Business Central v29: System Audit Fields Now Available in Analysis Mode
Business Central v29 exposes system audit fields (created by, modified by, created at, modified at) as flow fields. They can be added through profile customization and used in analysis mode, showing usernames instead of GUIDs. Client personalization does not support them yet.
- Introduction and overview of auditing improvements
- System audit fields explained and their importance
- Version 28 limitations and historical context
- Version 29 flow fields and accessibility improvements
- Profile customization for audit fields
- Using audit fields in analysis mode
- Benefits and impact of the feature
- Conclusion and call to engagement
Overview
The video explains why system audit fields matter for tracking who created or changed a record and when. It describes the version 28 situation, where these fields could not be used in analysis mode, and shows what changed in version 29.
Key points
- In v29, created by, modified by, created at and modified at are available as flow fields that can be added to pages without showing the ID.
- The fields show the actual username instead of the GUID tied to the record.
- Administrators can add the fields through profile customization (page profiles); they then apply to all users assigned to that profile, with no page extension or manual flow field needed.
- In analysis mode, the fields can be used to slice data by created by, modified by, creation date and modified date, without adding them to a page.
- Client personalization does not support these fields yet; access is only through profile customization or analysis mode.
- Historical data already holds the values, and no code or data changes are needed after upgrading to v29.
- The demo used the customer card and customer list pages.
Features
| Feature | Status | At |
|---|---|---|
| System audit fields as flow fields | status not stated, demoed | 5:12 |
| Audit fields in profile customization | generally available (roadmap Use system audit fields in analysis mode and in profiles), demoed | 7:03 |
| Audit fields in analysis mode | generally available (roadmap Use system audit fields in analysis mode and in profiles), demoed | 11:16 |
A status with a roadmap link comes from the Microsoft 365 roadmap feature this part of the video covers (matched by Haiku; links Opus dropped are not used); other statuses need a status word in the video itself.
AL objects mentioned
As heard in the captions. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.
- page “customer” at 1:48
- page 22 “Customer List” at 8:28
- page “profiles” at 7:19
Not found in BC28-30: page “customer”, page “profiles”.
Quotes
- 0:16 “Did you knew that one of the most requested auditing improvement in Business Central is finally arrived in version 29?”
- 0:30 “this update will save you time and reduce customization.”
- 1:25 “We’ll look at how system audit fields can now be used in analysis mode and profile customization. Something that wasn’t possible in previous version.”
- 4:30 “uh there was a very huge requirement or request to add these field into analysis mode but that was not available till version 28.”
- 5:12 “What Microsoft have done is made these field available as flow fields so that they can be added into the page.”
Disclaimers in the video
- 0:44 other: Now, when you think it from a developer perspective, there might be a little gap which I would like to …
- 6:06 other: But now, how you access these? Because still today, they’re not available on the client. Uh you can’t just go …
Presenters (as heard): Arto Dyani.