What’s New in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations 2020

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Release Wave 1

Ever since Dynamics 365 was released in 2016, it has gone through multiple waves of updates – adding new and exciting features with each release. The finance and operations module has been a phenomenal success – helping enterprises drive digital transformation by providing the tools they need to connect with and manage their clients, finances, projects, and people in a seamlessly integrated setup.

Staying up to date with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations can help your business remain informed and leverage the new features released by Microsoft periodically. In this blog, we will discuss some of the latest and most exciting capabilities that were released in the 2020 release wave 1. Microsoft allows customers to implement these new features at their cadence.

Dynamics 365 Updates in Finance

The 2020 roadmap of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations underlines the importance of automation, predictive analytics, and forward-thinking management. To help its users move away from traditional reporting and transactional activities, Microsoft has rolled out the following releases, partially or entirely, as of June 2020.

1. Core Financials:

   The 2020 release comprises a set of features meant to help users automate everyday tasks and reduce manual efforts. It also introduces credit management capabilities that help an enterprise manage risk and automate downstream processes.

   Several features that enhance usability, such as Vendor invoice batch posting, and budget planning query optimization for performance have been rolled out as of June 2020. Several other features such as Advanced ledger settlement, Automatic vendor payment proposal, Trial balance report, etc. are to be released by the end of August 2020.

2. Globalization:

   The new release enables users to convert configurable business documents into PDF and print the reports directly. It also allows merging Italian add-in EXIL into core localization and shipping ISO 20022 format for international payment for France. Most of the features of this release are already rolled out. The remaining features are expected to be released by September 2020.

3. Public Sector:

   This release has features and enhancements focusing on budgeting, accounts payable, and Canadian tax. As of June 2020, there are only three features rolled out from this category:

   1. Daily statement of treasurer’s accountability
   2. Update bank balances when posting transactions using advanced ledger entry
   3. Allow interest distribution and escheatment to update bank balances when posting

Approximately six additional features will be released by August 2020.

Dynamic 365 Updates in Operations

The new features related to operations are all about enhancing user experience by improving performance, compliance, automation, and service support.

1. Cloud Operations:

   This release comprises a set of features meant to make cloud operations more robust and secure. These features can be used by administrators, makers, or business analysts and are automatically enabled. Some features of this release are already rolled out.

2. Cross-App Features:

   The 2020 release also offers a set of modern features applicable to all finance and operations apps such as Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and Dynamics 365 Commerce. Approximately 50 percent of the features are released as of now; however, some critical features such as Scanning files and attachments for malicious code, Show related document attachments, and Export application reports as Word documents are due for release. 

3. Data and Process Integration:

   This release focuses on enabling data storage in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 data lake. These features will have to be configured by administrators, makers, or business analysts for end-users. All features in this release will be rolled out by September 2020.

Microsoft keeps adding many new features to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations to accelerate the journey towards complete digital transformation. Right from helping businesses meet their core finance and operations requirements to assisting the unification of their enterprise ecosystem by offering seamless integration capabilities, Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations continually upgrades itself to meet the latest user requirements.

For further information on Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, please contact Synoptek experts today.