Dynamics 365 Finance 2023 release wave 2

Microsoft has released 2 days ago the plan for 2023 release wave 2.

This means we have some exciting new features waiting to be released October 2023 to March 2024.

You can access the links at the end of the article to read the entire release. Bellow we will mention TOP 3 features (or group of features) that we are eager to test once they are released from Core Financials.

1. Business performance analytics

This is feature divided in 3 parts:

• Business performance analytics
• Business performance analytics - reporting hub and base reports on data
• Business performance analytics - security

Business performance analytics will bring financial and non-financial data into Dataverse and with a data model created in Power BI, users will easily create and edit reports. Most important they will be able to access the data they need and generate transaction-level reports quickly and without support from developers.

Business performance analytics - reporting hub and base reports on data is the central repository of preconfigured reports that are organized by business processes.

Business performance analytics - security  will allow reporting at row level and users can share reports with other team members where the data is refreshed automatically. For example you can send each day a report to budget owners with their year to date spending in the department or Microsoft mentions "send a sales report to sales staff in the field that refreshes with the most current sales number but is restricted to a specific product and location"

The Business performance analytics feature is already available in early access and it will have general availability in February 2024

2. Extended planning and analytics

This is a feature we will be really keen to try. It will allow users to model, contribute, and approve financial plans and forecasts directly in Power BI and Excel.

This addresses a big gap that now is currently handled differently. If there are no delays, this will be available for Public preview in November 2023 and GA in December.

3. Currency revaluation enhancements

 There are 3 enhancements that address some long awaited gaps Finance:

• Calculate gain/loss for reporting currency only
  • If debits and credits for accounting currecy are equal for matched transactions in ledger settlements, no realized gain or loss is posted if reporting currency debits and credit are not equal. This feature addresses that gap by posting a gain/loss in the reporting currency if the accounting currency is in balance. Also, the gain/loss posting only occurs for main accounts that don't already have a gain/loss posted through the AR/AP settlement
  • Microsoft does mention that other scenarios will be added in the future where gains and losses posted can be fully integrated. Partial settlement is not supported but will be in future releases

This feature will have general availability in October 2023

• Use bank foreign currency revaluation enhancements
  • As Microsoft mentions: "This is one of the top 10 feature requests for the Cash and bank management module". It will allow an organization to define whether to use all or no financial dimensions when calculating the unrealized gain or loss and will reduce the number of lines included in the accounting entries for each bank
  • Also, the calculation of the unrealized gain or loss will change. The calculation will now determine the balance of the bank account, either with all financial dimensions or no financial dimensions, and then calculate the unrealized gain or loss per ledger account. Previously, the calculation would determine the total gain or loss and then allocate the amount to each set of financial dimensions

This is a really awaited feature that most customers, especially the ones that need to be IFRS compliant are waiting for.

This feature will have general availability in October 2023

• Calculate foreign currency during ledger settlement
  • Currently, ledger settlement is on the accounting currency amounts. If the accounting currency is not in balance (debits != credits) for matched transactions in the ledger settlement, the ledger settlement isn't completed. The feature will be posting a gain or loss for the accounting and reporting currency as necessary to ensure the amounts are in balance.

This feature will have general availability in February 2024

There are many other features that I am sure customers and partners are excited about.

Bellow you will find the official Microsoft links for the release plan.