MS Learn Highlights – 7/3/2025

Financial Reporting Overview

This article provides an overview of financial reporting capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. It explains where to access financial reporting features and how to use them effectively to generate financial statements and reports.

Key Points

• Accessing Financial Reporting: Financial reports are accessed via the "Financial reporting" workspace in Dynamics 365 Finance. This workspace centralizes all tools for creating, managing, and running financial reports.

• Financial Reporting Capabilities:

  • Design and generate financial statements such as balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow reports.
  • Use configurable row definitions, column layouts, and reporting trees to tailor reports.
  • Reports support multiple reporting currencies and legal entities.
  • Drill-down capability into underlying ledger entries is supported for detailed analysis.
  • Integration with Excel for advanced formatting and analysis is available.

• Configuration Elements:

  • Row Definitions: Define the structure and calculations of financial line items.
  • Column Definitions: Specify periods, fiscal years, or custom date ranges to appear as report columns.
  • Reporting Trees: Organize organizational units or company hierarchies for consolidated reporting.
  • Reports: Combine rows, columns, and reporting trees to form a complete report definition.

• Security: Access to financial reporting features is managed via security roles to ensure appropriate control and segregation of duties.

• Printing and Exporting: Reports can be printed or exported in various formats including PDF and Excel, facilitating distribution and further analysis.

Conclusion

Dynamics 365 Finance provides robust financial reporting tools within a dedicated workspace, allowing users to create detailed, customizable financial statements that reflect organizational structures and multiple legal entities. The solution supports integration with Excel and offers drill-down capabilities, contributing to comprehensive financial analysis.

For more detailed instructions on configuring and using financial reporting, consult the linked documentation.

Original article: Financial reporting overview - Finance | Dynamics 365

Upgrade from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation to Dynamics 365 Project Operations

This article provides an overview of upgrading from Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation (PSA) to Dynamics 365 Project Operations, specifically for organizations using non-stocked project products (services without inventory tracking).

Key Points

• Scope: Upgrade applies to PSA customers transitioning to Project Operations.
• Focus: Non-stocked projects—those involving services not managed as inventory items.
• Goal: Continuity of project management, resource scheduling, and project accounting processes.
• Upgrade involves: Data migration, configuration changes, and adoption of new Project Operations functionality replacing PSA capabilities.

Upgrade Process Overview

1. Assessment and Planning

   • Review existing PSA setup, customizations, and integrations.
   • Identify non-stocked project products and related data.
   • Prepare project teams for change management.

2. Data Preparation

   • Cleanse and validate project data in PSA.
   • Export necessary project-related records (e.g., project contracts, estimates, time entries).

3. Upgrade Setup

   • Provision Dynamics 365 Project Operations environment.
   • Configure Project Operations to align with organizational requirements.
   • Map PSA entities and data to Project Operations equivalents.

4. Data Migration

   • Import PSA project data into Project Operations.
   • Validate successful data transfer and integrity, especially for project billing and resource assignments.

5. Testing

   • Conduct thorough testing of projects, resource scheduling, time and expense entry, and billing workflows.
   • Verify that financial transactions and reporting align with business expectations.

6. Training and Adoption

   • Train project managers, resources, and finance teams on Project Operations.
   • Communicate changes and new features effectively.

7. Go-live and Support

   • Switch production use to Project Operations.
   • Monitor system performance and resolve issues.
   • Plan for ongoing updates and feature utilization.

Considerations

• Some PSA features have evolved or changed in Project Operations; evaluate the impact on business processes.
• Customizations may require redevelopment or adjustment in Project Operations.
• Non-stocked item handling shifts to a service-focused model without inventory management.
• Integration points with other Dynamics 365 modules and external systems need reassessment.

For detailed procedural steps, technical prerequisites, and examples, please refer to the original Microsoft Learn article:

Upgrade from Project Service Automation to Project Operations

Capture a receipt using OCR in Dynamics 365 Project Operations

This article explains how Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is used within Dynamics 365 Project Operations to process receipts submitted for expense reporting. The OCR processing extracts and matches data from scanned or photographed receipts to expense transactions, streamlining expense management.

Key Concepts

• OCR for Receipts: Converts receipt images into machine-readable text.
• Matching Expenses: Extracted data from OCR is matched against expense entries to validate and simplify expense reporting.
• Supported formats: Receipts are typically captured as images or PDFs and processed via integrated OCR services.

How OCR Processing Works

1. Receipt Upload
   Users upload receipts through the expense submission interface as images or PDFs.

2. OCR Processing
   The system analyzes the receipt image using OCR to extract essential details such as vendor name, date, currency, and total amount.

3. Data Validation and Matching
   The extracted data is checked against the expense entry fields to ensure accuracy and consistency. Matches reduce manual data entry.

4. Error Handling
   If OCR fails or data does not match, users can manually edit the extracted information before finalizing the expense submission.

Benefits

• Reduces manual entry and errors.
• Speeds up expense validation and approval processes.
• Improves data accuracy in project expense records.

Usage Recommendations

• Upload clear, legible receipts for optimal OCR results.
• Review OCR-extracted data for any discrepancies.
• Use the feature to automate matching of simpler receipts and minimize administrative overhead.

For detailed steps, configuration options, and troubleshooting, please refer to the official documentation linked below.

Original article: Capture a receipt using OCR - Microsoft Learn

Analyze demand plans with Copilot

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management introduces integration with Copilot to enhance demand planning by providing AI-assisted analysis of demand plans. This feature helps planners gain insights, identify anomalies, and make informed decisions based on the demand data.

Overview

• Purpose: Use Copilot AI to analyze demand plans, uncover patterns, detect issues, and suggest improvement opportunities.
• Audience: Supply chain planners and demand planners who manage forecast and demand data in Dynamics 365.
• Scope: Analysis covers demand forecasts, historical demand data, and related plan details to optimize planning effectiveness.

Prerequisites

Before using Copilot with demand plans, ensure:

• You have access to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management with demand planning capabilities enabled.
• Your Environment has AI features and Copilot enabled.
• Appropriate security roles and permissions to access demand planning and AI assistant features.
• Demand plans are created and available for analysis in the system.
• Internet connectivity and licensing that supports Copilot AI functionalities.

How to analyze demand plans with Copilot

1. Access Demand Planning workspace: Navigate to the Demand Planning module within Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.
2. Open a demand plan: Select the specific demand plan you want analyzed.
3. Invoke Copilot: Use the Copilot interface within the demand plan to request analysis.
4. Review AI insights: Copilot provides insights such as unusual demand variations, forecast accuracy issues, and potential risks.
5. Take recommended actions: Based on Copilot’s suggestions, adjust forecasts, investigate anomalies, or update parameters.
6. Iterate analysis: Repeat the analysis as needed after plan adjustments to refine accuracy.

Benefits

• Faster identification of demand plan issues through AI-driven insights.
• Better alignment of forecast with actual demand patterns.
• Enhanced decision-making supported by intelligent recommendations.
• Time savings by automating analysis tasks traditionally done manually.

For detailed technical setup, user roles, and troubleshooting, refer to official Dynamics 365 documentation.

Original article: Analyze demand plans with Copilot - Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365

Responsible AI FAQ for Analyze demand plans with Copilot

This article provides answers to frequently asked questions about the AI technology behind the "Analyze demand plans with Copilot" feature used in Demand Planning within Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

Summary

The "Analyze demand plans with Copilot" feature leverages AI to assist users in understanding and improving demand plans. The FAQ covers details about the AI model, data privacy, security, and responsible AI principles guiding the feature’s implementation.

Key Points

• What is Analyze Demand Plans with Copilot?

  • An AI-based assistant integrated into demand planning that helps analyze, generate insights, and provide recommendations on demand plans.

• AI Technology Used

  • Built on Microsoft’s responsible AI principles.
  • Uses advanced machine learning models trained on historical demand planning data.

• Data Privacy and Security

  • Customer data used for AI inference stays within the customer's environment.
  • No customer data is sent externally; AI computations comply with privacy regulations.

• Responsible AI Practices

  • Transparency: Users are informed when AI is used.
  • Fairness: Efforts to avoid bias in AI-generated insights.
  • Explainability: AI-generated recommendations are accompanied by explanations.
  • Privacy & Security: Strict measures to safeguard data.

• User Control

  • Users can accept, reject, or modify AI suggestions before applying changes to demand plans.

• Limitations

  • AI recommendations support decision-making but do not replace human judgment.
  • Performance depends on the quality and volume of historical data.

• How to Enable the Feature

  • Available out-of-the-box in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management for users with demand planning roles.
  • Requires system configuration to integrate Copilot functionalities.

Additional Information

• Addresses common concerns around trustworthiness and governance of AI in supply chain scenarios.
• Provides links to further documentation on responsible AI and Dynamics 365 features.

For full details, see the original Microsoft article:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/supply-chain/faq-demand-planning-copilot