Microsoft has released wave 2 of the 2024 updates for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, which will be available from October to March 2025. This release brings enhancements aimed at further streamlining your business processes and improving integration with Microsoft tools.
Wave 2 introduces new features focused on subscription billing management, improving project and service management workflows, and simplifying inventory processes. With these updates, Microsoft continues to enable businesses to adapt to changing market conditions and better manage recurring revenue streams, service tasks, and financial transactions.
To explore how these updates can benefit your business, continue reading to discover our standout application updates from this release.
Manage subscription billing and revenue and expense recognition
Business Central Wave 2 introduces a new subscription billing module designed to help you efficiently manage recurring revenue streams. As more organisations shift towards subscription-based business models, this feature simplifies the handling of contracts and billing. With the ability to create mixed subscription contracts, you can manage a wide range of subscription scenarios. The system stores all relevant information such as items, services, and billing schedules, in one central location. Therefore, this makes managing recurring billing easier for you to manage.
Key features of the new subscription billing module include:
- The ability to create mixed subscription contracts to accommodate various billing scenarios.
- Centralised storage for contract details, including items, services, and billing schedules.
- Standardised subscription templates to ensure consistency across contracts.
- Flexibility to easily update pricing for future periods based on market changes.
- Simplified contract management for greater efficiency and accuracy.
Integrate Field Service with service management
Dynamics 365 Field Service is designed to help you deliver onsite service directly to your customers. Integrating Field Service with Business Central’s Service Management previously relied on custom APIs or external tools like Power Automate. In the last release, Microsoft introduced standard connections for Projects. With this release, they have further simplified the process, enabling seamless integration directly into Service Management within Business Central.
Now, you can connect Field Service with Business Central to manage your service tasks, consumption, and financial transactions more efficiently. This integration simplifies your work order management, reduces manual data entry, and ensures accurate invoicing and financial tracking. Overall, this saves you time and improves accuracy for your teams.
Key features of this integration include:
- Seamless synchronisation of work orders and service management data.
- Automated handling of material consumption and inventory updates.
- Consolidation of invoicing and financial data in Business Central.
- Improved communication between field service teams and finance departments.
- Standardised workflows for faster, more reliable service delivery.
Enhanced Shopify integration
The integration between Business Central and Shopify has been further refined to manage online sales and payments more effectively. New features include:
- Use specific prices and discounts when synchronising prices in Shopify: Allows you to add specific prices and discounts to supplement the general and group-based pricing or discounts. This provides you with greater flexibility and a more tailored approach for B2B customers.
- Export posted sales invoices to Shopify: Buyers can sign in to Shopify and access all their invoices, regardless of whether the invoices were created in Shopify or in Business Central.
- Define shipping information for Shopify shipping fees: You can accurately map Shopify shipping fees to Dynamics 365 Business Central. Choose between G/L accounts, items, or item charges and assign them to the right shipping agent and service.
Improvements in Project Management
Microsoft have improved Business Central’s project management capabilities with several new enhancements. Improvements to project management include:
- Add extended text to project planning lines: This allows for you to have a more detailed descriptions or instructions in project plans, enhancing clarity and communication.
- Replenish items for projects: Simplifies your inventory management for project needs, ensuring materials are available when required.
- Use directed put-away and pick warehouses with projects: Improves your warehouse operations related to projects, reducing errors and delays in handling materials.
Expanded Financial Reporting
The Wave 2 updates for Business Central bring expanded capabilities for financial reporting, empowering you to gain deeper insights and improve efficiency. New features to improve financial reporting include:
- Analyse fixed asset and subscription billing in Power BI: Allows you to perform detailed financial analysis using Power BI for your fixed assets and subscription billing data.
- Use Excel reports for consolidation and fixed assets: Gives you ready-to-use reports for consolidations and fixed asset tracking, helping streamline your financial reporting processes.
- Use new reports and demo data for financial reporting: Provides you with updated reports and sample data to support accurate and efficient financial analysis for your business.
Want to learn more about the wave 2 release?
These are just a few highlights of the latest update to Dynamics 365 Business Central. Want to know more? Check out the full release plan on the Microsoft Learn website for a full overview of the 2024 release wave 2 features and release dates.
