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NAV 2018 new features
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018 New Features
Jesse Lawrence
In a recent blog, we announced the general release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018. In this blog we will look at the new features that have been announced in the latest release that will effect end users. For those that are interested in new releases for developers, we will be releasing a follow up blog with information on this – sign up below to be kept up to date on all of the latest! On testing, it has been reported that there are a few minor bugs with specific features, but these are likely to be fixed before you decide to install or upgrade.
User Tasks
This new feature allows tasks to be assigned to any user, with new pending user tasks highlighted in a cue on the role centre.
- System wide tasks
- Track the due date
- Recurrence available
- Task lists per user
Once completed, there is functionality to bulk-delete the completed user tasks.
Employee Expenses Management
In previous versions of NAV, employees had to be set up as vendors to post expenses. Now, NAV 2018 allows expenses to be posted against employee cards, with a range of tools to simplify the process.
- Create Journal entries directly for employees – only supports local currency (LCY)
- Employee posting group, definable on the employee card
- Make payments to the employee in the Payments Journal
- Get payment suggestions with a full list of outstanding employee payments
- Apply payments to open employee entries in one go, linking the payment to the employee journal entry and closing both
- Correct mistakes with unapply payments
IA Image Analyzer
Integrating with the Azure image analyzing service using Cortana intelligence, NAV 2018 can automatically fill in data based on images.
- On Contact cards, having an image of the person will allow NAV to automatically detect gender and guess age.
- For Item images, automatically add attributes including type and colour
Flow
Microsoft Flow takes pre-defined events and triggers tasks, automating processes. With the standard Dynamics NAV connector, it is easy to connect and monitor data from within your system, as well as with hundreds of other data sources. Now with the latest version, you can create and manage your flows from within NAV.
Power BI Integration
With a new connector integrating Power BI with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018, you will be able to discover reports by making them visible from your most frequently used NAV lists.
With updated content packs that are freely available to the public, connect to your reports on a single page and access them from within the NAV clients.
Outlook Contact Interactions
If you have been using interactions to send, receive and log communication with your contacts, then you will love the new integration with Outlook. Now you can create your interactions from within Outlook, including using pre-defined templates.
Preconfigured Excel Reports
With the ever increasing integration of NAV with Office 365, it makes sense that the evolution is out-of-the-box Excel reports. One click takes you to interactive reporting in Excel, allowing you to get fast insights into your data.
Journal Management with Excel
Use NAV journal pages to create journals in Excel, where you can edit the data with ease. Publish directly back to NAV from Excel, allowing you to manage your journals with ease.
Dynamics 365 for Sales Integration
Over the years, the integration between Dynamics NAV and Dynamics CRM has gotten easier, with more data being transferred.
- Couple NAV sales persons to Dynamics 365 for Sales users
- Synchronise sales orders, item availability, units of meaure and currencies
- Use opportunity management to set default chances of success based on sales cycle stages
- Send a sales quote to contacts without having to create them as a customer
System Refresh
In previous versions, if a user wanted to change the company or role (for example if they covered more than one role), it would require a restart or new login. Now, with system refresh, the session is refreshed seamlessly for the user, saving time and effort.
Simplified Setup
With NAV 2018 comes a single Setup and Extensions area, with assisted setups to help get companies up and running as quickly as possible.
Report Previews
All reports can now be rendered direct to pdf in the existing window, fully interactive with hyperlinks, toolbar etc. Available in desktop, web and mobile clients, there is no longer a requirement for downloading reports and using viewer apps.
A Wide Range of Improvements
As with any release of Dynamics NAV, the improvements in the latest version are too numerous to mention them all in detail, however here is a quick list of some of the key elements:
- Distribute Item Charges based on volume and weight
- Direct Transfer orders – no requirement for in-transit location
- Use EU VAT numbers to update contact name
- Master data from customers and vendors can now be updated from sales and purchase documents
- When searching, help results will show along side in-product results
- New automation of Intercompany inbox and outbox
- Bulk Invoicing improvements
- Suggestion of accounts for posting groups
- Print descriptions from related posted document lines using show details in the Print G/L Register report
- New standard reports, including received - not invoiced purchase orders and shipped - not invoiced sales orders.
- Cheque printing improved to 3 cheques per page
- Payroll import from QuickBooks
For Developers
As you can see, there are a lot of new features and improvements with the latest release! There are even more for developers, for which we will release a separate blog. If you would like to be kept up to date, please send us your details on the form below.
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