Use Github Copilot to understand what a parameter Does

Use Github Copilot to understand what a parameter Does

by

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog called “How GitHub Copilot Can Help a Functional Consultant in D365”, where I shared how AI can assist functional consultants in daily work, even without deep development experience.

Today, I want to share another real example – how AI helped me understand a Accounts Receivable parameter does.

This is a common situation for functional consultants:
a parameter exists, the name sounds important, but there is little or no official documentation we can utilize to determine if it fits or not.

Recently, I was asked about the following parameter:

“Turn on performance improvements for the Customer credit and collections workspace”

You can find it under: Accounts Receivable > Set up > Accounts Receivable parameters > Preview features > Collections

When researching this flag, there were no articles directly explaining it. The most “relevant” article I found talked about Credit and collections management Power BI content, and mentioned a feature called: “Credit and collections analytics performance improvements”. However, I happend to know that this is NOT the same thing.

This is a Power BI feature that enabled via Feature management, and it switches the data source from CustCollectionsBIMeasurementsV2 → CustCollectionsBIMeasurementsV3

Back to our parameter.

By right-clicking the field and checking details, we can see:

  • Table: CustParameters
  • Field name: CustCollectionManagerEnablePerfImprove

Using a development VM , I went to:

AOT > Tables > CustParameters (AppWork) > Fields

From there:

  • Right-click the field
  • Select Find references

The result shows 3 forms using this field.

When opening each reference, I noticed a very similar code pattern like this:

if (CustParameters::find().CustCollectionManagerEnablePerfImprove)
{
    CustCollectionsWorkspaceHelper::populateCustCollectionsCustomerFilterTmp(
        listPageHelper, _customerFilterTemp);
}
else
{
    SetEnumerator custFilters =
        CustCollectionsWorkspaceHelper::buildCustomerFilterSet(listPageHelper).getEnumerator();
    ...
}

if you know if else logic, you know If the flag is ON → system calls populateCustCollectionsCustomerFilterTmp, otherwise, system calls buildCustomerFilterSet, or if you don’t know the logic, you can ask AI for help, I asked Copilot something like:

“How does CustCollectionManagerEnablePerfImprove work?”

AI explained as shown below:

The next question to AI is:

What is the difference between populateCustCollectionsCustomerFilterTmp and buildCustomerFilterSet?

Copilot explained as shown below:

When I inspected buildCustomerFilterSet, I noticed something important: There is a SysObsolete attribute above the method. I just read a blog by Kurt Hatlevik explaining SysObsolete this morning, and based on that knowledge: SysObsolete means Microsoft discourages further usage of this method and plans to replace it with a newer implementation.

This perfectly aligns with our findings:

  • Old logic → buildCustomerFilterSet
  • New logic → populateCustCollectionsCustomerFilterTmp
  • Parameter controls which one is used

At this point, you could go deeper and ask AI: “What does insert_recordset do?”

But for me, this was enough. I now understand that:

  • The flag switches the insert strategy
  • The insert is targeting a temporary table
  • Therefore, I do not expect significant functional impact
  • The change is mainly about performance and efficiency

To be safe, I still tested this in a Tier-2 environment, and the result matched what I learned from AI.

This example shows how AI helps functional consultants who do not have development experience.
You just need to:

  1. Locate the parameter
  2. Find where it’s used
  3. Ask the right questions to AI

AI doesn’t replace understanding — it accelerates investigation.

Leave a Comment