NAV 2016 (Corfu)

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 (Corfu) is on its way. Till now whatever communications we got from Microsoft, NAV 2016 (Corfu) will be released in 4th quarter of this year (Between October – December 2015). If you remember, NAV 2015 was released in October 2014. Here is a short video on what to expect from NAV 2016  (Corfu) as per the current communication from Microsoft) –

If you are unable to view the video, you can download a pdl version of the same from here – Roadmap_MicrosoftDynmamicsNAV

What I understand, major concentration is on –

  • Power BI
  • A new client on Mobile
  • Native integration with CRM Online
  • Electronic Invoice exchange
  • Third Party data source for certain associated masters (Like Currency exchange Rates)
  • More elaborate Workflow
  • Posting Preview (not sure at this moment what exactly it will be)

Let me get a copy of NAV 2016 (Corfu) soon and I will start writing about my experiences regarding the individual topics.

You can send your specific questions on NAV 2016 (Corfu) to my mail id.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 Windows 8.1 App

There are a lot of speculation about New Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 release date and it seems that Microsoft has announced in WPC 2014 (happened last weekend) that NAV 2015 (or CRETE) will be launched on October 1, 2014. Surprisingly Microsoft already have released an app on Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 for windows 8.1 and the same is available to be downloaded from Microsoft App Store. You can find out more about this app in the below link –

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/dynamics-nav/d8a4908d-61f2-4740-b4fc-b559fbdd2e51

This App will work in both in Windows 8.1 Laptop as well as Tablet. Here is few screen shots of the app for your ready reference –

  • Role Center
  • Overdue Sales Invoices
  • Customer Card
  • Sales Invoice
  • Sales Invoice Report
NAV 2015 APP SNAP 1 
NAV 2015 APP SNAP 2 
NAV 2015 APP SNAP 3 
NAV 2015 APP SNAP 4 
NAV 2015 APP SNAP 5 

It’s available in English (United States) and 24 other languages. Below is more details from Microsoft App Store about this app –

NAV 2015 APP InfoDescription

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV for modern Windows, you get the familiar Dynamics NAV experience in a fresh and modern interface designed for touch.Dynamics NAV is a business solution from Microsoft that is quick to implement and easy to use, with the power to support your growth ambitions. Dynamics NAV helps businesses manage their financials, supply chain, and people and to create experiences that delight their customers.
Make smart decisions based on the latest business data and get real work done after hours, at home or on the go with Microsoft Dynamics NAV for modern Windows. This is the perfect companion for service engineers, sales field organizations, executives and decision-makers, or anyone in your organization who wants access to Dynamics NAV from a touch enabled mobile device. Get visibility into every angle of your business using the Role Center. Tap to drill into details about your customers, vendors, inventory, or any other data from Dynamics NAV. Quickly create invoices and quotes, and email them with just a few taps.Requires access to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015.
Your experience will vary depending on the Dynamics NAV server that you are connected to.

Show more

Features

  • Get an overview of your business in the Role Center.
  • Tap and swipe to get to your data and drill down into details.
  • Search across all columns in a list.
  • Send lists to Microsoft Excel or Office 365.
  • Shoot pictures using the camera on your mobile device and upload them to Dynamics NAV.
  • Rotate your device to get an overview of your data or focus on content.
  • Use two apps side by side and see, for example, customer details while you talk via Skype or Lync.

I am eagerly waiting to put my hand on the new Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 and start experimenting with features mentioned in the Microsoft Readiness portal and apply them in some real life scenarios 🙂

Dimension, Shortcut Dimension, Global Dimension – Confused?

People often gets confused about the terms used to describe dimensions. – Dimension, Shortcut Dimension, Global Dimension – are they same or what? Why we need so many different dimensions?

To understand the concept you need to go back to history of Navision and also need to understand the basic concept of Dimension. Let me try to elaborate it.

Dimension: Dimensions are nothing but parameter for your analysis of data. In other words, they are additional information attached to your transactions and you can analyse / summarize your transactions on the basis of those parameters. Say, you want to analyse your fuel expenses on the basis of Car no. So you need to define a dimension called ‘Car’ and put all the car nos in the dimension value list.

Similarly, if you need to analyse telephone expenses on the basis of Telephone nos or travel expenses on the basis of employee nos then, you will define Telephone and Employee Dimensions and list down the dimension values for those dimensions. So at the end you can have a list of dimensions & their values as below:

— Car — 1001 — WB 300356

— 1002 — UP5005333

— 1003 — DEL678932

— Tel — 98444320 — Ashish Banerjee
— 87909098 — Snehanshu Mandal
— Emp — 1001 — Snehanshu Mandal
— 1002 — Vinay Iyer
— 1003 — Shridhar Varasala

You can define the dimension in Navision from ‘Financial Management > General Ledger > Setup > Dimensions > Dimension’. And then define the respective dimension values.

This way you can define any no of dimensions and attach any no of dimension values while entering any transaction in the system.

Now that’s was Dimension. So what is global dimension? Lets go back few years down to Navision history.

There was time when Navision didn’t have the facility to attach unlimited no of dimensions to transactions. Instead it had only 2 fixed dimensions with each transactions – Department & Project. And to attach these 2 dimension with each transactions, Navision had created these 2 fields in all the transaction tables (e.g in 81 – Gen. Journal Line, 36 – Sales Header, 37 – Sales Lines, 38 – Purchase Header, 39 – Purchase Header and so on). See the figure below.

 Now you can’t just keep on adding new fields in each transaction table to achieve unlimited no of dimension attachment feature. So Navision started storing dimension information attached to different transactions in 2 separate tables (Journal Line Dimension – for storing dimensions attached to all journal transactions, Document Dimension – for storing dimensions attached to all document type of transactions). So Navision came up with a different method of storing dimension values attached with transactions.
What happened to the 2 fields present in all transaction tables? To reuse these 2 fields, Navision came up with a concept called ‘Global Dimensions’. So 2 dimensions from your dimension master can be defined as Global Dimension and their values can directly be attached with any transaction (in those 2 fields present globally – They automatically take the caption of global dimension defined and displayed accordingly to users – using ‘CaptionClass’ property). Just because they are present in all the transaction tables, these dimensions make it easier to take out reporting based on these 2 dimension and helps you in easy data entry. Ideally they are the most commonly used dimensions across in Navision Company.
So global dimensions are nothing but ordinary dimensions. Only thing they are globally present in the system and helps in data entry (dimension attachment) and reporting on most commonly used dimensions in a company.
But if you are going to attach more than 2 global dimensions in transactions, then the very attachment of dimension process is slightly lengthy. I mean you need to click on the transaction line > click on button ‘Line’ > Dimensions > Select the dimension code and dimension value.
Can we make it little easier for data entry where more than 2 global dimensions you need to attach to transaction? Off course we can. Use the concept ‘Shortcut Dimensions’
Shortcut Dimensions: There can be 8 dimensions displayed directly on any tabular transaction form (Journal lines or Purchase Lines, Sales Lines etc) just to facilitate the data entry. Remember, these dimension will not be present directly in the table but only displayed in the form. They are shortcuts to 8 different dimensions. So that you don’t need to go for the lengthy dimension attachment process. That’s why the name came ‘Shortcut Dimension’. And the 2 global dimensions automatically gets assigned as first 2 shortcut dimensions. (Check out the General ledger setup).
See the screen above (General Journal) and you will find there are 8 dimensions present (coloured columns). These are 8 shortcut dimensions. First 2 are global dimensions (directly present in the Gen. Journal Line table – the transaction table used here) coloured green are automatically became first 2 shortcut dimensions. Rest 6 columns are just displayed in the form only to facilitate the data entry (not present in the Gen. Journal Line table). If you enter some values in those columns, system will insert the relevant dimension and dimension values in the journal line dimension table for the transaction. If you enter values in first 2 shortcut dimensions, they will be inserted in the global fields present in the current transaction tables as well as the journal line dimension table.
That’s the funda of Dimension, Global Dimension and Shortcut Dimension. Hope i am able to clear the idea a little bit. If you want to discuss it further, do send me your comments or simply fire a mail to me (snehanshu.mandal@gmail.com).
See you in next post.