Dynamics 365 Business Central: Diving Into April’s New Features

As we discussed in our last article, a major update to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is coming this April. Because Wipfli is a Microsoft Partner, we can access and deploy previews of the upcoming changes in order to test these new features out.

Last time we talked about the autosave indicator, the addition of longer names and descriptions, improvements to scrolling in lists, the ability to save list filters, the Quick Entry enhancement, Document Focus Mode, and increased personalization capabilities. Today we’re going to take a deeper dive into Document Focus Mode, Quick Entry and personalization capabilities, as well as talk about page inspection.

Document Focus Mode

Document Focus Mode provides a more convenient user experience when working with long and detailed Business Central documents (e.g., Purchase Quotes/Orders/Invoices, Sales Quotes/Orders/Invoices, etc.). When a user switches to “focus mode,” the lines section of their document expands to utilize more screen real estate, allowing easier and more accurate data entry.

Switch into focus mode by using the on-screen button or the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+F12).

Easily maintain numerous document lines that might otherwise require scrolling when viewing the document in the “standard” page mode.

Switch out of focus by using the on-screen button or repeating the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+F12). You can see the difference in view in the two screenshots below:

Quick Entry

The Quick Entry enhancement helps make data entry as mouse-free as possible. You will soon be able to use the tab or enter key to navigate to essential fields. What’s more, you can personalize how the Quick Entry tool behaves. For example, you can indicate which fields can be skipped when inputting a sales order, and you will automatically jump over those fields as you tab through a form. The following images illustrate the use of Quick Entry in combination with Personalization to streamline the tab order for fields in the Sales Order page.

By default, Business Central moves field by field in the page.

Launch Personalization and adjust the Quick Entry setting for Customer Name & Address 2.

Voila! You have now excluded the customer name from Quick Entry and included Address 2 in Quick Entry.

Personalization Capabilities

With the April release, you will have more options to personalize your workspace, and personalization settings will follow you no matter what device or browser you work on.

Enhancements allow you to hide or reorder actions on the action bar. You can also change which elements appear in the role center navigation pane. This will increase user efficiency, making it easier to find the actions, cards and lists you use often.

Here’s an illustration showing the use of Personalization to hide an Action in the Ribbon and moving another to make it more prominent within its group.

Copy Document now displays as the first Action in the group, while Create Purchase Document is “greyed out” as an indication that it’s been hidden.

This is how the Ribbon/Action Group looks when your personalizations have been saved.

Page Inspection

Business Central pages display fields and data stored in underlying tables. A given Business Central page frequently does not display every field comprising the underlying table (for valid reasons beyond the scope of this blog), which sometimes leads to challenging troubleshooting situations for power users and support staff. Those users can now inspect any page (or the page parts within a page), revealing the entire contents of the current record, including fields that are not shown on the page!

Are You Ready for the Business Central Update?

We work with clients to fully prepare for Microsoft Dynamics 365 releases. You want to make sure your organization is fully taking advantage of the new features, which are intended to make their lives easier and increase productivity. Contact us for support and to learn more about how your organization can get the most out of Business Central.