What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2022 Release Wave 2?

Microsoft is continually improving and enhancing Dynamics 365 Business Central and has just released Wave 2 for 2022. The release includes enhancements for Application, Country and Regional, Development, Governance and Administration, Power Platform, and several other areas. We have included a review of just a few of the enhancements, and you will find links below to the complete list.

Enhanced Automated Bank Reconciliation Features and Improved Reporting

The use of automated bank reconciliation remains a popular demand among various Dynamics 365 Business Central users, especially the finance department. Hence, Microsoft continues to enhance certain features that would help users perform their bank reconciliation efficiently. In the 2022 Wave 2 release, Microsoft has upgraded 5 features that are outlined below. These features have been made available to the public as of October 2022.

Feature Details

Automatic Match Using the Check Ledger Entries

Previously, when the “match automatically” function was used, the system mainly matched check entries using only information from the bank ledger entries. In the new wave release, the system now uses the check ledger entries information to match check transactions. This and other added matching rules provide a higher degree of match confidence and increase the success rates of check entries being automatically matched.

G/L Account Balance Field in the Test Report Now Shows the Statement Ending Balance Date

The bank reconciliation test report G/L Acc. Balance field now shows the G/L account at the statement ending balance date. This makes it easy for users to detect if the direct posting was ever enabled for the bank G/L account. When a direct posting is enabled for a bank G/L account subledger, it often leads to errors that cause the bank reconciliation to not reconcile smoothly.

For instance, in the image below my test report reflects a G/L balance of $33, 708.40 for a period as of 09/26/2022. This balance is gotten from the sum of my bank account ledger entries as of the same period of 09/26/2022. Hence, because my “Statement Ending Balance” shows a different amount, this means that I have outstanding transactions or unreconciled entries that need to be reviewed and investigated before I post my transactions.

The Sum of Differences Equals the Difference Column of Reconcile Entries

On the bank reconciliation page, the Sum of Differences field is now made available on the header for convenience and is the same as the balance shown in the difference column.

Bank Account Statement Report Includes Outstanding Posted Payments

In the new release, users can now view payments that were outstanding when the bank reconciliation was posted. This means that after the bank reconciliation statement is posted, the report will compare the closing dates for bank ledger entries to the statement date to determine which entries were open when the bank reconciliation was posted. Hence, if bank reconciliation was not performed for each period in chronological order or for prior periods, or the statement ending balance was manipulated to get the bank entries to reconcile, then entries might show up as outstanding in the test report and not in the statement report. In contrast, if the bank reconciliations are done consistently, then both the test report and the Bank Acc. Report will show the correct entries.

Warning When Direct Posting is Enabled for Bank Account GL.

When a user adds a G/L account to a bank posting group that has the direct posting enabled, they will get a warning as shown in the image below. This will alert the user and let them decide if they want to leave the direct posting turned on.

Financial Reporting Replaces Account Schedules

For those who haven’t gotten used to Account Schedules term, Microsoft has made is easier by calling Accounts Schedules Financial Reporting. In order to keep the consistency, Overview page is now called Financial Reports.

The objects that have been known as account schedules will now be called Row Definitions, for which you can still define a default column layout and an analysis view. Column layouts become Column Definitions. For both row and column definitions, you can edit the definitions separately from the financial reports. You can now copy column definitions, making it easier to make variants of a column definition.

Handling Item Charges on Partial Receipts

With the new “Quantity to Handle” field in the Item Charge Assignment page, you can now Invoice a partial shipment and allocate the item charges accordingly.

For more information on this feature go to Post item charges for each step of the process | Microsoft Learn.

Additional updates in 2022 Release Wave 2 include:

• Seamless service: No matter the industry type of a small or midsized business (SMB), business users expect a dependable service and platform that they can run their business on.
• Administration: Business Central delivers a set of features for better and improved communication about the health of each environment.
• Application: Improvements to the application to support integration with Shopify. The finance and supply chain capabilities in Business Central are improved with several optimizations and enhancements so that users can run their business processes more efficiently.
• Better with Microsoft 365: Efficiency of collaborative business processes in Microsoft Teams. Users can pin cards inside Teams, and delegated admins can now use the Excel add-in.
• Country and regional: In 2022 Release Wave 2, Business Central is generally available in more countries and regions.
• Onboarding: Organizations can get to productive usage faster because it’s easier to discover and install apps.
• Development tools: Microsoft has moved entirely to Visual Studio Code where they continue to invest in areas that enhance the productivity for developers.
• Power Platform: More efficient automation with Power Automate so that users can set up workflows for the specific needs of their organization.

For all enhancements included in Wave 2 go to New and planned features for Dynamics 365 Business Central, 2022 Release Wave 2 | Microsoft Learn

If you have any questions about this release, please get in touch with us.

With contributions from Anthonia Okon and Nik Jindal, Encore Solution Specialists.