RPA with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain

-
Image
Are you looking for ways to automate some of your routine accounting functions, like reconciling sub ledgers to the general ledger?   Microsoft has recently created some examples using Power Automate Desktop (think of it like Task Recording on steroids). It can not only automate steps through Dynamics 365, but it can also automate Excel and other applications. In one example from Microsoft they automate the AR to GL reconciliation: Automatic running of the AR aging and the customer/ledger reconciliation reports. Power Automate then extracts data from both reports in Excel and compares the balances. Power Automate then posts a Team message letting you know the subledger is in balance. Power Automate saves the reports with the date in the file name, so there is backup. Microsoft Directions & Example   I working with the example, I needed to make a couple of adjustments to the sample flow that was provided but I was able to get it to work. Here is a video of the flow r...
Post a Comment

Use Power Automate to alert the credit team that there is a new customer in Dynamics 365 Finance & SCM

-

 

Business scenario – Sales team needs to be able to add a new customer to Dynamics 365 Finance, but before the customer is used in Sales the Credit Team needs to review the record and set the proper credit limit and payment terms.  The customer should automatically go on hold until the review is complete, and an email should alert the Credit Team to act.

Components used in the scenario – Dynamics 365 Finance business alerts and Power Automate

Synopsis – By combining the business alert functionality of D365 with Power Automate the system can automatically manage this business process.  Power Automate will watch for a new customer to be added in D365.  When the new customer is added, Power Automate will automatically put the account on Hold with a status reason of New.  Power Automate will also send an email to the Credit Manager including the information from the new customer as well as a link to the On Hold Customers in D365.

Step 1 – Create a custom alert rule on All Customers

From the All Customers screen – options ribbon – share – Create a custom aler



For the alert rule – event should be “Record has been created” and select “yes” for send externally.  Make a note of the Rule ID as this will be needed in Power Automate

Step 2 – Verify change-based alerts are running

Go to System administration – Inquiries – Batch jobs

Search for description of Change based alerts


Verify the batch job is running on a recurring basis – this job is required to trigger the necessary alerts.

Step 2a – Set up change-based alerts (if not running)

Go to System administration – Periodic tasks – Alerts – Change based alerts and setup to run on a regular occurrence using the Recurrence tab

Step 3 - Download the schema of the business event

Go to System administration – Setup – Business events

Find the category = “Alerts” and Business event ID = “BusinessEventsAlertEvent”

Download the schema – this text file will be needed to parse the Json in Power Automate.


Step 4 – Set up Flow in Power Automate

Load Power Automate – flow.microsoft.com

Create a new flow – “Automated cloud flow”

The flow trigger is “When a Business Event occurs” from Fin & Ops Apps (Dynamics 365)


Step 4.1 – Setup Business Event

Select the correct instance for Dynamics 365 Finance

  • Category = Alerts
  • Business event = When an alert rule is triggered
  • Legal entity = select the appropriate legal entity



Step 4.2 – Convert the data from the business event

Add a step of “Parse JSON”

Content = “body” from the Business Event

Use the text file of the business event schema above to generate the schema, but pasting it in the “generate from sample”



Step 4.3 – Filter for the applicable business alert rule

Add a condition step

Used “RuleId” from the Parse JSON step “is equal to” Rule Number (the rule number is from Dynamics 365 Finance when the original alert was created.  If you need the rule number, go to “manage my alerts” on the All Customers form

Step 4.4 – Setup the Yes side of the condition

This example there will be no action taken if the rule id is false or no.

If yes will include three steps

  • Get the customer record
  • Update the customer record
  • Send an email to credit team

Step 4.4.1 – Get the information on the new customer

Prior to updating the customer record, it is necessary to locate all of the information on the new record including the customer group and currency.

Add an action in the If yes section.  The connector is Fin & Ops Apps(Dynamics 365) – Action is “Get a record”

Select the correct instance for D365 and use the CustomersV3 entity.  The object id is a combination of the data area id and account number.  You can select these fields from the Parse JSON step.  KeyValue1 is equal to the account number.

Step 4.4.2 – Update the customer record information

Prior to updating the vendor record, it is necessary to locate all of the information on the new record including the Unique ID.

Add a step – “Update a record” from Fin & Ops Apps(Dynamics 365) connector

Select the correct instance for D365 and use the CustomersV3 entity.  The object id is a combination of the data area id and account number.  You can select these fields from the Get Record  step above.  Company is the data area id and Customer account number is the account number. Be sure to include a comma between the two fields.

Currency and Customer group are required fields.  They can be selected from the Get records step above. 

Show advanced options to access other fields that you desire to up date.

Invoicing and delivery on hold = is the hold status.  This is a drop down, select All

Account status reason = the reason the account is on hold

It is possible to update any other fields including delivery terms, payment terms, credit information, etc.



Step 4.4.3 – Send email to the credit manager

Power Automate automatically add the Apply to each step, since prior step used List Rows and there could be more than one result.

Add a step – “Send an email” from Office 365 Outlook connector

Enter the email address of the credit manager

Enter the subject and body of the email.  It is possible to use dynamics content from the Get record step to include information on the new customer, like the organization name, email address, address, etc.

If you would like the credit manager to be able to quickly get to any customers that are currently on hold you can include a link to the Customers on hold list page – “dynamics365url.com/?cmp=LEGALENTITY&mi=CustTableHoldListPage”

Step 5 – Add a new customer and test

Save the Flow in Power Automate

Return to Dynamics 365 Finance – add a new customer

Allow two to three minutes for the alert to run.  The customer should be changed to on-hold  and an email should be sent.

Summary

This is just a simple example of how you can use Power Automate with Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain.  You could follow the same approach to handle vendor onboarding and for adding new products.  Power Automate could even load journal entries, or other transactions.  I have a few other ideas that I will try to create, so look for more articles soon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creating a date table with a fiscal year in your Power BI data model

-
Image
There are many different articles available on Time Intelligence in Power BI.   Many new users to Power BI do not really understand the importance of having a date table in their data model.   I have spoken on this topic on many different occasions and continue to receive a lot of questions about the topic.   In this article I am going to try and cover a few tips on how to work with dates in your Power BI model. Many new users simply use the Auto Date & Time function of Power BI.   This function automatically creates a hidden date table for each field in the model with a date or date/time data type.   This function is enabled by default and it allows for slicing by Year, Quarter, Month and Day.   The problem with Auto Date and Time is that it only works with a standard calendar (Jan to Dec).   It requires a datetime column in the fact table.   It does not work with multiple fact tables and it does not support time intelligence calculatio...
Read more

RPA with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain

-
Image
Are you looking for ways to automate some of your routine accounting functions, like reconciling sub ledgers to the general ledger?   Microsoft has recently created some examples using Power Automate Desktop (think of it like Task Recording on steroids). It can not only automate steps through Dynamics 365, but it can also automate Excel and other applications. In one example from Microsoft they automate the AR to GL reconciliation: Automatic running of the AR aging and the customer/ledger reconciliation reports. Power Automate then extracts data from both reports in Excel and compares the balances. Power Automate then posts a Team message letting you know the subledger is in balance. Power Automate saves the reports with the date in the file name, so there is backup. Microsoft Directions & Example   I working with the example, I needed to make a couple of adjustments to the sample flow that was provided but I was able to get it to work. Here is a video of the flow r...
Read more

Using Full Page Apps in Dynamics 365 Finance

-
Image
Have you ever wanted to put a website or a model-driven Power App in one of your existing Dynamics 365 Finance workspaces or forms?  You might already know you can create a new workspace with a website, but did you know you can add the website to an existing workspace? Here is an example of the Vendor invoice entry workspace with the Invoice Capture Power App embedded. Prior to using this feature, you need to turn on "Saved views support for workspaces" in feature management. Once this feature is enabled you can follow the following steps to add the Invoice Capture app or any model-driven Power App or website to an existing workspace. Open the vendor invoice entry workspace From Options - choose Personalize this page From personalize menu - select the 3 dots - and then Add an app Once that is selected (the screen goes gray) - click on the section header where you want to add the app (in my example I put it in Links) On the Add an app menu - choose Website Give it a name (my e...
Read more