The 2024 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 introduces numerous features and updates, building on some advancements from release wave 1. This update brings exciting enhancements to Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 CRM, and Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations.

Below is an overview of some exciting updates, and each section provides highlights on some upcoming features.

Note that some of the features described below have already been released at the time of writing, but others have not, and release information is subject to change.

What’s New In:

• Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Dynamics 365 CRM Applications
• Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations

What’s New in Dynamics 365 Business Central in 2024 Release Wave 2

This release wave showcases Microsoft’s commitment to optimizing business processes with Copilot, continued integration with Shopify, and new functionalities for subscription-based models.

Integration With Shopify

Following the wave 1 release, which improved integration between Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Shopify, Microsoft has introduced further enhancements.

Two new fields have been added to the Shopify Shipment Method page, ‘Shipping Charges Type’ and ‘Shipping Charges No.’, which allow for more precise mapping of shipping fee information to sales documents in Business Central.

Additionally, the integration between Shopify and Business Central is enhanced by using the original return location for refunds and returns, with the ‘Return Location Priority’ field enabling the connector to find the original location.

Visit our recent article to learn more about Shopify integrations with Dynamics 365 Business Central.

This release included many updates and new features for Shopify and Business Central. You can find out more in the Dynamics 365 Business Central Application release overview.

New Subscription-Based Billing and Revenue and Expense Recognition

The new subscription billing and revenue recognition module in Business Central supports various subscription scenarios with streamlined processes for managing recurring billing of items and services. It allows for mixed subscription contracts, simplifies contract creation with templates, and includes flexible billing schedules and standard reports, many of which are available as Power BI reports.

Commitment to Copilot Features

Microsoft continues to invest in its AI-powered tool, Copilot. This release includes several Copilot features across Business Central. A few we noted are:

Create Sales Orders Directly from Chat

Initially released in wave 1, this feature now allows users to ask Copilot to find documents and search for products on document lines, with the ‘Find document by reference’ prompt now including sales blanket orders as source documents.

Bank Reconciliation with Copilot

The “Reconcile with Copilot” feature reduces bookkeeping efforts by matching more transactions and suggesting G/L accounts for the remaining ones. Enhancements include transaction matching in addition to role-based matching and G/L account suggestions, which help post residual transactions and remember specific transaction descriptions for future reconciliation.

Streamline Creating Product Information

Copilot can now help streamline the creation and management of product information by reusing information from similar items and suggesting variants, units of measure, substitutions, and dimensions, making the process faster and more efficient.

Visit our blog to learn more about features available with Dynamics 365 Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central.

What’s New in Dynamics 365 CRM Applications in 2024 Release Wave 2

This release wave brings numerous features across Dynamics 365 CRM applications, particularly in D365 Sales, Field Service, and Customer Insights.

D365 Field Service New Schedule Board Experience

Starting October 1, 2024, the legacy schedule board will be disabled, and all new users will be redirected to the new schedule board experience.

The new schedule board features a more responsive user interface, improved performance with faster load times, and enhanced usability with features like a working-days-of-the-week selector and accessibility improvements.

D365 Customer Insights – Journey’s Real-Time Journey Forms

New capabilities with real-time journey forms enhance contact and lead management by recognizing existing customers who fill out lead forms, preventing them from being mistaken for new leads.

These capabilities allow you to connect and update lead and contact data, define advanced matching rules to avoid duplicates and set defaults for new forms. Additionally, you can update both lead and contact data simultaneously with form submissions and preset default target audience configurations.

D365 Sales Copilot Home Experience

The Dynamics 365 Sales Copilot home experience offers an immersive interface with an expanded workspace, allowing sellers to access insights from various records and prioritize actions intelligently. Sellers can follow suggested actions, view goal progress, identify key opportunities, prepare for meetings, stay updated with real-time insights, and chat with Sales Copilot in a wide-screen experience.

What’s New in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations in 2024 Release Wave 2

This release introduces new functionalities and features with the addition of Copilot to help streamline business processes.

Product name clarification: Even though most customers, commentators, and consultants still call it Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations or D365FO, Microsoft now technically licenses it as Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management.

Enhanced Demand Planning With Copilot

A new Copilot in D365 Supply Chain Management enhances demand planning by exploring shifts, trends, anomalies, and other factors affecting demand, presenting results in natural language. This helps improve forecast accuracy, optimize supply chain operations and enhance financial results.

Enhanced Bank Reconciliation Report

The advanced Bank Reconciliation feature in Dynamics 365 Finance has been enhanced to improve efficiency. The redesigned bank reconciliation statement report now includes detailed header information with various amount fields and a comprehensive report body that now includes bank and company reconciled and unreconciled transactions. Additionally, a report snapshot is saved upon reconciliation, allowing cash clerks to review data from the snapshot rather than real-time transaction tables.

Trace and Solve Quality Issues With Copilot

Building on the traceability features introduced in wave 1, wave 2 introduces a Copilot that applies AI to quickly collect and summarize relevant information from the traceability add-in and D365 SCM.

This helps QA managers, production managers, and field service workers efficiently identify issues, delays, and the lifecycle of items. The activities page in Supply Chain Management now includes Copilot-generated summaries, providing instant access to key information and allowing users to drill down for more details.

What’s Next?

Dynamics 365 solutions, Copilot, and the rest of the Microsoft stack continue to evolve quickly. We know it can be tough for customers to stay informed about everything.

Encore is committed to helping our customers identify and leverage the specific changes in each wave that are most relevant to them. To see all the changes for Dynamics 365 products in release wave 2, please see the Microsoft documentation.

If you have any questions about items in this release wave or how to prepare strategically for future releases, please reach out to your Encore account manager or simply contact us.