Release 2205: what’s new?

As these lovely spring days finally start to show their face, a new SAP Business ByDesign release is available, offering a whole range of new features to extend the functional scope of the flagship solution for SMEs, mid-sized companies and innovative businesses.

So what’s new in this latest vintage?

1. Budget control

This is certainly the most important new feature in this release, as it impacts both purchasing and management control by enabling spending to be tracked and controlled when a purchase order is created, approved or modified.

The main enhancements that build on existing capabilities are:

• Introduction of a budget category
• Ability to allocate and release part of an annual budget for purchasing on cost centers / projects
• Run a budget check when creating, approving or modifying a purchase order against the available budget on the analytical object
• Budget control available for invoices without reference to a purchase order
• New reports and enhanced analytics for budget tracking

-Cost centers – Budget tracking

-Projects – Budget tracking

• Ability to modify the budget and allocated amounts during the year
• Ability to assign budget control to recurring journal entries in accounting
• Ability to add additional controls through custom development

Activation of budget control at company level

Active budget control in the purchase order

Budget reporting

2. Service order processing and dispatching board

With version 2205, the service order dispatching board has been significantly improved to give the service planner an overview of the work that should be assigned to internal resources, as well as their availability. As shown in the screenshot below, there are now 2 split screens, with the list of service orders at the top and the list of employees and their availability at the bottom, making it easier to assign the right resources:

Service planner view

3. Create a production order in 1 step

Production line managers sometimes want to be able to create production orders without going through the planning step, especially during periods of high demand. With version 2205, it is now possible to create a proposal, a request and a production order in a single step.

Creating a production order

Automatic 1-step creation – Proposal, Request, Creation

4. Managing item variants in BOMs

It is now possible to add a product’s specifications not at item level, but directly in the BOMs (at each line level).

This avoids having to create a new item master record for each variant of the same product (size, color), making item master data management simpler and less cumbersome.

BOM view

Variant management and assignment

5. Revaluation of foreign-currency GL accounts

 Since release 2205, it is possible to revalue GL account balances from their foreign currency into the company currency at a defined date and exchange rate.

This closing step is essential for companies exposed to significant exchange-rate effects. The result of this revaluation can be reversed on the first day of the following month and can be exported to Excel.

Revaluation cockpit

Post-processing summary

And for those who would like to know more about the next key dates for this release, here is the milestone schedule to remember, shared by the publisher: