The 2024 Release Wave 2 brings a host of new features and enhancements that aim to empower finance teams, increase efficiency, and drive strategic decision-making. Like many other tools in its stack, Microsoft is placing a heavy emphasis on AI and automation with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.

Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect from this upcoming update, which will be released from October 2024 through March 2025.

Dynamics 365 Finance

Dynamics 365 Finance continues its journey of leading in autonomous finance, using AI to transform common end-to-end financial processes. This release focuses on in-app copilot capabilities, immersive persona-based user experiences, expanding country coverage, electronic invoicing enhancements, business performance analytics and planning enhancements, and autonomous reconciliation capabilities.

Correct Matching Errors with Copilot

During the vendor invoice automation process in Dynamics 365 Finance, exceptions may arise that require action from the AP clerk. Copilot, integrated into the pending vendor invoice list and vendor invoice center, simplifies error resolution by eliminating the need for time-consuming navigation between pages. AP clerks can now select a vendor invoice with an error, analyze it, and correct it all in one location.

Receipt matching errors, often caused by unlogged receipts or goods in transit, can be addressed easily. Future releases will expand Copilot’s capabilities to help with prepayment and workflow submission errors.

Get batch log summarization of sales invoice copilot

Users now gain a clear, summarized view of outstanding tasks and errors instead of struggling with hard-to-read logs. This streamlined process allows them to pinpoint issues like failed transactions and their causes without the need for customer support.

With improved filtering and easy-to-read summaries, finance users can quickly address questions during crucial operations, boosting efficiency and productivity. This feature empowers businesses to resolve issues independently, saving time and enhancing overall operational performance in Dynamics 365 Finance.

Enhanced Dynamics 365 Financial Automation with Microsoft Copilot

Copilot is designed to act as an intelligent assistant, leveraging AI to automate routine tasks, improve accuracy, and provide valuable insights.

• Automated Journal Entries: Copilot can now automatically generate journal entries based on historical data and patterns. This feature not only reduces manual entry errors but also saves time, allowing finance teams to focus on more strategic tasks.
• Predictive Analytics: By analyzing historical financial data, Copilot can predict future trends and provide recommendations. This predictive capability helps organizations stay ahead of potential financial risks and opportunities.
• Enhanced Compliance and Audit Support: Copilot also assists in maintaining compliance with regulatory standards by automatically flagging potential issues and ensuring that all financial records are audit ready.

Create Dimensions with Cubes in Copilot

Implementing planning software can take anywhere from days to months as organizations and consultants sift through old tools or multiple Excel spreadsheets to define their models and implementation strategies. By leveraging existing Excel spreadsheets and integrating Copilot, users benefit from a guided and intuitive experience that provides configuration suggestions for dimensions and cubes, streamlining the entire planning process.

Organizations can now significantly reduce implementation time by pointing to their existing planning spreadsheets. With Copilot’s dimension and cube creation feature, the system automatically analyzes the spreadsheets to recommend dimensions, values, cubes, and formulas, simplifying the configuration and ensuring a more efficient planning experience.

Streamlined Dynamics 365 Financial Operations

Efficiency in financial operations is obviously a key focus of the 2024 Release Wave 2. Several updates aim to streamline workflows and reduce the burden on finance teams.

• Improved Accounts Payable and Receivable Processes: Enhancements in accounts payable and receivable modules reduce manual intervention and automate more processes, leading to faster payment cycles and improved cash flow management.
• Globalization Features: As businesses expand globally, managing finances across multiple regions can be challenging. The new release offers expanded globalization features, including enhanced tax calculation and reporting capabilities, to support multi-national operations more effectively.
• Enhanced Financial Close: The financial close process is critical yet often time-consuming. The latest release includes tools that automate and simplify the closing process, helping organizations close their books faster and with greater accuracy.

Updates for Core Financials

There will be multiple enhancements aimed at improving end-to-end financial processes, including automated bank reconciliation, better reporting, and enhanced invoice processing. Below, we will take you through some of the most important updates:

• Advanced Bank Reconciliation: The bank reconciliation process has been upgraded with improved matching rules, facilitating more accurate and automated reconciliation of bank statements. This enhancement reduces manual effort and minimizes errors in reconciliation​.
• Financial Tags for Purchase Order Invoices: Financial tags can now be applied directly to purchase order invoices, enabling more detailed tracking and reporting of financial transactions. This feature enhances the ability to categorize and analyze financial data based on specific criteria​.
• Prepayment Sales Invoices: A new functionality has been introduced for handling prepayment sales invoices, enabling businesses to manage advance payments more effectively. This is particularly useful for scenarios where payment is required upfront before delivering goods or services.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is advancing along the path of an autonomous supply chain by integrating intelligence, automation, and analytics into every facet of business procedures, thereby improving user productivity and enhancing organizational adaptability. In this update, the spotlight is on improving order promising capabilities for manufacturers. Demand planning is upgraded to incorporate forecasting with external signals, and the inclusion of Copilot weaves insights and analyses directly into workflows, identifying trends and irregularities while also allowing for specific data inquiries at the cell level.

Enhanced Demand Planning with Copilot

A new Copilot in D365 Supply Chain Management enhances demand planning by exploring shifts, trends, anomalies, and other factors affecting demand, presenting results in natural language. This helps improve forecast accuracy, optimize supply chain operations, and enhance financial results.

Trace and Solve Quality Issues with Copilot

This helps QA managers, production managers, and field service workers efficiently identify issues, delays, and the lifecycle of items. The activities page in Supply Chain Management now includes Copilot-generated summaries, providing instant access to key information and allowing users to drill down for more details.

Streamlining Warehouse and Transportation Management

Efficient warehouse and transportation management are crucial to the success of any supply chain. The 2024 Release Wave 2 introduces several enhancements designed to streamline these operations.

• Enhanced Warehouse Automation: The new release continues to build on automation within warehouse operations, introducing improved robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities. These tools help reduce manual intervention, speed up order fulfillment, and improve accuracy.
• Dynamic Routing for Transportation: Transportation management gets a boost with dynamic routing features that optimize delivery routes based on real-time traffic data and delivery priorities. This helps reduce transportation costs and improve delivery times.
• Integrated Order Management: The enhanced order management system integrates sales, warehouse, and transportation teams seamlessly. This ensures that orders are processed faster, with fewer errors, and complete visibility from order placement to delivery.

Conclusion

The 2024 Release Wave 2 for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is packed with powerful tools and enhancements designed to help your organization navigate the complexities of modern finance and supply chains. From AI-powered automation with Microsoft Copilot for advanced budgeting and data analytics to improved supplier collaboration, these updates are set to transform business operations.