A Shot of Business Central and A Beer — Episode 7
S4E7 A Shot of Business Central and A Beer
Intro
Hello everyone and welcome to A Shot of Business Central and A Beer — Episode 7!
We’re going to be reviewing some beer, sharing some new Business Central news, discussing Reminders, talking about a complaint tracker app, and we’ll have our Stump Michael question at the end.
Contents Section
- Beer Review Segment: 0min 57sec
- Shot of Business Central: 7min 00sec
- Stump Mike Segment: 26min 00sec
- Business Central Feature — Reminders and Finance Charge Memos: 30min 24sec
- Business Central Apps Segment — Complaint Tracker: 42min 07sec
- Happy Thanksgiving Segment: 57min 10sec
You can also listen to us at:
A Shot of Business Central and A Beer Show Notes
Segment 1 — Beer Review
Energy City Brewing’s Milkshake Nawi — Pineapple
- India Pale Ale brewed with pineapple, lactose and vanilla.
- Style: New England IPA
- 7.2% alcohol
- Score of 91 on Beeradvocate.com
- Ratings: Ken = 97, Michael = 90
Segment 2 — A Shot of Business Central Cloud
Not too much new news this month. Maybe because of the Conferences in October or Microsoft is still a bit busy with the October Release of Business Central. Speaking of Conferences, BCUG was held in October in Florida, and Ken and a couple others from Solution Systems were in attendance. But before we talk to Ken about his BCUG experience I compiled a quick Good, Bad, and Ugly list from reading what others thought of BCUG. So the…
BCUG User Group Summit
- Good: Summit continues to grow every year with Business Central users.
- Bad: Attendees want more diversity within the session offered
- Ugly: Space was a challenge because the facilities are booked between two and three years in advance so it is logistically challenging to plan out some aspects of the conference.
Good quick Business Central FAQ on the Business Central Support Blog
- How many updates happen in Business Central SaaS? There are 2 types of updates that happen in Business Central SaaS. Minor — These are typically done once a month. These would include product fixes that should not break the service. Major — We typically have 2 updates per year. For example, for 2019 we had 2 major releases Wave 1 (April) and Wave 2 (Oct). These can include additional product fixes as well as product enhancements.
- Do I have the option to schedule updates for Business Central? Minor — These updates typically happen once a month. You won’t be able to schedule these updates, but the update will use the Update Window that is set in the Business Central Admin Center (Example: 12:00:00 AM — 6:00:00 AM). Major — Once the Major update is available, administrators will have the option to schedule the update. This is done the in Business Central Admin Center where the user can set the specific date and update window they would like.
- How can I be notified once an update is available? In the Business Central Admin Center there is a Notification Recipients section. Users in this window will be only be notified when the Major updates are available. The user is also notified when the update has been applied in Major/Minor updates.
- How much time do I have to postpone updates (minor/major) Minor — These updates cannot be postponed. The updates will happen automatically during the Update Window you set in the Business Central Admin Center. Major — You have the option to push major updates out 30 days once they are available for scheduling. This schedule can be set in the Business Central Admin Center.
- How can a Customer/Partner/CSP be proactive in testing Extensions prior to minor/major releases? ISV/Partners have the ability to evaluate our code builds via docker images we make available. Depending on how often they would like to test the code they can get updated code daily, weekly, or monthly. We do test the apps that are on AppSource to make sure they are compatible and send a message to those ISV’s, so they should know what is coming regarding the update.
- How close is the Business Central SaaS code to Business Central On Prem? While we do not release the Business Central SaaS code, the source code for the On Prem version is basically the same. There are a few differences — these correspond to features we only light up in SaaS.
- Is there an option to test out the Major builds prior to release? Yes. Typically, a few weeks before we release, we allow for the creation of Sandbox environments on the new major build. At this point, you will only be able to create a Sandbox environment on the Cronus company (Test Company).
- Globally what is the upgrade process in Business Central SaaS? For our major releases, we deploy the upgrades based on the schedule setup in the tenant’s admin center. If that is not defined, then the production data and sandboxes will be deployed by region in batches until all the remaining non-scheduled tenants are upgraded.
Business Central Apps
- Not an exact figure on how many apps were added during the month of October but if I had to guess I would imagine anywhere from 25–35 new apps.
BC Blogs: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/it/product/business-central/
Segment 3 — Stump Mike Question:
Question: When you open up a list page there is a default sort on them. You have the ability to save a Filtered List which limits the data you are looking at. If I then sort a column will saving the Filtered List also save the sorted column?
Answer: Yes, saving the filtered list after sorting columns will save the columns soft preference.
Segment 4 — Business Central Feature: Reminders and Finance Charge Memos
Let’s talk reminders and about the new Business Central feature that allows you to cancel these reminders.
An underused area of Business Central is the Reminders feature. Reminders are usually created in batches, for example, at the end of the month to remind customers about invoices that are due or overdue. An example of this would be to send the Customer Statement report as a reminder to customers regarding overdue amounts.
Issue Reminders
When a Reminder is Issued, Business Central then transfers the data to a separate window and the entries are posted. If interest or an additional fee has been calculated, entries are posted to the customer ledger and the general ledger. The entries are posted according to your specifications in the Reminder Terms window, which determines whether interest and/or additional fees are posted to the customer’s account and the general ledger.
Issue reminders can be used for such things as to remind customers about overdue amounts or to calculate finance charges, such as interest or fees and include them on the reminder.
Reminders can have different levels assigned to them.
The first time a reminder is created for a customer it’s assigned a level 1 setting. When the reminder is issued, the level number is registered on the reminder entries that are created and linked to the individual customer ledger entries. If it is necessary to remind the customer again, all reminder entries linked to open customer ledger entries are checked to locate the highest level number. The conditions from the next level number will then be used for the new reminder.
Finance Charge Memos
Finance charge memos, just like Reminders, are usually created in batches at the end of the month. For example, if you want to debit customers for interest or fees without reminding them of overdue amounts this is where you’d use finance charge memos.
When a customer does not pay by the due date, you can have finance charges calculated automatically and add them to the overdue amounts on the customer’s account.
You use finance charge memos to calculate interest and finance charges and to inform your customers about interest charges without reminding them of overdue payments. Alternatively, you can calculate interest on overdue payments when you create reminders.
References
Send finance charge memos to customers in Dynamics 365 Business Central
How to cancel issued reminders and finance charge memos
What is it solving?
Quickly correct mistakes in close-of-period work by canceling issued reminders or finance charge memos.
Highlights
Correct errors by canceling issued reminders or finance charge memos, directly from the Posted Payment Journals Page
How to cancel a Reminder of Finance Charge Memo in Business Central
If we spot a mistake we can quickly correct and cancel issued reminders and finance charge memos.
Here’s how to cancel a reminder in Business Central in 3 easy steps:
1. From the role center ribbon choose Sales and then Issued Reminders
2. Choose a reminder in the list
3. Now choose Actions, then cancel, and then O.K.
And that’s all that there is to cancelling an issued reminder. The process is the same for issued finance charge memos.
Segment 5 — Featured Business Central Apps: Complaint Tracker
Complaint Tracker helps you completely track and Automate your Customer’s Complaint Requests.
Do you find it difficult to keep a track of your customers’ complaints? Do your customers keep asking you about the updates of their complaints? And are you not able to keep a track of your resources used in complaint requests?
Complaint Tracker is an App that helps you automate your complaint tracking process completely. It not only keeps a track of all the updates but also integrates with the Service module of Dynamics 365 Business Central to integrate customer complaints with other necessary actions.
Features:
- Integrated with Service Module of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
- Notifies the customer and the salesperson with the status of the complaint via E-mail
- App can Auto generate Service Order based on Complaint Request
- Tracks the resources used or the visit charges for servicing
- Complaints can be bifurcated into free or paid service sections
- Checks if the service/product comes under warranty or not
- No need to make new service lines for products under warranty
Benefits:
- Provide an excellent and quick Service to customers
- Customers get real-time updates about their complaint
- Complaints are tracked in Dynamics 365 BC directly
- The complaint document generated by the app can be converted into Dynamics 365 BC Service Order
The free trial installed easily and the Complaint Management Action was added to my role center page automatically.
After setup to log a complaint you go to the Complaint Register List and fill in the needed information.
After all the information is filled in you can process and/or print the complaint report. Once processed and email is auto generated to provide an update to the customer.
Closing Statement
Thanks for listening everyone and just like last week let us know what you like, didn’t like or want to see going forward. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast.
