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Walkthrough Extension Development in Online Sandbox – Business Central

I have my Sandbox environment as below:

Details of the Sandbox as below:

Connecting VS code to above environment.

When you try to Publish the extension, it will ask you to authenticate.

Copy the Link and open in the browser and paste the code in the box as shown below.

Next it will ask for your Online Instance User Id & Password provide it and on confirmation close the page. It will start deploying the extension.

In this walkthrough I am using below scenario:

Requirement is we need to be able to define some code for dimension combinations. Let me say it will be Sales Code, you can choose name of your choice, this is not Salesperson code.

I am assuming these dimensions will follow the sequence as defined on my General Ledger Setup as below:

On Sales Order & Invoice user should be able to select this Sales Code and dimensions should be populated on order accordingly.

For tracking purpose this Sales Code should flow to Posted Sales Invoice and Customer Ledger.

So, Let’s Start with the development process:

Step-1 We will Create the Table

Here is the code for LookupDimValue Function, it will set filter for Dimension Code on Dimension Value table, as per the Dimension No passed. (1 is for Shortcut Dimension defined on General Ledger Setup, similarly for other 8 dimensions)

Step-2 Next, we will create the Page for this Setup

Step-3 Next, we will add the Sales Code field to all required Tables & Pages

Here is the code for AddDim Function. It is assumed that only combination provided in Sales Code Setup will be used. If you have defined Default dimensions or Combinations, those need to be preserved else this code will overwrite them. You will have to find the Data Set Entry, store them in temporary table used in below code and then add all the dimensions from the setup.

When you Select Sales Code on the Order or Invoice it will populate all the dimensions defined in the Setup.

Code for other Tables & Pages

Step-4 Next, we need to take care to flow the Sales Code to the Ledger and Posted documents.

For posted documents we need not to worry it will flow automatically provided we have defined the fields on same Id.

However, for ledger we will require to use Events to pass the data to their destinations. In this case we are only passing to Customer Ledger Entry. For this we will create a Codeunit.

To Add Event Subscriptions, Use the new Shift+Alt+E shortcut in the AL code editor to invoke a list of all events.

Search for the even you are looking for.

When pressing Enter to select an event entry, an event subscriber for the event will be inserted at the cursor position in the active AL code editor window.

Here is the Codeunit Code:

This is not the final code; much more can be done or need to be done before it can be delivered to customer for their use. Purpose of this walkthrough was to demo the way we can customize the solution using extensions and publishing to Online tenant in Sandbox.

Hope you enjoyed the information. Will come with more similar information in my next posts. Till then keep exploring, learning and sharing your knowledge with others.

Remain safe, take care of your loved ones, put your mask, maintain safe distance and don’t forget to get vaccinated.

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How can we Correct Dimension in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central?

You can do correction by reversing the journal or creating a credit memo for the document, which will be time consuming and can attract to even more errors.

Now you can correct dimensions for general ledger (G/L) entries to ensure your financial reports is providing you with accurate insights. For G/L entries, you can now

  • change the dimension values
  • add new dimensions
  • remove wrong ones

You can also trace a history of the corrections that you have done and can undo corrections in case you had made a mistake in the corrections itself.

Before you continue let me remind you:

Although the Dimension Correction feature only updates general ledger entries, still it can be helpful in many cases with creating accurate financial reports.

You must decide when to use the corrections because when you perform correction, it will result in differences between the dimensions in finance and sub-ledgers. The earlier you decide on what corrections to use, the less manual corrections you’ll need to do in the future.

I am using BC18 Demo database.

 How to run the Dimension Correction

General Ledger Entries. You can change the dimensions for single or multiple entries just by selecting the entries.

G/L Register. You can change the dimension per batch posting. By using “From Entry No.”, “To Entry No.” as a filter for General Ledger Entries.

Posted General Journal. You can use “Document No.” and “Posting Date” as filters for General Ledger Entries.

Search for Dimension Corrections Page.

Draft Dimension Correction Screen:

Depending upon from where you Launched the Dimension Correction, it may come with pre-filled or as blank screen.

You have several options to work with dimensions:

  • You can Add New Dimensions
  • You can Remove existing Dimensions
  • You can Change the existing Dimensions

For Selecting Entries to which above changes applies you have different options to work with.

  • Add related entries. This requires at least 1 G/L Entry already to be selected, and then it adds all other G/L Entries with the same “Transaction No”.
  • Select Manually. You can manually select in the G/L Entries by just choosing them.
  • Add by Filter. Here you have all freedom of choice, how to filter your G/L Entries for the dimension corrections.
  • Add by Dimension. This can be useful if you want to change the dimension value Sales to Admin for all G/L entries. So, you find all G/L Entries with the Dimension Sales.

You can omit/remove selected entries, or change selection criteria for your entries to be applied with changes.

Updating Dimension Values

Above we create a Dimension Correction, the Status is initially DRAFT, it means the G/L Entries Dimension is NOT yet updated.

Once you are done in the Dimension change to move forward you have two option to go thru:

  • Click the Validate dimension change then click RUN.
  • Click RUN.

Validate change

This will check if it’s possible to make the dimension changes you specified.

  • Check Dimension Correction Setup.
  • Check Dimension Combinations.

Once the validation run successfully you can see it in the Validation status.

You can choose to run the job immediately or schedule in case you are operating on larger data set.

Next you can now use the Run action button. This will Apply changes to the General Ledger Entry Dimensions.

How to trace the correction

General Ledger Entries. You can see all the dimension corrections that you’ve done for the selected entries.

Search the Dimension Corrections. You can see all the Dimension corrections that you’ve done even the ongoing dimension corrections will be listed here.

Undo a Correction


In the dimension correction page just click the UNDO. This will be executed as a Job. The user will have to choose, how he wants to apply changes: running the job immediately or schedule it.

It is recommended to run the schedule if you are working with larger data set, to avoid the table locking during posting of other transactions.

Once the Job execution completes, you will see the status change to UNDO COMPLETED.

How to Update the Analysis Views

From the Dimension Correction page, you can also update you’re Analysis Views by clicking the Update Analysis Views button. This will be executed as a Job. You will have to choose, how you want to apply changes: running the job immediately or schedule it.

It is recommended to run the schedule if you are working with larger dataset, to avoid the table locking during posting of other transactions.

Hope you enjoyed the information. Will come with more similar information in my next posts. Till then keep exploring, learning and sharing your knowledge with others.

Remain safe, take care of your loved ones, put your mask, maintain safe distance and don’t forget to get vaccinated.