within the system.

By default, auditing is not turned on in Dynamics 365, so if you are interested in this feature you will need to enable and configure your auditing preferences. D365 provides the flexibility to enable/disable auditing at the organization, entity and attribute levels. It is worth mentioning that to audit at the field level, auditing must be enabled for the organization and the entity.

Enable auditing at the organization level

1.  Auditing setup is under the Settings Tile. Click on Auditing and go to Global Audit Settings. To enable auditing, if not ticked already, tick the box Start Auditing.

Are you juggling two CRM systems because you have an overwhelming amount of data in your existing system, and you do not even know where to begin as you make the transition to Dynamics 365? Data importing aside, is a bigger concern loss of data and/or data integrity? Or do you have salespeople attending events and need a quick and easy process for getting all the data which has been gathered into D365?

Your search is over. Importing data is an important task you will need to perform at one point or another. Whether it be when your Dynamics 365 environment goes live or later when you need to bring in data which has been collected in another application. No matter how you slice it, the need will arise! You can import data into standard and customized fields of out of the box and custom entities in Dynamics 365. Not only that, you can also include related data, such as activities and notes. To assure data integrity, you can enable duplicate detection to prevent importing duplicate records.

A few pointers as you prepare your data for import:

Export data from your existing system in one of the following formats: comma-separated values (.csv), XML Spreadsheet 2003 (.xml), Compressed (.zip) or text files. Or save an Excel file, which has had data entered into it, as a .csv or .xml.

Once you have your raw data ready, the next thing you need to do is to prepare your data import template. There are a handful of ways to create a template for your data import into Dynamics 365.

Ever find that two or more of your Dynamics 365 contacts are related and want a quick way to record that relationship? Or have a Contact that is related to an Account record even though it is not directly associated? Well look no further because we have your answer.

Connections in Dynamics 365 are a great way to link records together without any hassle. Sometimes you may want a quick way to link records together without having to spend hours coming up with a custom solution to satisfy this everyday requirement. Connections is your answer for that, whether it be linking records of the same type or of completely different record types.

To connect two records together, all you need to do is click on the Connect button in the tool bar.

This will open the new connection window.

From here, lookup the record you wish to connect to by clicking the name field and then selecting search for more records.

Have a dashboard that is the envy of your colleagues? Created a view that would benefit your office mate? Is there a Dynamics 365 User that cannot access a record of yours and needs to, but security provisions are preventing him from doing so? If any of these apply, I encourage you to read on.

Sharing personally created views, charts, dashboards, and even records in Dynamics 365 could not be easier. Follow the steps below, and within seconds you will see just how simple it is to grant and give access to components within D365.

To Share Records:

1. Navigate to the entity that contains the records you want to share.

2. Select the records to share.

Microsoft provides a robust connection between SSRS reports and Dynamics 365, allowing a user to run a report providing a summary of defined records. To create custom reports though, you will need to have a high-level knowledge of SQL/XML, or hire a consultant to build the report for you.

Why not take matters into your own hands and build your reports using out of the box components in Dynamics 365? Dynamics 365 offers both Excel Templates and Word Templates, empowering you to create reports which best suit your business needs, using the application that fits the bill.

Excel and Word templates allow you to create and share templates, so documents always have a consistent look and the necessary details included. Excel and Word templates are easily configured by selecting fields from your starting entity (i.e. Opportunity) to use as dynamic values in both Excel and Word. Not only can you select fields from the entity you began from, you also have the ability to select fields from related entities which have either a 1:N or N:N relationship with the starting entity.

With the help of Excel and Word templates, you can prepare beautifully crafted reports, which include data elements dynamically pulled in from D365. Should needs change, you can always modify and upload the revised template into D365, allowing you and your colleagues to always have the most current templates at your disposal.

Some benefits of using Excel and Word templates: