Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations has introduced a concept called Workspace, which is part of the primary navigation mechanism for a targeted persona to support business activities. The operational workspace combines all the relevant information related to the particular business activity in one place and also allows simple tasks to be completed directly in the workspace.

We will see the Manage customer credit and collections workspace in Finance and Operations, which is designed for collecting agent persona. This workspace shows various information related to collecting agent personas all in one place. This is comprised of the following:

1. Tiles: Tiles in the workspace show important data counters relevant to personas. For example, the Open cases tile in the following screenshot shows six open cases related to the collection in the USMF legal entity. To find out the details of the chases, the collection agent can simply click the tile to open the detail form behind it.

2. Charts: The workspace can include charts, as seen in the preceding screenshot, to display snapshots of business activity. As in this case, the preceding screenshot highlights Aged balances for the customer.

3. List: The list section of the workspace usually shows the important data for the persona to work on in the data grid. As highlighted in the following screenshot, the user can see details of all of the open cases in the list view. There could be multiple lists tabbed vertically in a single workspace:

4. Actions: A workspace list could provide actionable controls that help maximize efficiency for common user actions directly from the workspace. As shown in the preceding screenshot, the user can take action such as close the case directly from the workspace.
5. Links: As highlighted in the preceding screenshot, the workspace can include common forms and reports of direct links related to functionality.

Overall, operational workspaces are built to increase operational efficiency by showing important information related to a business process in one place and provide logical presentations of data to help the user discover patterns, highlight anomalies, and act on the most important tasks. Operational workspaces are not only helpful in providing operational insight but also allow users to take actions to complete their task.

The best part of the workspace is that it can be personalized to a large extent so that it meets the unique requirements of the business process. Using the personalization feature, you can modify existing or create a new workspace, or add tiles, list pages, and links, as per requirements. You can also add Power BI reports and dashboards directly in the workspaces.

You could argue that operational workspaces are more built for operational activities than reporting. However, usually, the next step after getting operational reports is to take action. Operational workspaces combine both operational reporting and actions to make the user more productive.

To summarize, the following are the key advantages and limitations of using operational workspaces:

• The advantages are as follows:
  • Personalization
  • All information in one place
  • Take action directly from the workspace
• The limitations are as follows:
  • Not printer-friendly
  • No automated delivery

Now, we will learn how inquiry pages can be used for operational reporting in Finance and Operations.