Set Up Dimensions

Examples of dimensions in an engine manufacturer

• Division: Automotive, Marine, Aircraft, Industrial
• Item Class: Engine Blocks, Transmissions, Resale
• Department: Finance, Sales, Operations, Repair

Navigate to the Global Search in the top right-hand corner of your screen by clicking the search icon ; then search for the Dimensions page. Click on the + New button to create a new dimension set. Assign a code and a name. A code description and filter description can be added once the code is assigned. The created dimension set should reflect the Branch and CustomerGroup options in the screenshot below.

Dimension set values must be assigned after you’ve created the dimension set. To set the values, highlight the row and click on Dimension Values in the action ribbon. Key in all possible values for this dimension set. For the “CustomerGroup” example, there are three customer groups that can be assigned. If totaling certain dimensions is necessary, e.g., several customer groups roll up into a larger grouping, then that can be accomplished by setting the dimension value types and indenting where appropriate.

Tip: Use the Edit In Excel button to leverage the Business Central Excel add-in, which allows you to bulk import data—specifically dimension values in this example.

Assign Global & Shortcut Dimensions

Navigate to the Global Search in the top right-hand corner of your screen by clicking the search icon ; then search for the General Ledger Setup page. Select the Actions drop-down menu and choose the Change Global Dimensions functions.

Set Global Dimension 1 and 2 and click the Start action to commit the change. Shortcut dimensions can be selected back on the General Ledger Setup page under the Dimensions section. You’ll have to select the “Show More” option to make the selection drop-downs visible. You’ll notice Shortcut Dimension 1 and 2 can’t be edited and default from the global dimensions.

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Better Ways of Doing Business

The dimensions feature in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, formerly Microsoft Dynamics NAV, can help you answer questions about your business. By combining the analyses of different dimensions, you can better understand how well your business is operating, where it’s going and where it needs help.
Dimensions allow you to attribute characteristics to the information you record and use in your daily work, giving you the power to ask searching questions about your business and act upon the answers. You can seek more effective ways of doing business, develop your analytical tools easily and base important decisions on reliable information.
You also can use dimensions to allocate responsibility. By using dimensions on posted entries and budget entries, you can monitor how individual units (for example, a responsible department or region) are performing and compare performance with other units (such as previous periods and budgeted amounts).

Room to Grow & Change

Dimensions grow and change with your business needs. When an opportunity presents itself, accountants and IT personnel don’t need to spend time changing accounting structures to fit new business processes. They can easily create or change existing dimensions.
The possibilities for creating new dimensions and changing existing ones are endless. It’s easy to add new dimensions on the fly, and there’s no limit to the number of dimensions or values that can belong to each dimension. Here are some insights on changing existing dimensions to reflect your business processes:
• You can name them in a way that reflects your company’s reporting practices and employee requirements.
• When you no longer require a particular dimension, you can simply block it from use.
• You can structure values in a hierarchy that mirrors your existing reporting structures.
• You can change dimensions (or add new ones) as often as you like—without changing your accounting structure.
Our next article will review the setup and configuration of dimensions inside Business Central.

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By using dimensions, you can analyze trends and compare various characteristics across a range of entries. You can define as many dimensions as your company needs, and you can define an unlimited number of dimension values for each.

You can use your defined dimensions on entries in journals and documents, as well as in dimensions-related reports and batch jobs. We’ll continue our series on dimensions in Dynamics 365 Business Central by reviewing some important points to consider prior to configuring the dimensions.

1. Global dimensions are the most accessible.

You can choose up to eight dimensions to store with your GL entries. These eight can be found in most ledger entry tables. The first two dimensions assigned are referred to as “global dimensions”; the other six are called “shortcut dimensions.” The main difference is global dimensions are carried on the actual ledger entries and posted document tables. All remaining dimensions will be stored in separate tables, while global dimensions are in both places.

• Shortcut dimensions are used to streamline data entry.

Shortcut dimensions can be assigned directly to journal, sales or purchase lines. They also can be assigned to master data, e.g., customer, vendor, item, etc.

• Dimensions can be set at a master record level and flow to transactions.

As mentioned above, dimensions allow us to track additional detail on GL entries. Dimensions can be assigned by the user at the time of transaction entry, but they also can default down to the transaction automatically if the master record used has default dimensions assigned.

• Dimension combinations security is open, but it can be restricted.

When you initially set up your dimensions, all dimension values are valid with all other dimension values by default. However, users can put restrictions on associations using the Dimensions Combinations function. Dimension combinations help control accuracy when dealing with dimensions, as they can prevent you from combining dimensions that don’t belong together and from posting something that doesn’t belong where it’s being coded.

• Dimensions can be configured with built-in totaling.

Designing your dimension structure can be as simple as listing individual dimension values, or users can leverage the built-in subtotaling functionality. Creating a structure from the dimensions allows for subtotaling on reports according to the defined structure, as well as simplifying the dimensions in the system when viewing reports.

The post Dynamics 365 Business Central: Dimension Considerations appeared first on Dynamics Insights.

1. Use the Global Search to locate the Web Services page.

2. Right-click on any ODATA V4 URL and copy link address.

Example of a link address: https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/0ae4a3ee-7ee1-438a-beac-881ec0c98e33/ODataV4/Company(‘CRONUS%20US’)/nativeInvoicingSalesTaxSetup

3. Paste your link address here:

We can now locate your Tenant ID from the pasted URL. Please use the highlighted example above as a guide. Your Tenant ID will be the string of characters and numbers between “/v1.0/” and “/ODataV4” as highlighted in the example above. Make sure to use your Tenant ID and not the one in the example.

4. Replace the “XXXXX” with your Tenant ID in the following URL:

5. Take your new URL and paste in a browser to log in to the Dynamics 365 Business Central Admin Center.

6. Select the Production Environment to highlight, and click the Upgrade Settings menu option.

7. Set your Start and End times and click Save.

The post Dynamics 365 Business Central – April 2019 Major Release Memo appeared first on Dynamics Insights.

Recently, more information has emerged about the major updates to the newest Dynamics 365 Business Central release. I’m excited to share the latest details on the improvements made to the user experience and ad hoc reporting capabilities. I’ve highlighted several enhancements that caught my eye as big wins for the end-user.

SmartLists

In a callback to my Dynamics GP days, nostalgia and functionality abound; the addition of SmartLists will allow users to query data on list pages. SmartLists help users search for and find data in ways a list view can’t.

Improved Scrolling & Load Time

Users can now scroll unhindered to any position in the list using the keyboard or scroll bar, without ever pausing at the “fetching more rows” message. This feature appears seamless when scrolling at a pace where rows can be comfortably read.

Quick Entry

Microsoft’s Quick Entry improvement will help streamline the entry of transactions by making the process as “mouse-free” as possible. The user will use the Tab or Enter key to navigate to required or essential fields.

Increased Character Limit for Names & Descriptions

You can now enter up to 100 characters (formerly 50) in all Description and Name fields across Business Central.

Save List Views (Filters)

Users can now save their list filters and similar personalizations to create different ways of slicing their data. List views are given a name, such as “Items I sell,” and might include filters on totals and dimensions, filter tokens (such as %MyCustomers) to dynamically filter to the right data and different sorting options, allowing more complex and tailored list views.

Notes & Links

Users will be able to add internal notes to business data captured and processed in Business Central. Notes are displayed next to the card data, and users can add, edit and delete notes. Users also can include internet links accessible from data cards, opening more advanced extensibility scenarios.

Sales/Purchasing

External Document Number of Posted Sales Documents

When customers call to inquire on the status of their purchase order, you typically must search through the list of posted sales invoices and shipments by the customer’s purchase order number. The purchase order number is stored in the External Document Number field on the related sales order and is transferred to posted sales invoices and shipments.

You can now search through the list of posted sales shipments or invoices by external document number.

Vendor Invoice Numbers

With the April 2019 Dynamics 365 Business Central release, users will be able to view the vendor invoice number on the Purchase Invoice and Credit Memo lists. A Vendor Invoice Number column will be added to these pages.

Use a Sales Quote Validity Policy to Control When Sales Quotes Expire

You can now set a date formula in the Quote Validity Calculation field on the Sales & Receivables Setup page that will be used to calculate the Quote Valid Until Date field on sales quotes.

Inventory

Item Descriptions on Item Ledger Entries

When analyzing item ledger entries, it’s useful to also see the item description. The Description field can now be added to the Item Ledger Entries page.

Bulk Import Item Pictures

You can now import multiple item pictures in one go. Simply name the picture files to correspond to your item numbers, compress them to a ZIP file and use the Import Item Pictures page. Alternatively, you can use the Set Up Item Pictures assisted setup guide.

The post Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Dynamics Insights.

Users of Microsoft Dynamics GP on high dots per inch (DPI) displays, such as Surface Pro tablets, have probably seen Steve Endow’s excellent solution to scaling issues that occur and render GP difficult to use. If you’re using a local installation of GP on one of these devices and haven’t seen that solution, I highly recommend viewing the article so you can avoid the need to change your screen resolution or limit yourself to only working on an external monitor.

The solution involves modifying the Windows registry to tell Windows to prioritize the use of an external manifest file for applications if available. Steve’s article provides the manifest file you need to make GP usable on a high DPI display. This works well for local installations of GP on these devices.

What about users who connect to a Remote Desktop server to run Dynamics GP from a high DPI display? Unfortunately, they’ve been out of luck because Remote Desktop sessions inherit the resolution and scaling settings of the local machine. Implementing the external manifest solution on the Remote Desktop server doesn’t help because the display inheritance behavior takes priority.

In my testing, I tried numerous scaling and resolution changes as well as a variety of Remote Desktop clients, but until recently, the only solution that worked was to reduce the Surface Pro resolution or use an external monitor with a lower resolution. This wasn’t satisfactory because I have clients that want to work exclusively on a Surface Pro, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to a server and run GP without having to change their display resolution. A typical use case is that they’re traveling light and need to do something in GP remotely. Fortunately, I found the solution, which seems rather obvious now since it’s just a variation on what Steve already worked out. I wanted to share it with the GP community because I’m sure others have encountered the issue and I think this complements Steve’s solution nicely.

First, I need to give credit where it’s due. My solution is taken in part from an article by Dale Hayter on his blog at blackforce.co.uk. I was fortunate enough to realize it could be applied to solve a problem in the world of GP.

The solution is to make the registry change on the Surface Pro like you would for a local installation:

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide.
3. Add a DWORD (32Bit) called PreferExternalManifest.
4. Give it a hex value of 1.
5. Create a manifest file called Mstsc.exe.manifest with the following contents:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ standalone=”yes”?>

<assembly xmlns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1″ manifestVersion=”1.0″ xmlns:asmv3=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3″>

<dependency>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity

type=”win32″

name=”Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls”

version=”6.0.0.0″ processorArchitecture=”*”

publicKeyToken=”6595b64144ccf1df”

language=”*”>

</assemblyIdentity>

</dependentAssembly>

</dependency>

<dependency>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity

type=”win32″

name=”Microsoft.VC90.CRT”

version=”9.0.21022.8″

processorArchitecture=”amd64″

publicKeyToken=”1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b”>

</assemblyIdentity>

</dependentAssembly>

</dependency>

<trustInfo xmlns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3″>

<security>

<requestedPrivileges>

<requestedExecutionLevel

level=”asInvoker”

uiAccess=”false”/>

</requestedPrivileges>

</security>

</trustInfo>

<asmv3:application>

<asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings”>

<ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware xmlns:ms_windowsSettings=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings”>false</ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware>

</asmv3:windowsSettings>

</asmv3:application>

</assembly>

You also can download this from the Blackforce blog.

6. Place the manifest file in the same folder as the Remote Desktop client executable, C:\Windows\System32.

7. Alternatively, you can copy mstsc.exe to a new folder and place the manifest file there if you don’t want to alter the default behavior of your Remote Desktop client. If you do this, you also will need to create a subfolder called en-US—or whatever language you use—and copy the mstsc.exe.mui file from C:\Windows\System32\en-US. The remote desktop client won’t run without this.

In my testing, however, I haven’t experienced any negative effects from simply placing the manifest file in the original mstsc.exe location.

8. One note of caution: Windows Update may remove the PreferExternalManifest setting. If you notice this solution has stopped working, double-check the registry. You may want to export the registry key to a .reg file for easy import in the future.

One last bit of good news: This solution works with RDWeb and RemoteApp implementations in addition to direct Remote Desktop client connections.

The post Remote Desktop, High DPI & Dynamics GP appeared first on Dynamics Insights.

As a true software as a service application, Business Central updates are performed automatically without intervention from the users or partner support. This is great because you’re instantly provided with any new features or fixes without any additional consulting or software costs. Get ready to make a smooth transition by learning about the new features and updates.

With the October 2018 release, Business Central is available in the cloud, on-premises and in hybrid deployments. Users connecting to on-premises, hybrid or cloud deployments of Business Central—regardless of how they connect—will all benefit from the same productive and refreshed user interface and features.

The user experience also is updated on this next release. The refreshed desktop experience focuses on improved layout of data, taking advantage of screen space, better data visibility and readability and easier navigation through the entire application. Details pages—such as the customer card—also get a new look and feel, completing the visual refresh of all application areas with further refinements across the application.

In addition, there are many more useful new features that are easy to use and will further enhance your Business Central experience. These enhancements are listed below. Implementing or upgrading also is a great opportunity to migrate up to Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud offering. We encourage you to contact us so we can help you take advantage of this significant release.

The following have general availability in October 2018:

• Productivity features for desktop users
• Accessibility features for desktop users
• Refreshed experience on major desktop screens
• Business Central everywhere
• Combined mobile/companion app for Business Central
• Enhanced Power BI embed experience
• Permission sets are editable
• Tenant administration for VARs
• Improved Visual Studio Code AL experience
• Localization apps and translation apps
• Intelligent edge for Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL and Dynamics NAV

The post What’s New with Dynamics 365 Business Central? appeared first on Dynamics Insights.

Upon completion of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Describe when potency management should be used within a manufacturing facility
• Create a formula for a potency-controlled product
• Receive and register the active ingredient
• Complete batch balancing for production

Register here

The post Extend Your Product Insight & Planning: Potency Management appeared first on Dynamics Insights.

Tracing the error back to its source takes us to the class method InventItemInventoryDimensionStorageDimConversionTaskInitiatorDelegateHandlers.tableWithInventDimIdDiscoveredStorageConversionDelegateHandler(). In this method, the code checks all of the tables that have a field set to the InventDimId extended data type.

In this example, a table was created with an InventDimId field. When running Warehouse management > Setup > Enable warehouse management processes > Change storage dimension group for items, the batch job fails with the following message from the batch job’s log:

To resolve this, create a new class. The new class for this example will be called BKDItemStorageDimGroupHandler. Copy the event handler for the delegate method tableWithInventDimIdDiscoveredDelegate in the class InventItemInventoryDimensionConversionTaskInitiator, and paste it into your class. Inside of this method, add the code shown below, but for your custom table with the InventDimId field, return false to the EventHandlerResult parameter (if using a custom model, you’ll have to add a reference to the InventoryDimensionConversion model):

We return false in our custom delegate to skip the inventory dimension value handling in InventItemInventoryDimensionStorageDimConversionTaskInitiatorDelegateHandlers.tableWithInventDimIdDiscoveredStorageConversionDelegateHandler(), which initially throws the error. That way we can suppress the error while still updating storage dimensions for an item.

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