Designing and utilizing document templates in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is an effective method to produce standardized documents filled with your data, showcasing your organization’s brand identity.
Before I discuss the steps to create, save, and use these templates, let’s examine the key elements of document templates and how they function in Dynamics 365.
What are Document Templates in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations?
Document templates in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations enable you to create documents that feature your company’s branding, fillable charts, and tables for various purposes. For example, suppose your company needs to collect an outstanding payment. In that case, you can design three distinct templates based on the severity of your message: an initial warning, a second warning indicating action will be taken, and a final notice of action. These templates can be created in Word, uploaded to Dynamics 365, and used for future situations. You can also include your logos and other brand elements to ensure consistency.
Key Benefits of Using Document Templates in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations
Document templates offer several advantages, including:
- Standardization: Create standardized documents for an entity and populate data in a structured format with a click, maintaining consistency across all documents.
- Customization: Edit business document templates using Microsoft Office 365 or the appropriate Microsoft Office desktop application. This includes design changes or new deployments, and adding placeholders for additional data without changing the source code.
- Efficiency: User-configurable reporting and document creation options allow you to create tailor-made reports that display the right data in the right format at the right time, increasing efficiency and productivity.
- Real-Time Data Access: These tools provide real-time data access, enabling businesses to create reports that reflect the most up-to-date financial information.
- User-Friendly Interface: The Business document area shows only the templates owned by the current active provider and located in the current instance of Dynamics 365 Finance.
In this guide, we focus on Microsoft Word templates.
Easy-to-Follow Steps on How to Create Document Templates in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations
Unlock the power of automation and standardization in your business processes with document templates in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations by following these steps:
- Populate Fleet Management Data: Populate the Fleet management data in a demo environment.
- Navigate to Document Templates: Go to Common > Common > Office integration > Document templates.
- Download Template: Find the FMTemplateCustomerInformation and click Download. Save the file in a folder of your choice.
- Open and Edit Template: Ensure you are signed into Word, open the document, and click Enable editing.
- Design Template: In the Microsoft Dynamics office add-in, click design. Note the entities available for this document template. Edit the entities to see the fields and add tables, fields, labels, and more entities to the document.
- Add Branding Elements: Add logos, graphics, tables, and more to the document. Save it in a repository of your choice.
- Save as New Template: Save it as a new document template.
- Upload New Template: Navigate to Common > Common > Office integration > Document templates. Click +New, then Browse, find and select your document, and click Open. Change the template name to a unique name, such as "Sam Agosti" as a new Document template.
- Verify Root Data Entity: Note the document shows the root data entity. Click OK to add your new document to the list of existing templates as either Excel or Word type.
- Test the Template: Navigate to Fleet Management> Customers > Customer. Click on the Open in Microsoft Office icon and select Export to Word. Choose the document you want to open, download, or save, and then open it.
- Edit and Finalize: Click Enable editing and edit the document to suit your needs.
And there you have it! By following these steps, you’ll be able to create additional documents with ease in the future.