A Beginners Guide to Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations, Enterprise Edition

A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION A practical guide to all of the hidden features within Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations, Enterprise Edition that everyone should know about to make them power users.

© 2017 Blind Squirrel Publishing, LLC, All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved

ISBN-13: 978-1975836900 ISBN-10: 1975836901

A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION

DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Preface What You Need for this Guide All the examples shown in this blueprint were done with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations hosted image that was provisioned through Lifecycle Services.

The following list of software from the virtual image was leveraged within this guide: Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations, Enterprise Edition Even though all the preceding software was used during the development and testing of the recipes in this book, they should also work on later versions without any changes.

Errata Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by emailing editor@dynamicscompanions.com.

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A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION

DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Navigating within Dynamics 365 ...................................................................................................... 8 Using workspaces ...................................................................................................................... 9 Using the workspace tiles........................................................................................................ 12 Using the workspace favorites lists ......................................................................................... 14 Drilling into details through hyperlinks ................................................................................... 16 Accessing the document detail forms ..................................................................................... 18 Toggling between the header and lines view .......................................................................... 20 Using the dropdown menus .................................................................................................... 23 Pinning and unpinning the navigation menu .......................................................................... 24 Accessing the workspaces through the menu ......................................................................... 27 Using the system administrator workspace ............................................................................ 29 Using the search to find functions .......................................................................................... 31 Using list pages and detail forms within Dynamics 365 ................................................................. 35 Showing the fact boxes ........................................................................................................... 36 Accessing detail forms ............................................................................................................. 39 Accessing the ribbon bar commands ...................................................................................... 41 Collapsing and docking the ribbon bar .................................................................................... 43 Undocking forms ..................................................................................................................... 46 Using the list filter ................................................................................................................... 50 Zooming in and out on pages .................................................................................................. 53 Personalizing Dynamics 365 ........................................................................................................... 57 Hiding and unhiding fields ....................................................................................................... 58 Adding additional fields ........................................................................................................... 64 Moving fields ........................................................................................................................... 69 www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION

DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Using the filter lists.................................................................................................................. 72 Saving user personalization ..................................................................................................... 75 Importing custom views into other users ............................................................................... 80 Using the filter panel ............................................................................................................... 84 Using the advanced filter ........................................................................................................ 91 Adding a filter to a workspace as a tile ................................................................................... 96 Adding A tile to the default dashboard ................................................................................. 102 Adding a filter to a workspace as a list .................................................................................. 105 Exporting lists to Excel ........................................................................................................... 110 Using the recent list .............................................................................................................. 116 Adding menu items to the favorites list ................................................................................ 119 Updating user options ........................................................................................................... 122 Updating personal information through the employee self-service workspace ................... 130 Changing the default company banner image ...................................................................... 134 Using Dynamics 365 ...................................................................................................................... 141 Accessing Forms from the Default Workspace ..................................................................... 142 Using the Employee Self Service Workspace ........................................................................ 145 Using the Credit and Collections Workspace ........................................................................ 149 Entering an order .................................................................................................................. 155 Product Information Management ....................................................................................... 164 Vendor Punch Outs ............................................................................................................... 168 Project Management............................................................................................................. 176 Using the help and task guides within Dynamics 365................................................................... 180 Accessing the Help Task Guide .............................................................................................. 181 Using the wiki help ................................................................................................................ 183 Using the task guides ............................................................................................................ 185 Creating our own task guides ................................................................................................ 191 Accessing the business process libraries within Lifecycle Services ....................................... 199 Exporting task recordings to Lifecycle Services ..................................................................... 205 www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Viewing task recordings in Lifecycle Services ........................................................................ 208 Reporting within Dynamics 365 .................................................................................................... 214 Running financial reports ...................................................................................................... 215 Traditional Reporting ............................................................................................................ 219 Exporting Data To Excel ......................................................................................................... 221 Publishing Excel Data To PowerBI ......................................................................................... 226 Getting Insights Into Your Data ............................................................................................. 228 Power BI Analytics ................................................................................................................. 230 Using Q&A to Query PowerBI................................................................................................ 231 Analyzing PowerBI Data Within Excel ................................................................................... 234 Streaming Analytics ............................................................................................................... 236 Viewing Relationships within PowerBI .................................................................................. 237 Using the data management tools within Dynamics 365 ............................................................. 239 Creating a data export template using data management ................................................... 240 Creating a data export from a data template ....................................................................... 246 Importing data packages into other entities ......................................................................... 253 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 261

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A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION

DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Introduction Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations, Enterprise Edition (Dynamics 365 for short) is a big change from the previous releases of Dynamics 365. The majority of the changes are around the new web based user interface, the new way that we navigate around in the application and also new sets of tools that have come along for the ride.

For those of us that are familiar with the older user interfaces then we may have to learn a couple of new tricks to get around the system like the pro that we are, and for new users of Dynamics 365 environments then we will probably want as many tips on all the cool things that are hidden away within the application so that we can quickly become a power user of the system.

If that’s the case then this is the guide for you – we have scoured all of the resources that we have to compile the most useful tips and tricks for Dynamics 365 and that will be useful to everyone, regardless of if you are a novice to Dynamics 365 just trying to get around in the application, or have worked with the previous versions of the system, and are just want to learn the nuances of the new user interface.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Navigating within Dynamics 365 The first area that we will look at within Dynamics 365 is the way that we navigate through the system. With the application being 100% web based, then we will find that the way that we move throughout the system may be a little different than we have become used when compared with the older systems that we may be used to because it takes advantage of the new options that are available within the web based format.

For the users familiar with earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics, then some the navigation will be similar to the way that we are used to, some of the these will be better, and some will be just downright new and cool.

In this chapter we will take a look at some of the ways that we navigate through Dynamics 365.

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A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION

DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Using workspaces The first thing that we will look at are the Workspaces. Workspaces are a new feature within Dynamics 365 and are a great place to start our day and are areas that designed to show us everything that we would normally want to access to perform a particular job task.

And there are a whole slew of them delivered out of the box for us to explore and take advantage of.

How it works For example, when we first log into Dynamics 365, the first screen that we will see is the Default Workspace. This special workspace is like the master workspace menu that has a number of tiles for the different workspaces that are delivered with the system.

Each of these Workspaces has been tailored to specific roles within the organization. Project Managers would probably be interested in the Project Management workspace.

And if we scroll down a little bit on the page we will see the Sales order processing and inquiry workspace which is tailored for an order entry clerk.

For this example, we will click on that tile to open up the workspace. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

That will take us to the Sales order processing and inquiry workspace. We will be presented with all of the core information that is necessary to track all of our sales orders and also links to the other areas that we may need to help us along the way.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Review Workspaces are a new way to navigate through the system because they are tailored for specific roles within the organization, and give users one place where they can perform most of their daily tasks.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Using the workspace tiles The first thing that we will look at within the workspaces are the workspace tiles. we will find these on the left hand side of the workspaces. They are quick visuals that show us how many particular transactions are sitting within the status, and also quick links to other detail and list pages within the application.

Let’s take a look at how they work.

How it works For example, on the Sales order processing and inquiry workspace then we will see that there are a number of tiles on the left. There are tiles that show us the number of Unconfirmed and Delayed orders lines, the number of Confirmed orders, and also links to the customers and all of the sales orders.

To see the tiles in action we will click on the Unconfirmed tile which shows us that there are 2 unconfirmed orders.

This will take us straight to a list page that shows us all of the unconfirmed orders that are the tile was linked to.

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Review Tiles within the workspace are a great way to see what we need to do, or work that is queued up for us through a simple visual tile.

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Using the workspace favorites lists Another type of visual that we will find in the workspaces are the favorites lists that we will see in the center of the workspace. These are like the workspace tiles but they save we a little time because we can see all of the records in the list rather than just a summary.

How it works For example, within the Sales order processing and inquiry workspace if we scroll over to the middle of the workspace we will see a number of favorite lists.

We will also see that there are a number of different favorites listed other than the first default list.

If we click on the Unconfirmed list then we will be able to see a list of all of the unconfirmed orders without having to drill into the details of the record.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Review The favorite lists are an easy way to browse through the data without leaving the workspace, and the default favorites that are delivered in the workspaces are aimed to allow us to quickly step through all of the information that we would need to know in order to keep track the key information for our job.

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Drilling into details through hyperlinks As we start seeing more data through the workspaces and list pages, we may want to view some of the underlying data that is hidden behind some of the fields. We don’t need to search through any menus in order to do this though. Most of the time the field will show up as a hyperlink, and all we need to do is click on the hyperlink and we will be taken directly to the data that we are searching for.

How it works For example, on the Sales order processing and inquiry workspace, if we want to drill into the Sales order detail on any of the favorites lists then we just click on it on the Sales order number.

This will take us straight into the Sales order detail form showing us all of the sales order details.

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Review The ability to drill through into the detail information behind any of the data on a form is a great time saver because we can research information right away and see the underlying details without having to go to search for menu items, and then searching for the data again.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Accessing the document detail forms Now that we are looking at the document record we are in the Document detail view. This view is different from the list views that we have been seeing so far because we have multiple groups of data that may be hidden as compressed Fast tabs.

How it works In this example we are seeing the order lines, but also there is a fast tab that contains all of the order header details.

If we want to expand (or collapse) any of the fast tabs then all we need to do is click on the expand/collapse arrow which is at the top of each fast tab ion the right hand side.

This will expand out the fast tab and we will be able to see all of the fields that were hidden away from we.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Review Fast tabs are really useful because they allow us to pick and choose which sets of data that we want to see and also hide away the data that we don’t necessarily need on a daily basis.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Toggling between the header and lines view One feature that has been added to make things a little bit easier for the users is the option to switch between the Header and Line view on the forms directly on the form. For anyone who has to switch to the detail within the forms like the Sales Orders, this is a great shortcut to take advantage of.

How it works To switch from the Lines view to the Header view, just click on the Header link in the title bar.

That will take us straight over to the Header view.

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A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION

DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

If we collapse all of the fast tabs together then we will see that there are a lot of different groups of information that are available on the header view.

If we want to switch back to the lines, then just click on the Lines link.

Now we are back to where we started. That was easy. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Review A lot of the forms within Dynamics 365 have header and line details, so knowing that we can switch between them is something to remember. Also whenever we are in a form, it’s good to check to see if these options are available when looking for particular information, because it may be hiding in the header version of the form.

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A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION

DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Using the dropdown menus Another way that we can navigate through the system is through the dropdown menus. These menus allow us to access all of the different functions within Dynamics 365. For those that have used previous versions of AX, these are very similar in structure to the old menu pages.

How it works To access the menus then just click on the hamburger icon (the square with three horizontal lines in it) in the top left hand corner of the application.

That will open up the Navigation Menu on the right hand side of the page. Here we can access the menus for the functional modules, we can access all of the workspaces, and also we can access favorites and also any recent menu items that we may have used.

Review Although the workspaces are a much better place to start our day because they are tailored to specific jobs within the organization, sometimes there are features and functions that we don’t use every day, but we need to access them once in a while. In that case then the navigation menu is the place that we want to go because we can access pretty much everything from here. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Pinning and unpinning the navigation menu Another option that we can take advantage of with the navigation bar is to pin it to the side of the application so that we always have access to it rather than having it hidden away and accessed through the hamburger icon.

How it works To do this, just open up the navigation menu by clicking on the hamburger button, and then click on the Pin icon in the top right of the navigation menu.

Now the menu bar will always stay open for us.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Sometimes we may need that little bit of extra space on the screen that the menu bar is taking up when it is pinned. Don’t worry, we can quickly unpin it and hide the menu at any time.

To do this, all we need to do is click on the < icon which was where the pin used to be.

Now the navigation menu will be hidden away from sight and we just access it by clicking on the hamburger icon.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Review Pinning and unpinning the navigation menu is really a personal preference. If we like using the menu over rather than the workspaces (we won’t judge you) then we may want to keep the menu bar open to save the extra step of expanding out the menu. If we want more space to show the main forms, then maybe we will want to compact the menu and just access it when we need it. Everyone can be happy and work the way that they like.

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A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION

DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Accessing the workspaces through the menu Although we can see all of the workspaces within the default dashboard that we started on, if we need to quickly open up another workspace then we can see them all through the navigation menu.

How it works All we need to do is open up the navigation menu and then expand out the Workspaces group.

There we should see all of the standard workspaces that we also see on the default dashboard.

For example, if we wanted to open up the Employee self-service portal then we can find it within the workspaces sub menu, and then just click on it.

And then we will be taken directly to that workspace.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Review Accessing the workspaces through the navigation can be a quicker way to get to the workspaces that we want since we can quickly scan through the list of workspaces rather than looking for the tile on the default dashboard. But, to each their own. We can do it either way.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Using the system administrator workspace Another workspace that is interesting to look at is the System administrators workspace. This is a secure workspace that allows the administrators of the application to see all of the processes that have ran, and also access other tools like Data Management, and also Lifecycle Services.

How it works To access the System Administrators workspace click on Dynamics 365 link in the top right of the form to return back to the default dashboard and then click on the System administration tile.

This will open up the System administration workspace where we will be able to access some of the key tools that the System Administrator would need to use.

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Review The System administration workspace gives the administrator access to a lot of the settings and configuration areas within Dynamics 365 including the management of users, access to the security roles, and also the system settings. If we are managing Dynamics 365, then this will probably be our default go to workspace.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Using the search to find functions If we are looking for a specific form or function within Dynamics 365 then we don’t always need to search for it through the menu like we have been doing so far. If we know the general function that we want, then we can use the search function to find it for us.

How it works For example, if we wanted to find the Customers maintenance form then we can just type in all customers into the search box in the header of the application.

This will show us a list of all the functions that match our search. In this case there are a number of different ways that we can get to the Customers maintenance form, we just need to select one.

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Now we will be in the All Customers list page.

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Review The search function is a huge timesaver and can be a lot faster to find those menu items that are hidden away in the menus. For the experienced users, this is probably the best way to navigate the system, and is a great feature to take advantage of.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Summary In this chapter we have shown how we can get around in the system. There are a couple of different options that are available.

Workspaces are for the users that just need to perform certain tasks because they give us everything we need in just one place.

The Navigation bar gives we a different option for navigating where we have access to all of the menu items, workspaces, and more all within one menu structure. For the experienced users this gives we a menu that will rule them all.

The Search feature is a great shortcut for those times that we know what we want, but we don’t exactly know where it is.

As we start using Dynamics 365 we will probably find that we use a combination of these options based on what we want to do, giving we a lot of flexibility.

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Using list pages and detail forms within Dynamics 365 Now that we have seen how to navigate through Dynamics 365, we will now want to look at how we navigate through the data within the system through the List Pages and also the detail forms.

There are some pretty neat things that we can take advantage of here to make our life easier and also to minimize the amount of clicking around that we may have had to do in the past.

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Showing the fact boxes The first thing that we will look at within the forms are the Fact Boxes. These give us summary information about the record that we are in without having to open up the detail form.

How it works For example, to start off, we have opened up the Customers list page. This gives us a quick way to see all of the customers as a list.

Almost all of the list pages look like this, and if we look over to the right hand side of the form, there is a small icon that shows that there is a Fact Box that is minimized.

By default, these are collapsed on the right hand side of the form, but to see them all we need to do is click on the expand icon.

This will open up the Fact box panel and we will be able to see information specific to the record that we are on, including address information, recent activity, contact details and much more.

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A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE & OPERATIONS, ENTERPRISE EDITION

DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

If we click on any of the other customer records then we will see that the fact box details change to show us the details for that record.

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Review Fact boxes are great. A lot of the time as we are looking at records within the list pages, there is a little bit of information, like the address, that want. The fact boxes give us a way that we can see this information without having to drill down into the details of the forms.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Accessing detail forms The list pages are great for summary information, but there is also a lot of more detailed information hidden behind it. All we need to do is drill down into the record that we want to look at.

How it works To do this, we will return back to the Customers list page and all we need to do is click on the customer name or the customer account number that we want more detail on.

This will open up the detailed view where we can see a lot more of the fields that are related to the record.

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Review The details form for records like Customers, Vendors, or Products can be a little overwhelming because there is a lot of information available. The information is grouped though into Fast Tabs which allows we to expand or collapse specific groups of fields so that we don’t see the information that we are not necessarily interested in.

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Accessing the ribbon bar commands When we are on either the list page view or the details pane we can also access additional functions related to the record through the ribbon menu bar at the top of the form. Here we can access inquires that are related to the records and even perform other functions that are specific to that record.

How it works For example, while on the Customers we can see all of the different groups of functions that we can perform on the customer record within the ribbon bar.

we can access all of the functions that are related to the invoicing by clicking on the INVOICE ribbon bar tab.

This will open up the invoice functions and then we can click on the Invoice Journal button.

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This will open up the Invoice Journals list page.

Review The ribbon bar is where we access all of the actions that are available for that record, and is also where we are able to perform related tasks. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Collapsing and docking the ribbon bar The ribbon bar (also known as the action bar) is a great way to navigate through the functions that are associated with the form that we are currently using.

If we are an expert, or if we don’t have a lot of space on our screen then we may want to collapse the bar away and just access it when we need it.

If we are a beginner, then we may want to have this open all of the time so that we can find all of the things that we can do on the form.

Luckily we have the option to do both.

How it works If we want to hide the ribbon bar, then all we need to do is click on the ^ icon on the bottom right of the ribbon bar.

That will hide the ribbon bar for us so that we have more space on the screen. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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we can always access all of the ribbon bar commands just by clicking on the heading.

If we want to pin the bar back again, then just click on the Pin icon at the bottom right of the ribbon bar.

Now the ribbon bar will stay open for us. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Review Showing or hiding the ribbon bar is really just a personal preference. Some people like to see all of the options that are available and not have the ribbon bar slide down when we need it.

Others may like the consistency of having the ribbon bar show up all of the time. And sometimes we may just want to hide or show the bar just because.

Regardless of our own organizational style, we are able to make everyone happy.

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Undocking forms When we open up a new form, in order to manage the screens within the browser, Dynamics 365 will open up as an overlay form. Sometimes though we may want to see this form, and the form below it. we can do this by undocking the form and it will open up as a new HTML window.

How it works To do this, just click on the Undock icon in the top right hand corner of the form.

This will open up the top window as a new browser window and the original window will change back to the child form.

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we can then show the data side by side, or move to other monitors if we have multiple screens.

To allow us to navigate through the different customer accounts, click on the List icon on the right of the page to enable the list view on the Customer detail page.

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Even though the window has been opened, this does not mean that the windows are disconnected. If we change the record within the parent form, then this will also update the child form.

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Review Being able to peel off the current form that we are on and then view both that form and also the form underneath it is pretty useful, especially when the data is still connected. It allows us to take advantage of bigger screen real-estate and also gives us an even better way to browse through data as a user. we probably won’t be using this feature all of the time, but when we do we will love the flexibility.

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Using the list filter When we are in the detail view within the forms, we don’t need to return back to the list page each time to navigate from record to record. we can show the list filter feature to navigate through all of the records.

How it works To view the list filter, just click on the List icon on the left hand side of the form. This is the icon with the three irregular length horizontal bars in it.

This will open up a panel on the left hand side that shows we a quick view to all of the records that we can switch to.

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If we want to search for records using the filter list then all we need to do is type in part of the name that we want to search on

This will filter the data out to any record that matches our search and also change the detail panel to show the first record that matches.

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Review The list filter is a huge timesaver, because normally if we go into a detail form, to see other records, or to filter the data to find subsets of data, we would have had to go back to the previous list page and then select the next record.

This feature allows we to see a quick view of all the records that we can navigate through without exiting from the detail page, and even filter out the search just to the records that we are looking for.

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Zooming in and out on pages Because Dynamics 365 is a HTML client then we can also take advantage of some of the features of HTML5 which includes the responsive web design. What this means is that if we zoom in and out the forms will adjust themselves to match the page real estate.

How it works If we zoom out then we will see that the form fields will re-layout to take advantage of the extra space that is available.

If we zoom in, then the fields will re-arrange themselves so that they are not falling off the right of the page and layout into a longer form.

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we can return back to the default zoom setting by pressing CTRL+0.

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Review The zoom function is a really useful feature to take advantage of. Even though the actual zooming in and out is a feature of the browser and not Dynamics 365, the responsive nature of the form which will reposition all of the fields to best fit on the form is.

Sometimes we may want to see a little bit of information, or to zoom in to make the form data a little clearer, and we can do that. But other times when we may have a list page with a lot of information that we want to see as well on a large monitor, then we can zoom out and see the data in all of its glory. It’s entirely up to we.

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Summary Learning some of the tricks on how to navigate the list and detail pages within Dynamics 365 and also learning how to make then format differently based on the situation is a great thing to know. Since we will be spending most of our days in these forms, making them behave how we need them to, when we want them to will make our lives so much easier.

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Personalizing Dynamics 365 Not everyone is happy with all of the data that is available on the default forms within Dynamics 365, and that’s expected. Some people want to see less information, others may want to see more. Luckily we can do this directly from Dynamics 365 client and we don’t have to customize the system at all.

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Hiding and unhiding fields The good thing about the Dynamics 365 forms and list pages are that there is a lot of information on them.

The bad thing about the Dynamics 365 forms and list pages are that there is a lot of information on them.

But don’t worry if there are fields on the forms that we don’t want to see, because we can personalize the form and hide anything that we don’t want to see.

How it works For example, if we are on the customers list page, we may not want to see the Extension field.

To hide the field, start off by right-mouse-clicking on the field heading.

Then click on the Personalize menu option.

This will open up the Personalization options for the field.

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To hide the field, just check the Hide option for the field

Now when we return back to the list page, the field is hidden.

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If we have hidden a field, then it is not gone forever, it is just hidden from our view. If we find that we may need that field back, then we can easily personalize the form again and make it visible again.

In order to re-enable the hidden fields we need to turn on the option that will allow us to see all of the hidden fields so that we can manipulate the personalization. we can right-mouse-click on the form like we did with the hiding of the field to access the personalization options, but there is another way that we can access the personalization, and that is through the ribbon bar.

To do this, click on the OPTIONS ribbon bar button.

Then click on the Personalize this form menu item within the Action panel.

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This will open up the Personalization toolbar.

When the Options ribbon bar is shown click on the Show hidden fields/columns (the eye) button within the Personalize bar.

This will highlight any fields that have been hidden. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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All we need to do to show the columns again is to click on them and then the column will become visible again.

When we are done we can just click on the Close button.

This will return us to the normal view and the field will be visible for us again. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Review Hiding fields on forms is a great way to personalize the view just to our preferences. Because this is a personalization on our user profile, we are not affecting any of the other users, and also we have done this without any customization of the system and without the intervention of a programmer or the IT department.

Knowing how to get fields back on the forms after we have hidden them is an important thing to know. Although we may not need certain fields all of the time, knowing that we can get them back any time we like will allow us to sleep easily.

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Adding additional fields Hiding and showing fields is all good and dandy, but if we know that there is an additional field on the current record that we would like to see on the form, then we can also take advantage of another personalization option which allows us to add fields that are not currently on the form to the form.

How it works To do this, start off by clicking on the Options Action Panel and then then click on the Personalize this Form action menu item.

This will open up a personalization toolbar, and we just need to click on the + icon to switch to the add mode.

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Now just click on the data grid that we want to add the field to.

This will then open up an Add a Field dialog and all we need to do is check the additional fields that we want to show on the form.

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All we need to do here is select the field(s) that we want to add to the form, click on the Insert button.

For example, here on the Customer List Page we added the Credit Rating field.

To finish the personalization, just click on the Close button within the Personalization tool bar. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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When we return back to the form we will see that the fields have been added to the list page.

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Review Adding fields is another great personalization option to take advantage of. Everyone needs a couple of extra fields that are not on the standard form in order to make their life easier, and being able to add them in a flash is a great time saver. Once we have the field on the form we can then sort and filter by that field as well, making finding the data so much easier and saves we from drilling into further detail in order to find the information.

Also this is a personalization, and not a customization, so it doesn’t require anyone else to get involved. We can manage this all by ourselves.

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Moving fields Some fields may be more important to us than others, or sometimes we may like to see information in a certain order to make our lives just a little easier. Don’t worry, we can also move the fields around and show them in different orders through the personalization feature.

How it works To move a field, start off by clicking on the Options Action Panel and then click on the Personalize this Form action menu item.

Then when personalization toolbar is shown, click on the move button (the one that looks like a compass).

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This will then change the form into move mode. All we need to do is select the field that we want to move and drag it to its new position.

To finish the personalization, just click on the Close button within the Personalization tool bar.

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When we return to the form we will see that the fields have been moved for us.

Review Being able to move fields around on the form makes it easier to personalize the form details to the way that we want to see the information, and the order that we like to work with the data. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Using the filter lists The list pages are a great way for us to create simple reports directly from the application, but we probably don’t want to see all of the data. We have shown we how we can filter based off the main data, but we can also filter based on any of the fields that are shown on the form.

How it works To filter any of the fields, just click on the Down Arrow icon at the right end of the field heading to pull up the field options.

If we click on the filter criteria we will see that there are a number of different ways that we can filter including contains, begins with, etc.

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Then type in the filter that we want to apply to the field, and then click on the Apply button to apply the filter.

When we return back to the form we will see that the list page has been filtered to just show us the information that matches.

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Review Filtering data directly on the form is a great way to find subsets of the records, and the good thing is that we can do it directly from the form itself. If we just want to see a certain group of customers, or products, then we just need to apply a filter and all of the clutter is removed from the list.

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Saving user personalization After we have tweaked all of the forms and made them look just like we want and with just the fields that we want, we may want to save the configuration away just in case we want to share them with other users or if we need to reconfigure the form some time in the future.

How it works To do this, all we need to do is click on the OPTIONS ribbon bar link and then click on the Personalize this Form menu item.

When the personalization toolbar is displayed, click on the Manage button.

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This will open up a list of options underneath the Manage button that are associated with the personalization.

The Clear option will delete all personalization from the form.

The Import option will allow us to import personalization that we have previously exported.

And the Export option will allow us to export the personalization changes out to a file that we (or others can reimport in.

In this example we will want to click on the Export menu item.

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This will create an XML configuration file with all of the personalization's that we made. All we need to do is click on the Save button.

When the Save As dialog box is displayed, just navigate to where we want to file the personalization file away to and then click on the Save button.

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When we are done just click on the Close button within the Personalization tool bar.

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Review How cool is that. All of the changes that we have made to our form is now saved away for others to use if they like.

Or if we sometimes need to see the form one way for one job, and another way for another job then we can squirrel these files away for ourselves and quickly reconfigure the forms ourselves just for that one task.

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Importing custom views into other users Once we have created an export of the user personalization then we can share it with other users and or use it ourselves by importing the forms from the template, making it a great way to quickly update our views.

How it works To do this, all we need to do is click on the OPTIONS ribbon bar and then click on the Personalize this Form menu item.

Then the personalization toolbar is displayed, click on the Manage button.

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This will open up the different Manage options and this time we will want to click on the Import menu item.

This will open up the Select a file dialog box and we can then click on the Browse button.

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This will open up a file explorer. Just navigate to the location where the personalization's are stored and then click on the Open button.

This will apply the change and return we back to the form. we will notice though that no changes have been made yet – all we need to do is refresh the page – so press F5.

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This will update the form and now we will see the new configuration of the form based on the personalization file that we just imported.

Review Being able to import in personalization's saves so much time, and also allows us to personalize a form one time and get it just how we like, save it away and then reuse it whenever we need it.

Also this is a great way that if we have a form set up just the right way and someone else wants their screen to look like that then they can just import our personalization file and they will be one of the cool cats as well.

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Using the filter panel We have seen how we can filter the forms directly within the field headings, but there is another way that we can filter and search for data which is through the Filter Panel which is hidden on the left hand side of the form.

How it works To access the filter panel just click on the Filter icon on the left hand side of the page.

This will open up the filter panel and we will see all of the current fields that we can filter on.

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To filter the list page, just type in the filter string into the field box.

And then click on the Apply button. we will then see that the list page has been filtered to just the records that match the filter.

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To return back to the original state, all we need to do is click on the Reset button and the filters will be removed.

Another feature of the filter panel is that it allows we to add an filter on fields that are not necessarily on the form.

To do this, click on the Add a filter field link at the bottom of the list of filter fields. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Then when the list of available fields is displayed, scroll down and find the field that we want to filter on and (like the Currency field) then select it.

Now we will see that the field had been added to the list of fields that we can filter on.

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If we use the dropdown search on the filter we will see any valid records or we can just type in the filter that we want to apply to the form.

After we have updated our filter criteria, just click on the Apply button.

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Now we will see that the list page has been filtered for us.

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Review The filter panel is another way that we can filter out the information that we are looking at on the form. Being able to add additional fields to the filter that are not currently on the form makes it a better option sometimes if we don’t want to go through the personalization process of adding the fields to the form.

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Using the advanced filter There is one final filter tool that we can take advantage of within the forms, and this is the Advanced filter/sort. If anyone has used prior versions of Dynamics 365, then this is very similar to the advanced filter that was available in those versions.

How it works we access this feature by first clicking on the Options tab in the ribbon bar, and then we will be able to select the Advanced Filter/Sort from the Page Options group.

This will open up a dialog pane on the right hand side of the form that has all of the default filters for this form.

If we want to filter on a field that is not already on the filter field list, then just click on the Add button.

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This will add a new filter line to the list of fields that we can filter on.

Just click on the dropdown list for the Field and select the field that we want to filter on – like the Credit Limit field.

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Now we will have an additional filter criteria.

Now we can type in the filter criteria. Note that this allows we to use more advanced filters including wild cards (*), comparison operators (>, <, =) and also placeholders (?) to refine our query even more.

When we are done just click on the OK button. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Now the list page will be filtered based on the advanced query.

As a side note, if we open up the filter panel on the left then we will see that the criteria that we entered in within the Advanced filter is now the default filter there as well.

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Review The Advanced Filter is just another option that we have to help us get just the data that we want.

It may not be the first way that we may think of filtering our data, but it does have one benefit which is we can filter on additional tables if they are linked to the base entity table, so keep in mind that this option is available to us.

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Adding a filter to a workspace as a tile If we don’t want to have to recreate our filters every time that we want to see particular data, then there is a cool feature within Dynamics 365 that allows we to save our filters as tiles within our workspaces so that we can access them quickly and without any more work.

How it works To do this, start off by selecting the OPTIONS action panel.

Then click on the Add to Workspace menu item

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Now click on the Workspace dropdown list and we will see a list of all of the workspaces. Select the one that we want to add the tile to.

Now click on the Presentation dropdown list and select the Tile option.

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And then click on the Configure button.

This will open up a new dialog panel for us with some extra information about the tile that we want to add.

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If we like we can change the Name on Tile field to make the tile a little more descriptive.

And when we are done, click on the OK button to create the tile.

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Now when we go to the workspace that we just added the tile to then we will see that it is there, waiting for us to click on it.

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Review Adding list pages to workspaces as tiles is a great feature. This allows us to filter the data to just a subset of the information, if we want, and then make it available in one click through the workspaces. If we have multiple subsets of data that we want to look at then we can have as many of these added to the workspace and then just go to the ones that we need right now.

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Adding A tile to the default dashboard The usefulness of the tiles does not stop there. There is another feature that we may want to take advantage of and that is to add the summary from the tile to the default dashboard menu.

This gives us an even easier way to navigate to just the data that we need.

How it works To do this, right-mouse-click on the tile that we want to add to the dashboard and then select the Personalize option from the context menu.

This will open up a personalization pop-up box.

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All we need to do here is check the Pin to Dashboard option within the personalization.

Now when we go back to our default dashboard we will see that there is a summary from the tile under the workspace link which will take us right to the form with the custom filter.

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Review The ability to then add the data from tiles on the workspace and then make them available on the default dashboard takes this feature to the next level. Now we can have all of the information that we are interested in, showing up as reminders or work queues in one place, spanning multiple workspaces.

For example, we could see all of the products that we need to approve, along with all of the work orders that are in progress without leaving the default dashboard.

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Adding a filter to a workspace as a list There is one other option that we have with the filtered data that we may want to take advantage of and that is the feature that allows we to save our filter as a list panel within the workspaces. This allows we to access the queries directly from the workspaces, making them even more useful.

How it works To do this, start off by selecting the OPTIONS action panel.

Then click on the Add to Workspace menu item

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Now click on the Workspace dropdown list and we will see a list of all of the workspaces. Select the one that we want to add the tile to.

Now click on the Presentation dropdown list and select the List option.

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And then click on the Configure button.

This will open up a new dialog panel for us with some extra information about the tile that we want to add.

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If we want we can change the Name on Tile field to make the tile a little more descriptive.

And when we are done, click on the OK button to create the tile.

Now when we go to the workspace that we just added the list to we will see that it is now displayed within the list section. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Review The list views within the workspaces are a little bit different from the tiles in that we will see the records in the list and not just a summary of the number of records. This allows us to create lists of records that we may want to work on every day, but not even have to go to the list page itself to see them. We can then use the lists as a little mini workflow, or a reminder of what we need to work on.

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Exporting lists to Excel Another strong feature within Dynamics 365 is the ability to export the data on a screen out to Excel, update the data and then publish it back to the database.

How it works To do this, just click on the Office button in the top right hand corner of the application.

Then the Office dropdown list is displayed, click on the form name under the OPEN IN EXCEL group.

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When the Open in Excel dialog panel is displayed, click on the Download button.

This will create an Excel file for us and if we are asked, click on the Open button in the dialog box.

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This will open up Excel with all of the fields showing as headings. If we have Excel secured a little, then we may also have a warning that the sheet is in Protected View, and all we need to do here is click on the Enable Editing button in the header.

This will take us into Excel and we will have a Microsoft Dynamics Agave panel on the right hand side of the spreadsheet. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Now go to the cell that we want to change, like the Customer Group in this example, and then change the value.

To update Dynamics 365, just click on the Publish button in Microsoft Dynamics panel.

The system will then update the database (if there are no inconsistencies with the data) and tell us that the publishing was successful. Now we can just close Excel. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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When we return back to Dynamics 365, we will still see that the data has not been changed.

Although this is because we need to click on the Refresh icon in the top right hand corner of the application.

After the form refreshes we will now see that the data has been updated.

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Review Excel is a great tool for analyzing data, but this feature takes it one step further and makes it an extension of Dynamics 365, allowing us to use it as another client for adding and updating the data.

Sometimes we have to make a number of updates all at once, and going into the form and changing the value one at a time can become a little laborious. This feature allows us to download the records, make the updates and then publish them quickly back to the system… as long as we have the rights to that is.

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Using the recent list As we navigate throughout the day we may want to return back to a form or function that we used earlier on. A quick way to do this is by accessing the Recent list from the hamburger menu.

How it works To see the recent list, click on the Hamburger icon at the top of the form to open up the navigation menu.

If we look above the Workspaces section, we will see a Recent group. By default, this is collapsed, but if we want we can just click on the link to expand it out.

When the Recent area is expanded out we will see a list of all of the forms that we have been in within the current session.

To go to any of the previous forms, just click on the link.

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That will take us directly to the form.

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Review A lot of the time, we are not using unique forms every time we do something within the system.

Chances are that we are returning back to a function that we may have used earlier on in the day, or maybe even seconds ago. So rather than having to find the menu item again, we can just use the Recent list to find it and then go straight to it.

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Adding menu items to the favorites list Another way that we can personalize our system is by adding the menu items that we use over and over again, and then add them to our Favorites list.

How it works To see the Favorites just click on the Hamburger icon to open up the main menu, and then expand out the Favorites group.

Right now there aren’t any favorites within the list so we will add a few.

We can add any menu item to the favorites, but chances are, the menu item that we will want to add will already be in the Recent list.

Then just hover over the menu items that we want to add to the favorites and check the favorites Star to the right of the name.

To add it to the Favorites just check the star. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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This will add the menu item to the Favorites area.

Also, if we look at the menu item within the module menu, then we will also see that it is marked with the favorites star.

If we want to add any more menu items, then from here we can hover over the menu item and check the star icon as well. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Review The Favorites area is a little more persistent than the Recent list that we started off with because even when we exit from the application, the next time that we log back in we will see the menu items are still in the Favorites area. So if there is something that we always use, we can save yourself a little bit of time and just add it to the list and we will always know where to find it.

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Updating user options There are a number of personalization options that we can set at the user level which will follow them regardless of where they are logging in from.

How it works To access the user options, click on the Gear icon in the top right of the form.

Then when the menu is displayed, select the Options menu item.

This will take us to the user options and open up the Visual options page and we will see that we can update a lot of things here including the color, the density of the form, and also a number of the defaults for the user interface.

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If we click on any of the color swatches then we can change the default color of the application accents. This is not just a fashion statement; it is also a great way to identify different users if we have multiple log ins.

Additionally there is a high contrast swatch that is available as well.

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we can choose the one that we like.

Also at the bottom of this form are two density options that we can choose from for displaying the data. If we work on more of a touch based device like a tablet, then we may prefer to use the low density option.

If we work on more of a traditional device, then we may want to use the high density view. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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There are also some regional preferences that we can make as a user here as well that we can access by clicking on the Preferences tab link.

One other item to note here on the Preferences page is that we can change our default startup company here by selecting the company from the dropdown list.

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If we click on the Default start page dropdown list then we will see that we can change the default start page from the dashboard to the Employee self-service page, or the Systems Administrator page based on our user preference.

If we want to change the language that we use then just click on the Language dropdown list and we will see all of the supported languages that are available within Dynamics 365. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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We can scroll through the languages and select our new preferred language.

For example, here we selected ru for Russian.

After we have selected the language, just refresh the form. A quick way to do this is just press F5. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Now we will see that all of the prompts and metadata have been changed to our new language.

It all looks like Cyrillic to me.

After we have reset back to our preferred language, click on the x button in the top right hand corner (or press ESC) to exit from the form. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Review There are a lot of system personalization's that we can do in this form, and all of these will be specific to the user and their login. Once we have set up our favorite look, feel, and regional preferences then life is good.

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Updating personal information through the employee selfservice workspace The Employee self-service workspace is a good example of the new and improved portals within Dynamics 365. This portal shows the employees all of their HR information which they can maintain, and also allows them to track all of their skills and competencies.

How it works For example, if we wanted to edit any of our personal details from here then we just have to click on the Edit personal information link.

This will open up a form that shows all of the personal and contact information that is maintained within the application. Here we can update our address, phone number, email address, and even our own personal image that will show within the application

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To do this, all we need to do is click on the IMAGE tab and we will see the current image that is associated with our account.

If we want to change the image, then it’s as simple as clicking on the Upload new image button.

This will open up a file explorer dialog box and we can find the image that we want to use within Dynamics 365 and then click on the Open button to upload it. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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This will upload the image for us and now this will be the image that all of the other users see of uf.

Once we have done this, we can just click on the x button in the top right hand corner to close out of the Personal Information form.

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When we return back to the Employee self-service workspace and refresh the page we will now have a new employee picture.

Review The Employee self-service workspace is a great central place for the employees to manage their own information. They can also do a lot more in there including creating time sheets and expense reports, see all of their HR information and even see payroll information. But let's just stick with updating their personal information for now.

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Changing the default company banner image The personalization's that we can perform with Dynamics 365 are not limited to just the user options. One of the new features is the ability to customize the default banner that shows up within the Default dashboard, and have a different banner by legal entity. This is a great way to add some branding to the application, and also a great way to allow us to see which company we are logging in to.

How it works we do this through the Legal Entity maintenance within Dynamics 365. A quick way to find this form is to press CTRL+G to jump to the search bar within the header.

Then type in Legal and we will see all of the forms that match that search. In this case there is only one so we can then just click on it.

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When the Legal Entities form is displayed, click on the Dashboard image fast tab to expand out the details.

Before we upload any new banners we need to make one quick change and that is to tell the system what it should be displaying on the company banner. To do this, click on the Dashboard company image type dropdown list. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Then select the Banner option to tell the system that we will be using a custom banner.

we will notice that there is a new option here for the Dashboard Image. To change the image then click on the Change link.

This will open up a dialog panel where we can click on the Browse button. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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This will open up a dialog box where we can search for the new banner image and then click on the Open button to select it.

When we return back to the Legal Entities form we will see that the image has been updated and all we need to do is click on the Save button.

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When we return to the default workspace and press F5 to refresh the view then we will see that the banner has changed.

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Review Adding a little bit of flair to our system by personalizing the banner image is a great way to make the system our own, and also each legal entity is able to have its own banner image as well. This makes it a great way to identify the different organizations when we log into them.

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Summary There are a lot more ways to personalize Dynamics 365, but these have been the main ones that we need to know about right now.

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Using Dynamics 365 We have shown how to navigate and personalize Dynamics 365, but we haven’t actually done anything in the system yet like entering in a transaction.

One of the most important things to see in action is the usability from a data entry point. Even though this is a web based application we don’t want to have to use the mouse all of the time in order to enter in transactions, especially in high volume situations.

So in this section we will take the system for a test drive so that we can see some of the features that we can take advantage of while we are actually doing work.

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Accessing Forms from the Default Workspace Let’s start off by taking a quick look at how we are able to open up forms directly from the Default Workspace. This is a great way to quickly access all of the functions that you would commonly use.

How it works When we open up the Default Workspace, we can pin all of our most frequently used queries below the workspace tile.

For example, within our default workspace we have added links to some of the expense management forms so that we can see if we have workflow tasks, and also expenses to be processed.

To access the details we just click on the link.

Here we opened up the list of all of our unattached expenses.

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This view allows the user to select any of the expense line items and create a new expense report from them in just a couple of clicks.

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Review Using the pinned links within the default Workspace is a great way to highlight tasks that may need to be performed, or where new records have been created.

Later on we will show how we are able to create these as well.

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Using the Employee Self Service Workspace There are a couple of different flavors of workspaces when you start to drill into the details, and now we will take a look at a few of them.

The first type of workspace that we will see is a Self Service workspace. These are more portal based and designed to deliver information to the users.

How it works An example of a workspace is the Employee Self Service workspace which you can access directly from the default workspace.

This gives the employees access to all of their details

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The user is able to quickly perform common tasks against their worker record, including the creation of expense reports.

From here the workers can quickly access transactional information like the expense items that they need to reconcile.

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For the more visually inclined they can see all of the transactions as tiles as well and sort by category.

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Review The self service workspaces are usually initial Workspaces for the users and designed to be landing pages.

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Using the Credit and Collections Workspace Another type of workspace is more of the functional design. These workspaces are designed by job function and are aimed to give the user everything that they could possibly need in order to perform that task all within one spot.

An example of this is the Credit and Collections workspace which allows us to see all of the information pertaining to customers and the collections process.

How it works The first thing to point out are the tiles that are quick links into the different functions that they would need to access on a day to day basis.

Additionally there are interactive charts providing analytics that the user is able to filter to discover information.

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From the charts the users are able to drill directly into the detail that made up the chart detail.

Although Dynamics 365 is web based, it also allows for layers to be peeled off allowing the user to have multiple windows open at once allowing the users to tile multiple windows together.

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Another component within the workspaces is the List view. These allow the user to move key views from their favorite forms into the workspace for quick access,

From the list views, the users are able to also perform the common transactions that they would normally require directly from the list menu. For example, as a collections agent we can create and send statements to the customers. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Before sending out e-mails, the users are able to tweak the email content directly within Dynamics 365 and also not require to have an e-mail client.

One of the benefits of the integration with Office 365 is that all email correspondence is tracked and managed within Office.

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Power BI is also embedded directly within the workspaces.

By clicking on any of the tiles within the workspace will allow the user to view the detailed analytics and dashboards.

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Review The functional workspaces like the Credit and Collections workspace give the user a single page that they can start off with and then perform all of the usual tasks without having to access any other menu items.

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Entering an order One of the most common transactions that almost everyone takes advantage of is the creation of a Sales Order within Dynamics 365. So let's see how we can enter a sales order and how easy it is to use.

How it works We will start off by clicking on the Sales Order Processing and Inquiry workspace tile on the default dashboard.

This will open up the main workspace for order entry.

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Now press ALT+N to access the New menu item and then click the DOWN ARROW to see the menu items. From here we can select the Sales Order menu item.

The New Sales Order dialog will now show up on the right hand side of the form.

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To select a customer, just type in part of the customer details that we want to search on. If we type in part of the account number, then it will show us all of the account numbers that match using the search ahead feature.

If we type in something that is found in some of the other columns – like the name for example, then the system is smart enough to match it up to the other columns. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Once we have found the customer just press ENTER to select it and then ENTER again to create the new sales order.

Now we will be in the sales order maintenance form.

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It is already defaulting focus to the Item Number field so all we need to do is type in part of the part code that we are searching for just like we did for the customer.

Then we have found the right product, just press the ENTER key to select it.

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If we want to access a feature within the ribbon bar as we are entering in the order then we can use the Show Me option by clicking on the lightbulb icon, or by pressing ALT+Q.

Just type in the feature that we are looking for and we will see all of the matching options and select the action that we want to open.

For this example, we typed in on-hand and selected the Intercompany On-hand inquiry. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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This will open up the Intercompany On-hand inquiry for the item.

When we are done, just press ESC to exit out of the form.

After we have finished entering in the order details, just press ALT+S to save the record.

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Then press ESC to exit from the form.

Now we are back to the Sales Order Processing and Inquiry form ready to do it over again.

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Review This is a quick example of how easy it is to create a new Sales Order within Dynamics 365. Notice that we only used the mouse a few times, even though this is a web application. For quick data entry this is a hugely important feature.

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Product Information Management Another common area that we will highlight within Dynamics 365 is the Product Information Management capabilities. This is where we can track all of our products details and also store away any associated documents and files for the product for others to access.

How it works We will start off by looking at the product details, and here we have the opportunity to manage all of the product details including the engineering information.

For any of the products we can define a virtually unlimited number of levels of a Bill Of Material or a Formula for the production of the product.

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Also we can attach any number of images for the product which will be shown on the product information page.

The attachments are not limited to just images, they can also include documents and PDF’s that we may want to associate with the product.

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If we want to, we can also store away non-standard file attachments within the document attachments.

In this example we have a CAD diagram of the product that we can save away for reference.

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Review The Product Information Management forms within Dynamics 365 are a good example of how we are able to use the system to consolidate information into the ERP system and make it available to everyone who has access to the system.

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Vendor Punch Outs Another cool feature that we can highlight within Dynamics 365 is the Vendor Punchout capabilities. This feature shows how Dynamice 365 is able to hand off transactions to other websites and then receive the results back after the transaction has been completed.

In this example we will create a requisition and then order the products through a vendor site without having to do any rekeying.

How it works To do this we will start in the Requisitions form within Dynamics 365.

We can then create a new requisition and fill in all of the requisition details.

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When the requisition is created rather than entering in all of the details by hand, we can request the information from an External Catalog.

Dynamics 365 will then show us all of the catalogs that we have a partnership with and we can select the one that we want to buy the products from.

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This is where Dynamics 365 will warn us that we are going to an external site, but that’s OK.

Now we will be taken to the external website.

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From here we can browse through the products on the external websites shopping cart.

When we find the products that we would like to add to our requisition then we just add them to our cart.

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When we have finished our shopping, all we need to do is checkout of the website.

This will take us to the shopping cart confirmation page and we can transfer the shopping cart details directly to Dynamics 365.

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This will open up a confirmation page where we can see all of the products that we have added to our cart and all we need to do here is click on the Add to requisition button.

This will copy all of the lines from the shopping cart of the external vendor over to our requisition.

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Dynamics 365 also has an inbuilt workflow engine, so now that we have the items that we would like to request, all we need to do is click on the Workflow menu item and then click on the Submit button.

This will allow us to add any additional notes to our workflow request and now we just have to wait for the requisition to be approved. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Review The Vendor Punch Out feature within Dynamics 365 is a really cool feature because it means that all of the users are able to shop for products through the vendors website and none of the products have to be set up within the Dynamics 365.

This reduces the amount of setup for sure, but also makes it easier for the users to order the products that they need and also get accurate prices from the preferred vendors.

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Project Management Another strength of Dynamics 365 that we will quickly look at is the inbuilt Project Management module. For anyone who needs to track projects, activities and work breakdown structures then having this as part of the core system is a huge benefit.

How it works Within Dynamics 365 we can create a number of different projects with different types of purposes and functions including Fixed Price, Investment, and Time & Material projects.

The projects can also have an unlimited number of sub-project levels and structures for managing the projects.

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Additionally, each project and sub-project is able to have its own Work Breakdown structure associated with it allowing for detailed tracking of all of the tasks and milestones of the project.

Something else that is a bonus within the Dynamics 365 Projects area is that it has the native capability to track resources, assignments to projects, and also utilization of the project team members. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Review The Project Management features within Dynamics 365 become even more powerful as well with inbuilt integration to Microsoft Project, and also links back into all of the other modules in the system like the General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets and more.

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Summary When we use Dynamics 365, we can see that within a couple of clicks we can move from the main dashboard to the workspaces, and then directly into the transactions. Although we can still navigate to the main menus to find the obscure functions that we want to use only once in a blue moon, the workspaces are the key starting point.

Also once we have personalized the workspaces to show us just the information that we need, they become the central hub for everything that we need to do.

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Using the help and task guides within Dynamics 365 Dynamics 365 has a lot of inbuilt context sensitive help that we can take advantage of, but these are not our common help options. Users are able to access context sensitive help directly from the application including Wiki curations and also the interactive task guides.

In this section we will take a look at these features, how we can use them and also how to extend the help if we like to include our own business procedures.

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Accessing the Help Task Guide The help within Dynamics 365 is embedded directly into the application, and is context sensitive, which means that it will just show us the help that is pertinent to the area of the system that we are currently in. And the help is just a click away.

How it works To access the help, just click on the ? icon in the top right hand corner of the application and select the Help menu item.

This will open up the help panel showing us all of the task guides that are associated with the application. These are special types of help that will step we through the recorded tasks interactively click by click.

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Review Having the help at our fingertips is great, and no-one will judge we if we need to access it. That’s what it’s there for.

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Using the wiki help The Wiki help is a different generation of help that is being delivered with Dynamics 365. Rather than just having help that is delivered with the application and never updated, the Wiki help is a community curated help system where Microsoft, Partners and even Customers are able to contribute and update the content.

How it works Dynamics 365 also comes with a new type of help through a curated Wiki. This allows Microsoft, Partners, and Customers to contribute to the help for Dynamics 365 collaboratively.

To access this, just click on the Wiki tab on the help panel.

Then the Wiki tab is shown if there is any help that is related to the screen that we are on then it will show here, and if not, then we will be able to search the Wiki help by just typing in the topic that we are interested in.

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Review The Wiki help is great since it is continually being updated, and the Wiki itself is the best place to find any information on Dynamics 365. If we browse through it we will see that there is not only end user documentation, but also technical documentation and also resources that we may find useful throughout the project.

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Using the task guides If we were looking for a more interactive type of help with Dynamics 365, or if we are looking to learn how to perform a certain task then we will probably want to use the Task Guides. These are great because they actually step we through steps required to perform a task within Dynamics 365.

How it works To see all of the Task Guides that are related to the current form that we are in, just click on the Task Guides tab within the Help panel.

When the task guides refresh we will see that there are a lot of task guides that we can step through.

For example, if we want to learn how to create a new sales order then click on the Create Sales Order link in the task guides.

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This will open up a new panel for the task guide that shows we the narrative steps that explain how we perform the task.

But if we want more help, just click on the Start Task Guide button at the bottom of the panel.

This will start stepping us through all of the steps interactively, and tell us what we need to click on. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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For example, the first step is to open up the Shipped but not Invoiced Sales Orders from the dropdown menu.

After we have done this then we will be asked to click on the New button on the menu bar.

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When we are taken into the forms the task guides will give us detailed instructions on what data we need to fill out.

Additionally, if we click on the Show more link at the bottom of the task guide panel, then we will see that there is even more to the task guide instructions.

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In this example we expanded out the task guide for entering in the customer account, and we see that the task guide is even suggesting the customer that we should select.

If at any time we want to exit from the task guide, all we need to do is click on the Stop button in the menu bar.

This will switch us out of the interactive version of the guide and return us back to the traditional help for the task guide.

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Review Task Guides are a very cool way to get help within the application, because they are interactive.

Rather than looking through documentation that says, click on this, the task guides show us exactly what to click on as they step us through the process. Not only does this make it easier to follow, it also saves us a lot of time in searching for where to click.

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Creating our own task guides There is one more special feature that is available with the Task Guides, and that is that we can create our own recordings that we can play back later on, just by performing the task ourself.

This means that we can document our own business processes just like the standard ones delivered with Dynamics 365.

How it works To do this, first click on the Gear icon in the top right hand corner of the application.

When the dropdown list is displayed, select the Task Recorder option.

This will open up the Task Recorder panel on the right hand side of the form.

To create a new recording, just click on the Create recording link.

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This will take us to the Task Recording creation form.

Just type in a Recording name to describe the recording.

For example, here we want to set the Recording name to Create a new Sales Order.

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And then we can type in a Recording description to explain what we are doing within the recording. This is useful because it will give the other users a little bit more information about this guide.

When we have done that, click on the Start button at the bottom of the panel.

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This will open up a recording bar at the top of the form showing us that we are in recording mode.

All we need to do is then step through the motions of the task.

For example, click on the Menu Navigation icon, select the Accounts Receivable menu group, click on the Orders menu group and then select the All Sales Orders menu item

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Then click on the New button in the menu bar.

Notice on the right hand side of the form, each of the steps that we are walking through is being recorded and tracked within the Task recording.

Now just type in a Customer account and press enter. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Here we used the US-004 customer account.

This will take us to the order lines form.

Now type in an Item Number.

In this example we selected the A0001 item number to order some HDMI Cables. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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And also a Quantity.

And finish off by entering in a Site and Warehouse if we need to.

When we are done, and want to save the recording, just click on the Stop button in the recording controls bar.

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Now we have recorded a task.

Review Task guides are pretty darn cool, but by being able to record our own Task Guides, they become even cooler. One of the most commonly overlooked (or avoided) task within implementations of systems like Dynamics 365 is documentation because of all the additional work that is involved to create it. Now with Task Guides, we can record them as we perform tasks and it’s done.

How easy is that!

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Accessing the business process libraries within Lifecycle Services One of the tools that is highly leveraged by Dynamics 365 is Lifecycle Services. This is a companion site that handles a lot of the management of the project and also holds a whole slew of resources for Dynamics 365 that we can take advantage of including the Business Process Libraries.

We don’t have to hunt around for the link to Lifecycle Services though – we can access it directly from the System Administration workspace.

How it works To do this, all we need to do is open up the System Administration workspace and then click on the Lifecycle Services tile.

This will take us right to the Lifecycle Services project page that is associated with our Dynamics 365 environment.

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The first page will show us all of the current projects that we have set up within Lifecycle Services. If we want, we can click on any of them and drill into the details of the project.

This will take us directly into the project and there are a whole slew of tools here that we can take advantage of.

For example, if we wanted to access the Business process models that we are creating throughout the project then just scroll over to the right a little and click on the Business process modeler tile.

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From here we will see all of the different business process models associated with the project, and we can just click on the one that we want to browse to.

Within the Business Process Models we will see all of the different process steps that are configured for the business process model.

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If we expand out any of the levels we will notice that there are multiple levels available within the standard business models. We can drill down we will get to more and more granular business processes.

Some of the steps will also have a little flowchart icon to the right of the step. This indicates that there is a business model flow that is recorded against the step. To see it all we need to do is click on the step.

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This will open up any of the business processes that is associated with the step, and we will be able to see all of the steps involved in performing this task. All of this is generated automatically from the task recorder which we will see later on.

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Review Lifecycle Services is a key tool for Dynamics 365. It manages our project and also is a repository for a lot of the information that we want to track against our project. The Business Process Models are just one example of some of the information that we can find there.

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Exporting task recordings to Lifecycle Services Once we have created a task recording, we will want to store it somewhere so that everyone else is able to access it and use it while they are trying to learn the system. The best place to do this is within Lifecycle Services, and we can save it there right after the task recording is created.

How it works To save the task recording in Lifecycle Services, just click on the Save to LCS link in the Task Recorder panel.

This will then connect to the default Lifecycle Services business proves model and show us all of the business process model categories as a tree structure.

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All we need to do is expand out the business process models and find the node that matches the process that we just recorded.

After we have selected it then click on the OK button to save the task recording to Lifecycle Services.

And we are now done. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Review Lifecycle Services is the place that we should store all of the information about our project, and that includes the documentation about how we want the system to be used. By having it linked directly to Dynamics 365, we don’t have to jump through any hoops in order to get it there.

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Viewing task recordings in Lifecycle Services By saving our Task Guides to Lifecycle Services, not only do they become available to everyone along with all of the task recordings that are delivered by Microsoft, but we can also view them within Lifecycle services through the Business Process Models feature as flows.

How it works To see the Task Guides, we first need to open up Lifecycle Services. There is a shortcut that we can use to get there. Start off by clicking on the System Administration workspace tile.

And then when the System Administration workspace is displayed, click on the Lifecycle Services tile.

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This will take us into Lifecycle Services and we can then access the project that was created for our instance of Dynamics 365.

If we scroll over to the right and we will be able to click on the Business Process Modeler tile.

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When we open up the Business Process Libraries select the library that we saved our task recording to.

Within the Business Process Library we will see the same hierarchy that we saw when we were saving our task recordings to Lifecycle Services. If we expand out the process tree, then we will be able to see that there is a task recording business process library now attached to the node. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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To view the business process flow diagram, just click on the process flow icon.

That will take us to the definition of our task recording and also the swim name business process view showing all of the forms that are impacted by the business process.

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Review This is pretty smart. By recording our business processes through the Task Recorder and saving it to Lifecycle Services, we now have a graphical view of the process including all of the steps, all of the forms that are used and also all of the roles that have access to it. Documentation has never been easier.

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Summary The help system within Dynamics 365 is more than just the traditional help that we see in other systems. Apart from having pre-packaged Task Guides, and Wiki help, it is also a help system that we are able to extend out by creating our very own task guides that are specific to the way that we do business. Also by saving them away within Lifecycle Services, we retain all of this documentation without a lot of additional work.

Help is helpful again.

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Reporting within Dynamics 365 Dynamics 365 has a number of different ways that we can take advantage of, and they are tailored to the types of reporting that different people will need within the organization.

In this chapter we will look at some of the different reporting options, including the Financial Reporting, and also the dashboard reporting that is available through Power BI.

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Running financial reports With Dynamics 365, the financial reporting is natively integrated within the application itself rather than being another separate reporting tool. Through the Management Reporter tools, we can create all of our statutory and financial reports like Balance Sheets, Profit & Loss Statements and much more.

How it works In order to access the Financial reports, start off by clicking on the Navigation menu to open up the menu navigation dropdown list.

Then click on the General Ledger menu group and then click on the Financial Reports menu item.

This will open up the Financial Reports list.

To run a report, all we need to do is click on the report name and then click on the View button in the menu bar.

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When the report is displayed, it is shown within the application itself. If we want to drill into any of the detail, then we just click on the currency value. for example, we can click on the Cost of Goods Sold amount.

This will drill we down into the details for that made up the report line. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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If we click on any of the other details then we will also get the option to drill further into the details.

To view the transactions within Dynamics 365, just click on the Open account transactions option.

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That will take us straight to the transaction details within Dynamics 365 where we can also browse to the original transactions.

Review The financial reports are designed just for that, financial reporting, and is designed to access the General Ledger accounts and structures. we won’t use this tool to get a customer or order list, but it will allow us to get the financial reports out of the system and also drill into all of the financial details behind the transactions.

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Traditional Reporting In addition to the financial and analytical reports within Dynamics 365, there are 800+ other reports that allows the user to see transactional information and create more static views of report data.

How it works All of the reports can be accessed directly from the workspaces and also the module menus.

The standard reports allow the development group to design more structured reports such as this one which is a Customer Aging view.

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Review There are a lot of these standard reports within Dynamics 365 and although you cannot do any slicing and dicing of the information in the reports, they still give you a lot of information and also allow you to drill from the reports directly down to the detail within the system.

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Exporting Data To Excel Another type of reporting that every user should be able to take advantage of is reporting and analysis through Excel. Everyone knows excel already and this is a quick and easy way for the users to quickly create their own personal reports and analyze the data without needing to be a developer.

How it works Directly from the Dynamics 365 client the user is able to link directly to Word and Excel. This feature has two different options – the exporting to excel, which creates a static view of the data and the open in excel, which will create a live link between the Excel data and Dynamics allowing for data refreshing and also data updates.

Additionally, the user is able to open the Excel files locally, or save them away in SharePoint or OneDrive and then work on then through Office 365 Online.

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When the user opens the data in Excel, then they automatically load a connector that will allow them to filter the data, and even publish the data back to Dynamics.

Another benefit of using Excel is that it has a number of ways that the user is able to visualize and pivot the data, and the user already know how to use them. This is usually an easy way for the users to start off with business intelligence. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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As an example, through Excel we can easily map all of our customer data by state.

We can then segregate the data by Sales Origin.

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And then also set the globe to automatically rotate.

This is very cool, and standard functionality within Excel.

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Review Even though companies are usually implementing Dynamics 365 so that people will stop using Excel as their system of record, that doesn’t mean that using Excel for what it was designed for (i.e. analyzing data) is a bad thing.

By giving the users an easy way to do their own reporting this way they are even more empowered with the data.

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Publishing Excel Data To PowerBI Sometimes the information that the users create within Excel is just too good to be used by just one user, and that’s OK. If anyone creates a new dataset that they want to make available to everyone then they can easily publish the data from Excel directly to PowerBI so that others can use it for their own analysis.

How it works To do this the user just selects the Publish option from within Excel and from there they are able to publish it directly to PowerBI Online.

This allows them to take the data that they were working on within Excel and use the full power of PowerBI to create more interactive views.

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Review Coming full circle with the data, where the users can create their own queries within Excel and then make it available on PowerBI online is a great feature to take advantage of. There is no need to share Excel workbooks within the organization any more – just publish it and let everybody see it.

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Getting Insights Into Your Data Once you have your data within PowerBI Online, there is a really cool feature that you can take advantage of that will look at all of your data and point out trends and correlations within your data that you may not initially notice.

How it works To do this, all we have to do is select the data that we uploaded into PowerBI Online and select the Get quick insights option.

As a result, any set of data that you publish there may be analyzed for trends or relationships that you may not have known about just by looking at the main dashboards.

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Review The Quick Insights feature is a great way to have PowerBI do some of the analysis for you and through the machine learning behind the scenes we may find out some interesting hidden facts about our data.

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Power BI Analytics There are standard PowerBI dashboards that are available out of the box with Dynamics 365.

These are rich Analytical dashboards focused on key roles within the organization.

How it works For example, here is one of the standard dashboards that provides insights into the Sales and Profitability.

Review This is just one of the 18+ dashboards that can be deployed for Dynamics 365 without having to start off a usually long and arduous business intelligence project. These can be deployed right at the start of the Dynamics 365 project and we can start seeing results through the dashboard right away rather than at the end of the project which is what has probably happened in the past.

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Using Q&A to Query PowerBI Another useful feature of the PowerBI Dashboards for Dynamics 365 is that you can query the data yourself in just by typing in a request into the Question field and it will build the report on the fly for you.

How it works You can see the Ask a question about your data box on most of the workspaces.

To start creating a report query all we have to do is start asking for the data.

In this example, all we did was ask for the total sales and PowerBI returned back the result for us.

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Additionally the we are able to further refine the search by segregating the data by dimensions.

And the users are also able to then ask for different ways that they want the information presented. Here we switched to a map view.

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Review Using the Question feature is a great way for users to easily ask for information from the data within Dynamics 365 without having to create a report by hand. Usually we know what data is stored away in the system, so using natural language is a really easy way to get some results.

After we have created our query then we can just pin it to one of our dashboards and we can always return to it later on.

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Analyzing PowerBI Data Within Excel Another feature of PowerBI that we can take advantage of is the Analyze in Excel option. This allows us to take any of the data that we have within PowerBI and export it to Excel as a Pivot Table.

How it works When we are looking at the Power BI reports we can just click on the menu bar and select the Analyze in Excel option.

All of the data that is delivered through Power BI becomes available as Pivot Data sources that the users can then run their own analysis.

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Review This is a great feature because all of the standard reports and dashboards that are delivered with Dynamics 365 can then be analyzed through Excel. The added benefit of this is that all of the data has already been distilled down for us and we don’t even have to know anything about the database in order to get pretty detailed reporting through Excel.

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Streaming Analytics Another neat feature of PowerBI that we can take advantage of is the Streaming Analytics. This allows us to create live views on the Dynamics 354 data, and even other data sources like IoT devices and show that information within the PowerBI Dashboards.

How it works This means that the data that is shown within Power BI does not have to remain static, and we can easily monitor quickly changing data.

Review The streaming data is a great way to view the data within Dynamics 365 because it allows us to see the real time data rather than having to refresh the dashboards.

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Viewing Relationships within PowerBI PowerBI has all of the charts and controls that you would expect to have for displaying the data, but there are also a lot of cooler chart types that we can use to display the data including custom controls that have been developed by other people and published through the custome controls galleries.

How it works As an example, where there are relationships of connections between the data, Power BI is able to visualize the connections. For example this example shows the social media connections within social data.

Review These visualizations allow us to be a lot more creative in the way that we look at our data, and also how we can drill into the interrelationships of the information coming from Dynamics 365 and other data sources. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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Summary There are a lot of ways that we can report out of Dynamics 365. Some are geared towards the financial group, some are more visual and designed to give us overviews or executive summaries, and some are more like the traditional reporting that everyone has been using for the past couple of decades.

So rest assured, we can probably get the type of report that we are looking for out of at least one of those options.

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Using the data management tools within Dynamics 365 The Data Management tools within Dynamics 365 are a great set of tools that everyone should know about and take advantage of. They allow us to import and export data directly from the system without even writing a single line of code. If we are trying to load in master data, or if we are trying to export out data for other systems, then this is the tool for us.

In this chapter we will show us some of the things that we can do with the Data Management tools.

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Creating a data export template using data management One of the workspaces that is embedded within Dynamics 365 is a Data Management workspace.

This is a really useful workspace because it allows the user to export data to data packages that can then be used in other environments

How it works To create an export template start off on the default dashboard view and select the Data Management workspace tile.

When the Data management workspace is displayed, click on the Export tile.

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This will open up the Export workbench where we will add all of the different items that we want to include within the export template.

Start off by typing in a Name for the export group. In this example we will create an export that has all of the Accounts Receivable codes, so we will set the name to AccountsReceivableExport.

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Next we will want to specify the format for each of the export package files. To do this click on the dropdown list for the Target data format.

Here we will see that there are a number of different data format options including CSV formats, AX files, and also Excel. Select the EXCEL data format.

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Now we will want to start adding the entities that we want to include within the export package.

Rather than search through all of the entities, just type in part of the entity name into the Entity Name field. For example, type in payment sch.

This will give us a list of all of the matching entities including the Payment Schedule entity which we can double click on.

After we have done that then click on the Add entity button.

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After we have done that then click on the Add entity button.

This will add the entity to our workspace. we can continue adding in as many other entities into the template as we like.

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Review We can create templates that have as many of the entities from Dynamics 365 as we like. They are like little mini time capsules of data. All we need to do is fill them.

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Creating a data export from a data template Once we have created the data template, we can put it to good use by using it to export the selected entity data.

How it works To do this just click on the Export button in the menu bar.

This will kick off the export process. When the message bar is displayed, click on the Close button.

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Now the export will run in the background for us. If we want to see the progress, then we may want to click on the Refresh icon in the top right of the form to update our view.

After a bit we will see a summary of all of the records that are created within the export process.

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Once we have created the export, we can then save it off as a data package. This has a number of benefits because the package is then a local file that we can share, edit, and also use within other systems.

To do this, just click on the Download package menu item.

When the message is displayed saying that there is no data package, and do we want to create one click on the Yes button.

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This will create the data package for us and all we need to do is file it away. So when the file options bar is displayed, click on the Save options and then select the Save as menu item.

This will open up a Save As dialog box.

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The file name is a little cryptic as a GUID so change the file name to something a little more understandable like AccountsReceivable_DataPackage, and then click on the Save button.

This will save the file and open it up for us. It is really just a zip file with all of the data saved away in individual Excel worksheets. Click on the Customer groups file – or any other one that we like. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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we will see that the file is a spreadsheet with all of the columns from Dynamics 365 and a row for each piece of data.

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Review Now we are cooking with gas. We now have a package that has all of the data from the entities that we selected. This is a great way to create a backup package for our information, but it is also now a file that we can use as in import template in other systems.

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Importing data packages into other entities Once we have created the export packages then we can use them to hydrate other instances of Dynamics 365 and even other new Legal Entities that we may be creating. This is definitely a great way to create reusable data import templates.

How it works To do this switch to the environment or legal entity that we want to import the data package and then click on the Data Management workspace tile within the default dashboard.

When the Data Management workspace is displayed, click on the Import tile.

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This will open up the data Import workbench.

The first thing we need to do is enter in a Name for the import project.

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Then click on the Source data format dropdown list to show all of the different options that we have as the source data.

Since we created a package with our data in it select the Package option.

Then click on the Upload button. www.dynamicscompanions.com Dynamics Companions

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This will open up a file explorer and we just need to browse to the location of the data export package and then click on the Open button.

This will start off an import function which will examine the manifest of the package and find all of the data entities that are in there.

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Within a couple of seconds, the import project will get populated with all of the entities that were included in the file.

To start the import process, just click on the Import menu item in the menu bar.

This will then kick off the import as a background process. When the message bar is displayed, click on the Close button.

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As the process runs we will be able to see all of the data as it’s being loaded. If we want, we can click on the Refresh icon in the top right hand corner of the application to track the progress.

After just a bit we will see all of the data that has been imported and if there are any quirks in the data that is being loaded.

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When the form is displayed we will see that all of the Terms of Payments are now populated and loaded into the blank entity.

Review Importing data using packages is really easy to do. The great thing about this is that all of the information about the data and how to import it is stored away in the package. All we need to do is load it in.

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Summary The Data Management Tools are pretty handy. we can use them in a number of different ways.

If we want to create an import template, then we can run through this process and then just clean out the data within the template and add our own data.

Also, once we have the data in a package, we can save it away just in case we want to use it on another system.

This is really the Swiss Army knife of data management, and we can do all of this without even writing a line of code.

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DYNAMICS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION GUIDE

Conclusion Hopefully this guide has given you all a little better idea of some of the features within Dynamics 365 system and also taught you a couple of tricks that we didn’t already know about, and also a couple of tricks that will help us as we are learning to navigate through the new user interface.

We are not pretending that these are the only features that are hidden away within the system and as we learn more we will definitely be sharing those with you all as well.

In the meantime, we think this a good start.

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About The Author Murray Fife is an Author of over 25 books on Microsoft Dynamics including the Bare Bones Configuration Guide series of over 15 books which step the user through the setup of initial Dynamics instance, then through the Financial modules and then through the configuration of the more specialized modules like production, service management, and project accounting. You can find all of his books on Amazon at www.amazon.com/author/murrayfife.

For more information on Murray, here is his contact information: Email: murray@murrayfife.com Twitter: @murrayfife Facebook: facebook.com/murraycfife Google: google.com/+murrayfife LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/murrayfife Blog: atinkerersnotebook.com Docs: docs.com/atinkerersnotebook Amazon: amazon.com/author/murrayfife

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Do you want to learn more about Microsoft Dynamics?

The Bare Bones Configuration Guides for Microsoft Dynamics were developed to show you how to set up a company from the ground up and configure all of the common modules that most people would need, and a few that you might want to use.

It aims to demystify the setup process and prove that Microsoft Dynamics is only as hard to configure as you make it, and if you are a mid-range customer that even you can get a company configured and working without turning on every bell and whistle and without breaking the bank.

There are 16 volumes in the current series and although each of these guides have been designed to stand by themselves as reference material for each of the modules within Microsoft Dynamics AX, if they are taken as a whole series they are also a great training system that will allow even a novice on Microsoft Dynamics work through the step by step instructions and build up a new company from scratch and learn a lot of the ins and outs of the system right away. The current guides are: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Configuring a Legal Entity Configuring The General Ledger Configuring Cash and Bank Management Configuring Accounts Receivable Configuring Accounts Payable Configuring Product Information Management Configuring Inventory Management Configuring Procurement & Sourcing Configuring Sales Order Management Configuring Human Resources Configuring Project Management & Accounting Configuring Production Control Configuring Sales & Marketing Configuring Service Management

If you are interested in finding out more about the series and also view all of the details including topics covered within the module, then browse to the Bare Bones Configuration Guide on the Dynamics Companions website. You will find all of the details, and also downloadable resources that help you with the setup of Microsoft Dynamics. Here is the full link: http://www.dynamicscompanions.com

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