GS513 – Business Document Management (BDM) in Globalization Studio

One of the most common requests from finance, sales, and operations teams is:

“Can we change this invoice layout? Just add a logo… remove a column… maybe move the footer?”

Previously, this required developers to update SSRS reports or ER format files. But with Business Document Management (BDM), business users can now make these changes directly in Microsoft Word or Excel, without any coding.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• What BDM is and what formats it supports
• Which documents you can customize
• How BDM connects to Globalization Studio and Electronic Reporting (ER)
• How to use your own templates
• Setup prerequisites, security roles, and tips
• A real-life demo: Sales Invoice in Excel
• Best practices and versioning

This article builds on GS504 – Feature Lifecycle and GS509 – ER Basics.

🧠 What Is Business Document Management?

Business Document Management (BDM) is a no-code tool in Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management that allows users to:

• Modify document templates using Microsoft Word or Excel
• Manage visual layouts of customer-facing documents (e.g., invoices)
• Use Electronic Reporting (ER) to map system data to the document layout

✅ Supported Output Formats:

• Microsoft Word (.docx) – for documents like invoices, POs, and quotations
• Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) – typically used for tabular financial layouts
• PDF – generated as output from Word or Excel layouts (not edited directly)
• Other formats (XML, TXT, JSON) – available only via traditional ER Designer, not BDM

📘 Official Docs: Business document management overview – Microsoft Learn

📄 What Documents Can You Edit?

You can use BDM to customize the layout of any configurable business document enabled by ER. Common examples include:

• Customer sales invoice
• Purchase order confirmation
• Free text invoice
• Sales quotation
• Project quotation
• Collection letter note
• Packing slip
• Request for quotation (RFQ)

📘 Microsoft reference: Configurable business documents – Microsoft Learn

These documents are delivered via the Global repository and rely on ER formats (Word or Excel) and data models.

🧾 Prerequisite Configuration

Before using BDM, ensure the following is configured:

🔐 Security Roles

To access and work with BDM, assign the following roles:

📌 Roles are additive. A power user may have both functional and developer roles in non-production environments.

🧭 How BDM Fits into Globalization Studio

BDM is part of the broader Globalization Studio ecosystem. It layers on top of Electronic Reporting and connects to a Feature that drives document generation.

🧪 Step-by-Step Demo: Sales Invoice in Excel

Let’s say your UK finance team wants to:

• Add a company logo
• Change footer text
• Remove internal-only fields

Here’s how to update the sales invoice using BDM:

✅ Step 1: Access the BDM Workspace

• Go to Workspaces > Business Document Management > +Add New Document

• Select Customer sales invoice (Excel or Word)

✅ Step 2: Download the Template

• Choose the latest version of the invoice

• Click Edit in Excel

• Excel opens with placeholders and named content controls (ER tags)

✅ Step 3: Make Your Changes

• Insert a logo image
• Delete unnecessary columns
• Update the footer
• Use named fields to keep data-binding intact

🧷 ER fields look like @InvoiceDate or @SalesId – don’t delete unless unused.

✅ Step 4: Change can be made through ER configuration

Format Designer

✅ Step 5: Upload and Publish

• Save your edited Excel file
• Return to BDM and Upload the layout
• Click Publish to activate it for use

Once published, the layout is used automatically on future posted invoices.

🔁 How to Bring Your Own Configuration and Use It with BDM

You can also bring your own ER format and use it with BDM. Follow this full process:

✅ Step-by-Step

1. Create or clone an ER data model and model mapping
2. Create a new Word or Excel-based ER format
   • Format must be set to Document type = “Word” or “Excel”
3. Go to Business document management > Configurations
4. Select Import and choose your format
5. Add it to your Feature configuration inside Globalization Studio
6. Link this format in a processing pipeline step (Generate > Use Format)
7. Apply applicability rules (e.g., Doc type = Invoice, Country = GB)
8. Open the format in BDM editor and customize the layout
9. Test using sample transactions in Dev/UAT
10. Move through lifecycle states: Draft → Complete → Published

📁 Check Microsoft article explaining step by step process : Section “Upload a template that uses an existing Excel workbook”

🖊️ Tips for Amending Word Document Layouts in BDM

📋 BDM vs Traditional ER Designer

🧠 Best Practices

🧭 Related Articles

• GS504 – Feature Lifecycle and Rules
• GS505 – Creating a Feature from Scratch
• GS509 – ER Basics
• GS512 – Version Control

📘 Coming Up Next

In GS514 – Document Routing and Output Locations, we’ll explain:

• How to route documents to SharePoint, Azure Blob, Email, or folders
• How to set up customer-specific layouts
• How to avoid common Print Management errors

📖 [Continue to GS514 →Document Routing and Output Locations]

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