Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central On-Premise

754 Pages·2018·24.905 MB·English

by  Roberto Stefanetti

Implementing Microsoft
Dynamics 365 Business
Central On-Premise
Fourth Edition
Explore the capabilities of Dynamics NAV 2018 and
Dynamics 365 Business Central and implement them
efficiently
Roberto Stefanetti
Alex Chow
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365
Business Central On-Premise
Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing
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Commissioning Editor: Richa Tripathi
Acquisition Editor: Chaitanya Nair
Content Development Editor: Rohit Singh
Technical Editor: Romy Dias
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First published: January 2009
Second edition: February 2013
Third edition: April 2016
Fourth edition: December 2018
Production reference: 1171218
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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ISBN 978-1-78913-393-6
www.packtpub.com
To my mother, who unfortunately left us far too soon. We always think of you,
every day. From heaven, you always protect us.
To my son, Luca; my wife, Monica; and their patience.
– Roberto Stefanetti
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Contributors
About the authors
Roberto Stefanetti is a functional and technical consultant, who has worked on
education and training for companies, partners, and clients. He currently works on
Microsoft systems, especially ERP and related environments.
He started working on Navision in 2004, both as a developer and as a functional
consultant, and he is now more involved in consulting and managing projects than in
development. He has been an MVP in business application since 2016 and a Microsoft
Education Influencer since 2017.
Roberto's blog is one of the most widely read in the world (with more than 1 million
page visits). He has also published articles on many digital publications (such as
MSDynamicsWorld, NAVUG Magazine, and others) and reviewed a number of
books.
Special thanks to the reviewers for reviewing this book, and thank you to my
company for giving me the "free time" to complete it. Many thanks also to my wife
and my son for their patience; even if it is only a re-edition of the book, writing it
takes time. And finally, thanks to everyone who bought this book and who will have
the patience to read it.
Alex Chow has been working with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, formerly Navision,
since 1999. His customers range from $2 million a year small enterprises to $500
million a year multinational corporations. With a background in implementing all
functions and modules inside and outside of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Alex has
encountered and resolved the most practical through to the most complex
requirements and business rules. He founded AP Commerce, Inc. in 2005, a full-
service Dynamics NAV service center. Alex has also written the books Getting Started
with Dynamics NAV 2013 Application Development and Implementing Dynamics NAV,
Third Edition, both by Packt. He lives in southern California with his wife and two
lovely daughters.
About the reviewers
Stefano Demiliani is a Microsoft MVP on Business Application, a Microsoft Certified
Solutions Developer, and a long-time expert on different Microsoft technologies. He
has a master's degree in computer engineering from Politecnico of Turin, and works
as a CTO for EID/NAV-lab (one of Microsoft's principal partners in Italy). His core
responsibilities include architecting and developing solutions with Microsoft
Dynamics ERPs and the Microsoft technology stacks (such as .NET and Azure
solutions).
He has worked with Packt on many IT books, having recently authored Dynamics 365
Business Central Development Quick Start Guide, the first development guide for
Dynamics 365 Business Central. You can reach him on Twitter (@demiliani) or on
LinkedIn.
Duilio Tacconi is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Escalation Engineer at
Microsoft EMEA Customer Support and Services. He joined Microsoft in 2008, after
working for end customers with a primary focus on the technical side of Microsoft
Dynamics NAV. Despite being graduated with highest vote in agricultural science, he
has worked on the ERP circuit since 1998 as a developer for several companies, with
Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies. Currently, he is a subject matter expert in
the EMEA region for RDLC reports, Microsoft EMEA CSS senior reference for
Managed Service for Partners, and an EMEA CSS reference for modern development
with Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Three times Ironman competition finisher, Duilio lives in Cernusco sul Naviglio,
Italy, with his beloved wife, Laura, and their son, Leonardo.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Exploring Dynamics NAV and MSDYN365BC – Overview 8
Understanding Microsoft Dynamics NAV 9
Functional areas in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 12
History of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics
365 Business Central 15
From Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 to Microsoft Dynamics 365
Business Central – a timeline of features 21
Functional areas 23
Financial management 28
General ledger 28
G/L budgets 29
Account schedules 31
Cash management 32
Fixed assets 33
VAT reporting and intrastat 33
Sales tax 34
Intercompany transactions 34
Consolidation 35
Multicurrency 35
Sales and marketing 36
Customers 37
Order processing 39
Approvals 41
Pricing 42
Marketing 43
Purchasing 44
Vendors 45
Order processing 45
Approvals 46
Pricing 46
Planning 46
Warehouse 47
Items 48
Locations 50
Transfer orders 50
Assembly 50
Pick and put-away 50
Inventory 51
Manufacturing 52
Product design 53
Table of Contents
Capacities 56
Planning 57
Execution 58
Costing 58
Subcontracting 59
Job 59
Job cards 60
Job tasks subpage 60
Planning lines 62
Time sheet 63
Invoice jobs 63
Work in process (WIP) 63
Resource planning 64
Resource card 65
Pricing 66
Service 66
Service items 67
Contracts 69
Price management 69
Service orders 71
Service tasks 71
Fault reporting 72
Human resources 72
Employees 73
Absence registration 74
Country localizations 74
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Workflow 74
Vertical and horizontal solutions 75
Accessing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 75
Windows client 76
Web client 78
Web client – "In-Client" Designer and User Personalization 79
Tablet client, phone client, and Universal App 81
SharePoint integration (remote client) 84
Web services 85
Dynamics NAV Development Environments 86
The Old Development Environment (C/SIDE) 86
Events and extensions 87
The New Modern Development Environment 88
The Microsoft cloud model 90
Microsoft cloud services – a suite of applications 90
Dynamics 365 Business Central (on-premise, SaaS) 91
Summary 92
Chapter 2: Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018 – An Overview 94
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018 – what's new 95
Application changes in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018 96
Improvements made to clients for application users 96
[ ii ]
Table of Contents
Windows client – role center layout 97
Web client for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018 99
Web client is more customizable (with "In-client" or "In-app" Designer) 100
Preview and print from Web client 101
Updated Universal App 101
Windows 10 Continuum 103
IT changes 103
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server administration tool 103
Windows PowerShell – new and updated cmdlets 105
New and updated PowerShell cmdlets for server and development 107
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server – start/stop 107
Merging application objects 107
Upgrading data 108
Updating captions in application object files 108
Office 365 Administration 108
Importing and exporting NAV data 109
Development changes (new and updated) 109
Essential C/AL functions available 110
Triggers 110
Extensions 2.0 111
The New Modern Development Environment (Visual Studio Code plus AL
Language extension) 111
APIs for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 112
Connected apps 113
New service connections and extensions pages 113
Image Analyzer - contact person and item 115
Functional changes 117
Sales order to purchase order 117
Assisted setup by wizards and manual setup 118
User tasks 118
Direct transfer orders 119
Employee ledger entries 120
Preconfigured Excel reports 120
Edit in Excel feature 121
Change Global Dimensions 121
IC (intercompany) – automation of IC outbox and IC inbox 122
Item charges – volume and weight 123
EU GDPR support and data classification 123
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for sales integration 124
Microsoft Flow integration 124
Power BI reporting integration 124
Contact iterations in Microsoft Outlook 126
Upgrade automation – an overview 126
Upgrade automation – the application code 126
Upgrade automation – data 127
Enhancement in security and encryption 128
Native integrations 128
Best features from previous releases of Microsoft Dynamics
NAV 128
[ iii ]