D365FO New User Orientation | A First Look

This is an ongoing series for Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations New User Orientation

Welcome to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365FO)! Before you jump into your everyday role and tasks involving D365FO, here is a short introduction to moving about the system. This article will focus on the dashboard and other navigation elements. The next new user orientation blog will explain things beyond the dashboard such as the Action Bar, Personalization, and more!

The Dashboard

The dashboard is your home page.

On the left side of the dashboard is a general calendar and an area called Work Items Assigned to Me which, if applicable, will begin to show tasks assigned specifically to you.

The primary focus of the dashboard are the workspace tiles associated with your role in D365FO. The tiles you see are based on the permissions your user has in D365FO. Clicking on a dashboard tile takes you to the associated workspace.

Workspaces

Workspaces are centralized locations for the most common activities related to a business process. Workspaces can be analytical (Power BI reports), task oriented (links, tiles, tasks) or a combination of both. Clicking on a tile, task or link will take you to the appropriate page, form, or report within D365FO.

Tiles

Tiles are rectangular buttons that act like menu item buttons. Clicking on a tile will take you to the linked page within D365FO. Tiles can also show counts, KPIs and data depending on the type of tile it is. Currently, there are four types of tiles within D365FO:

• Standard and Link
  • Basic tile with no data just a link to a D365FO page or URL
• Count
  • Shows a number count based on the query setup on the tile
• KPI
  • Shows KPI data

Navigation Pane

The navigation pane is found on the left side of your screen when in D365FO and is always visible regardless of where you are in the system. When collapsed, the navigation pane shows 6 symbols to easily move you from one part of D365FO to another.

Click on the three lines (commonly known as the hamburger) symbol to expand or collapse the navigation pane.

The home symbol brings you directly to your dashboard. Clicking on Finance and Operations on the top left of the screen will also do this.

The star symbol opens up your favourites list and provides quick links to all pages you have marked as favourite.

The clock symbol opens up your ten most recent locations in D365FO.

The tile looking symbol opens up a list of all your available workspaces.

The list symbol opens up a list of all your available modules within D365FO. Modules are the business areas that D365FO is broken into from Accounts Payable to Warehouse Management. Clicking on a module will expand the navigation pane to include the various areas and pages the module is broken into.

You can also use the Pin on the navigation pane to keep the pane expanded. When expanded, you see the symbol and the name not just the symbols.

Navigation Bar

The navigation bar is found at the top of your D365FO page and like the navigation pane, it is always available everyone in D365FO.

Starting in the top left-hand corner:

1. Dynamics 365

• Access to all your Dynamics 365 applications including Outlook and Teams as well as links to Office.com and Dynamics.com.

2. Finance and Operations

• Clicking here will take you directly to your dashboard.
• Note: if you hover over you will see the keyboard shortcut (Alt+Shift+Home) that will also take you directly to your dashboard.

3. Navigation Search

• Can’t remember which module a form is in? Start typing the name in the navigation search and it will begin to provide you with pages and workspaces that meet your search. Once the search provides you with the page you are looking for, click on the suggestion and D365FO will take you there.

4. Company (legal entity)

• This tells you which company you are currently in. If only one company is setup or you only have access to one company, this will never change. If more than one company is setup and you have access to more than one, go here to select another company to enter.
• Note: if you see DAT in this field instead of your company, change it immediately. DAT is the foundational setup of the system and no company data or transactions are in here.

5. Message or Notification Center

• The bell symbol shows you any notification messages you may have. If there is a number on the bell, you have unread notifications. Click on the bell to read them.

6. Settings

Clicking on the cog symbol can take you to User Options, Task Recorder and Personalize:

• User Options – Go here make personal changes to how you see your environment
  • Colour scheme
  • Element size – More or fewer elements to a page
  • Time zone
  • Email address
  • Language
  • If you are part of a workflow in D365FO, here is where you can set your workflow delegate for when you are out of the office
• Task Recorder
• Personalize – Available when on the dashboard for personalizing the dashboard

7. Help & Support

• Depending on what your company has setup, the items here can be linked to outside pages for further information.

8. Your initials or picture

• Clicking here will offer you the ability to log out of D365FO.

Keyboard Shortcuts

By right clicking almost anywhere in D365FO followed by clicking on View Shortcuts you will see a list of keyboard shortcuts for the page you are on. From the Currently Available Shortcuts popup you will see a link to View All Product Shortcuts. Click here to open a new tab showing all keyboard shortcuts for D365FO. Important to note is your browser’s keyboard shortcuts still function such as Ctrl+N will still open a new browser tab and will not create a new record for the D365FO page you are on.

Our next blog in this series D365FO New User Orientation | Beyond the Dashboard discusses the Action Bar, Task Messages, Personalization, and more.

If you have questions about New User Orientation in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, please feel free to reach out to us.