Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform 2020 release wave 2 plans are out, check out the full list
What’s coming 2020 release wave 2 plan
Microsoft Dynamics 365: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365-release-plan/2020wave2/
Microsoft Power Platform: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-plan/2020wave2/
These features will be available from October 2020 through March 2021
2020 release wave 1 plan which is from April 2020 through September 2020
What’s new and planned for Dynamics 365 Finance features list can be viewed from here
What I liked most is listed
1. Touchless email reminders to customers
We often have to set alerts for payment reminders based on certain conditions (e.g. overdue) but with this touchless email reminders features, it will give you more peace of mind by automatically sending email reminders might initiate an activity that encourages payment sooner than would be made without the reminder.
When enabled, email reminders will be sent automatically to customers, with a list containing overdue invoice information based on email templates.
2. Configurable business documents conversion to PDF
This has been a very common requirement even in AX 2009 and AX 2012 and now in Finance and Supply change management to have documents convert to PDF e.g. when printing reports on screen or download. Having enabled this new feature let you any business document generated in Excel or Word to be converted to PDF.
You can use the PDF conversion option to convert the output in Microsoft Office format (Excel/Word) to PDF format.
Make PDF conversion available
To make the PDF conversion option available in the current Finance instance, open the Feature management workspace, and turn on the Convert Electronic Reporting outbound documents from Microsoft Office formats to PDF feature.
3. Finance and Operations cross-app capabilities
MS has done a fantastic job in bringing Finance and Operations data natively available in CDS through Data Integrator and Dual Write. With this release wave, more features are coming to streamline this process and enhance digital transformation.
These features are going to be person opt-in enabled which allows customers to adopt new features at their own cadence and are not forced with 8 updates of the year from MS.
- Lifecycle Services (LCS) new enhanced experience consistent for all Dynamics and Power Platform users.
- Enhanced view with issues categories
- A context-based document search experience
- More visibility to known issues and status for the impacted product versions through Knowledgebase suggestions.
4. New grid control with a lot more advanced features
You may have already used some of these features and have experienced issues e.g. You might run into situations occasionally where the grid headers and data are misaligned, or the grid jumps while you scroll through data or create new records.
Grid capabilities https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/fin-ops-core/fin-ops/get-started/grid-capabilities
Benefits at glance
- Performance
- Positional scrolling
- General improvements
- Reorder columns
- Mathematical formulas
- Totals
- Fast data entry
5. Task recorder with enhanced capabilities
Improvements to allow coverage of additional scenarios by regression tests and to improve the experience of users creating and maintaining these regression tests.
6. Saved views – general availability
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/fin-ops-core/fin-ops/get-started/saved-views
7. Data and process integration – My favorite
Finance and Operations data natively in Common Data Service
Release wave 1 feature for dual write is:
- 112 entities are supported – that’s a pretty big number so hats off to MS to achieve this in record time.
- Customers, Vendors, and Products integration between FO and CE
- Company concept in CDS
- On-demand pricing from Finance and Operations apps
- Integrated quotes, orders, invoices, and assets
- Reference data from finance, tax, account receivable and accounts payable
Release wave 2 targets:
- Support for Dynamics 365 Commerce scenarios on Common Data Service
- Party model, activities and notes, and services
- Generic Dual Write enhancements and error handlings
Finance and Operations data in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
- Available in all supported regions
- The transition from BYOD and Entity Store to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
