When Microsoft announced the release of its new cloud accounting solution known as Dynamics 365 Business Central in 2017, add-on software partners had a decision to make. At that time we weren’t 100% sure what was happening with Dynamics NAV, the most popular mid-market accounting and ERP system in the world. As it turns out, the Dynamics NAV brand has been replaced with Business Central and we were all along for the ride.
A successful, layer-by-layer transition
During this time, we didn’t know how we would move our add-on products forward to the new platform. Then Microsoft announced a major change to the development toolkit and add-on partners were faced with re-writing our code – a daunting challenge.
In mid-2017 Microsoft requested we move our Dynamics NAV rental module to Business Central. In the interest of being able to deliver something in a reasonable timeframe and satisfy the request, we decided to move our rentals in layers, with the first being suitable for very small and simple rental companies. We made the decision primarily because we believe so strongly in the value proposition of the Business Central platform and its ability to automatically deliver incremental change through regular upgrades, whether deployed in the cloud or onsite platform.
ODT Rentals 365 version 2.7 released
In February, 2019 Microsoft published the seventh release of our ODT Rentals 365 app for Business Central. At this point we have brought over 100% of our core Dynamics NAV rental functionality and most of the optional capability. While working on the transition, we were able to re-design existing processes and combine those with exciting new capability not found in our original Dynamics NAV rental module.
The February release offers some key enhancements as well as improvements to processes requested by customers. The following are three of the most important changes.
1. Rental Packages
Rental kits in Dynamics NAV were great but came with the limitation of being linked to a master item. Previously our rental groups offered bundling capabilities but as a separate option. In Business Central, we have combined the best of both of these to offer unlimited rental packages that can be configured on the fly to offer summary or detail pricing to customers.
2. Bulk Rental Returns
Popular on Dynamics NAV, this feature has been brought forward and allows a user to return all rented items at once.
3. Improvement to rental documents
Major enhancements have been applied to rental documents to show more details and specifics on taxes. Enhancements were made to quotes, contracts, and proforma invoices.
In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft will be expanding description fields from 50 to 100 characters in the April, 2019 major update for Business Central. You can learn more details about this upcoming update in our recent two-part blog – check out Part 1 and Part 2.
For further information on new changes to ODT Rentals 365 or Business Central, please contact us. Existing customers of our rental app can access the changes by unapplying the current ODT Rentals 365 app and applying the new version (2.7) from Microsoft AppSource.
*Did you see our previous blog with practical advice about how to build up momentum in pushing your rental business toward success? Read it here. Hint: spot the hidden giveaway!
