Review and accept changes to confirmed purchase orders (preview)

Article
09/29/2023

[This article is prerelease documentation and is subject to change.]

During procurement planning, any changes that are made to confirmed purchase orders can have a significant impact on downstream processes such as planned production, service work, or sales orders. The new Confirmed purchase orders with changes workspace makes it fast and easy to identify and reconfirm changes that have only a low risk of downstream impact. Therefore, procurement managers can focus on high-impact changes to assess downstream order impacts and communicate directly with vendors.

Important

The AI-powered and Copilot functionality that's described in this article is available as part of a preview release. All other functionality is generally available. The content and the functionality related to AI-powered and Copilot functionality are subject to change. For more information about preview releases, see One version service updates FAQ.

During this preview phase, the summaries of changes and downstream impacts are available only in environments that are hosted in the United States (US), and they are shown only in English. All other functionality is globally available.

To learn about the capabilities and limitations of AI-powered and Copilot features in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, see Responsible AI FAQs for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

Preview features are subject to the preview supplemental terms of use.
Preview features aren't meant for production use and may have restricted functionality. These features are available before an official release so that customers can get early access and provide feedback.
For more information about preview releases, see One version service updates FAQ.

Enable the feature for your system

This section describes the steps that you must complete to enable the Confirmed purchase orders with changes workspace and the related Copilot support.

Steps 1 and 2 enable the Confirmed purchase orders with changes workspace.
Steps 3 through 6 enable the support by Copilot for this workspace that provides, for example, natural-language change summaries and communication drafts. These steps require that your environment is enabled for Power Platform integration. For more information, see Enable Power Platform integration.

Step 1: Upgrade Supply Chain Management to the required build

You must be running Supply Chain Management 10.0.34 or later.

This feature was added in builds that came out after the initial release of versions 10.0.34 and 10.0.35. If you're running one of those versions, you must update your version as described here:

If you're running Supply Chain Management version 10.0.34, you must upgrade the Application Suite to version 10.25.1372 (or later). This version is included in build 10.0.1591.72 (or later) of finance and operations apps.
If you're running Supply Chain Management version 10.0.35, you must upgrade the Application Suite to version 10.26.1075 (or later). This version is included in build 10.0.1627.33 (or later) of finance and operations apps.

Step 2: Enable the workspace feature in Feature management

In the Feature management workspace, turn on the feature that's named Review changes to confirmed purchase orders based on downstream impact. As of Supply Chain Management version 10.0.36, this feature is turned on by default.

Step 3: Enable the SQL row version change tracking license key

Follow these steps to check the status of the Sql row version change tracking (Preview) license key and enable it if necessary. If the key isn't enabled, you'll get an error when you try to install the Copilot application in the Power Platform admin center.

Go to System administration > Setup > License configuration.
On the Configuration keys tab, scroll down the Sql row version change tracking (Preview) key. If the key is already enabled, then skip the rest of this procedure. If it isn't enabled, then continue to the next step.
Put your system into maintenance mode, as described in Maintenance mode.
Return to the License configuration and enable the Sql row version change tracking (Preview) key.
Turn off maintenance mode, as described in Maintenance mode.

Step 4: Upgrade the Finance and Operations Virtual Entity solution

Follow these steps to upgrade the Finance and Operations Virtual Entity solution.

Go to Power Platform admin center.
Select the Power Platform environment that's connected to your finance and operations app, and open the detail view.
In the Resources field, select Dynamics 365 apps.
Find the app that's named Finance and Operations Virtual Entity.
If the status is Installed, you're already running the latest version. If the status is Update available, you must update the solution by following these steps:
1. Select the ellipsis button (…), and then select Update.
2. Accept the terms of service, and then select Update.

You can follow the status of the update. During the update, the status is Installing. After the update is completed, the status changes to Installed.

Step 5: Enable Supply Chain Management to access your Dataverse environment

Follow these steps to enable Supply Chain Management to access your Dataverse environment.

Go to Power Platform admin center.
Select the Dataverse environment that's connected to your Supply Chain Management environment, and open the detail view.
Select the Settings menu on the menu bar.
Go to Product > Features.
Set the Finance and Operations in Dataverse option to On.

Step 6: Install the Copilot application in Supply Chain Management

Note

During the preview phase, the Copilot application can be installed only for environments on tenants that are hosted in the United States.

Follow these steps to install the Copilot application in your Supply Chain Management environment.

Go to the Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management page in the Microsoft commercial marketplace.
Select Get it now.
The deployment process opens Power Platform admin center. Select the Dataverse environment that's connected to your Supply Chain Management environment to install the Copilot application.

Important

Troubleshooting: You may see the following error message while installing the Copilot application in the Power Platform admin center: "Unable to complete updates to the Track changes option for table: 'EcoResProductTranslationAIEntity'. Exception details: This functionality requires enabling sql row version change tracking feature. Please enable SQL Row version configuration key." If you see this error, follow the instructions given in Step 3: Enable the SQL row version change tracking license key.
You can follow the status of the installation by opening the detail view of the environment. In the Resources field, select Dynamics 365 apps. The status of the Copilot application is Installing. After the installation is complete, the status changes to Installed. If an error occurs, the status changes to Failed and you can find details about the error in the Notifications field.

Step 7: Enable the required security roles

Users who should have access to the functionality must be assigned the AIB Roles and Finance and Operations AI security roles in Dataverse.

In the detail view of the environment, in the Access field, select Users or Teams. Select the users or teams that should have access, and assign the AIB Roles and Finance and Operations AI security roles to them.

The Confirmed purchase orders with changes workspace

To open the workspace, go to Procurement and sourcing > Workspaces > Confirmed purchase orders with changes.

The workspace lists all previously confirmed purchase orders that have been changed since confirmation. It helps the review process by identifying potential impacts on production work, service work orders, and sales orders.

At the top of the workspace, the three tiles summarize groups of changes to confirmed purchase orders and the related downstream impacts.

In preview, the grouping is predefined and limited to pegged orders that have been created by planning.

Low impact changes – This tile highlights changes to purchase orders that have no known impact on downstream orders that have been created by planning, also called pegged orders. A summary of changes is generated to help you review and validate the purchase orders.
High impact changes – This tile highlights purchase orders that have known downstream impacts on pegged orders. These high-risk changes are summarized together with the detected impacts, to help you investigate further and decide what action to take.
Impacted downstream orders – This tile summarizes impacts on pegged orders by the number and type of orders, and it shows the purchase order changes that cause each impact. This information helps you review potential downstream impacts based on the latest master planning run.

Each tile provides a Show link, which lets you filter the list of purchase orders and purchase order lines. The list includes columns for the original and new quantities, original and new confirmed receipt dates, and so on.

Review changes to confirmed purchase orders

Purchasers use the workspace to review and accept changes to confirmed purchase orders. They typically follow these steps.

Study all changes to confirmed purchase orders and their downstream impact.
Focus on changes that have a low risk of downstream impact.
Review changes that have a high risk of downstream impact.
Review the remaining downstream impact.

The following subsections describe these steps in more detail.

Step 1: Study all changes to confirmed purchase orders and their downstream impact

The purchaser first opens the Confirmed purchase orders with changes workspace and studies all the changes that have been submitted through the purchase order change management process. Vendors can submit these changes through several channels.

When a purchase order that was previously confirmed is changed, it's moved back to the Approved state. The workspace shows all purchase orders that have been changed after confirmation.

The workspace shows two lists: one for the purchase orders and one for the purchase order lines.

The purchase order list shows the purchase order number, the vendor, and the requested receipt date from the purchase order header. To view the related records, select the purchase order or vendor link in the list.

The purchase order lines list shows information about each line that has proposed changes. This information includes the item number, product name, original quantity, new quantity, original confirmed receipt date, and new confirmed receipt date. The workspace also provides a hierarchical view of any downstream impact. The Reference field indicates the type of downstream impact, such as a planned kanban for a production order, a sales order, or a maintenance work order.

Step 2: Focus on changes that have a low risk of downstream impact

To take action effectively and efficiently, you typically start by focusing on low-impact changes. These changes have no known downstream impact according to the current plan.

The Low impact changes tile at the top of the workspace provides an AI-generated, natural-language summary of the changes that have a low risk of impact. Select the Show link to open the corresponding filtered view.

The purchaser reviews the changes and can then accept them by selecting individual or multiple purchase orders and then selecting Confirm purchase orders on the toolbar above the list. The procedure for confirming the changes is the same as the procedure for confirming a purchase order for the first time, and it supports batch processing. Any extension that's registered for purchase order confirmation will also be run.

After the selected purchase orders are reconfirmed, they're moved back to the Confirmed state.

Step 3: Review changes that have a high risk of downstream impact

The purchaser will spend more time on changes that have a high risk of downstream impact. These changes have downstream orders allocated to them, and the downstream impact has been identified.

The High impact changes tile provides an AI-generated, natural-language summary of the changes that have a high risk of impact. Select the Show link to open a filtered view where you can focus on those impacts and take action.

Note

Only direct downstream impacts are considered. Indirect downstream impacts, such as product work that depends on other production work, aren't yet considered.

From this view, you can reach out to a vendor using email or Microsoft Teams. Using the contact details of the vendor contact person, the system generates a proposed message text and adds it to a new email message or Microsoft Teams chat. You can then review, update, and send the message.

After you've communicated with the vendor, you can update the order further and then send it back to the vendor for confirmation. Alternatively, you might cancel the order and plan for alternative supply.

Step 4: Review the remaining downstream impact

After most of the order changes have been addressed, the purchaser can review the overall downstream impact of the remaining open order changes.

The Impacted downstream orders tile provides a summary of the downstream impact. Select the Show link to open a filtered view where you can focus on those impacts and take action.

In this view, you can analyze the changes from the perspective of downstream impact and identify the purchase order changes that are causing the impact. You can then take action on those purchase orders.

A good way to focus on the most pressing downstream impact is to sort and filter the list by the date of impact (the requested date in the downstream order). You can then take action by communicating with downstream stakeholders. Those stakeholders might, in turn, contact affected customers and replan the downstream orders.