How CFOs and finance leaders can make data-driven decisions and optimize business performance.

Why being data driven is key for CFOs

Amid the growing demand on CFOs to catalyze growth, maintaining a holistic view of business performance can be crucial. Data-driven finance leaders not only ensure this is possible within their team, but also empower the entire organization with access to the analysis and insights needed to make informed decisions within the flow of their work, securely.

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The data-driven CFO can use Business Central to optimize business performance.

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According to a recent white paper for CFOs (9 Emerging Trends for the Futurist CFO), more than 50% of the identified trends that will affect their departments and businesses over the next few years are about data and reporting.

And if you ask Microsoft Copilot: What are the top three challenges that CFOs in small and medium-sized businesses face in 2024 that can be improved with internal reporting?

You might get an answer such as: In 2024, CFOs in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face several key challenges that can be significantly improved with effective internal reporting. Here are the top three:

1. Economic uncertainty: With ongoing fluctuations in the global economy, CFOs need to make informed decisions quickly. Detailed financial reports can provide insights into market trends, helping CFOs to forecast and plan more accurately.
2. Cost management: Identifying and controlling costs is crucial for maintaining profitability. Internal reports can highlight areas of inefficiency and suggest where cost-saving measures can be implemented without compromising quality.
3. Performance measurement: Tracking the performance of various departments and projects is essential for strategic planning. Internal reports provide valuable data on key performance indicators (KPIs), enabling CFOs to assess progress and make data-driven decisions.

How can you as a CFO or financial leader turn this advice into something more practical, allowing you to help people become more data driven in their day-to-day work? Read on to understand how the business intelligence (BI) triangle model breaks analytics scenarios down into tangible tasks with suggestions of which tools are appropriate for each of them.

The BI triangle: Mapping analytics scenarios to tools

One of the challenges that you face is how to access, analyze, and present data in a way that suits your needs and preferences. Different scenarios and roles in the office of the CFO may require different tools and formats to deliver the best insights and outcomes. That’s why Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a comprehensive and flexible set of analytics tools and capabilities that can address the diverse needs and preferences of finance leaders.

We call this the “BI triangle”, which consists of four types of analytics tools:

• Microsoft Power BI finance reports: Access these reports out-of-the-box including powerful semantic models and stunning and interactive visualizations. You can use the Power BI reports to get an overview of finance KPIs, dive deeper into your data, create custom dashboards and metrics, and share your insights with others. The new Power BI reports are coming in the 2024 release wave 2.
• Financial reporting: This capability set provides no-code financial reporting specialized for producing financial statements that look the way you want.
• Ad-hoc data analysis: Delivers the ability to filter, group, and pivot data directly in Business Central. Use it to get an overview of analytic scenarios not covered by standard reports, drill down into details, and export data to Excel.
• Excel finance reports: Excel reports use Microsoft’s familiar and widely used spreadsheet tool, which is loved by financial professionals for its powerful capabilities in performing calculations, analysis, and formatting. Whether you need to bring your financial data into Excel for easy manipulation, create charts and tables, apply formulas and functions, or analyze outliers with Copilot in Excel, the built-in Excel reports provide the flexibility to present your data exactly as you prefer.

With the BI triangle, you can choose the best tool for the job, depending on your scenario and audience. You can also switch between the tools seamlessly, as they are all integrated with Business Central and use the same data source.

Access more information about the BI triangle here.

Analyze your business data with new Power BI reports

One of the benefits of using Power BI reports is that you can access a rich set of new and improved reports designed specifically for Business Central and that cover various aspects of your business, such as finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, and projects.

These reports are available out of the box and can be accessed from within Business Central or from Power BI.

Another benefit of using Power BI reports is that you can access your data and insights while on the go from various devices. Whether you’re in the office, on the road, or at home, you can use the Power BI app on your phone or tablet to view and interact with your reports, get notifications and alerts, and stay on top of your business performance.

In the 2024 release wave 2, Dynamics 365 Business Central will include more than 70 reports covering analytics scenarios across finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, and projects.

Track your finance KPIs with Power BI metrics and get alerted in Microsoft Teams when they cross thresholds

With Power BI, you can create and monitor metrics, which are key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure progress toward your goals and objectives. You can easily create metrics on any number shown in your Power BI finance reports and set targets and thresholds for them. You can also view your metrics on your Power BI dashboard and see how they change over time and compare to your targets and thresholds.

You can even integrate your KPIs with Teams and get alerted when your KPI metrics cross certain thresholds, such as when your expenses exceed your budget or when your revenue falls below your forecast. This way, you can stay informed and act quickly and efficiently.

Get executive summaries on your finance data with Copilot in Power BI

Want to use AI to get more from your data? With Copilot in Power BI, you get a conversational AI assistant that can help you get answers and insights from your data using natural language. How about asking Copilot for an executive summary on your financial overview?

You can use Copilot in Power BI to ask questions about your data, such as: “What is my net income for the last quarter?” or “How does my cash flow compare to the previous year?”. Copilot in Power BI will analyze your data and provide you with relevant and concise answers in the form of charts, tables, or text. You can also use Copilot in Power BI to get executive summaries on your data, by using prompts such as: “Summarize my financial performance for the last month” or “Highlight the main drivers of my revenue growth”. Copilot will generate a summary report that highlights the key facts and insights from your data in a clear and engaging way.

Other ways that Business Central supports the data-driven CFO

Power BI is not the only way that Business Central supports the data-driven CFO. Other analytics features and capabilities can help you access, analyze, and present your data in an effective and efficient way. Here are some examples:

Create financial statements with no-code financial reporting (new templates coming in 2024 release wave 2). This feature allows you to create and customize your own financial statements, such as income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements, using a simple and intuitive interface. You can choose from a variety of templates; add or remove accounts, columns, and rows; and format and style your statements. You can also drill down into the details of your data or export your statements to Excel or PDF to share them with others. Access more information about the new Financial Reporting templates in the 2024 release wave 2 here.

Analyze finance data your way with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central analysis assist. This feature allows you to analyze your finance data using natural language and get suggestions and recommendations from an AI assistant. You can explore your data, discover patterns and trends, and find answers and insights.

If you prefer to slice and dice the data, you can open any list in Business Central, switch on analysis mode, and group, filter, and pivot the data your way. When your analysis is ready, you can save it, or maybe share it with a coworker.

Use out-of-the-box Excel reports for finance (when you want the power and flexibility of Excel). Business Central comes with pre-built and curated Excel reports that cover various aspects of your finance data, such as Trial Balance by Period, Aged Account Receivables, and Aged Account Payables. You can use these reports to view and manipulate your data in your familiar and preferred data tool, create charts and tables, and use formulas and functions, or analyze for outliers with Copilot in Excel.

Harness the full potential of the analytical tools within Business Central

As the roles of the CFO and finance teams continue to evolve, the ability to harness data for strategic decision-making is a necessity. Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a comprehensive and flexible set of analytics tools and capabilities that can empower finance leaders to make data-driven decisions and optimize business performance. Whether you need a quick and easy way to view and explore your data, a powerful and popular tool to analyze and visualize your data, or a familiar and widely used tool to manipulate and present your data, Business Central has you covered. With Business Central, you can also take advantage of the power of AI and cloud to access your data and insights while on the go from various devices, and to get answers and summaries from natural language queries and commands. You can also integrate your data and insights with other Microsoft products, such as Teams, to collaborate and communicate more effectively with your colleagues and partners.

Learn more about using Business Central

If you want to learn more about how the data-driven CFO can use Business Central, visit the financial analytics section of our documentation, where you can find more information and resources on the various analytics scenarios and tools.

The post Experience the new generation of financial analytics and reporting in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In the quickly changing world of AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is leading the way with innovations that have equipped more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses to succeed. Powered by next-generation AI, Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces new ways to streamline workflows, boost productivity, and unlock creativity. At a time when nine out of ten people want simpler ways to automate daily tasks, Copilot helps to free time so employees can focus on their most meaningful work.¹

Copilot in Business Central is your everyday AI companion, helping you to speed through tasks, build momentum, and improve the way work gets done. With Copilot, you can:

• Get answers quickly and easily using natural language.
• Spark creativity with creative content ideas.
• Save time by automating tedious, repetitive tasks.
• Anticipate and overcome business challenges.

Reclaim time for important work

In a small or medium-sized business, there is often a lot to do and not enough people to get it all done. Everyday activities like tracking down documents and bringing new employees up to speed can drain your valuable time. Conversational chat using Copilot in Business Central helps you answer questions quickly and easily, locate records faster, and even learn new skills—all using natural language. Save time and effort by navigating to documents without having to use traditional menus, and rapidly onboard new users with answers to questions on how, when, or why to do things.

Unlock creativity with marketing text suggestions

Copilot in Business Central helps product managers to banish writer’s block and drive sales with compelling AI-generated marketing text suggestions. Using key attributes already in Business Central like color and material, Copilot can create product descriptions in seconds tailored to your preferred tone, format, and length. Once you’ve made any adjustments, you can easily publish to Shopify or other ecommerce platforms with just a few clicks.

Simplify the sales order process

Creating or updating customer orders can be a tedious process, often requiring repetitive lookups or navigating through extensive product catalogs. To quickly add items to a sales quote or order, Copilot enables you to describe the goods or services needed, paste in relevant details from an email, or reference a previous order. Based on your prompt, Copilot then suggests line items from your product catalog. By streamlining the order taking process, Copilot frees time for sales teams to focus on building relationships and delivering exceptional customer experiences. 

Automate workflows quickly and easily

Streamlining business processes is easier than ever with Copilot helping to create Microsoft Power Automate flows using natural language. Users can simply express their needs directly in Business Central, and Copilot drafts an initial automation flow for you. You can continue refining the flow in Power Automate with Copilot by your side, streamlining the process of tailoring best-practice workflows to your business.  

Nine out of ten people want simpler ways to automate daily tasks so they can focus on the work that matters.¹

Streamline month end with enhanced bank reconciliation

Reconciling bank transactions has traditionally been a time-consuming monthly task, especially with complex scenarios where multiple charges consolidate into a single transaction. Copilot in Business Central makes bank reconciliation easier by analyzing bank statements that you import into Business Central, matching transactions, and proposing entries for transactions that weren’t auto-matched. By comparing and interpreting transaction descriptions, amounts, dates, and patterns across fields, Copilot can help you improve the accuracy of your financial records while reducing manual effort.

Keep finances organized with e-invoice matching

Say goodbye to hours spent manually merging incoming e-invoices with outstanding purchase orders. Using rule-based matching and assistance from Copilot, you can quickly compare and map incoming e-invoices to your open orders. Save time and keep your accounts payable current, all while building positive supplier relationships with on-time payments. 

Make data-driven decisions with analysis assistance

Business Central has powerful built-in capabilities to create analytical views of data, but manually constructing those views requires time and skill. Copilot simplifies analysis by transforming raw data into clear views with totals, grouping, pivots, and filters—all from simple text instructions and without ever leaving Business Central. Prompted by just a simple sentence, Copilot can identify trends and anomalies in your data, helping you make data-driven decisions that propel your business forward.  

Boost customer service with inventory forecasting

Effective inventory management is crucial in a competitive business environment as it can significantly influence a company’s success and customer retention. This process involves balancing customer service with cost control. Maintaining low inventory reduces working capital, but risks missing sales due to stock shortages. Using AI, the sales and inventory forecast extension uses past sales data to forecast future demand, helping to prevent stockouts. Once a shortfall is identified, Business Central streamlines the replenishment process by generating vendor requests, helping you keep your customers happy by fulfilling their orders on time.  

Reduce risk with late payment prediction

Managing receivables effectively is vital for a business’s financial wellbeing. With the late payment prediction extension, you can reduce outstanding receivables and refine your collections approach by forecasting if outstanding sales invoices are likely to be paid on time. For instance, if a payment is anticipated to be delayed, you could modify the payment terms or method for that customer. By proactively addressing potential late payments and adapting accordingly, you can minimize overdue receivables, reduce risk of non-payment, and ultimately improve your financial performance.

Improve financial stability with cash flow analysis

Powered by AI, Business Central can create a comprehensive cash flow analysis to help you monitor your company’s cash position. Cash flow is a critical indicator of a company’s solvency, and cash flow analysis is an important future-focused planning tool that helps you maintain control over your financial health and make proactive adjustments to meet your financial commitments. With insights from Business Central, you can pivot quickly to safeguard your company’s fiscal wellbeing, such as by obtaining loans to cover cash shortfalls or cutting back on credit when you have surplus cash.

Transform the way work gets done with Copilot in Business Central

Copilot gives your company an edge with AI-powered innovations that are a catalyst for unleashing human potential, fostering creativity, and driving efficiency in ways previously unimaginable. The integration of AI into everyday business processes is not just about staying ahead in a competitive market, it’s about redefining what’s possible in the workplace. With Dynamics 365 Business Central, your company is empowered to navigate today’s complex business environment with agility, precision, and a renewed focus on what truly matters.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better with Business Central.

Download the guide

Sources

¹  Four Ways Leaders Can Empower People for How Work Gets Done, January 2023

The post Work smarter with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The pace of business operations continues to accelerate daily, presenting an ongoing challenge for employees who increasingly struggle to keep up. They often find themselves overwhelmed by the very tools designed to enhance their work, leading to frequent switching between various documents, apps, and websites as they hunt for data.  

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Harvard Business Review addresses this issue in its article How Much Time and Energy Do We Waste Toggling Between Applications?, where it describes the prevalent “swivel chair” approach to work, which has become the norm for most employees. This is primarily because many software applications weren’t originally designed to connect with each other. Consequently, employees often serve as the connective tissue bridging the gap between these disparate applications. They engage in manual processes of fetching, transforming, and submitting data from one system to another, constantly shifting between apps. This practice is both time-consuming and mentally draining. 

The true cost of this constant app-switching becomes apparent when we consider that the average user toggles between different apps nearly 1,200 times each day, spending approximately four hours per week reorienting themselves after switching to a new application. Annually, this adds up to a staggering five working weeks, accounting for a significant 9% of their total work time.¹  

What’s the solution to this productivity-sapping dilemma? The answer lies in connecting business systems and productivity tools, providing employees with easy access to the information they need without switching between applications. Seamless sharing of data across tools and applications not only simplifies access for employees but also lays the foundation for AI and Microsoft Copilot to offer proactive insights and assistance within their everyday tools. 

With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365, businesses can establish a unified experience where data seamlessly connects with productivity apps including Excel, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. This connectivity ensures that employees can access timely information, gain valuable insights, and collaborate directly within the tools they use daily—all without the need to switch between applications. 

By harnessing connected solutions powered by real-time data, businesses can begin to unlock the full potential of AI-enabled productivity with Microsoft Copilot. With Copilot, businesses can automate tasks and guide users through assisted workflows—saving them time, improving collaboration, enhancing decision-making, and allowing employees to focus on what truly matters—driving business success. 

More collaboration with Business Central and Teams 

Modern workplaces are challenged by fragmented data and communication tools—employees often find themselves juggling various apps and struggling to disseminate timely information, making collaboration difficult. With Teams connected to Business Central, your organization can efficiently share and interact with real-time data, transforming Teams into a centralized hub for your daily operations.  

With Business Central and Teams, employees can: 

• Make data accessible and collaborative. With Teams connected to Business Central, timely data can be shared in group chats or channels, transforming Teams into the hub for all and daily operations that unite employees, processes, and the data they need to work together. 

• Take action from the app they prefer. From Business Central, quickly share data to jumpstart conversations in Teams. From Teams, stay in the flow of work by viewing and editing business data without having to switch apps. 

•  Streamline collaboration across departments. Empower each department to self-serve by unlocking the data they need to work better together—even without a Business Central license. Get read-only access to Business Central data in Teams at no additional cost with your Microsoft 365 license. 

More productivity with Business Central and Excel 

Employees often find themselves working in specific applications that align with their roles and responsibilities. For finance and operations teams, Excel is a fundamental tool that plays a pivotal role in their daily tasks. Enabling these teams to maximize their productivity within their preferred application can lead to significant productivity gains. 

With Business Central and Excel, employees can: 

• Simplify daily tasks. Export any Business Central data to an Excel worksheet to capture data snapshots or share for review. Save time by updating records in bulk in Excel and uploading the revised records to Business Central with just a few clicks.  

•  Go from raw data to insights faster. Get timely operational insights from Business Central as Excel reports and adapt quickly by customizing report layouts as Excel worksheets. Easily analyze transactions and business data using pivot tables, charts, and calculations to get answers quickly. 

• Collaborate in the tools where teams work best. Streamline team-based activities like budgeting and planning with multi-player co-authorship and functionality. Create, edit, and access Excel documents as a team, then publish the final outcomes back to Business Central. 

More impact with Business Central and Outlook 

At the core of most businesses lies the unwavering commitment to deliver exceptional products and services to its customers. To achieve this goal, businesses must foster strong and meaningful relationships with their clients, vendors, and stakeholders. With Business Central and Outlook working together, employees gain valuable business insights delivered directly to their inbox, so they can save time while staying focused on delivering extraordinary experiences.  

With Business Central and Outlook, employees can: 

• Enhance customer experience directly from their inbox. Connect real-time data from Business Central to Outlook. Save time with visibility into customer and vendor information like sales, purchase details, and more without leaving their inbox.   

• Stay in the flow of work. Use templates to quickly send payment reminders, order confirmations, and other emails directly from Business Central connected to a shared mailbox. 

• Go from quote to cash without leaving Outlook. Set up customers or vendors, create quotes, submit invoices, and more from within Outlook so employees can focus on the task at hand. 

Embrace the future of work with AI and Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365 

When Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365 work together, small and medium-sized businesses can boost productivity and redefine how work gets done. With data delivered directly to familiar apps like Excel, Outlook, and Teams, employees get the information they need without switching between applications. Using next-generation AI with Microsoft Copilot, employees can further streamline routine tasks like drafting content, summarizing meetings, providing email follow up, and quickly finding answers to questions—all within the tools where they work best. 

Learn more about connecting your data with Business Central.

Sources:

¹ Harvard Business Review, How Much Time and Energy Do We Waste Toggling Between Applications, 2022 

The post Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365: Connect data to the tools where work is done appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In the rapidly evolving AI landscape, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is taking the lead with innovations that have equipped more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses to achieve success. Powered by next-generation AI, Microsoft Copilot offers new ways to enhance workplace efficiency, automate mundane tasks, and unlock creativity. At a time when nearly two in three people say they struggle with having the time and energy to do their job, Copilot helps to free up capacity and enables employees to focus on their most meaningful work.¹ 

Dynamics 365 Business Central brings the power of AI to small and medium-sized businesses to help companies work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better. AI in Dynamics 365 Business Central improves the way work gets done, enabling you to:

• Get answers quickly and easily using natural language.
• Save time by automating tedious, repetitive tasks.
• Spark creativity with creative content ideas.
• Anticipate and overcome business challenges.

Reclaim time for important work

In a small or medium-sized business, there is often a lot to do and not many people to help get it all done, so it’s important to make the most of your limited resources to accomplish your goals. Everyday activities like tracking down documents and bringing new employees up to speed can drain your valuable time. What if you had an AI-powered assistant ready to help you find exactly what you need without the hassle?

Available in early 2024, conversational chat using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central helps you answer questions quickly and easily, locate records faster, and even learn new skills—all using natural language. Save time and effort by navigating to documents without having to use traditional menus, and rapidly onboard new users with answers to questions on how, when, or why to do things. Copilot is your everyday AI companion, helping you to speed through tasks, build momentum, and free time for your most impactful work. 

Streamline month-end tasks with enhanced bank reconciliation

Reconciling bank statement transactions with your financial system has often been a tedious monthly chore. Meticulously matching every line item to new or existing accounting entries takes time (and isn’t the most exciting way to spend an afternoon.) In the past, Business Central helped by auto-matching many of the simple one-to-one transactions, but the logic wasn’t able to decipher more complex scenarios such as when multiple charges were paid in a single transaction.

Now, Copilot in Business Central makes bank reconciliation even easier by analyzing bank statements that you import into Business Central, matching more transactions, and proposing entries for transactions that weren’t auto-matched. By comparing and interpreting transaction descriptions, amounts, dates, and patterns across fields, Copilot can help you improve the accuracy of your bank reconciliation while reducing manual effort.

Unlock creativity with marketing text suggestions

Copilot in Business Central helps product managers save time and drive sales with compelling AI-generated marketing text suggestions. Using key attributes like color and material, Copilot can create product descriptions in seconds tailored to your preferred tone, format, and length. Once you’ve made any adjustments, you can easily publish to Shopify or other ecommerce platforms with just a few clicks. Discover how Copilot can help you banish writer’s block and launch new products with ease.

Boost customer service with inventory forecasting

Effective inventory management is crucial in a competitive business environment as it can significantly influence a company’s success and customer retention. This process involves balancing customer service with cost control. Maintaining low inventory reduces working capital, but risks missing sales due to stock shortages. Using AI, the Sales and Inventory Forecast extension uses past sales data to forecast future demand, helping to prevent stockouts. Once a shortfall is identified, Business Central streamlines the replenishment process by generating vendor requests, helping you keep your customers happy by fulfilling their orders on time, every time.  

Reduce risk with late payment prediction

Managing receivables effectively is vital for a business’s financial wellbeing. With the Late Payment Prediction extension, you can reduce outstanding receivables and refine your collections approach by forecasting if outstanding sales invoices are likely to be paid on time. For instance, if a payment is anticipated to be delayed, you could modify the payment terms or method for that customer. By proactively addressing potential late payments and adapting accordingly, you can minimize overdue receivables, reduce risk of non-payment, and ultimately improve your financial performance.

Improve financial stability with Cash Flow Analysis

Powered by AI, Business Central can create a comprehensive Cash Flow Analysis to help you monitor your company’s cash position. Cash flow is a critical indicator of a company’s solvency, and cash flow analysis is an important future-focused planning tool that helps you maintain control over your financial health and make proactive adjustments to meet all your financial commitments. With insights from Business Central, you can pivot quickly to safeguard your company’s fiscal wellbeing, such as obtaining loans to cover cash shortfalls or cutting back on credit when you have surplus cash.

Work smarter with Copilot in Business Central

Copilot in Business Central gives your company an edge with AI-powered innovations that are a catalyst for unleashing human potential, fostering creativity, and driving efficiency in ways previously unimaginable. The integration of AI into everyday business processes is not just about staying ahead in a competitive market, it’s about redefining what’s possible in the workplace. With Business Central, your company is empowered to navigate today’s complex business environment with agility, precision, and a renewed focus on what truly matters.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better with Business Central.

Download the guide

Sources

¹ Microsoft Work Trend Index Annual Report, May 2023

The post Transform the way work gets done with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

This is an exciting time in the evolution of AI, and you don’t have to look far to see the headlines on ways it is changing the world. From advanced machine learning models to breakthrough natural language technology, new opportunities to use AI to improve the way we work are surfacing daily. AI innovation can free employees from mundane, repetitive tasks and allow them to focus on the work that matters most, increasing job satisfaction and pushing productivity to new heights. According to our recent survey on business trends, 89 percent of those with access to automation and AI-powered tools feel more fulfilled because they can spend time on work that truly matters.¹

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central brings the power of AI to small and medium-sized businesses with features that help companies work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better. Let’s explore some of the ways that AI in Business Central is improving how work gets done, including:

• Automating repetitive tasks
• Improving customer service
• Anticipating business challenges
• Enhancing decision making

Automate repetitive tasks with Copilot in Business Central

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot introduces the next generation of AI-powered experiences to Microsoft Dynamics 365 business applications. Dynamics 365 Copilot provides AI assistance directly in the flow of work using natural language technology, automating repetitive tasks, and unlocking creativity. Dynamics 365 Copilot is the world’s first copilot in both customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP), ushering in the new age of productivity for businesses of all sizes.

With Copilot in Business Central, product managers can save time and drive sales with engaging AI-generated product descriptions. Banish writer’s block with unique, compelling marketing text created in seconds using product attributes such as color, material, and size. Tailor the descriptions to your brand by choosing a tone of voice, as well as format and length. Complete the process by publishing to Shopify or other ecommerce stores with just a few clicks. Copilot in Business Central makes launching new products fast and easy so you can focus on growing your business. Try Copilot in Business Central today.

Improve customer service with Sales and Inventory Forecasting  

In a highly competitive business landscape, effective inventory management can be the key differentiator between a successful business and one that struggles to retain customers and remain profitable. Inventory management is a trade-off between customer service and managing your costs. While low inventory requires less working capital, inventory shortages can lead to missed sales. Using AI, the Sales and Inventory Forecast extension predicts future sales using historical data to help you avoid stockouts. Based on the forecast and inventory levels, the extension helps create replenishment requests to your vendors, helping you save time and improve inventory availability to keep your customers happy.

Anticipate business challenges with Late Payment Predictions

Effectively managing receivables is critical to the overall financial health of a business. The Late Payment Prediction extension can help you reduce outstanding receivables and fine-tune your collections strategy by predicting whether sales invoices will be paid on time. For example, if a payment is predicted to be late, you might decide to adjust the terms of payment or the payment method for the customer. By anticipating late payments and making adjustments, you can better manage and ultimately reduce overdue receivables.

Enhance decision-making with Cash Flow Analysis

Azure AI in Business Central helps you create a comprehensive cash flow forecast with Cash Flow Analysis, enhancing decision-making so you can stay in control of your cash flow. A company’s cash flow indicates its financial solvency and reveals whether the company can meet its financial obligations in a timely manner. To make sure that your company is solvent, a future-oriented planning instrument is necessary. With insights from AI, you can make proactive adjustments to ensure your company’s fiscal health, such as reducing credit when you have a cash surplus or borrowing to mitigate a cash deficit.

Innovate with Business Central

In today’s fast-paced market, AI has become essential for companies looking to stay ahead of the competition. The AI tools built into Business Central can help you improve the end-to-end customer experience, reduce costs, and boost financial success. With the ability to automate repetitive tasks, analyze data, and offer personalized recommendations, Business Central can help you operate more efficiently and grow your business.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Adapt faster, work smarter, and perform better with Business Central.

Download the guide

Sources

¹ Four Ways Leaders Can Empower People for How Work Gets Done

The post Introducing a new era of AI-powered experiences in Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Last October, we announced a new partnership with Shopify to help our customers create a better shopping experience. The partnership was designed to better connect the easy-to-use e-commerce and merchant experience of Shopify with the comprehensive business management capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Today we are pleased to announce that a new Shopify connector is now available.

“We launched the Shopify Global ERP program to give merchants the power to manage the complexity of their business operations. The new Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central connector will help our merchants remain resilient and prepare for the future of commerce using real-time insights from connected data.”—Colin Bodell, Vice President of Research and Development, Shopify.

Are you an existing Shopify customer?

Download and install the Shopify connector extension today.

Visit Microsoft AppSource

The connector will help our customers get the visibility needed to speed customer inquiry responses, process more timely returns and refunds, and achieve more accurate order processing. Ultimately keeping people focused on customer experiences, by eliminating manual processes through:

Support of multiple Shopify shops

• Each shop has its own setup, including a collection of products, locations used to calculate inventory, and price lists.

Bi-directional synchronization of items or products

• Connector will sync images, item variants, barcodes, vendor item numbers, extended texts, and tags between systems.
• Easily export item attributes to Shopify.
• Use selected customer price groups and discounts to define how prices will be exported to Shopify.
• Decide whether items can be created automatically or only allow updates to existing products.

Synchronization of inventory levels

• Choose to use some or all of the available locations in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
• Update inventory levels on multiple locations in Shopify.

Bi-directional synchronization of customers

• Smart-map customers by phone and email.
• Use country-specific templates when creating customers, which helps ensure that tax settings are correct.

Import of orders from Shopify

• During import you can automatically create customers in Dynamics 365 Business Central or decide to manage the customers in Shopify.
• Include orders created in other channels, such as Shopify POS or Amazon.
• Shipping costs, gift cards, tips, shipping and payment methods, transactions, and risk of fraud.
• Receive payout information from Shopify Payments.

Easy tracking of fulfillment information

• Optionally choose to write item tracking information from Dynamics 365 Business Central into Shopify.

Microsoft has partnered with scapta, a Business Central ISV, to acquire their market-tested, feature-rich Shopify connector and embed it directly within Dynamics 365 Business Central. Scapta has many customer testimonials showcasing the power of connecting Dynamics 365 Business Central and Shopify. This approach allows us to offer more value to our customers that need global commerce capabilities.

“We rely on Shopify to manage commerce across three shops and to process thousands of orders each month. The connection with Dynamics 365 Business Central provides us with the visibility needed to adapt faster, work smarter, and perform better.”—Stijn Lowette, CEO Kambukka.

Capitalize on the Shopify connector today

More connected data insights can help you reimagine the shopping experience for your customers, while streamlining business operations and financial management. Empower your people with more automated commerce processes so they can stay focused on more strategic work and customer outcomes. By connecting Shopify and Dynamics 365 Business Central you get the flexibility, control, and tracking needed to drive growth. The Shopify connector is available for the online version of Dynamics 365 Business Central. It is not available for on-premises versions. We expect this feature to be available as an extension in all countries where Dynamics 365 Business Central is available. The extension will be pre-installed for new customers. Existing customers can download and install the extension from Microsoft AppSource or the Shopify app store.

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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is teaming up with Shopify to help our customers create a better shopping experience. While Shopify provides merchants with an easy-to-use e-commerce solution, Dynamics 365 Business Central offers comprehensive business management across finance, sales, service, and operations teams within a single application. Seamless connection between the two systems will synchronize orders, stock, and customer information to ensure merchants can fulfill orders faster and better serve customers. The joint effort furthers the commitment of Dynamics 365 Business Central to connect data to help businesses adapt faster, work smarter, and perform better.

Adapt faster

Connecting Dynamics 365 Business Central with Shopify will help merchants all over the world implement more agile online business processes, while keeping people focused on selling. With connected data from across your online stores and business operations, you can rapidly respond to consumer demands to adjust product pricing and merchandising. With support for multi-tier pricing structures and multiple currencies, companies, and entities, Dynamics 365 Business Central will support multiple Shopify store scenarios with ease.

Work smarter

Eliminating manual processes will not only improve accuracy, but also keep your people focused on taking care of customers. By connecting Shopify and Dynamics 365 Business Central, you will improve visibility into stock, pricing, existing customers and order history, order status, billing, and payments. Better visibility means faster customer inquiry responses, timely returns and refunds, and more accurate order processing.

Perform better

Enhanced operational efficiency not only saves you time and reduces costs but can also translate into better results and faster decision-making. So, you have the confidence to expand your online presence while minimizing overhead with automatic synchronization between systems for price changes, product updates, and customers. At the end of accounting periods, Dynamics 365 Business Central will help merchants handle their financial reporting and tax reporting as required by local legislation.

Microsoft is committed to creating an open ecosystem to help our customers with finding the right solution to accelerate their digital transformation journey. Joining the Shopify Global ERP Program helps our Dynamics 365 Business Central customers accelerate growth with the ability to sell, ship, and process payments online using a native connector available in early 2022.

Innovation begins with data-fueled insights and more connected operations will allow merchants that use Dynamics 365 Business Central to meet consumer demands. Along with this, our corporate and enterprise customers continue to rely on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce to deliver unified, personalized, and seamless buying experiences across online and offline channels. Now businesses of all sizes can deliver commerce anywhere to offer consumers more choices and better experiences.

The post Microsoft partners with Shopify to expand Dynamics 365 Business Central ecosystem appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

If small and midsized businesses (SMBs) have one thing in common, it is that they are all unique. Differentiate or fail is especially true when it comes to small and midsized business strategy. The secret sauce is what helps leaders of these companies blaze new trails and disrupt industries with innovative products and services. However, disrupting industries requires more than passion and great ideas; SMBs also need the ability to quickly adapt business and operating models to deliver on their vision and brand promises. And the level of business agility required for success takes an ecosystem to deliver.

Adapt faster with Dynamics 365 Business Central

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides a connected cloud business management solution for growing SMBs. Connected means you can bring together your finance, sales, services, and operations teams within a single application to get the insights needed to drive your business forward and be prepared for what’s next. While the out-of-the-box capabilities meet the needs for standard business operations, Dynamics 365 Business Central offers operational flexibility to help SMBs adapt faster to changing market conditions and customer expectations.

Our customers use Microsoft Power Platform, connected to Dynamics 365 Business Central, Office 365, Microsoft Azure, and hundreds of other apps, to further analyze data, build solutions, automate processes, and create virtual agents. Microsoft Power Apps turns ideas into organizational solutions by enabling everyone to build custom apps that solve unique business challenges.

We also work closely with our partners to support unique business processes, workflows, and operational models at scale. Our partners build a solution based on industry best practices, so you don’t have to recreate the wheel. You can find over 1,400 apps on Microsoft AppSource to easily tailor and extend Dynamics 365 Business Central to meet unique business or industry-specific needs. Filter for Dynamics 365 Business Central on AppSource and you will find apps for everything from A to Z— allocations, banking, and construction to warehousing, XML, yield, and zoning.

At our Directions North America partner conference on April 26, 2021, we will introduce some new applications that will be coming soon to Microsoft AppSource, including:

• Bill.com streamlines accounts payables and receivables automation workflows and payments: Announced earlier this month, Bill.com will integrate with Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft Dynamics GP. Bill.com is a leading provider of cloud-based software that automates complex back-office financial operations for SMBs. Mutual customers will now be able to take control of their financial processes, save time, and scale with confidence through the power of the integrations’ accounts payables (AP) and accounts receivables (AR) intelligent automation workflows and payments. The Bill.com and Microsoft Dynamics 365 automatic sync is now live. Find out more information on the Bill.com Sync with Microsoft Dynamics 365.
• Square lets you accept payments quickly, easily, and securely: Make accepting card payments fast, painless, and secure so that you don’t miss a sale. Whether you’re selling in person, online, or on the go, Square helps you get paid fast, every time. Using the Square Payments app from AppSource will automatically sync with Dynamics 365 Business Central so you can keep track of all of your payments in one place.
• ODP Corporation (parent company of Office Depot) digital procurement platform: As announced on February 22, 2021, the ODP Corporation is partnering with Microsoft to transform how businesses buy and sell. ODP is working to bring the power of their new digital procurement technology platform to Dynamics 365 Business Central customers to help them realize immediate purchase savings and procurement automation. This exciting integration will be coming later in 2021.

Work smarter with Dynamics 365 Business Central

As Dynamics 365 Business Central is part of the Microsoft cloud, our customers also have the ability to extend the solution using Office 365, including Teams, Outlook, Excel, and Word. Don’t let disconnected processes and systems hold your people back. Connecting your business application with productivity tools can help support remote work, improve security, and control costs. Ensure your people can be more collaborative, productive, and impactful by seamlessly connecting Dynamics 365 Business Central with Microsoft 365 apps.

No matter how you choose to manage customer workflows, processes, and unique models, Dynamics 365 Business Central provides the operational foundation and flexibility that is required for success.

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Business Central partners can learn more at Dynamics 365 Business Central and the Directions North America virtual event on April 26-28, 2021.

The post Success for small and midsized businesses requires agility appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Join us for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Launch Event streaming live April 13, 2021 at 8:00 AM Pacific Time and then available on-demand. See what’s next for Dynamics 365 Business Central and get access to breakout sessions available on-demand as well as live chats with product experts. Read our preview below, and then register to join the event.

In a recent Microsoft-commissioned IDC survey of small and midsized businesses (SMBs) across the globe, 60 percent of leaders indicated that 2021 will be spent on pivoting and focusing on recovery. These leaders stated that their top three business challenges included increasing business agility, productivity, and revenue.

While the good news is that moving to the cloud with a modern business management solution can help SMBs address these challenges, many leaders within SMBs struggle to carve out the time to create a digital transformation strategy. That’s where we can help.

Dynamics 365 Business Central helps SMBs adapt faster, work smarter, and perform better

Dynamics 365 Business Central provides a connected cloud business management solution for growing small and midmarket organizations. Connected means you can bring together your finance, sales, service, and operations teams within a single application to get the insights needed to drive your business forward and be prepared for what’s next. We focus our product innovations on investments to help SMBs:

• Adapt faster: Be prepared for disruption with the insights needed to pivot quickly, shift business models, and cultivate strategic plans.
• Work smarter: Stop app switching and boost productivity using interoperability with Microsoft Teams, Excel, Word, and Outlook.
• Perform better: Enable better business performance with continuous process improvements, real-time insights, and responsiveness across your entire business, not just financials.

Take a look at a few of the updates that we are introducing in the 2021 release wave 1 for Dynamics 365 Business Central to help you adapt faster, work smarter, and perform better.

Adapt faster: Onboarding guidance

Pivoting quickly is only possible if you can get everyone across your company to adopt new business apps, processes, and models. While to go-live is critical for all new business management solutions, time to productivity for your people is the better measurement of success. In the 2021 release wave 1, we are investing in getting started checklists, a welcome banner, and in-app contextual help with teaching tips to ensure your people can onboard and deliver results faster.

Work smarter: Better together on the Microsoft cloud

Microsoft is the only company that provides productivity, collaboration, development, AI, business intelligence, and business applications all within a single cloud. The result goes beyond the ability to support remote work, improve security, and control costs. By connecting Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform you will empower your organization to be more collaborative, more productive, and more impactful. In the 2021 release wave 1, we have improved interoperability with Microsoft Teams, Word, and Excel, along with enabling integration between Dynamics 365 Business Central virtual tables into Microsoft Dataverse solutions. Additionally, we have enabled support for Universal Print to streamline the way companies manage printing from Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Perform better: Improved dimensions and expansion to more geographies

We continue to invest in capabilities that help our customers optimize financial performance and drive continuous business process improvements. The 2021 wave 1 release supports global expansion, as we bring Dynamics 365 Business Central to more countries, with availability in India, Greece, Romania, and Turkey. We have also invested in simplifying working with dimensions and general ledger entry corrections. Consistent and accurate dimension value attributes on operational and financial transactions ensure greater insights from your business data.

Learn more

This is just a glimpse of the latest innovations for Dynamics 365 Business Central. We have also invested in delivering improvements requested by our partners and customers, including enhancements across banking, payments, performance, supply chain optimization, and usability. Learn more about how Dynamics 365 Business Central can help you adapt faster, work smarter, and perform better.

Register for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Launch Event streaming live April 13, 2021 at 8:00 AM Pacific Time and then available on-demand and get access to breakout sessions and live chats with product experts.

Sources: IDC, SMB leaders survey, 2020

The post Discover the latest innovations for Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

A new Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) from Forrester Consulting outlines the cost savings and business benefits enabled by migrating from Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics GP to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central cloud.

Cloud-based business management solutions have helped countless small and medium businesses (SMBs) realize cost savings, securely access data, boost productivity, and improve customer experiences. However, as the pandemic disrupts business as usual, many SMBs are looking to accelerate cloud adoption to ensure business continuity, adapt to change, and support remote work—a decision that requires better data on the return on investment (ROI) for specific solutions.  

SMBs using Dynamics NAV, Dynamics GP, and Dynamics SL on-premises are no exception.

Streamline business operations with the cloud 

To help our Dynamics 365 NAV and Dynamics 365 GP on-premises customers examine the potential ROI they can realize by deploying Dynamics 365 Business Central, we commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a TEI study.

Forrester interviewed five current Dynamics 365 Business Central customers to understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with migrating to the cloud. Modeled after these five interviews, analysis was conducted on a $15-million, 250-employee composite organization. This analysis demonstrated benefits of $466K over three years versus costs of $178K, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $288K and an ROI of 162 percent.

“The move to Business Central has been especially helpful during the pandemic, as our users can access key business functions remotely.”—Controller, specialty manufacturing customer interview

Dynamics 365 Business Central enabled these five customers to bolster operational efficiency, avoid costs, and comfortably scale their deployments with growth while benefitting from the flexibility inherent in the cloud. Customers reported improved flow of operations, more granular visibility into their business performance, better employee experiences, and boosted productivity, along with lower licensing fees and IT costs.

“We were looking for an upgraded ERP solution capable enough for our complicated operations, in the cloud. Business Central is that solution. We have everything we need in one tool.”—CEO, specialty manufacturing customer interview

Specific cost savings and ROI benefits that improved productivity and operational efficiencies include:

• Avoidance of one full-time equivalent (FTE) and one part-time equivalent finance and operations hires—by enabling organizations to keep growth on track while reducing the need to hire by an average of 10 percent.
• Improved flow of operations by an average of 8 percent—thanks to better tools to complete work and more efficient workflows, enabling staff to focus on higher-value tasks. 
• Elimination of $44K of third-party reporting spend over three years—by leveraging Dynamics 365 Business Central and other Microsoft solutions, such as Microsoft Power BI, organizations reduced the need for externally-generated reports while gaining a more granular visibility into their business. 
• An additional $40K in cost savings by moving to Dynamics 365 Business Central—attributed to migrating from on-premises Microsoft and non-Microsoft enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools.

We believe the Forrester TEI study validates the results of SMB customers across industries from professional services to banking, consumer goods, and retailers. By migrating to a single cloud solution, Dynamics 365 Business Central provides a connected cloud business management solution that brings together sales, services, and operations teams.

Learn more

Download the full Forrester Consulting TEI study and discover great content on the Dynamics 365 Business Central home page today to learn more about how you can unlock the insights and agility needed to adapt faster, work smarter, and perform better.

The post Realize cost savings for SMBs with Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.