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Nothing exciting in Dynamics 365 Business Central Release Wave 2 2023? Wow, was I wrong!

Consultant and Managing Partner, MGC Group LLC

When asked if I would write something about the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Release Wave 2 2023, I didn’t think I could. Why? Because when I write an article or a blog post, I like to write about the features that I think users will be excited about. On my first quick perusal of the release notes, I didn’t see anything that I thought I would want to write about. Wow, was I wrong!

The enhancements listed here relate to what we see and how we see it and improve the accuracy of posted documents. Check out the “little” changes that don’t look like much in the release notes but pack a bigger bang than their descriptions suggest.

Disallow editing of fields by Role

Users of specific roles (profiles) should not be able to edit certain fields on records or documents. For example, in some organizations the Salesperson Code assigned on the Customer card defaults onto the sales document header. This value should not be modified by anyone with the role of Sales Order Processor.

Currently in Public Preview and generally available October 2023, using Customize Pages from the Role (profile), the field can be locked for editing for users assigned the role. No development or extension needed.

Add “hidden” fields to pages

Multiple users have access to sales orders and may or may not make changes to these sales orders. It may be required to know who the last user was to make a change to the sales order header and when. Currently, this information is in fields that are hidden and can only be found by using Page Inspection and filtering table fields to “modified” fields or by tracking specific fields using Change Log.

bc-2023-rw2-features-2.png

It would be great if the “Modified At” and “Modified By” fields were visible on the sales header without using Page Inspection or needing an extension to add them.

Available in Public Preview October 2023 (General Availability not assigned as of the date of writing this article), selected users will be able to add previously locked source table fields by customizing the page for a role. For example, the fields in our example above can be added by customizing the Sales Order page from the Sales Order Processor Role. I don’t see anything in the documentation about users being able to do this on their own through Personalization. The intent here is to free up developer time by allowing managers or admins to make these simple modifications. Developers will be free to work on more complex enhancements.

Go to a record’s details directly from lookup lists

You are in the middle of entering a sales order and you would like to see more information about the item you intend to select on the sales line. Currently this requires opening another window, or from the lookup list selecting “Select from full list”, then clicking 4 more times to open the item card.

bc-2023-rw2-features-3.png

Currently in Public Preview and generally available in October 2023, “Select Detail” has been added to the lookup list, giving us more direct access to related records.

bc-2023-rw2-features-4.png

Change how document date and posting date are related to each other during document data entry

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About Cynthia Priebe - Microsoft MVP

Cynthia Priebe works directly with end users and finance professionals daily — often brought in where others have not been able to find a solution. That field work is the source of everything she writes. After more than 20 years with Microsoft Dynamics NAV and now Dynamics 365 Business Central, her focus is on why the system behaves the way it does, not just what it can do.

Her work centers on the scenarios that don't always behave as expected and aren't always documented — particularly permissions and security behavior, financial reporting, and post–go-live configuration. Much of her content addresses functionality that didn't get fully configured at go-live, capabilities organizations didn't know existed, or setup that needs to evolve as the business changes.

Cynthia is a Microsoft MVP in Business Applications — Dynamics 365 Business Central, a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), and has held the MB-800 Business Central Functional Consultant certification since it first became available. Before the exam launched, she was part of the worldwide team that wrote the original exam items. She also works with Microsoft Partners and ISVs, contributing practitioner-level knowledge to how BC is built, documented, and taught.

A regular presenter at DirectionsNA, DynamicsCon, and Community Summit, she is also a co-leader of the DUG Mentorship Meetup Group, owner of the Sharing the Righter Way™ LinkedIn community, and served on the Programming Committees for both Community Summit 2024, 2025 and DynamicsCon 2026.

You can connect with Cynthia on LinkedIn or join the Sharing the Righter Way™ LinkedIn community. In addition to her contributions here ...

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