From the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations/AX Blogs: Troubleshooting mobile app; Statistical accounts; Purchase order; Slow upgrade

This week on the Dynamics 365-AX blog roundup:

• Introduction to troubleshooting Dynamics 365 Operations mobile application
• How to set up statistical accounts in Dynamics 365
• D365FO: Purchase order reapproval within change management functionality
• The case of the slow Dynamics AX upgrade

Introduction to troubleshooting Dynamics 365 Operations mobile application

On the Microsoft Dynamics AX Solution Architecture team blog, Tariq Bell stated that recently he was looking into an issue with the Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations mobile app – the "normal" app, not the "special" warehousing application.

So he decided to share what he learned. He noted what the first impression of the app was – but ultimately learned what he thought was right was actually "completely wrong."

Bell then offered some tips to troubleshoot the mobile app, including:

[M]y first tip is to use TraceParser to trace what the application is doing – same as looking at an issue in the desktop browser, the trace will show X++ running, SQL queries, timings etc.

You can find out what his second tip is and read more the troubleshooting Dynamics 365 Operations mobile application post here.

How to set up statistical accounts in Dynamics 365

In a post on the Encore Business Solutions Blog, Adriane Sobkowich pointed out that statistical accounts enable you to include information such as a departmental head count, hours or units produced on your financial reports.

She stated that from a reporting standpoint, statistical accounts could be very helpful for Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations users.

Posted transactions using Statistical Accounts will allow users to pull data into Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Financial Reporter. This data can be used to create reports that track performance, measure productivity or other information that you might use for reporting purposes, and to perform calculations on the financial reports.

In the blog post, Sobkowich wrote about the things you need to consider before you set up your statistical accounts as well as how to set them up.

You can find out how to set up statistical accounts in Dynamics 365 here.

D365FO: Purchase order reapproval within change management functionality

On Galyna Fedorova's Microsoft Dynamics AX blog, Fedorova discussed a major advantage of the change management functionality.

She explained how to set up some fields that don't require reapproval and went over what you can change without approval and where it can be configured.

There are many cases when users need to change something on purchase order without approving it all over again. A good example of such changes is [the] Receive now field. In the system, you have the possibility to do it through purchasing policies.

You can find out how to set up a purchasing policy that controls which changes require re-approvals here.

No developer required – adding custom fields in Dynamics 365

Also on the Encore blog, Bill Rozard discussed how D365FO users can add new custom data fields within various forms so they can track additional data for their business needs.

One way to 'add' a field would be to find an existing field that is not needed, and have it re-purposed. Another method would be to go through the process of getting the developer to add the field and the necessary metadata to a table and form.

But Rozard thought it would great if there was an easier way to add basic fields in D365FO and offered some examples of how it could be done. He then stated that as of platform update 15, adding those basic fields just became easier.

You can find out how to how to add a custom data field on a form as well as read about some cautions, caveats, and limitations here.