What’s New: Application Changes for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a complete enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution for mid-sized organizations that is fast to implement, easy to configure, and simple to use. Right from the start, simplicity has guided, and continues to guide, innovations in product design, development, implementation, and usability.

This document details new features and functionality that are available in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 and have been added to the product since Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2. For information about Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2, see What’s New: Application Changes for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 and Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 in the MSDN Library.

What’s New for Application Users in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015

The following features and functionality for application users have been introduced since Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2.

Simplified Payment Reconciliation

You must routinely reconcile your bank, receivables, and payables accounts by applying payments recorded in your bank account to their related unpaid invoices and credit memos or other open entries in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, which you then post as payment applications.

You can import a bank statement file from your bank to quickly register the payments in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. During import, or when you activate it, an automatic application function will apply the payments to their related open entries based on a matching of data on payments with data on open entries. You can use various functionality to review and change automatic applications and to make manual applications before you post the payment reconciliation journal.

In the Payment Reconciliation Journal window, you reconcile payments by performing two main activities:

• Import bank statement files representing payments that have been made to or from your bank account and then automatically apply each payment to one or more open entries where it is possible. For more information, see How to: Automatically Apply Payments to Open Documents..

• Review and manually apply payments that could not be applied automatically or were applied with low or medium confidence. In the Payment Application window, you view detailed information about matched data and get suggestions for candidate open entries to apply the payment to. For more information, see How to: Manually Apply Payments to Open Documents.

Note

The automatic or manual applications that you make in the Payment Reconciliation Journal window are only suggestions until you post the journal.

In the Payment Application Rules window, you set up rules to govern if payments are automatically applied to their related open entries when you use the Apply Automatically function in the Payment Reconciliation Journal window. You set up new payment application rules by selecting which types of data on a payment reconciliation journal line must match with data on one or more open entries before the related payment is automatically applied to the open entries. The quality of each automatic application is shown as a value of Low to High in the Match Confidence field in the Payment Reconciliation Journal window according to the payment application rule that was used. For more information, see How to: Set Up Rules for Applying Payments Automatically.

In the Text-to-Account Mapping window, which you open from the Payment Reconciliation Journal window, you can set up mappings between text on payments and specific debit, credit, and balancing accounts in the general ledger so that such payments are posted to the specified accounts when you post payments in the Payment Reconciliation Journal window. Payments posted based on text-to-account mapping are not applied to open entries, but are only posted to the specified accounts in addition to creating bank account ledger entries. Accordingly, text-to-account mapping is suited for recurring cash receipts or expenses, such as frequent purchases of car fuel, that regularly occur on the bank statement and do not need a related business document. For more information, see How to: Map Payment Text to Accounts for Direct Posting of Unapplied Payments.

When you post the payment reconciliation journal, the applied open entries are closed, and the related customer or vendor accounts are updated. For payments on journal lines based on text-to-account mapping, the specified general ledger accounts are updated. For all journal lines, bank account ledger entries are created. At the bottom of the journal, you can compare the value in the Balance on Bank Account After Posting field to the value in the Statement Ending Balance field to track when the bank account is reconciled based on payments that you post.

Improvements for Payment Export

If you do not want to post a payment journal line for an exported payment, for example, because you are waiting for confirmation that the transaction has been processed by the bank, you can just delete the journal line. When you later create a payment journal line to pay the remaining amount on the invoice, the Total Exported Amount field shows how much of the payment amount has already been exported. Also, you can find detailed information about the exported total by choosing the Credit Transfer Reg. Entries button to see details about exported payment files.

On the Suggest Vendor Payments batch job, where you specify which payments to insert in the payment journal, you can select the Skip Exported Payments check box if you do not want to insert journal lines for payments that have already been exported. For more information, see How to: Export Payments to a Bank File.

A SWIFT code is no longer required for domestic bank transfers using the SEPA standard. Therefore, you are no longer prompted to fill the SWIFT Code field on the company bank account, vendor bank account, or customer bank account when you export payments into the SEPA Credit Transfer format.

Note

Until February 2016, a SWIFT code may still be required for international SEPA credit transfers in some countries/regions. To avoid having the bank reject the payment file that you upload, you must manually check the requirements in the country/region and fill the SWIFT Code field when it is needed.

Use Due Date as Posting Date in the Payment Journal

When you use the Suggest Vendor Payments batch job to create payment journal lines, you have options on the request page to automatically insert the due date as the posting date, plus/minus any number of days. For more information, see How to: Insert Due Date as Posting Date on Payment Journal Lines.

Bank Data Conversion Service

A global provider of services to convert bank data to any file format that your bank requires is set up and connected in Microsoft Dynamics NAV by default. All you have to do is to activate the service in your installation by entering the service logon information in the Bank Data Conv. Service Setup window. For more information, see How to: Set Up Bank Data Conversion Service.

You can use the Bank Data Conversion Service feature to have a bank statement file that you receive from your bank converted to data that you can import into Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Reversely, you can use the conversion service to have payment information that you export converted to a bank payment file in the format that your bank requires.

Warning

When you export payment files by using the Bank Data Conversion Service feature, some of your business data will be exposed to the provider of the service. The service provider, AMC Consult A/S, is responsible for the privacy of this data. For more information, see AMC Privacy Policy. For information about the type of business data that will be exposed, see Field Mapping When Exporting Payment Files Using Bank Data Conversion Service.

The bank-account setup and user functionality for importing and exporting bank files that are processed by the bank data conversion service is the same as when you import/export bank files of a supported file standard, such as SEPA. For more information, see How to: Import Bank Statements and Make Payments with Bank Data Conversion Service or SEPA Credit Transfer.

The communication with the conversion service is based on web services. The processing of data between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the bank data conversion service is performed by the Data Exchange Framework, as for SEPA bank files. For more information, see Set Up Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Exchange Bank Data.

Manage Data Encryption

In connection with the Bank Data Conversion Service feature, for example, you can encrypt data on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server by generating new or importing existing encryption keys that you enable on the server.

If Microsoft Dynamics NAV is configured with multiple service tiers, then you must first enable encryption on one server and then export the key so that it can be imported to another server where you enable encryption. For more information, see Manage Data Encryption.

SEPA CAMT Bank Statement Import

For automatic payment processing and bank reconciliation based on bank statements in the SEPA CAMT format, you can use a bank file import function to quickly populate the Payment Reconciliation Journal and Bank Acc. Reconciliation windows. You select from enabled file formats in the Bank Statement Import Format field in the Bank Account Card window. For more information, see How to: Import Bank Statements.

Note

With the Data Exchange Framework, you can enable other bank statement formats, both XML, delimited, and fixed-width. The user functionality for setup and import is the same as for the SEPA CAMT format. For more information, see Set Up Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Exchange Bank Data.

Data Exchange Framework

The formats of files for exchange of bank or payroll data with ERP systems vary depending on the supplier of the file and on the country/region. The generic version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV does not support local bank or payroll file formats. Microsoft Dynamics NAV therefore includes a framework that makes it easy to enable users to import or export files or data streams with bank data, payroll data, or other data. For more information, see Set Up Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Exchange Bank Data.

Note

The generic version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV supports the regional SEPA standard (Single Euro Payments Area) for importing SEPA bank statements (CAMT format), exporting SEPA credit transfers, and exporting instructions to perform SEPA direct debit collections. For more information, see How to: Import Bank Statements, Make Payments with Bank Data Conversion Service or SEPA Credit Transfer, and Collect Payments with SEPA Direct Debit. In addition, the generic version is connected to an external provider of services to convert bank data to any file format that your bank requires. This feature eliminates the need to enable the import and export of specific file formats in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. For more information, see How to: Set Up Bank Data Conversion Service. The local versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV support various other file formats for exporting payments to bank files and importing bank statements. See the "What’s New" topic in the local Help for your country/region.

All capabilities for electronic banking in the generic version are managed by the Data Exchange Framework. In the Posting Exchange Definition window, you describe the formatting of lines and columns in the data file. In the Posting Exchange Mapping window, you specify which columns or data elements in the file map to which fields in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. When such a data exchange setup is created and enabled in the framework, users can choose the related file format to start import or export of the data in question. For more information, see How to: Enable Import/Export of Bank or Payroll Files Using the Data Exchange Framework.

To prepare for exchange of data in SEPA bank files, you can use the SEPA Schema Viewer window to define the data exchange based on the related SEPA XML schema data elements that you want to exchange with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. For more information, see How to: Use SEPA XML Schemas to Prepare Data Exchange.

Important

The object structure of the Data Exchange Framework in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 differs from that of earlier versions. This means that you cannot use data exchange setup records that you export from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 in earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. You also cannot use records that you created in an earlier version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015.

Manage and Create Report Layouts

In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, report layouts were based on RDLC. In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, report layouts can also be created with Word 2013. From the Microsoft Dynamics NAV client, you can change which layout a report uses when viewing, printing, and saving the report. In addition, you can create and modify your own custom RDLC and Word report layouts.

Custom Word and RDLC Report Layouts

From the Microsoft Dynamics NAV clients, you can design the layout of Microsoft Dynamics NAV reports by using Microsoft Word 2013 or SQL Server Report Builder. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 includes several built-in report layouts that are used on reports by default. You can use the built-in report layouts as a starting point for customizing your own layouts. This enables you to set up multiple variations of layout for the same report, which you can switch among when viewing, printing, and saving the report.

For more information, see Managing Report Layouts From the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Clients.

Verify VAT Registration Numbers

You can use an EU web service to verify that VAT registration numbers that you enter on customer, vendor, or contact cards are valid.

When you modify the VAT Registration No. field on a card where the value in the Country/Region Code field is an EU country/region, then the new VAT registration number and your user ID are logged in the VAT Registration Log window. To verify a VAT registration number, you can choose the DrillDown button next to the VAT Registration No. field to open the VAT Registration Log window and then start the verification function. For more information, see How to: Verify VAT Registration Numbers.

Certificates of Supply for VAT Reporting

When you sell goods to a customer in another EU country/region, the customer must confirm receipt before you can deduct VAT or calculate zero VAT according to the rules for intra-community trade. Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides support for creating and processing the required certificates. For more information, see How to: Process Certificates of Supply.

Colored Indicators on Cues

A Cue is a tile on the Role Center that provides a visual representation of business data, such as the number of open sales invoices or the total sales for the month. You can configure the Cue to include an indicator along the top border that changes color based on the data in the Cue.

For more information, see How to: Set Up a Colored Indicator on Cues of Your Role Center.

Simplified User Experience (UX)

With this release, Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides a set of simplified pages and related objects under the name Simplified UX. Simplified UX provides simplifications to the standard user interface, with a focus on basic sales and purchase business processes for smaller businesses.

You can use Simplified UX to build your solutions, either as an extension, as a modification, or just as a part of the Simplified UX that is being used.

In brief, Simplified UX:

• Includes all objects in the 13xx range and Role Center 9022 for Small Business.

• Comprises around 100 objects. This includes more than 60 pages that have been simplified, plus one Role Center.

• Focuses on basic sales and purchase scenarios.

• Provides localized Simplified UX pages.

• Uses the same tables that define standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Simplified UX objects are included in the starter pack.

For more information, see Small Business Role Center.

Mandatory Fields

When you enter data on pages in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, certain fields are marked with a red asterisk. The red asterisk means that the field must be filled to complete a certain process that uses the field, such as posting a transaction that uses the field value. For more information, see Mandatory Fields.

Total and Discount Amounts Placed on Sales and Purchase Documents

To always have an overview of the current total invoice amount and discount amount, five FlowFields are included under the Lines section on all active and posted sales and purchase documents: Total Excl. VAT (LCY), Total VAT (LCY), Total Incl. VAT (LCY), Invoice Discount Amount, and Invoice Discount Percent. In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you could only see these amounts in the Statistics window. For more information, see the Total Amount Incl. VAT field.

Note

This feature is not implemented in country/region versions with sales tax or advanced statistics on totals. Therefore, the feature is not available in North America and India.

Auto-fill and Hide the No. Field on Sales and Purchase Documents

If only one number series for the type of sales or purchase document exists where the Default Nos. field is selected and the Manual Nos. field is not selected, then the No. field is automatically filled with the next number in the series, and the field will not be visible on the sales document. If more than one number series exists, or no number series exists, then the No. is always visible, and you can choose the field to select or create a number series in, for example, the Sales No. Series Setup window. For more information, see the No. field.

Send Documents as Email

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV it is now possible to send sales invoices, credit memos, sales quotes, and reminders as email. From each of these pages, you have an option that lets you send the document attached with a short message. For more information, see How to: Send Documents as Email.

RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV

You can map values from an existing ERP system into your Microsoft Dynamics NAV implementation during the migration of your customer's data. In addition, tool support is provided to help you clean up and process the data that you want to import. For example, you can easily convert dates and decimals to the format required by the regional settings on a user's computer.

For more information, see How to: Map Customer Data.

Often when you import data from an external source, you need to adjust it slightly to follow the rules and conventions applied to the data that is already in the application.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides a library of data transformation methods within Report 8621 Config. Package – Process, which partners can use to create standard data processing rules and run those on the data they import, for example, to capitalize all letters, replace part of the string to another string, change date format, trim values and so on. For more information, see Config. Package - Process.

To enhance productivity, Microsoft Dynamics NAV now automates the process of removing duplicate table information when you add tables to a configuration worksheet. After you do this, just choose the Delete Duplicate Lines action, and your configuration package is updated. For more information, see How to: Manage Company Configuration in a Worksheet.

Schedule Reports

You can schedule reports to run at a specific data and time. Scheduled reports are entered in the job queue, and then processed at the specified time. You can choose to output the report as a PDF, Excel (.xlsx), Word (.docx) file, print it, or process it only. Processed reports appear in the Report Inbox window on the Role Center.

For more information, see How to: Schedule a Report to Run.

New Document Reports

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 includes the following new sales document reports. Each new document report corresponds to a standard document report that has been available in earlier releases.

New report	Corresponding standard report
1304 Mini Sales - Quote	204 Sales Quote
1305 Mini - Order Confirmation	205 Order Confirmation
1306 Mini Sales - Invoice	206 Sales - Invoice
1307 Mini Sales - Credit Memo	207 Sales - Credit Memo

These new document reports have a refactored dataset that is less complex than the standard versions and make it easier to reuse layout changes across reports. Each report also includes a refactored and simplified RDLC report layout and a new Word report layout.

Simplified Print Dialog Box with Remote Desktop Connections

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 introduces a new and simplified print dialog box for printing reports when you connect to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client over a remote desktop connection. The existing default print dialog box in Windows, which uses Easy Print Redirection on remote desktop connections, has some performance issues on long distance and high latency network connections. The simplified print dialog box significantly decreases the time it takes from when you choose the Print button on the report request page to when the print dialog box appears. The simplified print dialog box does not include all the options that the existing default print dialog box does. However, you can access the full-featured default print dialog box from the simplified print dialog box.

See Also

Other Resources

What's New: Developer and IT Pro Changes for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013