Dynamics® NAV 2017 Improvements for Finance and Jobs

Jobs and Finance Improvements for NAV 2017

We have more news from Directions EMEA in Prague, with some of the new features being added to core functionality to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017. In this blog we discuss the latest updates for the Financial management and Jobs modules.

This blog will cover:

• Jobs
• Cash Flow with Cortana
• Default Financial Reports
• Payment Reconciliation

Improvements to Jobs in NAV 2017

There are a number of new features that have been announced to help make the Jobs Suite easier to use. This starts with a better role centre, with features such as “My Jobs” which works like My Customers. The new cues in the Role Centre also allow you to create a new Job Journal or Sales Invoice (Dynamics 365 only). There are also a new set of charts available for the Role Centre, such as cost actual vs budget, profitability, etc.

To make Jobs easier there is a new Job Wizard for creation, as well as a simplified Job card. To help with Outlook integration there is now a Project Manager (PM) field on the card, with PM’s seeing the jobs on their list automatically. The Outlook integration allows calendar entries to be sent from planning lines, with the ability to log usage directly from Outlook. On the planning line for the send to calendar functionality, if you set up outlook and email:

• You can get an email, view details of the job, add to calendar manually by the user, you then accept the calendar meeting
• There is a link in the meeting to see the job planning line in Outlook
• Update the line and post , creating a job journal

From the point of view of setting up a new company, you can use a wizard to set up jobs in terms of defaults, resource setup, number series, etc.

There are a number of other features that include:

• New line types on the planning line: budget, budget and billable, billable from schedule and contract
• Task lines on the job card
• New “Open” status for jobs
• Job quote report

NAV 2017 Cash Flow with Cortana

The new features of cash flow with Dynamics NAV 2017 starts with a simplified setup using a wizard to assist in setting up the following areas:

• Liquid accounts, based on account category
• How often to update the forecast - job queue is set up to update the Cash Flow
• Activate Cortana for Cash Flow
• Fixed costs - period for VAT and due date; you can select the General Ledger or vendor that you use for paying VAT to account for payments
  
  

Cash flow is now calculated automatically with an improved cash flow chart, which can be refreshed from the Role Centre. From the chart you can see details for each column, as well as drilling down to the Cash Flow entries. Overdue entries are moved to a due date of today rather than being dropped from Cash flow for better visibility. Jobs are included in the calculation, looking only at the billable resources. On the chart you can filter out columns to look only at a specific type of entry, such as only receivables or only tax.

In setting up Cortana we feed it historical data that it uses to 'learn' how to forecast. You then specify how many months of forecast you need -it should be something sensible, you can put 14 months, but it will not be accurate. A few months should be the norm. Cortana intelligence is shown as a separate column, showing entries for payables, revenue and correction for any future sales that are already being processed.

Default Financial Reports – Account Categories

This new feature for account categories has a hardcoded top level, to which you can add subcategories. This is used for reports – balance sheet, income statement, retained earnings, cash flow statement. If you create subcategories -i.e. split Accounts Receivable in two, it automatically updates the definition of the original Account Receivable subcategories and updates the subcategories on the General Ledger accounts on Chart of Accounts. There are also new system account schedules, to use account categories, which cannot be changed.

Payment Reconciliation Journal in NAV 2017

There are now new features in the Payment Reconciliation Journal:

• Match a payment reconciliation line to a bank ledger entry for vendor payments
• Match on document no. and external document no.
• Filter to show non applied lines on the payment reconciliation page
• Split line for partial applied entries -transfer the difference to the General Ledger account
• More statistics at the bottom of the page
• Post payment and reconcile the bank account, or split the process to post the payment reconciliation and the bank reconciliation

Find Out More

This is obviously just a quick overview of the new features from the new Dynamics NAV 2017. To find out more and to see the new tools in action, why not join us at the Business Software Showcase, the free event in November. We will be going over the latest updates for Microsoft Dynamics, with keynote speaker Robert Pope, the UK Dynamics NAV Channel Manager from Microsoft.

Register for Free >