suvidha

Creating Companies in Dynamics 365 for Financials

Suvidha Shashikumar — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 08:49:18 GMT

When we sign up for Dynamics 365 for Financials, we get access to a demonstration company (called Cronus). The demonstration company contains sample data like sample orders, invoices, ledger entries etc., which lets us explore the application, view charts and reports with sample data. We will be able to create additional companies with demonstration data or we can create companies to work with our own data. Assisted setup in Dynamics 365 for Financials guides us with creating these companies easily. I would like to list the options available to create new companies through assisted setup. Sign in to Dynamics 365 for Financials and click on Settings icon and My Settings. In My Settings window, click on the lookup option in Company field. In the Allowed Companies window, click on Create New Company. This opens up the assisted setup for creating a company. Click on Next in this window to get started. Type in a Name for the company and select the data and setup option from the drop down. Data and Setup options are: 1. Evaluation Data (Includes Cronus Company Sample Data): We can choose this option if we’re planning to try/evaluate the application. when we create a company with this option, the company will have sample data like customers, vendors, items, orders, invoices, ledger entries and much more. We can explore the application by creating more records, posting transactions, printing reports etc., We will be able to use this company to try out the product for as long as we wish. 2. Standard Data (Recommended): We can use this option when we want to create a company with our own data but would like some initial setup to be kept ready. This option sets up the basic requirements like number series, chart of accounts and payment methods ready for use. you’ll have to setup your company information, customers, items etc., to start using the application. This option lets us use the company for a 30-day trial period, after which we need to subscribe to continue using the company. 3. None (For Advanced Users Only): We can use this option when we want to create a company with our own data. However, the company created with this option will not contain any data. All the setup like Number series, chart of accounts etc., will have to be setup manually. This option lets us use the company for a 30-day trial period, after which we need to subscribe to continue using the company. Choose a relevant option under data and setup, click on Next and then click on Finish to create a new company! More details at: https://madeira.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/madeira-get-started/

PowerApps with SQL server on-premises – Using the Gateway

Suvidha Shashikumar — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 08:22:23 GMT

On-premises data gateway allows you to access on-premises data with PowerApps!

The gateway is a bridge from your app to the on-premises or virtual machine where your data is stored. On-premises means that your data is stored on a server physically located within your organization, not in the cloud. A virtual machine acts as a private cloud-based server. The gateway can be deployed centrally and you can connect to your on-premises data and manage it securely from PowerApps. In this blog, I’ll demonstrate how we can create a simple App in PowerApps which can connect to on-premises SQL database. The App is created to capture Leads information from the user’s phone and the submitted data is saved to SQL database which is on-premises. Creating Demo SQL database: Create a new database in on-premises SQL server called PowerApps Test and create a new table within the database called New_Leads. The New_Leads table should have the following columns with ID field as an auto-incremental primary key: Installing the Gateway: Sign into PowerApps (https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/) and under settings, click on Gateways to download and install the on-premises gateway: Steps to Install and sign into the gateway is available at: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/gateway-reference/ Install and setup a gateway with name PowerApps Gateway in the same machine where the SQL Server is located. Creating the connection to SQL server on-premises: When logged into PowerApps click on Connections: Next, click on New Connections: Search for SQL from the list of services and click on SQL Server: In the window that opens, select the right options and fill up the parameters required for the connection.

Select the option Connect using on-premises data gateway
Type in the SQL server name, Database name, Authentication type, Username & Password
Under Choose a gateway option, select the gateway that is setup in the previous step
Click on create to create the connection to on-premises SQL database

Create an App: You can choose to use PowerApps studio for Windows (requires installation) or PowerApps studio for Web for creating an App. Let’s consider using PowerApps studio for windows. Open the application, click on New and choose the Phone Layout under Start with blank canvas or template: This opens up a designer screen with a blank App screen at the center. Add a Textbox and place it at the top of the screen. Set the following properties of the textbox: Color = RGBA(255, 255, 255, 1), Fill = RGBA(0, 119, 255, 1), FontWeight = FontWeight.Semibold, Text = “New Lead” Add an Editable Form (Under Insert tab > Forms > Edit) to the screen and place it below the Textbox covering the rest of the area: The Form part in the screen will have an option to connect to data. click on Connect your form to data. On the right hand side, under data sources tab, select the SQL server connection created in the previous step, select default and then choose the table New_Leads and click on Connect. After the connection, set the Form’s Item property to Defaults(‘[dbo].[New_Leads]’). Form customization part will be open in the right pane where you’ll be able to add the required fields in the App. Select the required fields from the fields list. The selected fields gets added in your App’s screen. you’ll be able to re-size the text boxes or input controls if required. Add another screen to the App (Under Home tab click on New Screen). Select the newly created screen from the left pane and add a Text box control. Set the Text Property to The lead information was submitted successfully! and Align property to Align.Center. Now we have 2 screens in the App. You can see the names of the screens in the Left pane. Select Screen1, click on Add a custom card option at the bottom within the screen. Add a Text box control in the new card. Set the Auto Height property of the new text box control to true, and set its Text property to this formula: Form1.Error (The text box will show any errors from the form. This also requires the form name to be Form1) Add a Button control in the card. set the button’s Text property to Submit and set the button’s OnSelect property to SubmitForm(Form1); If(Form1.ErrorKind = ErrorKind.None, Navigate(Screen2, ScreenTransition.None)) (This formula tries to insert the data entered to SQL table. If there is any error while writing to SQL, the Error message will be displayed on the app otherwise the screen 2 of the app will be displayed informing the user that write to SQL was successful) The App is now complete and is able to accept user input and save it in SQL table. Testing: In SQL server, run the following simple query Select * From [PowerApps Test].[dbo].[New_Leads] and no rows will be returned. Run the App created in PowerApps, enter all the information within the App and click on Submit. In SQL server, run the same select query (Select * From [PowerApps Test].[dbo].[New_Leads]) again and you’ll find the newly inserted row in SQL: Microsoft continues to enhance the features and capabilities of PowerApps! You can learn more at https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/ Have fun building Apps with PowerApps!

Create an App for Dynamics 365 for Financials in just a few minutes!

Suvidha Shashikumar — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 08:20:50 GMT

PowerApps is a great new product from Microsoft which lets you quickly create Apps on web and mobile without writing code!

Learn more at: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/ In this blog, we take a look at how we can create a simple App using PowerApps. The App lists all the items in our Dynamics 365 for Financials showing item inventory, price and other info. Setup in Dynamics 365 for Financials: In web services page, make sure the Page 31 (Item List) is published. Copy the OData URL. From User Card page, copy the Web Service Access key of an admin user. If this key is not already generated, generate one in the same page. Connecting to Data and creating the App with PowerApps:

Sign up for PowerApps at https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/
Click on New app (Left bottom of the screen) and choose PowerApps Studio for web (PowerApps Studio for Windows is an application which you can install and use to build the Apps)
In the next window, under start with your data, select Dynamics 365 for Financials. Click on the Right Allow (–>) and click on New connection to find Dynamics 365 for Financials. Enter the details from Dynamics 365 for Financials as shown below and click on Connect
Once the connection is successful, choose the default dataset.
The PowerApps will identify all the Odata web services that are published in Dynamics 365 for Financials. Choose the Items from the list and click on connect.
Once we connect to our data, PowerApps opens the App designer window and also automatically creates a sample App using your Item list in Dynamics 365 for Financials.
Next, we’ll have to modify/design this app to: Select a more suitable layout, Select relevant fields, Change the font style, size, color etc, use a good theme etc.. The below video shows the rest of the process of designing this App:

This is an illustration of creating a very simple App using PowerApps. There is much more that we can do! Learn more about designing an App at: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/getting-started/ To Access your App on phone, Install PowerApps application and sign in with your PowerApps credentials.

My First Microsoft Flow with Dynamics 365 for Financials

Suvidha Shashikumar — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 08:19:01 GMT

What is Microsoft Flow?

Microsoft Flow lets you create automated workflows between your favorite apps and services to get notifications, synchronize files, collect data, and more! Learn more about Flow at https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/ How can we use Flow with Dynamics 365 for Financials or Dynamics NAV? With Microsoft Flow, your Dynamics ERP can communicate with other Apps like Outlook, Yammer, SharePoint, Common Data Service, OneDrive and many more. Complete list at: https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/services/ Some example scenarios:

When a new Item is created in Dynamics ERP, post an update in Yammer.
When the credit limit of a customer is updated, send an email notification to the customer
Update the Common data service when relevant records are created or updated in ERP
Get an email notification when your requests are approved

In this blog, I would like to explain how I created my First simple Flow with Dynamics 365 for Financials. Scenario: When a Sales Order is shipped and not invoiced in Dynamics 365 for financials, email is triggered to the customer. we’ll make use of Status field which will be updated to Released in this case. Note that when the order is completely invoiced, the record gets deleted. Setup required in Dynamics 365 for Financials: In web services page, make sure the Page 42 (Sales Order) is published. Copy the OData URL. From User Card page, copy the Web Service Access key of an admin user. If this key is not already generated, you can generate one in the same page. Create a Flow – Connection: > Login to https://flow.microsoft.com/ (Sign up for an account if not already done) > Click on My Flows –> Create from blank > Search for Dynamics 365 for Financials – when a record is modified trigger > Enter a relevant Connection Name (ex: Dynamics 365 – Order) > Enter the ODATA Feed URL which is available in Dynamics 365’s Web Services page > Enter the User Name and Password (Web Service Access Key) from Dynamics 365’s User Card > Enter the Company which is available in Dynamics 365 for Financials under Settings –> My Settings Click on Create! The connection recognizes all the published OData web services from Dynamics 365 for financials. Under Table name, select SalesOrder. Create a Flow – Condition: Click on + New Step –> Add a Condition. Under Condition step, select the Object Name as Status (Status is a field name in Sales Header table which is open when a sales order is created and released when a sales order is shipped). You can use Add dynamic content option to choose fields easily. Choose Relationship as is equal to and Value as Released. Create a Flow – Action Next step is to specify what needs to happen when the condition is met or otherwise. In our case, when the condition is met we want an email to be triggered to the customer or any other specific email address. Under IF YES option, click on Add an Action and select Office 365 Outlook – Send an email. Enter the email address in To field or you can select the email address field from Add dynamic content if available (In my case, I’ve manually entered the email address as I do not have an email address in my Sales Order page). Specify a relevant Subject and Body for the email. You can choose to write the content and also add fields from your web services (using Add dynamic content option) where required. Click on Create Flow –> Done to complete the flow creation. We can click on My Flows to view all your flows. You can switch them on/off here, Edit it if any modification is required and see the Flow runs history. Testing: Now we can create an order in Dynamics 365 for financials and post the shipment (Do not post the invoice). This changes the status of the order to Released. You can check Flow runs to see the runs. And here is the triggered email: It’s fun creating flows! There is so much more we can do. Happy automating workflows between apps.

Personalized Reports to Customers & Vendors with Dynamics 365 for Financials

Suvidha Shashikumar — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 05:01:02 GMT

I’ve previously written about how a report can have multiple layouts/templates in Dynamics 365 for Financials. You can find that blog here. With multiple templates per report, we can assign different templates to customers/vendors which enables us to provide a personalized experience!

Let’s consider a scenario where, for some of the customers we want the Sales Invoice to include some special instructions, customer’s logo or any other information. For such cases, we can use the Document Layouts option that is available in Customer card and Vendor card pages to personalize the reports. Document Layouts option enables us to select report templates for the recipients. For example, report 1306 (Sales – Invoice) has 6 templates/report layouts out of the box. We can view the different templates by going to page Custom Report Layouts. Select any of the template and click on Run Report to view the Template. Let’s consider customer Coho Winery in the demo database and they would like to receive an invoice from our company which includes all the shipment details like Shipment Method, Shipping Agent Code, Package Tracking No. etc.. Hence, For Coho Winery, we can assign the US Sales Invoice – Red template as it includes all the requirements of the customer. In Customers page, find the relevant customer (Coho Winery) and click on Edit to open the card. Under Navigate tab, click on Document Layouts option. In the Document Layouts window, select the values as shown below: Usage: Specifies the report kind. The options are Quote, Confirmation Order, Invoice, Credit Memo, Customer Statement, Job Queue. Report ID and Report Caption: Specifies the report that has to be printed. Custom Layout Description: Specifies the custom layout that applies for this customer/vendor when the report is run or printed. Use for Email Body: Selecting Yes specifies that we want to include the custom layout in the email body, when the email is sent from within the product to the customer/vendor. Email Body Layout Description: Specifies the custom layout that is used in the email body for this customer/vendor when we send the email from within product. With the above setup, we’re telling the system to use sales invoice template US Sales Invoice – Red for customer Coho Winery when the report is run and when a user tries to send the invoice to the customer through email from within the system. To test this, let’s open the Posted Sales Invoices: Select any invoice related to Coho Winery and click on Send Action. In the Send Document to window, select the Printer option as shown below and click on OK. This opens the Sales – Invoice report with the template that we’ve assigned for Coho Winery: If we select any other customer’s posted invoice document and print the report, the report will have a different layout all together (unless of course same template has been assigned to that customer as well :)). We’ve also selected a custom layout for the email body when emails are being sent from within the product. Let’s select the invoice related to Coho Winery again and click on Send Action. This time, choose the Email option as shown below and click on OK. This opens up the Send Email window with the entire report in the body of the report and a copy of the report as an attachment. We can click on OK to send the email directly from within Dynamics 365 for Financials. Hence, Dynamics 365 for Financials enables you to create and manage multiple templates per report and use different templates for customers/vendors.

Microsoft Word Document Reports in Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 for Financials (Project Madeira)

Suvidha Shashikumar — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 10:10:06 GMT

In Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Project Madeira, it is possible to use Microsoft Word 2013 or later to modify the report layout to some extent . Customers can edit/modify the report layout in Microsoft word document and this editing experience is WYSIWYG. This feature makes it easy for customers to modify their reports and save them without touching the underlying report objects. This feature becomes all the more important in Project Madeira! Which is why, I decided to write about this feature. I will be using screenshots from Project Madeira in this blog. However, it matches pretty much with Dynamics NAV as well Its important to know that reports in NAV and Madeira can have RDLC layout or Word Layout and some reports have both layouts. In Project Madeira, search for page Report Layout Selection and open the related page from the list This page lists all the printable reports available in the product and the layout which is being used for a report. In the Report Layout Selection page, you can select the required layout for a report. You have the option of choosing the layout by clicking on Selected layout option for a report. The available options for layout are:

RDLC (built in) – Available for all the printable reports.
Word (built in) (if available) – Available by default with few reports like 1304 (Sales – Quote), 1305 (Sales – Confirmation), 1306 (Sales – Invoice), 1307 (Sales – Credit Memo)
Custom Layout (if available) – Custom layouts are modified version of built in layouts or it can be a new layout built from scratch by the users.

The Report Layout Selection page also lets the user choose the layout that they prefer per company. Meaning, if there are 3 companies, all three companies can have different layout selected for the same report. For example: A sales invoice report in Company A, Company B and Company C can all have different layouts/formats from each other even though the underlying report object is the same. Let’s explore 1306 (Sales – Invoice) report: In Report layout selection page, search for 1306 or Sales – Invoice, choose selected layout as RDLC (built in) and click on Run Report action on top. In the request page window, select an Invoice No. and click on Preview to view the Report output with RDLC layout. Similarly, in Report Layout Selection page, Change the Selected Layout to Word (built in)/ Custom Layout (In case of Custom layout choose one of the available custom layouts from the list) and preview the reports in respective formats. Below is the comparison of 3 layouts of the same report: In Madeira/NAV, you can have multiple custom layouts for the same report and users can modify these custom layouts or create new custom layouts for a report. In the Report Layout Selection Page, Select the 1306 (Sales – Invoice) Report and click on Custom Layouts action to view/edit/create custom layouts for this report. The Customer Report layouts page lists all the custom layouts for Report 1306 (Sales – Invoice). Editing an existing custom layout: Select the one of the custom layout which needs to be modified and click on Export Layout. This exports/opens a word document which is nothing but report layout designer in word document. you will be able to edit this document (Change the colour, font, remove fields, add fields etc..) and import it back into the system by using the Import Layout option in Custom Report Layouts page. Creating a new custom layout: You can create a new custom layout by using New/Copy options in Custom Report Layouts page. Click on New and it opens the below window. Select the Insert Word Layout option if you would like to copy the Word (built in) layout as a base for your new layout (If you do not select Insert Word Layout option, you will have to build the whole layout from scratch). Click on ok to create a new custom layout. The New custom layout will be available with Description Copy of Built-in layout. You can modify the description to something better of course. To make changes to the new layout, export the layout and edit the layout in word document and import it back. Editing the exported word layout document file: The below picture shows an example of the exported word layout file: In Microsoft word, we can edit this file. For example:

Change the customer address font to Blue and bold.
Insert a new Table style for the line items
Add company phone number below the company address and make the phone number bold

The above changes can be done in Word document and below picture shows the word layout file after the modification: Note: In the word layout, you can add fields from NAV/Madeira into the report if the required field(s) exists in the report dataset. (To find the dataset, click on the Developer tab –> XML Mapping Pane –> Choose the right Custom XML part from the drop down). In the word layout, select/click where you want to add the new field (place the cursor in the right place), select the field from the dataset under XML Mapping (Right click on the required field –> Insert Content Control –> Plain text). After the changes are completed in word layout file, save the file and import it into NAV/Madeira using Import Layout option in Custom Report Layouts Page. After importing, you can run the report to view the changes: Similarly, to create a completely new custom layout, In Custom Report Layouts page, Click on New–> Insert Word Layout=No –> OK. This opens a blank word document. Click on Developer tab –> XML Mapping Pane to access the fields in the report dataset. With this, you will be able to create a new layout and place the fields where you need it. More details on Adding Fields to a Word Report Layout at: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn757229(v=nav.90).aspx Thank you.

Connecting Dynamics NAV 2013/2015 to the NAV content pack in PowerBI.com

Suvidha Shashikumar — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 21:11:03 GMT

PowerBI.com has a Dynamics NAV content pack which connects to Dynamics NAV 2016 out of the box. I’ve discussed about it here.

Customers using NAV 2013 or NAV 2015 can also connect to this NAV Content pack in powerbi.com.

Power BI expects NAV to expose certain web services, irrespective of the NAV version. The required web services are shown in the following picture (NAV 2016 Web Services Page).

Let’s consider NAV 2013 installed on premise where authentication is based on windows logins. we’ll connect NAV 2013 to Power BI content pack.

Step 1: In NAV 2013 version, we have to make sure all of the required objects are available.

The required Page objects (Page: 197 – Account Schedule KPI Web Service and 42 – Sales Order) are available in NAV 2013 out of the box.
We require 6 Query objects (numbered 100 to 105 in NAV 2016). You can create these queries manually or import the query objects that I’ve uploaded here. The newly created/imported queries are now with ID: 50000 to 50005.

Step 2: Expose these objects as OData web services in NAV 2013. Open the Web services page and publish these objects as web services. It is very important here to provide the service name exactly like in NAV 2016 (refer to the service name in the above picture. Even the case has to match exactly!).

Step 3: Make sure the OData web service is enabled in the NAV 2013 Admin console.

Step 4: Sign in to https://www.powerbi.com

Step 5: [This step is required when NAV is using windows authentication]

In Powerbi.com, click on download button which is available on right top. Download and install the Power BI Gateway on NAV server.
Run/launch the Power BI gateway and sign in to powerbi.com when prompted. Next, Enter your Windows user name and password and click on Next. This should start the gateway.
Click on finish to close the gateway window.

Step 6: In Powerbi.com, click on Get Data at left bottom –> Click on Get button under Services –> choose Microsoft Dynamics NAV from the list of services –> Click on Connect

Step 7: Enter the OData URL (http[s]://navserver:Odataport/instance/OData/(‘company’)), Select the authentication method (Select windows if NAV is using windows authentication) and click on Sign in.

Your Dataset, Reports and Dashboard is now ready!

Thank you :)

NAV Perpetual Licensing – More Limited User Included Tables

Suvidha Shashikumar — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 22:55:38 GMT

With the release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016, the limited users in NAV can now do more than before!

Download the Licensing guide for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 here.

The Limited users have restricted access to the ERP Solution to complete only the following tasks: 

“Read” access to any data contained in the ERP solution; and 
“Write” access to a maximum of 3 table objects with the following exceptions: 
- Limited users are not authorized to write directly or indirectly to the following tables: General Ledger Entry (table number 17), Permission Set (table number 2000000004), Permission (table number 2000000005) or Access Control (table number 2000000053); and 
- Tables described in Appendix A: Limited User Included Tables do not count towards the 3 table objects.

However, with NAV 2016, more tables are added to the list of Limited User Included Tables! Please have a look at the Appendix A: Limited User Included Tables in the licensing guide to see the list of tables.

The good news is, these Limited user included tables are not version specific and hence, these tables are also valid for older versions – NAV 2013 and NAV 2015!

If you/your customer is using NAV 2013/2015, do refresh the license key (Download freshly) from PartnerSource Business Center to enjoy the benefit :)

Integrating Dynamics NAV 2016 with CRM Online

Suvidha Shashikumar — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 01:15:00 GMT

In this post I would like to explain the initial setup required and steps for integrating Dynamics NAV 2016 and CRM Online. This enables you to integrate and synchronize data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM entities such as accounts, contacts, and products, with equivalent record types in Microsoft Dynamics NAV such as customers, contacts, and items, respectively.

Dynamics NAV 2016 has a default integration setup which can be used to enable this integration. NAV 2016 includes new objects to support this integration.

Setup:

To start with the integration, we need access to NAV 2016 and CRM online. I will be using the NAV 2016 W1 version with Cronus Database and CRM online with demo data.

Step 1: This step is optional but, I would recommend this step as it adds more features to this integration ( and because this step is pretty simple :))

we need to import NAV solution into CRM online. Within CRM, click on Settings–> Solutions

Next, in the window that opens, click on Import–> Browse. In the browse window, find the DynamicsNAVIntegrationSolution file. This is located in the NAV DVD–> CRMCustomization folder. After this import is done, you will be able to see the solution as shown below:

Step 2: In CRM, create a user for this integration. (I have created user: NavInt@navcrm001.onmicrosoft.com) Assign System administrator role for this user in CRM. You can access users in CRM under Settings–> Security–> Users and you can assign roles to the users by clicking on Manage Roles.

Step 3: Login to NAV 2016 with the user ID which we can use for this integration. In my case I login as FAREAST\test user and the authentication email of this user has to match the email address of the NAV integration user in CRM.

Step 4: In NAV windows client, open Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connection Setup page and fill in the details for Dynamics CRM URL, User Name and Password. Next click on Enabled to enable the connection between NAV and CRM.

Additionally, enter or enable the remaining values as shown below:

Click on Test Connection to test this connection. This completes the connection setup.

Tables Mapping:

Click on Integration Table Mappings to see the tables mapping available by default. Here the NAV tables are mapped to CRM entities.

In the Integration table mapping page, you can specify if you want to synchronize the data for all the modified records or only coupled records. You can do this using Sync Only Coupled Records field here. If the Sync Only Coupled Records = TRUE then, records have to be coupled before synchronizing. If Sync Only Coupled Records = FALSE, all the modified records will be automatically created and synched between these 2 products.

I my case Sync Only Coupled Records is set to TRUE .

Coupling the CRM users with NAV Sales People:

It is important to map the NAV Salespeople with CRM Users first. Hence, all the sales people in NAV (at least the active ones) need to be users in CRM. They can also have Salesperson role assigned in CRM.

Hence, I have 2 salespeople in NAV who have sales documents in their name and for these 2 salespeople, I will create user logins for CRM and assign Salesperson role for both.

These salespeople records have to be coupled. The coupling of records can be done in NAV.

Open the Salespeople page in NAV and you should be able to see Dynamics CRM section under Navigate Tab (If you don’t see this, you can add it to the ribbon by customizing the page ribbon).

we need to couple the sales people with the users in CRM.

Select the line for John Roberts in NAV Salespeople page, click on Coupling –> Setup Coupling. A small window opens where you can choose the user from CRM to couple with the current salesperson in NAV.

Similarly, set up coupling for Peter Saddow as well. This completes coupling of salespeople.

Mapping and Synchronizing Customer data:

Next we’ll look at NAV Customers and CRM Accounts mapping.

For example, Open a customer card for Customer No. 10000 (The Cannon Group PLC) in NAV 2016. You can click on Coupling –>Set up Coupling. If the same account already exists in CRM, you can couple it by selecting the Account dropdown. Otherwise, you can select Create new Account and click on OK which will create a new account in CRM using the details in NAV. Now, this customer record is coupled with an Account in CRM.

Select the coupled customer record and click on Account to open the CRM account:

This can be done vice versa as well. In CRM, you can find Dynamics NAV button as shown above to open the customer card in NAV. This opens the customer card in NAV web client.

With this, any changes made to this customer in NAV will also reflect in CRM when synchronized.

let’s update the Phone No. of customer Cannon Group in NAV and click on Synchronize Now. You need to choose the option Send Data Update to Dynamics CRM and click on OK. With this, you should be able to see the Phone No. updated in CRM account as well.

Similarly all the other NAV tables and entities can be coupled and synchronized.

Scheduling Synchronization of Data:

The synchronization between CRM entities and NAV tables can be scheduled using Job Queues. In NAV, open Microsoft Dynamics NAV Connection Setup page and click on Synch. Job Queue Entries. Here, you can schedule the synch. jobs to run periodically.

There is much more to this integration and you can find more details at: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt574380(v=nav.90).aspx

Hope this was helpful! Feel free to leave your comments. Thanks :)

Dynamics NAV – Application Code Upgrade

Suvidha Shashikumar — Wed, 20 May 2015 03:18:31 GMT

Microsoft introduced a new feature called Application Merge Utilities (AMU) with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, which help partners upgrade their custom solution (application code and metadata) from one version to another, or from one cumulative update to another.

Why?

Microsoft plans to release new versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV every 12 months and in addition, Microsoft will be releasing cumulative updates every month. Applying these updates to your existing NAV database or upgrading to newer version often results in conflicts that can be difficult to manage!

Example:

Lets consider that the base/original version of NAV 2013 has a table (ID: 777) with fields: ID, Name and Phone Number. Assume the NAV customer requests for customization on this table to store the name as First name and last name separately. Hence, This base version table will be customized/modified as per the business requirement with following fields ID, First Name, Last Name and Phone Number. Now, if a cumulative update or newer version of Dynamics NAV is released with an additional field in this table: ID, Name, Email ID and Phone Number, there will be a conflict and a 3 way merge needs to be done.

Application Merge Utilities makes this merge process very simple!

In the following video, I have tried to show how to perform application code upgrade of lightly customized Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 database to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 using Compare and Update PowerShell commands shipped with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOf6vs3exug

Some of the benefits of using this method includes:

No dependencies on Dynamics NAV Servers or Databases. Operates on TXT files directly.
Can be used across versions, and is backwards compatible with C/SIDE
Additional capabilities availble to manage languages and captions, and to split/join TXT files