Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Business Events

DYNAMICS 365 FINANCE AND OPERATIONS BUSINESS EVENTS

CONTENT Introduction Business event types Business event catalog Power automate endpoints Summary

INTRODUCTION

In Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, a business event represents a significant action or change in the system that can be captured and sent to external systems or processes. Business events help facilitate integration by allowing external systems to be notified of specific occurrences in real time. For example, an event might be triggered when a customer invoice is posted, a purchase order is confirmed, or a workflow status is updated.

Business events are beneficial for automating workflows, integrating with external applications, or triggering notifications and actions in other systems. Key points include:

• Event Types: Events are predefined for standard actions, like changes in status for sales orders, purchase orders, or journal postings. Custom events can also be created.
• Event Handling: Business events can be managed and routed through different platforms, such as Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Azure Event Grid, or custom event handlers.
• Real-Time Data: Since business events are raised as soon as a transaction occurs, they enable real-time data sharing and action across systems without the need for frequent data polling.
• Scenarios: Business events could trigger automated notifications, initiate follow-up workflows, or start external processes, such as sending alerts to a supplier when a purchase order is confirmed.

By using business events, organizations can improve operational efficiency and streamline processes that rely on external integrations with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.

Business events must not be considered a mechanism for exporting data. By definition, business events are supposed to be lightweight and nimble. They aren't intended to carry large payloads to fulfill data export scenarios.

BUSINESS EVENT TYPES

Business events can be categorized based on 3 main trigger types:

• Application business events: Business events can be triggered based on a completed business activity like below
•  Vendor invoice matched: This event is triggered when invoice matching validation is completed for a vendor invoice as part of the Procure to pay process.
• Vendor invoice posted: This event business event is triggered when a user posts a vendor invoice as part of the Procure to Pay process.
• Purchase order confirmed: This event is triggered when a purchase order is confirmed.
• Free text invoice posted: This event is triggered when a user posts a free text invoice as part of the Quote to Cash process.
• Workflow business events: Workflow business events are generated at various points in the processing of a workflow.
• Alerts as business events: User-configured alerts can serve as business events, offering two main types: change-based alerts and due date alerts. These alerts can be set to issue a business event, providing notifications or triggers for external systems or applications. This setup enables both sophisticated user notifications and cross-system business process integration. To configure an alert as a business event, select Send externally as Yes in the "Create alert rule" dialog. To ensure alerts function as intended, the batch processes for change-based or due date alerts must be enabled for batch processing. Additionally, the business event must be active for either alert type to send notifications externally.

BUSINESS EVENT CATALOG

The business events catalog can be accessed from System administration > Set up > Business events. The business event catalog lists the business events that are available in your system.

A business event’s category reflects its source. Events originating from the workflow system are categorized under "Workflow," while those from other modules use the respective module name as their category. The business event catalog is built during database synchronization at the time of deployment. Therefore, users should see the complete list of business events in the catalog. However, if an explicit update of the catalog is required, you can select Manage > Rebuild business events catalog.

The business event catalog provides a description for each event, helping you understand its role and context within the business process. It also displays the list of data fields that will be included in the event.

In scenarios where external integration systems require the schema of the payload for a business event during development, you can select Download schema to download the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) schema.

In summary, the business event catalog helps identify the business events that are required for an implementation. It also helps identify the schema for each business event.

The next step is to create and manage Endpoints.

POWER AUTOMATE ENDPOINTS (BUSINESS EVENT ENDPOINTS)

Endpoints let you manage the destinations that business events are sent to.

A finance and operations app doesn't provision the endpoints. The endpoints must be created separately and provided to the app. The app then sends events to the endpoints that are provided. Customers might incur additional costs if they use these endpoints in their Azure subscription.

The Microsoft Power Automate endpoint type isn't made available for setup directly in finance and operations apps. This endpoint type is used for subscriptions that are created and sent directly from a flow in Power Automate. The endpoint is created on the Endpoints tab of the Business events page in finance and operations apps when you subscribe to a finance and operations apps business event or data event in Power Automate.

SUMMARY

There are three types of business events: Application, workflow and alert business events. 

The Microsoft Power Automate endpoint type isn't made available for setup directly in finance and operations apps. This endpoint type is used for subscriptions that are created and sent directly from a flow in Power Automate.

Business event catalog is the starting point of the configuration. You go to make Power automate  page after downloading the business event schema from the business event catalog. Created endpoint will be automatically seen in the finance and operations apps.