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Microsoft to bring forward Dynamics GP’s next major update to October

Microsoft has recently revealed that the next major update for Dynamics GP, GP 2018 R2 will now take place on October 1st 2018. Historically, this was usually situated more towards the end of the year but has been moved closer to the October 2018 release wave of Microsoft business applications and updates, including ones which we covered in our previous blogs for the Dynamics 365 for Sales updates & Dynamics 365 for Marketing updates.

So what new and improved developments are coming to Dynamics GP 2018 R2 in October?

Well as far as updates go, the most significant development coming in October will be Microsoft adding a new option to deploy GP 2018 R2 in conjunction with a data-synchronised cloud instance of Dynamics 365 Business Central for analytics and mobile access.

At this stage the pricing of the synchronisation option remains unclear, however early indications suggest that Microsoft is changing the positioning of its legacy on-premise ERPs to be more “intelligent edge” based. This synchronisation is being brought together through the use of Microsoft’s Azure based services, which are now going to be referred to as the “intelligent cloud”.

The ability to sync Dynamics 365 Business Central with GP business data will provide customers with access to new analytics that will be transformed by Dynamics 365 Business Central’s existing forward thinking machine learning tie-ins. For those currently on Dynamics GP that will use the synchronisation, this will also provide cutting edge default Power BI reports and a newly developed mobile portal to be able to view both charts and reports at your fingertips.

In terms of how the synchronisation will happen between GP and Business Central, this was confirmed by Microsoft MVP Steve Endow during the recent GP Tech Conference who stated that this would be set up with a simple wizard.

Along with the major development described above, the launch of GP 2018 R2 in October will also look to bring some potential new features to the table. However at this stage, it is important to note that that they might not all be included in the latest release, these can be summarised below:

  • Monthly Recurring Batches enhancement which will provide an option to “use the last day of the month” instead of adding a month to the last transaction date.
  • The option to exclude items with a zero value or quantity within the Inventory HITB.
  • The ability to email customer statements from within the customer maintenance window.
  • The ability to hide inactive chequebooks in look ups.
  • The ability to print SOP Navigation Lists in their Originating currency not just their Functional currency.
  • The Posting Setup will gain an additional option around “Allow Transaction Posting” to be allowed to choose “Post Thru GL”. At this stage, it’s not clear which posting options will have this.
  • The ability to display vendor document numbers in the purchasing all-in-one view.
  • An updated option within the System Preferences which will allow admins to hide Business Analyzer for all users.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft’s next major update for Dynamics GP will be received by its existing users after launch date.

If your business is considering upgrading your existing Dynamics GP system / looking to implement a Dynamics GP solution quickly or looking to get extra Dynamics GP training or more GP support then please get in touch with our Dynamics GP experts today.

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