This article provides the following information about optional features, starting with 2023 release wave 1:
Features that are now mandatory and can't be disabled
Features that are turned on by default for new customers
Features that are now generally available
Features where we postponed making them mandatory
Some of the features or design improvements in major and minor updates are optional and aren't immediately enabled. You can learn about these features in the release plans and documentation and decide whether your administrator should turn them on. To learn more about optional features, go to Enabling Upcoming Features Ahead of Time.
However, these features are only optional for a while. The period in which they're optional typically starts when the update they're made in becomes generally available. The period ends when the features become mandatory and are automatically enabled. The approximate date and service update when we expect to make each optional feature mandatory is shown in the Automatically enabled from field on the Feature Management page. After that date, the feature will no longer appear on the Feature Management page, and you can't turn it off. To learn more about the optional period, go to Example timeline for an optional feature.
Features becoming generally available in 2024 release wave 1
A promoted section of the action bar can help you learn the product, improve your productivity, and make the product easier to use. You can tailor it to fit the needs of your industry, company, or yourself. Add actions that you want to make available in an easily discoverable and consistent way across the product for new users to quickly learn the product, or tailor it to your business-specific needs for proficient users.
Business Central online customers who use Power Automate to run document approval workflows are able to do so easily with this release. Several actions linked to workflow approvals and Power Automate have been improved with additional support for selecting one of many templates for each document type. Users and decisions makers can use Power Automate to run approval and take advantage of the rich experience.
Support for a third dimension for item tracking that you can use as is to keep track of simple warehouse management packages or pallets, or which you can use as a foundation for advanced vertical solutions.
People who work with documents can save time by using automatic account codes to allocate recurring transactions in a faster way. You can use customized posting groups to automate recurring transactions in journals, sales documents, or purchase documents. These posting groups can be used throughout Business Central to trigger automatic postings and allocations across different accounts or dimensions.
Bookkeepers in SMB organizations need to import bank statements and reconcile transactions with their bank ledger entries, making sure all transactions are accounted for. While Business Central already reduces effort through rule-based transaction matching, the residual work to process the unmatched transactions every week remains cumbersome and quickly accrues to lost workdays. Copilot reduces bookkeeping effort by matching more transactions and suggesting G/L accounts to post the remaining transactions.
When enabled, report selection and report layout selection are handled from the platform using data managed by extensions. This strategy lets Business Central select layouts that were shipped with extensions or uploaded by users. The previous strategy used layout selection based on data in Custom Report Layout table which did not handle extension layouts.
Word-based document reports were rendered by an add-in in application code using the MergeDocument platform trigger. The document generation is now fully managed by the platform and the application code is marked as obsolete.
Business Central's first copilot feature, marketing text suggestions, moves from public preview to being generally available. This feature provides the following benefits: * Start with a picture * Author marketing copy * Get AI-powered suggestions * Customize suggestions * Publish to Shopify
Legacy views are list views that were created by developers in previous versions of Business Central by placing them on the Role Center page. Business Central displays legacy views side by side with modern views directly on the list page, but legacy views offer a degraded experience and fewer options compared to modern views.
Some countries require reporting for VAT statements and VAT returns by using a date that's different than the posting date. Sometimes, the date can be the document date, but even this date can differ from the requirement. For this reason, the VAT Date exists on all purchase and sales documents and on journals.
You can import and export general ledger data according to the standard import export (SIE) format. By specifying SIE dimensions and file types, you can define the level of detail that's covered by import or export transactions.
Features becoming generally available in 2023 release wave 2
The following features are generally available. However, they aren't turned on by default, so to use them your administrator must manually enable them.
Regulations in different countries/regions and industries, and customer business practices, might require a change to how general ledger entries are aggregated during posting. We remove the dependencies from the Invoice Posting Buffer table in the base application and build an invoice posting component with an interface and an extensible enum for the implementation setup. This refactoring makes the posting process for sales, purchase, and service transactions extensible.
When companies operate in multiple countries or regions, it's important that they can do business and run financial reports in more than one currency. Because exchange rates often change, businesses must periodically update the rates in Business Central. This feature update gives accountants additional control over how they adjust exchange rates. At the same time, it allows partners to extend and customize an exchange rate adjustment to meet the needs of specific industries or markets.
The tri-state locking feature is aimed at enhancing the performance and concurrency of database transactions. By enabling this feature, AL-based read operations that follow write operations are performed optimistically, rather than with strict consistency and low concurrency. Consequently, users can expect higher levels of concurrency and fewer blocked or failed operations while accessing data. Learn more about tri-state locking.
Features becoming mandatory in 2023 release wave 2
These features are now mandatory and can no longer be disabled. Use the links to learn more about them in the Business Central release plans.
End users and data analysts can analyze data from list pages directly in the client without the need to open the page in Excel or run a report. The ability to analyze data directly in list pages raises the bar for what you can do without having to switch applications, while still allowing customers and partners to do more in report objects, Excel, Power BI, or other data analysis applications.
Form 1096 is used to transmit paper forms 1097, 1098, 1099, 3921, 3922, 5498, and W-2G to the IRS. You can now run the Form 1096 report and send it to the IRS if this is required for them. Because Business Central reports only Form 1099, the new Form 1096 is related only to any already transmitted 1099 paper forms.
In some EU countries/regions, authorities require that businesses report the export of services to other EU countries/regions. The Service Declaration extension lets you collect information about service trade in the EU and report it to the authorities. Although it's named Service Declaration, you can also use it as Intrastat for Services. This extension is available for all EU countries/regions as a W1 version, and it can be used as-is in Belgium.
Bank reconciliation in the North American (NA) versions for the United States, Canada, and Mexico can be done either through the standard Bank Reconciliation page or with the Bank Rec. Worksheet page, which was missing some of the newer features that the Bank Reconciliation page offers. To standardize the bank reconciliation process, we have modified the Bank Reconciliation page, added a feature for deposits that is the same as we provide for the NA version today, and added capabilities to allow users to reconcile deposits.
Features postponed from becoming mandatory in 2023 Release Wave 2
The change to making these features mandatory is postponed. They aren't turned on by default and must be enabled manually. Use the links to learn more about them in the Business Central release plans.
Great products deserve great marketing, but authoring compelling product descriptions for dozens or even hundreds of similar products for your online store requires time, skill, and creativity. Business Central accelerates time to market with AI-generated product descriptions, right from where you manage your inventory. We've streamlined the end-to-end process, starting from uploading a picture to Business Central, to AI-powered suggestions for marketing copy based on your product attributes such as color and material, to publishing that to your online store with just a few clicks.
Legacy views are list views that were created by developers in previous versions of Business Central by placing them on the role center page. Business Central displays legacy views side by side with modern views directly on the list page, but legacy views offer a degraded experience and fewer options compared to modern views.
Business Central immediately saves changes to individual fields as soon as you tab away from the field or set focus to another element on the page, instead of only saving when the page is closed. Changes are saved to the database without any noticeable impact to performance.
To alert you about issues with data in documents and journals that can prevent you from posting, we've introduced validations that identify issues right away. Early, unobtrusive visual indications of a problem can help improve productivity and save time. You can still control documents and check journal data for all users by turning on the Enable Data Check toggle on the General Ledger Setup page or, for individual users, by choosing Enable Data Check on the My Notifications page.
Intercompany postings make accounting for two or more companies easier for a centralized finance department or bookkeepers in intercompany partner companies. We've automated the task of accepting general journals, which removes several manual steps in the intercompany accounting process.
Including currency symbols with amounts makes it easier to visually scan and understand financial figures. If your Business Central is integrated with Microsoft Dataverse, you can now synchronize currency symbols between the two apps.
Payment terms, shipment methods, and shipping agents can change along with the environments in which businesses operate. To react quickly to changing business conditions, businesses must be able to quickly and cost effectively change their payment, shipping, or freight policies across their business systems.
Get more out of the communications between salespeople and your existing or potential customers by tracking email exchanges and turning them into actionable opportunities. Business Central can work with Microsoft Exchange Online to keep a log of the inbound and outbound messages.
Accurate demand forecasting gives businesses valuable insight into their position in the market, which helps decision makers shape their strategies for pricing, business growth, and market potential. The ability to include the right level of detail on item variants in demand forecasts unlocks planning capabilities and reduces lead times for companies that don't have an inflow of sales orders and manage many nearly identical items.
You can set up Business Central to use read-only replicas of the primary (read-write) database. Using the database replica reduces the load on the primary database. In some cases, it will also improve the performance when viewing data in the client. Replicas benefit objects, like reports, queries, and API pages, that are used for viewing data only, not modifying data.
Getting to that first time sheet entry should be as painless as possible. Many employees use time sheets. As the time sheet administrator or manager, you want to make sure that Business Central has you covered when you create time sheets for the first time, or you add an employee or resource to record the time spent on tasks.A busy professional on the road using mobile devices (Android or iOS) needs to be able to provide time sheet entries in an easy and productive way while on the go.
Features enabled by default in 2023 release wave 1
These features are turned on by default for new customers, but you can still manually disable them. Use the links to learn more about them in the Business Central release plans.
As businesses grow and change, managing permissions can become increasingly complex. Security groups can simplify the process by allowing administrators to group users by department, job function, or other criteria, and assign permissions to the group as a whole. Using security groups to manage permissions can save time and reduce the risk of human error. Security groups allow for easier management of access control, ensuring that users only have access to the resources they need. This can also streamline the process of onboarding new employees or contractors, as they can be quickly added to the appropriate security groups.
Advanced and flexible approval workflows don't need to be complex. Business owners or decision makers can choose from multiple templates when they set up approval workflows in Business Central.
Features becoming generally available in 2023 release wave 1
These features are now generally available. They aren't turned on by default and must be enabled manually. Use the links to learn more about them in the Business Central release plans.
Features postponed from becoming mandatory in 2023 Release Wave 1
The change to making these features mandatory is postponed. They aren't turned on by default and must be enabled manually. Use the links to learn more about them in the Business Central release plans.
Coming soon: Throughout 2024 we will be phasing out GitHub Issues as the feedback mechanism for content and replacing it with a new feedback system. For more information see: https://aka.ms/ContentUserFeedback.