- Feature
- DIV and MOD formula functions in Electronic Reporting
- Availability
- Generally available in Finance 10.0.49, enabled by default
- Industry focus
- Food and beverage distributors
Food and beverage distribution runs on packaging arithmetic. Products are ordered in units, picked in cases and layers, shipped on pallets and invoiced in whichever unit the customer prefers. Documents that show the right numbers in the right packaging units make life easier for warehouse teams, drivers and customers' receiving docks.
The industry challenge
Electronic Reporting (ER) is the configurable framework that Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management use to produce many business documents and electronic formats. It is powerful, but some everyday calculations have been awkward to express in its formulas.
Two examples come up constantly in distribution. The first is splitting quantities: 125 bottles in cases of 12 is ten full cases and five loose bottles. The second is check digits and structured numbering, used in barcodes, SSCC labels and some customer reference formats, which rely on modular arithmetic. Pagination, such as showing a set number of lines per page or calculating page counts, is a third.
Without integer division and remainder functions, ER designers built workarounds using rounding and subtraction, or pushed the logic into custom code. Those workarounds are harder to read, harder to maintain and more likely to fail in edge cases.
What Microsoft delivered in Finance 10.0.49
Finance 10.0.49 adds DIV and MOD functions to the ER formula language. DIV returns the whole-number result of a division, and MOD returns the remainder. Microsoft highlights pagination, packaging quantities and check digit calculations as typical uses. The functions are enabled by default.
It is a small addition to the formula language with wide practical use.
Where the value shows up
| Business area | Impact |
|---|---|
| Warehouse documents | Picking lists and delivery notes that show full cases and loose units clearly |
| Labelling | Check digit calculations expressed directly in ER formulas |
| Customer documents | Invoices and despatch notes formatted to customer packaging conventions |
| Maintainability | Simpler, more readable ER configurations with fewer workarounds |
| IT cost | Less custom code for document calculations |
A worked scenario
(An illustrative example.) A beverage wholesaler supplies pubs, restaurants and convenience stores. Many customers order in single bottles, but the warehouse picks in cases. Drivers had complained that delivery notes showed only total units, so they had to work out case counts at every drop.
The ER designer updates the delivery note format using DIV to show full cases and MOD to show loose bottles for each line. A customer ordering 125 bottles of a mixer now sees 10 cases and 5 singles. The same designer replaces a complicated workaround in the pallet label format with a straightforward MOD-based check digit calculation, making the configuration easier to support.
Adoption considerations
- Find the workarounds. Review existing ER configurations for rounding-based workarounds that DIV and MOD could simplify.
- Prioritize high-volume documents. Start with delivery notes, picking lists and labels used every day.
- Test edge cases. Check zero quantities, exact multiples and very large numbers.
- Check unit conversions. Packaging calculations are only right if unit of measure conversions in master data are right.
- Version carefully. Manage changes to ER configurations through your normal versioning and testing process.
The bottom line
Sometimes the most useful improvements are the simplest. DIV and MOD give ER designers basic arithmetic that distribution documents need every day, from case counts to check digits. For food and beverage distributors, that means clearer documents for warehouses, drivers and customers, with less custom code. An experienced Dynamics 365 adviser can help you identify which formats will benefit most.
Source: Microsoft: What's new or changed in Dynamics 365 Finance 10.0.49