Business Central Overview: What is Dynamics 365 Business Central and Its Benefits?

A Detailed Business Central Overview

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a powerful ERP system that is designed to increase daily productivity for everyone in your organization. Businesses can offer employees a personalized and streamlined workspace by harnessing the capabilities of Dynamics 365 Business Central and advanced AI technology like Microsoft Copilot. This tailored environment fosters efficiency, enhancing productivity and improved business outcomes.
In this article, we’ll dive into an overview of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, emphasizing how it allows you to create a customized workspace for quick access to the tools and pages you need to work effectively.

A Detailed Business Central Overview

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has offers capabilities enhances users to work more efficiently and make smarter business decisions. Business Central capabilities and its benefits:

  • Personalized Workspace: Tailored Role Center (Home page) to display the most relevant tools for quick access to necessary information and data.
  • Actionable Insight: Drill down into detailed data and ley metrics from the role center
  • Seamless Integration: Easily connect their Business Cental with other Microsoft products like Microsoft Outlook and Excel. User can not just easily integrate Microsoft ecosystem applications but also third-party applications from App Source.
  • AI Assistant: Microsoft Copilot is integrated with Business Central out of the box. Copilot can be your personal assistant to help you guide step by step.

Work efficiently with your Role Center

The Role Center—essentially the home screen of Business Central—displays the pages and tools most relevant to the logged-in user. This feature ensures that employees across different roles in your organization can easily access the resources they need to excel in their specific tasks. One of the key benefits of the Role Center is that it displays important data, such as sales amounts and overdue purchase amounts, helping users visualize critical business metrics in real time. The Role Center includes:

  • Navigation Menu
  • Navigation Bar
  • Action Bar
  • Activity Section
  • Insights

These tools allow employees to focus on the most relevant tasks while staying informed about the organization’s current performance.

Drill Down into Key Metrics for Actionable Insights

Beyond just viewing data, Business Central allows users to take action directly from the Role Center. For example, users can drill down into detailed numbers on the dashboard to see more detailed reports and/or lists. This capability makes users to simplify workflows and speeds up processes, as users can quickly navigate to the underlying details.

Example: Follow Up on Overdue Sales Invoices

One of the productivity-enhancing features of Business Central is the function to quickly identify and follow up with customers on overdue sales invoices. Here’s how:

Step 1: Click on the “Overdue Sales Invoice Amount” in the Role Center.

Step 2: A list of all overdue sales invoices will appear.

Step 3: Drill down further to view the specific posted sales invoice.

Step 4: You can edit the message to the customer and send the follow-up email directly within the system.

This feature eliminates the need to manually search for overdue invoices, automating part of the follow-up process. By allowing users to work from a single interface, Business Central saves time and reduces the risk of missed follow-ups, leading to faster payments and better cash flow management.

Personalize your workspace

Business Central automatically selects pages for your Role Center, but not all the data or pages you need may be displayed. Thankfully, the personalization feature allows users to tailor their workspace by adding and removing pages to suit their specific needs. You can create a custom workspace that features only the most relevant pages, enabling you to focus on what matters most. By personalizing your Role Center, you can:

  • Access critical tools and data faster, saving time.
  • Eliminate distractions by displaying only the information necessary for your daily tasks.
  • Create a more organized and efficient working environment, leading to quicker task completion.

Change Visual Cues for Better Focus

Visualizing your ongoing activities and results is crucial for tracking progress and staying on top of tasks. While you can customize the pages on your Role Center, Business Central also allows you to modify visual cues, such as changing the color of indicators, so you can instantly see which tasks require immediate attention. For example:

  • Assign different colors to highlight urgent tasks or overdue items
  • Use visual cues to differentiate between completed and pending work

This feature helps you prioritize tasks at a glance, ensuring you stay on track and take timely action where it’s needed the most.

Integration with other Apps to Create your tailored Workspace

One of the key advantages of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is its seamless integration with third-party applications. By connecting essential apps to Business Central, users can streamline their workflow and manage tasks within a single platform, significantly enhancing productivity.

Microsoft Excel integration

Business Central offers an Excel add-on that allows users to work efficiently. On any list page within Business Central, you’ll find “View in Excel” and “Edit in Excel.” This integration makes users to export data, make bulk edits in Excel, and then publish those changes directly into Business Central.

Benefits:

  • Save time by editing data in bulk
  • Leverage Excel’s familiar interface and powerful data manipulation features
  • Ensure data consistency by seamlessly updating Business Central with your changes

Example: Edit item price in Excel

Updating multiple unit prices can be time-consuming if done manually in Business Central. However, with Excel integration, you can quickly edit item prices in bulk and then push those updates back to the system. Here’s how:

Step 1: Open the Item Card in Business Central and click “Edit in Excel.”

Step 2: Edit the unit prices in the Excel spreadsheet

Step 3: After making the changes, click “Publish” using the Microsoft Dynamics Data Connector in Excel.

Step 4: Go back to Business Central, and you’ll see the updated prices reflected automatically.

This integration not only saves time but also reduces errors that can occur when manually entering data across multiple platforms. By consolidating tasks within Business Central and Excel, you can simplify your workflow and improve efficiency.

Microsoft Outlook Integration

With the Outlook add-on for Business Central, users can seamlessly manage their tasks across both platforms, improving productivity and efficiency. This integration allows you to access Business Central directly from Outlook, enabling you to create new accounts, sales documents, and other records without leaving your inbox. Beyond just creating documents, you can also send them directly from Outlook, making communication faster and more efficient.

Example: Create Sales Quote within Outlook

Let’s say you receive a sales quote request from a customer. Instead of switching between applications, you can create and send the sales quote right from your Outlook inbox.

Step 1: Open the customer’s email and click on “Sales Quote” under the Business Central logo.

Step 2: Business Central will suggest sales lines using its AI text capturing feature, which identifies relevant information from the email.

Step 3: Review and select the appropriate sales lines, then, when you’re ready, click “Send by Email.”

Step 4: The PDF sales quote will be sent to the customer directly from Outlook.

This integration saves time by eliminating the need to switch between applications and ensures that your workflow remains smooth and uninterrupted. You can manage customer interactions, create and send documents, and track activity all within a single platform, greatly enhancing your productivity.

Copilot: Make AI your personal assistant

With Microsoft Copilot integrated into Business Central by default, you can leverage the latest AI technology to enhance productivity. Copilot acts as your personal assistant and is available on any page in Business Central through a chatbox. You can ask Copilot questions, get step-by-step guidance, and even automate tasks, allowing you to work more efficiently. Copilot has become an even more powerful personal assistant for users who prefer voice typing, which easily streamlines tasks.

Create professional item description for ecommerce websites

One of Copilot’s standout features is its ability to generate professional item descriptions for e-commerce platforms like Shopify. Copilot can create high-quality descriptions instantly by analyzing items’ attributes. You can edit the content that was created by Copilot to suit your needs, adjusting the tone, format, and emphasis to best describe your items. Benefits:

  • Save time by automating the creation of item descriptions
  • Ensure consistency across product listings
  • Easily tailor descriptions with Copilot’s flexible editing options

This feature helps e-commerce businesses present products more professionally and consistently, all while reducing the time spent on content creation.

Read More: Unlock Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central – Guide

Create your tailored report

Business Central offers a wide range of default reports to help you analyze your business performance. However, with Microsoft Copilot, you can go beyond the pre-built reports and generate custom reports based on your specific needs. This feature empowers users to create reports independently without relying on IT personnel or external vendors, saving both time and costs.

Example: Create your quarterly customer sales report

Here’s how you can create a quarterly customer sales report using Copilot in Business Central:

Step 1: Open Customer Ledger Entries by using the search function

Step 2: Once on the Customer Ledger Entries page, click on Analyze List in the top left corner

Step 3: Ask Copilot to generate the report by specifying what you need, for example, “Quarterly sales per customer, with customers in the rows.”

Step 4: Copilot will generate your tailored report, ready for you to review and analyze.

By using Copilot for custom reporting, you can quickly access the insights without asking help from your IT. This feature not only boosts productivity but also allows for more timely decision-making that is more significant for your organization.

Conclusion

The Business Central overview highlights the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with the enhanced AI-powered tools like Microsoft Copilot, offers a powerful and customizable platform to boost your employees’ productivity. From personalized workspaces with tailored Role Centers to seamless integration with essential applications like Excel and Outlook, Business Central simplifies workflows and centralizes tasks. Copilot acts as a personal assistant, helping users create professional content, generate custom reports, and automate processes without technical support. With these tools at your fingertips, you can streamline daily operations, make faster decisions, and optimize your overall business efficiency.