Are you an organization who has sophisticated Project needs, however your financial requirements are simple?  You may be in a position where you are having Project Operations and Business Central deployed or you are considering going with Project Operations for your sophisticated Project needs, and Business Central because your finances are simple, and you feel D365 Finance & Operations would be an over kill for your requirements.  Once you get into this position, you realise that Project operations and Business Central are two disintegrated systems. Microsoft does not provide this integration out of the box. While it does for Finance & Operations, it has left PO and BC integration for the partners to figure out.  Why a Single Source of Truth Matters  For businesses managing complex projects, real-time, accurate insights into both project progress and financials aren’t a luxury—they’re essential. Without an integrated approach, processes slow down, errors multiply, and operational agility takes a hit.  Our Perspective:  By integrating D365 Project Operations with Business Central, companies can seamlessly connect project and financial data. This integration reduces errors, unifies workflows, and enables decision-makers to act with confidence.  Why Integrated Systems Are Essential  As projects scale, cost tracking, billing, and resource management become harder to manage. An integration of D365 Project Operations and Business Central creates a cohesive environment where data flows naturally, helping teams move past the blockers of siloed systems.  Here’s How Integration Changes the Game  – Unified, Real-Time Data Visibility Imagine having access to all of your financial and project data in one location. Team leads and finance managers can save time, no longer needing to cross-check numbers across systems. Data flows seamlessly between Project Operations and Business Central, enabling accurate budgeting and invoicing.  – Automation Cuts Out Tedious Processes Say goodbye to manual reconciliation. Updates made in Project Operations sync directly with Business Central—eliminating double entries and minimizing errors. This enhances accuracy and efficiency, freeing your team members to focus on other things rather than data entry.  – End-to-End Project Lifecycle Management This integration supports each project phase, from budgeting and invoicing to reporting. Full visibility means greater accountability, and everyone—from managers to teams—has the insights needed to make informed, timely decisions.  – Insights That Drive Better Planning and Execution With integrated analytics and Power BI, you’re not just gathering data; you’re transforming it into actionable insights. View project profitability and resource utilization in one place, enabling better project planning and seamless operations.  – Stock scenarios are covered  If you are an engineering company running heavy, long term deployment projects, you are probably worried how will Project operations cover the scenarios where I need to have stock consumption on my project tasks.  We have you covered here, too, so don’t worry. With the Project operations and Business Central integration we have also figured out how the stocks entries need to flow from Project Operations to Business Central because your stock movements happen in Business Central  This will ensure accurate stock consumption against the projects without worrying about what goes on in the background.  – WIP tracking  With the actuals being passed onto Business Central, your Finance team will have WIP postings in place to give an accurate picture of the progress on the Project. Why Partner with Us?  Having guided numerous businesses through D365 implementations, we know how to bridge gaps between project and financial management to unlock greater flexibility and efficiency. Our team is here to tailor this integration to your unique business needs.  Ready to See the Difference?  Think about your current project and financial workflows. Imagine the time saved and clarity gained by integrating them. Ready to explore what D365 integration can do for your business? Reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com for a free consultation, and let’s work toward operational excellence together. 

Are you struggling with keeping track of important deadlines and tasks in Business Central? I’m going to show you how to easily set up and manage reminders, so you never miss a critical follow-up or due date again. Did you know that businesses using reminder systems are 70% more likely to meet their deadlines consistently? In this guide, I’ll walk you through the simple steps to create, customize, and manage reminders in Microsoft Business Central. Get ready to boost your team’s productivity and keep your projects on track! Navigate to Reminder Setup: Conclusion Setting up and managing reminders in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a powerful way to streamline accounts receivable and maintain healthy cash flow. By configuring reminder terms, linking them to specific customers, and using Business Central’s automated reminder creation and sending options, businesses can ensure timely payment collections while reducing manual effort. Properly managed reminders not only help businesses stay organized but also improve customer relationships by clearly communicating payment expectations. Regularly reviewing and adjusting reminders allows businesses to stay flexible and responsive, ensuring that the reminder process remains efficient and effective. We hope you found this article useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

Developers are continually looking for ways to write cleaner, more efficient code. Two powerful tools that have emerged to meet this need are the ternary operator and extendable interfaces. This blog explores how these features can enhance your AL code, making it more readable and maintainable. Ternary Operator in Business Central The ternary operator, introduced in the 2024 release wave 2 of Business Central, is a concise way to perform conditional assignments. It offers a streamlined alternative to traditional if-else statements, promoting code clarity and reducing verbosity. Syntax and Example The ternary operator in AL has the following syntax: condition ? exprIfTrue : exprIfFalse Here’s an example that demonstrates its usage: pageextension 50300 CustomerListExtension extends “Customer List” {layout {     addlast(Content) {         field(“Customer Status”; IsCustomerActive) {             ApplicationArea = All;         }     }} var     IsCustomerActive: Text; trigger OnAfterGetCurrRecord();begin     IsCustomerActive := Rec.Blocked = Rec.Blocked::” ” ? ‘Active’ : ‘Inactive’;end;} In this example, the ternary operator is used to determine whether a customer is active or inactive based on their Blocked status. The result is a concise and more readable conditional assignment. Extendable Interfaces in Business Central Extendable interfaces provide a modular and flexible way to define reusable logic across different components in Business Central. They allow developers to create scalable systems that can easily adapt to changing business requirements. Defining and Implementing Extendable Interfaces Base Interface: interface INotificationProvider {procedure SendNotification(Message: Text): Text;} Extended Interface: interface INotificationProviderExt extends INotificationProvider {procedure SendEmailNotification(Message: Text): Text;procedure SendSMSNotification(Message: Text): Text;} Implementing the Interfaces in Codeunits: Email Notification Provider:codeunit 50301 EmailNotificationProvider implements INotificationProvider {procedure SendNotification(Message: Text): Text;begin     exit(‘Email sent with message: ‘ + Message);end;} SMS Notification Provider:codeunit 50302 SMSNotificationProvider implements INotificationProvider {procedure SendNotification(Message: Text): Text;begin     exit(‘SMS sent with message: ‘ + Message);end;} Advanced Notification Provider:codeunit 50303 AdvancedNotificationProvider implements INotificationProviderExt {procedure SendNotification(Message: Text): Text;begin     exit(‘Notification sent with message: ‘ + Message);end; procedure SendEmailNotification(Message: Text): Text;begin     exit(‘Email sent with message: ‘ + Message);end; procedure SendSMSNotification(Message: Text): Text;begin     exit(‘SMS sent with message: ‘ + Message);end;} Real-World Application Let’s implement these interfaces in a page extension to add actions for sending notifications to customers. pageextension 50300 CustomerListExt extends “Customer List” {actions {     addafter(ApplyTemplate) {         action(SendEmail) {             ApplicationArea = All;             Image = Email;             Caption = ‘Send Email’;             Promoted = true;             PromotedCategory = Process;             trigger OnAction()             begin                 iNotificationProvider := EmailNotificationProvider;                 Message(iNotificationProvider.SendNotification(‘Email message to customer’));             end;         } action(SendSMS) {             Image = Phone;             Caption = ‘Send SMS’;             ApplicationArea = All;             Promoted = true;             PromotedCategory = Process;             trigger OnAction()             begin                 iNotificationProvider := SMSNotificationProvider;                 Message(iNotificationProvider.SendNotification(‘SMS message to customer’));             end;         } action(SendAdvancedNotification) {             Image = Notification;             Caption = ‘Send Advanced Notification’;             ApplicationArea = All;             Promoted = true;             PromotedCategory = Process;             trigger OnAction()             begin                    iNotificationProviderExt := AdvancedNotificationProvider;                    Message(iNotificationProviderExt.SendEmailNotification(‘Advanced Email message to customer’));                    Message(iNotificationProviderExt.SendSMSNotification(‘Advanced SMS message to customer’));             end;         }     }} var     iNotificationProvider: Interface INotificationProvider;     iNotificationProviderExt: Interface INotificationProviderExt;     EmailNotificationProvider: Codeunit EmailNotificationProvider;     SMSNotificationProvider: Codeunit SMSNotificationProvider;     AdvancedNotificationProvider: Codeunit AdvancedNotificationProvider;} This example demonstrates how to use extendable interfaces to create a flexible and maintainable notification provider system in Business Central, allowing for different types of notifications to be added seamlessly. Conclusion The ternary operator and extendable interfaces in Business Central are powerful tools that can significantly enhance your AL code. By using the ternary operator, you can streamline conditional logic and improve code readability. Extendable interfaces, on the other hand, allow for modular, scalable solutions that can adapt to changing business needs. Embrace these features to build more efficient, maintainable, and future-proof solutions in Business Central.

This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough for integrating Shopify with Business Central (OnCloud). The integration focuses on synchronizing key aspects such as inventory, product details, and order information to enable efficient management of your Shopify store directly from Business Central. With this integration, you can streamline your eCommerce operations and ensure real-time data alignment between both platforms. Pre-requisites: Before beginning the integration, ensure you have the following: Steps for Shopify and Business Central Integration 1. Create an Account on Shopify – Go to Shopify Admin and create your account. – Shopify offers a 3-day free trial, so you can explore the platform before committing. 2. Access the Shopify Dashboard – After successfully creating your Shopify account, you’ll be directed to the Shopify dashboard. – From here, copy the Shopify store URL, as you’ll need it later during the integration with Business Central. 3. Navigate to Business Central – Open Business Central and search for “Shopify Shops” in the global search bar. – Click on New to add a new Shopify shop. 4. Enter Shopify Shop Information – In the new Shopify shop creation screen, enter a unique Code for the shop. – Paste the Shopify URL (copied from step 2) into the required field. 5. Set Shopify Location – In Business Central, go to Shopify Location settings. – Select the relevant location for the shop. 6. Set Stock Calculation – Choose Free Inventory for Stock Calculation. This option ensures that your available inventory is always in sync with Shopify. 7. Add Products in Business Central – First, click on the Products section in Business Central. – Then, click on Add Items to begin adding products to be synced with Shopify. 8. Sync Inventory – Set the Sync Inventory field to True by enabling the corresponding boolean field. – Enter an appropriate Item Category Code for the products, then click OK to confirm. Optional: Sync Product Images – If you wish to sync product images between Shopify and Business Central, select the Sync Item Images to Shopify option. – By enabling this setting, the images of your items will also be synchronized when the products are added to Shopify. 9. Inventory Sync in Shopify – After completing the previous steps, your inventory will be successfully synced from Business Central to Shopify. Any changes made to stock levels in Business Central will now automatically update in Shopify. 10. If you want to sync shopify to business central go to Shopify Shop Card > Select “From Shopify” in Sync Item. 11. After that go to Synchronization and click on sync products By this if you had added product in shopify it will get sync to business central. 12. Customer Synchronization – You can also synchronize customer information between the two platforms. – For example, once you sync, you’ll see that Meagan has been successfully synchronized to Shopify. 13. View Your Online Store – Now you can view your online store and see your products live on Shopify. Theme Customization in Shopify The look and feel of your Shopify store is important in building a strong brand presence. Shopify offers a variety of customizable themes that you can select and edit to match your brand’s identity. How to Select a Theme: How to Set Up Payments on Shopify? Shopify Payments is an integrated payment gateway that simplifies the transaction process for your Shopify store. Here’s how to set it up to ensure your customers can make secure payments directly on your store. Important Points to Consider Before Setting Up Shopify Payments: – Bank Account Location: Ensure that your bank account is in the same country as your Shopify store. – Enable Two-Step Authentication: For enhanced security, activate two-step authentication before setting up Shopify Payments. – Transaction Fees: Be aware that Shopify Payments charges fees for each transaction, which vary depending on your pricing plan. – Minimum Payout Threshold: Shopify Payments does not process payouts below $1, £1, or €1. These smaller amounts will be added to the next payout that meets the threshold. Did You Know? For U.S.-based stores, Shopify Payments incurs a 1% fee for cross-border transactions (for credit card payments made with cards issued outside the U.S.). Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Shopify Payments Step 1: Set Your Store Currency Before you begin, establish the currency for your store. This currency may differ from that of your bank account. Changing the store currency after setup will require contacting Shopify Support. To set your currency: – Navigate to Settings > General > Store defaults > Currency display. – Click on Change store currency and select your preferred currency. – Click Save to implement the changes. Step 2: Access Payment Settings Once you’ve set your store currency, return to the Settings menu and choose the Payment option to initiate the payment setup process. Note: It is essential to complete your Shopify Payments account setup within 21 days of your first sale. This includes providing your business and banking details. For merchants located in the European Union or Hong Kong, setting up Shopify Payments is necessary to accept customer payments. Step 3: Activate Shopify Payments To enable Shopify Payments, you first need to create a Stripe account. Then: – Navigate to the Payment settings page in Shopify. – Click the Activate button for Shopify Payments. If you’re transitioning from another payment provider, Shopify offers an easy way to make this switch. Step 4: Select Your Business Type During the activation of Shopify Payments, you must identify your business type: – Individual: For sole proprietors who haven’t formally registered their business. – Registered Business: For businesses operating under a registered name, such as a corporation, LLC, or partnership. – Non-Profit: For organizations that are officially recognized as non-profit entities. Step 5: Designate an Account Representative Setting up Shopify Payments requires appointing an account representative. This individual, typically the owner, senior executive, or director, must possess the authority to make decisions within the business. Their role is crucial for verification with Shopify’s banking partners. Step 6: … Continue reading Seamlessly Integrating Shopify with Business Central: A Comprehensive Guide →

Maintaining timely communication with customers about outstanding payments is crucial. Business Central makes this easier with its automated reminder feature, helping businesses streamline their collection process while maintaining positive client relationships. This sets the stage for discussing the “how-to” steps for sending reminders in Business Central. Reminders can be used to remind clients of past-due amounts and to solicit payment. You can assign reminder terms to customers and set them up to manage accounts receivable. You have control over how the reminder process operates with reminder terms. You can specify a set of reminder levels for each reminder term. Rules governing when to send reminders, what fees to charge, and whether to compute interest are all included in reminder levels. A grace period setting is another feature of reminder levels that makes sure you don’t remind customers about bills they have already paid. Pre-requisites – Business Central onCloud – Reminder terms You have to choose how and when to remind clients who have past-due payments. You may also wish to deduct interest or fees from their accounts. Any number of reminder terms can be configured. Lets see how we can set automate reminders for ovedue customers Configuration: – Select the reminder term or terms for which you want to use this automation in the Reminder Terms Filter field.– Select the frequency of automation runs in the Cadence field.– Next, select whether the automation generates, issues, or sends reminders by selecting New on the Actions FastTab.– Select OK.– Complete the fields on the setup page as needed, depending on the action the automation is performing.– Go to Settings for reminder actions to find out more about the settings.– The Move up and Move down actions allow you to change the sequence in which the automation’s actions execute after you’ve configured them. Set cadence to manual and click on start button it will create reminders for customers witb overdue amount Now setup automation to issue reminders similar to above Click on action and choose Issue reminder action When issuing a reminder, entries are created in the customer ledger with details like the posting and tax dates. You can use the “Issue Reminders Setup” page to decide if these dates should be replaced by the dates from the reminder itself. For instance, if a reminder was created yesterday but issued today, the due date will adjust by one day. Once you click on start button it will move all draft reminders to issue reminder. From here by using above actions, you can sent reminders to customer manually also or mark it as sent if you already sent mail by yourself. Let’s create third entry to send reminders to customers Now before running this last job que, you need to set email body for customers Search Reminder terms and choose default value in our case we have added Domestic as a reminder term This is the template you will see when you click on “Customer Communication.” It can be changed to suit your needs. Once you schedule all three-job automatic it will start sending emails to customers Conclusion: In conclusion, automating reminders in Business Central streamlines the payment collection process, helping businesses maintain cash flow and reduce overdue receivables. By leveraging customizable reminder settings, companies can create tailored communication that encourages timely payments while maintaining positive customer relationships. The system’s flexibility and automation capabilities allow for efficient financial management, minimizing manual intervention and improving overall productivity. We hope you found this article useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

For growing businesses, managing sales efficiently is crucial as processes and reporting become more complex. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 (BC25) introduces an exciting new feature that helps you create sales lines quickly by using data from a CSV (comma-separated values) file. This feature, powered by Copilot, simplifies the sales order process and saves valuable time. Are You Struggling to Manage Your Sales Lines? Are you finding it challenging to keep up with sales line entries? If you’re looking to automate this process, this article is for you. According to recent studies, businesses that streamline their sales processes can reduce order creation time by up to 80%. Additionally, companies using automated solutions see a 25% increase in productivity and improved accuracy in their sales data. Why CSV Integration Matters As businesses expand, the volume and complexity of sales orders increase. Having an efficient method to manage sales lines is essential for maintaining operational flow and customer satisfaction. The new CSV integration feature in Business Central 2024 Wave 2 allows you to: – Save Time: Upload your sales data all at once, eliminating the need for tedious manual entry. – Reduce Errors: Ensure your sales line data is accurate and consistent, minimizing mistakes that can occur with manual entry. – Manage Data Easily: Use a simple spreadsheet format to organize your sales line details before uploading them. How to Use the CSV Integration Feature Step-by-Step Guide 1. Prepare Your CSV File: Start by creating a CSV file containing all the sales line details you need, such as item numbers, quantities, and prices. 2. Log into Business Central: Open your Business Central account and navigate to the sales order section. 3. Upload the CSV File: – Click on the Copilot symbol and select “Suggest Sales Line.” – Choose “Attach” and upload your CSV file. Note: Only CSV files can be selected. PS: Only CSV (comma-separated values) can be selected. 4. Review the Suggestions: After uploading, review the suggested sales lines. You can make any adjustments if necessary. – For actions like matching or viewing, choose the appropriate options and click “Generate” for Copilot to suggest sales lines based on your data. Column Action: Matching: View: 5. Finalize Your Order: Once you’re satisfied with the sales lines, click “Insert.” Your sales lines will now be successfully added to the sales order. Conclusion The new CSV integration feature in Business Central 2024 Wave 2 makes managing sales orders easier than ever. With Copilot’s assistance, you can save time, reduce errors, and streamline your sales process. We encourage you to explore this feature and see how it can transform your sales operations. If you need further assistance, feel free to reach out to CloudFronts for practical solutions that can help you implement this powerful tool effectively.

Quality isn’t just a standard—it’s a promise. For pharmaceutical industries where quality can make or break success, we are offering a quality control module in business central which is in compliance with GMP. Imagine what you could achieve with a streamlined, GMP-compliant solution that integrates seamlessly into your existing workflows. With our new quality control module in Business Central, not only can your business meet Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, but you can also elevate product consistency, enhance traceability, and make real-time quality insights accessible. Let’s explore how this tool is built to not only meet requirements but drive your business forward This blog series dives into the step-by-step process of implementing and optimizing our GMP-compliant quality control module in Business Central. Let’s begin, Customer order is received – In a manufacturing company, company will receive an order from customer. Based on the order and availability of product the user will prepare a Proforma invoice. Proforma Invoice – User will create a proforma invoice with all the details of the order and send that invoice for approval internally. – Once that invoice is approved, the user will convert that proforma invoice into sales order. Sales order – Once a sales order is created after approval, user will then plan the production. – To plan the schedule, we have customised a page, “Planning Schedule” – The planning schedule has to be prepared from the sales order page. Later the page is accessible with global search as well. – User will select the item no. on the page and click on “Planning” button on the action bar. – System will automatically create lines/batches for the sales order quantity. These batches are created based on the production Bom details in the master. – When the user is ready to create production orders for the first batch, user will click on the “carry out action” checkbox and the from the action bar click on “Create production order button” – System will automatically create firm planed production order for the entire batch. – Now that the firm plan production orders are ready, user can run the Planning (shortage) worksheet Planning Worksheet – User will run the planning worksheet to figure out the shortages for the production of Finished goods. – To get the shortages, user will click on “Calculate regenerative plans” button on the action bar. A filter page will pop up, enter the date range for the shortages and click on “ok” – When the lines are generated, user can directly select the lines on the worksheet and create a Purchase indent (It is an internal document used by companies to authorize the requisition of Materials.) – User can club multiple lines in one purchase indent. Thank you for reading this blog. We’ve started the series with sales order and covered in the MRP process, and we hope you found the information valuable. In our next blog, we will start the Procurement Quality Check process, exploring its significance and the steps involved in ensuring that all procured materials meet our stringent quality standards. We hope you found this article useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

Interacting with systems in natural language benefits organizations by making technology more accessible and user-friendly for all employees, regardless of technical skill. It allows users to complete tasks quickly by eliminating complex commands, improving productivity and reducing the potential for errors. This streamlined access to information leads to faster decision-making, ultimately helping organizations operate more efficiently. Are your people finding it difficult to navigate Business Central and access important information quickly? If so, consider incorporating Copilot Chat to ease their suffering! Research indicates that call center operators using AI assistance became 14% more productive, with gains exceeding 30% for less experienced workers. This improvement is attributed to AI capturing and conveying organizational knowledge that helps in problem-solving. Specific tasks can see remarkable speed increases; for instance, software engineers using tools like Codex can code up to twice as fast. Similarly, writing tasks can be completed 10-20% faster with the aid of large language models. In the retail sector, AI-driven chatbots have been shown to increase customer satisfaction by 30%, demonstrating their effectiveness in enhancing customer interactions​. Currently, around 35% of businesses leverage AI technology, which is expected to grow significantly as organizations recognize its strategic importance. I am confident that this article will highlight the advantages of incorporating Copilot into your daily activities. References Configuration In Business Central, – Search for “Copilot and Capabilities.” – Select the “Chat” and click on the “Activate” button. – Click on the “Copilot button” near the top right. – You’ll be presented with this screen. – You can ask it queries like – “Show me all the Customers” from India. – “How many open Sales Quotes do I have?” – You can also ask context specific questions like –  – You can also ask questions for guidance on how to achieve certain things in the system. In my humble opinion, it is far from perfect but it is absolutely a step in the right direction.In the coming days, the functionality is surely going to blossom and navigation to different screens may become something that only power users need to think about. Conclusion In conclusion, I believe utilizing Copilot can surely boost the Users productivity and reduce reliance on other partners or other experiences users in resolving minor queries.It also reduces the effort taken to move from one piece of information to another. One thing that I would love to see incorporated into this is data summarization and inclusion of all the fields available on the entity to the Copilot’s database. If you need further assistance, feel free to reach out to CloudFronts for practical solutions that can help you develop a more effective service request management system.  Taking action now will lead to better customer satisfaction and smoother operations for your business.

Introduction Data retention policies dictate which data should be stored or archived, where it should be stored, and for how long. When the retention period for a data set expires, the data can either be deleted or moved to secondary or tertiary storage as historical data. This approach helps maintain cleaner primary storage and ensures the organization remains compliant with data management regulations. In this blog, we’ll be covering –  Pre-requisites Business Central environment References Data Retention Policy Clean up Data with Retention Policy – Microsoft Learn Details In Business Central, we can define Retention Policies based on two main parameters – The table which is to be monitored and the retention policy. Retention Policy Retention periods specify how long data is kept in tables under a retention policy. These periods determine how often data is deleted. Retention periods can be as long or as short as needed. Applying a retention policy –  Retention policies can be applied automatically or manually. For automatic application, enable the policy, which creates a job queue entry to apply it according to the defined retention period. By default, the job queue entry applies policies daily at 0200, but this timing can be adjusted (refer below screenshot), preferably to non-business hours. All retention policies use the same job queue entry. For manual application, use the “Apply Manually” action on the Retention Policies page and turn on the “Manual” toggle to prevent the job queue entry from applying the policy automatically. We can also exclude or include certain records based on filters. Deselect the “Apply to all records” this will show a new tab where we can define the record filters. Every such group can have it’s own retention period. By default, only a few selected tables are shown in the table selection on the Retention Policy page. If we want to include our custom table in this list, we’ll have to do a small customization. **You cannot add tables that belong to seperate modules, for example “Purchase Header” cannot be added in this list by you. Unless you work at Microsoft in which case you already knew this. ** So here I’ve created a small sample table. And I’ve created an Codeunit with Install subtype where I’m adding my custom table to the allowed tables list. After deploying I can now see my custom table in the list. Developers also have the option to set Mandatory or Default filters on the custom tables. Mandatory filters cannot be removed and Default filters can be removed. To create a mandatory/default filter –  Setting the “Mandatory” parameter to true, makes it Mandatory otherwise it’s a default filter. When I add the table ID on the “Retention Policy” I get the following entry created automatically. If I try to remove the filters, I get the error –  Conclusion Thus, we saw how we can leverage Retention Policies in Business Central to reduce capacity wastage without heavy customizations.

Introduction Open Data Protocol (oData) is a web protocol for querying and updating data. It simplifies the data exchange between clients and servers, allowing for easy integration with RESTful APIs. One important feature of oData is the use of ETags (Entity Tags), which are part of the HTTP protocol and help manage the state of resources. ETags serve as a version identifier for a resource. When a client retrieves a resource, the server sends an ETag in the response. The client can then use this ETag in subsequent requests to ensure that it is working with the most current version of that resource. What is oData.ETag? In Postman, oData.ETag refers specifically to the ETag values used in oData responses. These tags help maintain data integrity during updates. When a client attempts to update a resource, it can include the ETag in the request headers. If the ETag matches the current version on the server, the update proceeds. If not, the server rejects the request, preventing unintended data overwrites. Using oData.ETag in Postman Fetching an ETag: When you send a GET request to an oData endpoint, look for the ETag header in the response. For example:GET https://api.example.com/odata/productsThe response might look like this:HTTP/1.1 200 OKETag: “W/\”123456789\”” Updating a Resource with ETag: When you need to update the resource, include the ETag in the If-Match header of your PUT or PATCH request:PATCH https://api.example.com/odata/products(1)If-Match: “W/\”123456789\””Content-Type: application/json {    “name”: “Updated Product Name”} If the ETag matches, the update occurs; otherwise, you’ll receive a 412 Precondition Failed response. Related Features in Postman Conditional Requests: Beyond oData, ETags are useful in REST APIs for conditional requests. You can use If-None-Match to check if a resource has changed before downloading it again, saving bandwidth and time. CORS Preflight Requests: When working with cross-origin requests, browsers may perform preflight checks using OPTIONS requests. Understanding ETags can help in managing these requests effectively, ensuring your API can handle them smoothly. Caching Strategies: Implementing caching with ETags can enhance performance. Postman can simulate caching behavior, allowing you to test how your API behaves when dealing with cached responses. Error Handling: Testing how your API handles errors, such as a mismatched ETag, is crucial for robustness. Postman’s test scripts can validate error responses and ensure that your API behaves as expected. Conclusion Understanding oData.ETag in Postman is essential for developers working with RESTful APIs, especially in scenarios where data integrity is critical. By leveraging ETags, you can ensure safe and efficient data updates, manage caching, and improve your overall API interactions.