The new feature 'Consolidate online using templates' in D365FO

Since D365FO version 10.0.40 you can enable the feature 'Consolidate online using templates' in the Feature Management workspace:

This feature is related to the Consolidation module in D365FO and then specific to the option for 'Consolidate online' functionality. This option 'Consolidation online' can be used to consolidate transactions from D365FO legal entities into another consolidation company also available in the same D365FO environment. So basically all the transactions are coming from D365FO and staying in D365FO for consolidation.

Without this feature enabled, when you open the 'Consolidation online' functionality you will see the following form:

In this form you can select the values and the options you want to use for the consolidation you want to run. If you open the form again, the settings from the previous performed consolidation are still entered in the form, but if you have several consolidation settings that you want to perform in the same legal entity, every time you have to change the settings in this form. And that's where the feature 'Consolidate online using template' helps, because here you can save several templates with different settings for consolidation and when starting the consolidations you just select one of the templates to have all the related settings available.

After enabling the feature 'Consolidate online using templates' when opening the 'Consolidate online' option you will see a different form:

Also in the Consolidations module a new option 'Consolidation online template setup' is added:

In this form for consolidation online templates you can setup the settings for consolidations that you want to perform:

When you have one or more templates created, you can go to the 'Consolidate online' form and click on 'Perform consolidation'. Now you can select the template to retrieve the settings you want to use:

When finished, in the Consolidate online form you can not only start the consolidations, but you also can see a new overview of all the previous consolidations performed:

This is quite a combination of the 'Consolidate online' and the 'Consolidation transactions', including some new options like the option to review consolidation transactions and use a filter to quickly separate the reviewed and unreviewed consolidations.

What is the main change after enabling this template?

Some changes are made after enabling this feature, like having an overview of all consolidations already in the 'Consolidate online' form. But the main change is that you can save multiple different consolidation settings by using multiple templates. Without the feature, when there is need for different consolidation settings you needed to change this information every time when you wanted to perform the consolidation action.