Cross-company data sharing – D365F&O

In D365F&O, if there are more than one legal entity ,there may be scenarios where both companies use the same set of data and they always need to be synchronized(CUD operations). For example, if both companies use the same list of Payment terms, it may be easier to just share that data across the two companies instead of having to set up twice or multiple times if a new LE is created.

Cross-company data sharing replicates reference and group data among companies. Data integrity is verified before replication occurs. When the set up is done, the policies set up in the legal entities need not worry when a new record is inserted or updating the existing record or deleting . Any such operation on the affected record will be reflected across the legal entities specified in the set up.

Now, let us see on configuring the cross-company data sharing.

Navigate to System Administration -> Set up ->Configure cross-company data sharing

1. Create Policies -> Data sharing is managed by defined policies that are saved in data packages. Policies let you control the following aspects of data sharing:
   • The fields that are replicated
   • The entities that participate in the replication
   • The companies that participate in the sharing

The same company and table can only be in one policy. It is possible to share the same table in more than one policy. This can happen when the limits of records or companies are reached, or to create policies for tables that need to be shared differently for different country/regions.

For instance, below screenshot shows the policy created for the same table and the system doesn`t throw error even when the same set of legal entities are used.

Let us create a new policy to set up the data sharing for Vendor groups.

Below vendor groups are in ‘USMF’

With the policy set up, these will be copied to another company ‘GLCO’

Enter the legal entities.

In order to ‘Enable’ the policy, there should be more than one legal entity in the list.

On clicking Enable, below dialog boxes are prompted before proceeding with the copy. Click Yes as the response.

After the process is done, message is displayed

We can see the data is copied to GLCO company.

Once this set up is done, the framework takes care of reflecting the creation/deletion/updation of the records in the specified legal entities.

For instance, if the description for ‘ONE’ is modified in USMF, it will be updated across the other set up companies.

Likewise for Delete as well.

If a new legal entity is to be added in the existing policy, click ‘Add’ and enter the legal entity.

To make the new legal entity effective for the policy, click Update and the same set of dialog boxes will be displayed to initiate the data copy.

What happens when you try to delete the policy?

Until the policy is disabled, it is not possible to delete .

After the policy is disabled , a dialog is displayed which informs about the data . Even if the policy is deleted, the data which was shared will be available but further inserts/updates/deletes will not be triggered.

Every tools comes with some or other limitations. This is no exception

1. If there are discrepancies in copying data, it has to be manually resolved. ‘Find sharing’ button detects these. For instance, if the same vendor group id is present in another company, this button is to be clicked for taking further actions.

For instance, when copying for payment days, the error message was on the description having descrepency as there was another payment day with same id. So it is up to the user to select which one to use.

Click on ‘Update field value’ and select the company to use the data from

2. Current record limit is 2,000,000 .

3. 300 companies is the current limit for data replication

4. Dual write is not supported.

5. Data using number sequence must have the same number sequence type to be set up across the companies.

6. Effective dates data is not supported.

Templates for cross-company sharing can be downloaded from shared asset library of LCS. This can then be imported using DIXF of package type. For instance, in order to import the ‘Financial cross company’ template, follow the below steps:

1. Go to Navigation pane > Modules > System administration > Workspaces > Data management and click import.
2. In the Name field, type a value and select ‘Package’ as data format.
3. Click Upload. Navigate to the location of the Financial data sharing template package file and select that file.
4. In the list, mark the selected row. Select the data sharing policy that was just created.
5. Click Import.