Just after some hours from official launch of Dynamics 365 Business Central we, Dmitry Katson and Alexander Ermakov, made for you webinar “Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – From the Trenches”, hosted by Mark Brummel.
Recording is available here. Around 500 registrations and 2000 views on YouTube, that was amazing!
We had 15 minutes Q&A in the end, but that was not enough.
Here I grouped all questions into topics and answered them.
Functionality
Q: “Is Microsoft going to take into consideration including a high-level platform inclusive of Human resource management and Payroll?”
A:“Business Central has the same functionality as NAV2018. It has HR module and you can import Payroll transactions in General Ledger. Also I found app Canadian Payroll. However there is no Payroll module included in supported localizations”.
Q:“With our previously provision IUR tenants I noticed we do not have access to Premium license now after reprovising the sandbox so we can’t access manufacturing or field service. Will this be corrected?”
A:“You can find how to enable premium experience in Business Central here”
Q: “Is it possible to use Rapid Start Services on DYN365BC?”
A: “Yes”
Localizations
Q: “According to the roadmap from Microsoft, W1 will be available in Summer, but how about the language? If Microsoft does not provide local language, partner can provide lanaguge for BC template area? Is there any way? I want to have idea on it.”
Q: “We are certifying Ro localization NAV 2018. It contains translations. Will those translations be available on BC (in/after summer when W1 will be release)?”
Q:“In order to prepare the localization for w1, how can we translate the base application? not customized app.”
A: “You should not translate the base application. It is/should be translated to all languages. If you want to translate your app to many languages here are some valued links, Multilanguage Development, Gunnar’s blog about translation service”
Q: “When countries are delivered as extensions, will added fields be in table extensions or will they allow extensions to add fields to a table in the future?”
A: “They should be table extensions. Will see in the future how it will be done actually.”
Upgrade
Q:“I’m logging into my D365 portal and launched Business Central, how come it looks different?”
Q:“When can we expect that existing dynamics financials tenants will be upgraded to business central? Right now when you start business central it redirects you to financials ”
Q:“Upgrade with users online? How does that work?”
A: “If you are current customer of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Business editionthen Microsoft will upgrade your tenant to Business Central in period in period between 11 Apr and 30 Apr”
Q: “Are licensing upgradable for older NAV?”
Q: “Is there any special pricing for customers wanting to migrate from Dynamics GP?”
Q: “There is 40% off licensing for current Dynamics Price List clients – GP, SL, NAV, AX?”
A: “Yes. Available until 30 June 2020.
Maintenance
Q:“Also like to know if limited amount of transactions are an issue. And will is still be needed to run extensive night jobs and maintenance”
A: “Microsoft does not have any limitations to database size and user count per tenant. D365BC databases run on Azure SQL DB elastic S-tier pools, backups are taken as a standard feature of that service. And you don’t have admin rights on that SQL Server.”
Q:“Who and how is in charge of supporting the BC solutions? Will the customer contact the partner? Will the partner have any diagnostic options for the cloud MS operated solution?”
A:“This is three level story.
Customer is responsible for what he is doing inside Business Central (data input, jobs running and so on).
Partner is responsible for what customer can do inside Business Central (setups, rights, extensions).
Microsoft is responsible for availability of Business Central, tenant maintenance and backups.”
Q:“How to take a backup and restore?”
Q:“Can you schedule backups or do manually?”
A: “This is 1mln $ question JNow Microsoft is responsible for making backups (see previous answer), BUT you cannot control it, and you cannot request backup restore for certain date. So, this backup is only for cases if something will happen with tenant (Microsoft responsibility, see answer before). Also, there is a problem in backup restore story with CDS and D365 for Sales synchronization. They think how to connect all this, when you want to restore a backup. Next update on this question should be in September-October, after release of OnPrem version of D365BC.”
Q: “Does CSP partner and/or Client have access to the Administration console to restart the Service Tier?”
A: “No”
Q: “The “Metadata Provider cache size” key has been removed from the NAV 2018 Service Tier. There is a new parameter XmlMetadataCacheSize, does it replace the above parameter?”
A: “Did not found any info about that, sorry.”
License
Q:“can team member create sales orders/purchase orders or only sales/purchase quotes?”
A: “According to official Dynamics 365 Business Central Licensing Guide – no. But team member should be able to edit orders. However you can automate the process of creating orders from quotes by team members , using MS Flow for example.”
Q:“can you Post documents with Team Member user?”
A:“No.”
Q:“Does TeamMember license have update right on any extension object ?”
A:“Should have”.
Q:“Are there any plans to add 3 table permission as NAV Limited USer has? Otherwise it’s hard to sell Team Members if they can’t create anything new”
A:“Don’t know. However, encourage you to send this idea here”
Extensions
Q:“Do we still need dev license to do modifications or not?”
A:“No an Yes. You don’t need development license to develop AL apps in Visual Studio Code. But you should have new objects in your license to be able to publish it. If you create tenant extensions, then 50000-99999 range should be included in your license. If you develop AppSource apps, then the same story for 70 million range. If you develop ISV solutions than the same story for 1 million range. However, all these objects are free. More details here.”
Q:“So all the objects are free including to be newly created?”
Q: “Does that mean that 50k to 99999 range objects are “given” for free to customers for free from partners?”
A:“Yes!”
Q:“Is every user able to work in “Design”-mode? How is it handled to assign an user permission for the “Design”-mode? Personalization-mode would be fine – but not every user should be able to create extensions.”
A: “Design modein Business Central is available onlyin sandbox environment. After you have extension you (as a partner, or customer) can upload it in production tenant from Extensions management page. Good blog about Personalization vs Design is here”
Q: “The NAV partners, will they get full version with development environment to develope extensions- this is something confusing to me if you can please clarify it. ”
Q:“How are you supposed to test your app when the code base (BaseApp) in the cloud is permanently changing? A passed test may be a failed test next month due to some changes that became part of the BaseApp. ”
Q:“Can you have a test database?”
Q:“How do I access that D365 screen that was shown?”
A: “Yes. Partners can get full version of D365BC. Please check my blog about how to get latest version of Dynamics 365 Business Centraland blog about what Docker Image to choose. There are also images for future releases of D365BC, where you can test your app”.
Q:“Is it possible to have access to development environment with BC365 or only with visual studio code”
A: “It depends on which Sandbox environment option you will choose.For online Sandbox only VS Code will be available, for Azure or OnPrem Docker Sandbox – VSCode and C/Side. More details here”
Q: “How does business central handle multitenant? for example publishing and installing extension for a specific tenant?”
A:“It supports multitenancy. In launch.json file you have tenant setup, where you can specify on which tenant do you want to publish your app. NavContainerHelper support multitenancy from v.0.0.4.5”
Q: “is there any limitations between Online and Onprem edition?”
A: “They have the same codebase. Differences are in extending of functionality. OnPrem allow you to change standard code.”
Q: “Will CfMD requirements / procedures change significantly to entise more to make appSource extensions or remain as of now with 1ClickFactory etc.?”
A: “I did not hear any updates on that and did not found any new info. May be someone from community can answer, and I will update it here”.
Q: “Is the Process to upload an App to AppSource the same as it was with Business Edition?”
A: “Yes, but test codeunits become mandatory. And you should reserve and use prefix/suffix in your new objects and fields. More details here”.
Q:“Is Microsoft still adding new event publishers to the codebase? There are still a lot of limitations in working with standard code.”
A: “Yes they are. If you see some limitation, please make an issue here”
General
Q:“How do you see the future role of #msdyn365bc-partners? more consulting/teaching/supporting, less customizing & developing? it seems microsoft would like to offer an out-of-the-box standard erp-system, aren’t they?”
A: “My personal view – everything will stay the same as every business is unique. Yes, partners will not be involved (or partly involved) in CU and version upgrades. But partners should focus on their expertise – consulting/teaching/supporting/setup and apps creation. Also I shared some thoughts on this topic here”.
P.S> If you want to add or correct something, please leave your comment here or on twitter.
