Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a powerful asset to any business, small or enterprise-level. However, every business is unique and has unique needs, some of which can’t be met by out-of-the-box Business Central. That’s where Business Central apps come in. A Business Central app is a great way to augment or extend part of the existing functionality of Business Central, without requiring costly customizations or complicated coding.
That’s why, as part of our mission to provide our clients a “deep exhale” experience, EFOQUS pivoted to a more app-focused business model in 2022. Our apps allow us to deliver the most bang for our customers’ buck when it comes to allowing them to achieve more in Business Central. Each Business Central app we offer is designed to solve existing gaps we and our clients have discovered in using the ERP system, so they provide real value to your organization.
Here we’re going to provide an overview of our top Business Central apps of 2022 – read on to see if they address your specific Business Central concerns.
EFOQUS Business Central App Overview
Advanced Cloud Security
We all know how crucial data security is for any company. Dynamics 365 Business Central does come with the functionality to allow you to control user permissions and define and manage what data different users can and cannot access using pre-configured permission sets. However, many users find that out-of-the-box permission sets don’t allow for fine enough control. The Advanced Cloud Security app is designed to extend the capabilities of standard user security and provide the final mile. This Business Central app is not a replacement for Microsoft Cloud Security – this is the icing on the cake, but you still need the cake. That means the user groups, permission sets, and everything that comes out of the box with Business Central to be working before we layer on Advanced Cloud Security.
The app has two main uses: data level control and field level control.
Data level control allows you to apply a “Dynamic Filter” to segment data within the organization, controlling who can see what data is in Business Central. For example, if you have separate Customer Service or Sales Teams for different regions, you can segment the data so only the users in Eastern regions can only interact with the data from the Eastern region (customers, vendors, items, dimensions) that apply to them.
Field level control allows you to control any aspect of the page: fields, menu items, or FactBox. If you have data (like a credit limit) on a page that all users can access, and you want some users to be able to see it but not edit it, some users to be able to see it and edit it, and some users to not even be able to see it, field level control can allow you that granular control.
Advanced Account Schedules
Many of you probably use the Account Schedules Module in Business Central, which speeds up the reporting process and helps organizations significantly cut down on the time and resources spent generating financial reports. However, Account Schedules on its own is not always enough. It only ties to the General Ledger, which means organizations are not able to look at sub-ledgers that help to provide a holistic understanding of financial and non-financial results.
To bridge this gap, EFOQUS has developed the Advanced Account Schedules app. Its features unlock more capabilities within the Account Schedules module, enabling organizations to generate comprehensive reports to make smarter business decisions.
The main use cases we see for Advanced Account Schedules are to enable cross-company reporting and to remove a lot of the manual work and spreadsheet manipulation involved in reporting.
If you need to perform cross-company reporting, Advanced Account Schedules makes it a lot easier. It offers a lightweight approach to consolidated financial reporting. You don’t even need to turn on the Intercompany feature to create cross-company reports.
If you’re using a third-party reporting tool, such as Jet Reports, switching to Advanced Account Schedules can remove a lot of the manual work you need to do to get reports. If you need to combine financial and operational data for comprehensive reports, this app is a great option for you.
Cloud Replicator
The Cloud Replicator app is perfect for organizations that operate across multiple companies and struggle to get comprehensive reporting for all their entities. It lets you extract data from all your entities in Business Central and replicate that data in another cloud database. This makes it so much faster and easier to produce meaningful reports using Power BI. This app will be a game-changer for you if you need to export Business Central back-end data to another cloud database.
This Business Central app is for you if you use a third-party reporting or data visualization tool (like Power BI or Tableau), and you’re having difficulty extracting or collating the data in a way that makes sense.
Another use case for the Cloud Replicator app is for companies who need to create comprehensive reports across multiple entities or tenants (whether on-premises or in the cloud). We have clients who have both on-premises and cloud instances, and without the Cloud Replicator app, it’s very challenging to get all the data collated in a way that enables clean reporting.
The Cloud Replicator app also gives you the ability to view KPIs over time, something you can’t do with Business Central out-of-the-box. For example, Cloud Replicator enables you to see what your cash position was over a quarter or a year.
The SharePoint Connector
The SharePoint Connector app was developed to really help you get control over document chaos, and eliminate the hassle of switching between Business Central and SharePoint to manage all your documents. The SharePoint Connector seamlessly connects your data in SharePoint and Business Central, saving you time and effort, and reducing the errors that come from doing this manually. You have full control over how the data is mapped over to SharePoint. The app allows you to generate reports with SharePoint data right from within Business Central, and you can even share that Business Central data with third parties.
Organizing the chaos of documents within Business Central and SharePoint may seem minor, but it has a dramatic impact. The SharePoint Connector is our most popular Business Central app because it fills a big gap for many of our clients. If you’ve already adopted SharePoint as your organization’s document management/collaboration platform, adding the SharePoint Connector app allows you to create a system to automatically maintain a sensible structure to manage those documents. Among other features, it allows you to:
- Safely share Business Central data with 3rd parties
- Auto-save (print) documents directly to SharePoint for safe-keeping,
- Easily access documents from both Business Central and SharePoint
- Auto-archive incoming documents into SharePoint from Shared Folder
The SharePoint Connector app is easy to use and you’ll quickly wonder how you ever used SharePoint and Business Central without it!
Find a Business Central App that Gives You the “Deep Exhale” Feeling
Organizations rely so heavily on Business Central. As a company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Business Central is integral to the day-to-day operations and processes. And while Business Central is a powerful tool on its own, you may find some areas where it doesn’t quite meet your needs. In those cases, a Business Central app can often be found to fill the gap.
Since our shift towards being an app-first organization, we’ve found this to be a great way to offer consistent and cost-effective development options for our clients. We will continue to develop innovative new Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central App options to enhance the out-of-the-box functionality of Dynamics 365 Business Central, and frequently update our existing roster of apps with new functionality. If you have questions or want to learn more about how EFOQUS Business Central apps can help you exhale deeply and achieve more, get in touch today!