October 2021 is a month to remember!
Finally Portugal has is footprint in the new Business Central world and can take advantage of the increased and rich capabilities of the Dynamics 365 product stack.
Softstore released a new version of the localization that is totally compatible with the most recent version of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, both for onprem and cloud deployments.
This will be the first version totally supported in AL language and deployed in the new Microsoft logic of apps, meaning that the old times of intrusive coding are gone.
New challenges arise but now we can be sure that we have a solution to offer rich and comprehensive solutions to our customers, using the complete stack of Dynamics and the native integration with all Microsoft solutions, and of course take advantage of the features and improvements that Microsoft releases every six months.
Below are some of the main aspects to take in consideration regarding Portuguese Localization for BC19:
- Localization is now offered in separated apps without intrusive coding in the W1 version: this will speed up upgrades and evolution in the new releases.
- First version available will be BC19: we’ll jump directly from BC14 (the last version using C/AL) to BC19 and will keep the pace with the Microsoft releases from now on.
- It’s now possible to deploy the localization onprem or in the public Microsoft cloud (pure SaaS).
- Localization consists in four (4) apps:
- SOFTSTORE Localization Pack for Portugal: This is the base app, that includes the specific changes for Portugal not related with fixed assets. This app needs to be installed on top of the W1 and can be used both onprem or in the cloud.
- SOFSTORE Language Pack for Portugal: This is the app that translates the W1. It will be the first one where everything in the solution is translated included the tootips (around 90.000 translations were made).
- SOFTSTORE External Pack for Portugal: This is the app that includes all aspects related with external components, for example document certification and QR Code. This app is only needed when deploying onprem solutions. If the deployment is on the cloud (SaaS) this features will be managed by Azure Functions.
- SOFSTORE Fixed Assets for Portugal: This is the app that includes the changes to the Fixed Assets and needs to be deployed if the customer uses this area of Business Central. This app needs to be installed on top of the Localization Pack app.
- Converting the localization from C/AL to AL required to do some reengineering and to abandon some specific localization changes that technically were impossible or hard to convert. Please take note that this is a ‘breaking’ version, that should be considered as a new product and that will imply some additional work and reengineering when upgrading old versions.
Here are the main aspects to take in consideration regarding this:
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- Withholding taxes: The old solution was not converted. In BC19 this feature is now supported by old Arquiconsult addon that is now included in the app.
- Non-deductible VAT in Sales documents: The non-deductible VAT is now only available in purchase documents and journals.
- All specific Portuguese changes related with discounts were not converted. The standard features should be used from now on.
- Options in SAFT to export only receipts or only transport documents were eliminated from the localization.
- Purchase Debit Notes: This feature was not converted.
- Fixed Assets: The complete solution was rebuilt.
- Changes to the account schedules were also not converted.
- Standard reports with changes from the localization had to be duplicated, so you will find, in some cases, two reports with the same name: the ones that should be used in Portugal are the ones that have the suffix (PT) in the name. This happens because standard reports could not be extended when the localization was being developed.
- Some features were rebuilt in order to adapt to the new BC logic. Although an effort was made to make the minimum impact in usability and setup, please take note that some additional setups may be needed regarding this features:
- Validation of number series and other mandatory information for certification and SAFT was rebuilt to ensure better data consistency and to prevent that changes in the setup brakes the certification.
- New setup to activate the Portuguese VAT number validation.
- New report to check the information to be exported to SAFT file.
- Taxonomies: It’s now possible to upload different taxonomies and associate the one that each company uses.
- Chart of accounts: New validation to prevent having accounts with two digits as ‘Posting’.
- Changes to the Model 22 setup and to the account schedule that supports this report.
- Deferrals now consider non-deductible VAT.
- Export of the VAT Statement now uses the standard feature VAT Report.
- Stamp Duty: Several changes and improvements in the setup and usability of this feature.
- Review and correction of all certified document layouts.
- Additional setups for document certification and transport documents communication, regarding Azure functions, are needed only for cloud deployments (onprem deployments will use the same setups and external dll’s of the old versions).
- In some role centers there is now a new folder that groups the links to the specific Portuguese features.
With the release of Portuguese Localization for BC19 we start a new path and can finally work and offer modern and rich solutions to support our customers business and growth.
Arquiconsult was the reference partner for this conversion, supporting Softstore in the management of the process and being the technical adviser and main developer of the solution. This new release is the result of our work and a demonstration that we are the top of the art in Portugal regarding knowledge and technical expertise in Microsoft Dynamics 365.
