Acumatica 24R2: What’s New and What You Need to Know

In my previous articles, I’ve delved into operations and strategy in ERP and Acumatica. This month, I’m excited to dive into the upcoming Acumatica 24R2 release, highlighting some of the new features and enhancements that I believe will benefit both end-users and developers alike.

Acumatica, the Cloud ERP, follows a regular release schedule, with two major updates each year—R1 in March and R2 in October. In addition to these major updates, smaller builds are rolled out every 2-3 weeks, addressing fixes and incremental improvements. With October just around the corner, I’ve had the chance to get hands-on with the beta version of the 24R2 release, and I’m eager to share some highlights.

The 24R2 release brings a broad range of enhancements across multiple areas, including usability, technology, financials, payroll, CRM, distribution, retail, manufacturing, and construction. With so many improvements packed into this release, businesses across all Acumatica industry-specific editions stand to benefit from increased efficiency, adaptability, and the ability to achieve their strategic goals.

One thing I appreciate about Acumatica is how customer feedback plays a key role in shaping new features. Unlike other ERPs, Acumatica has a very collaborative approach to development.  On the Acumatica Community Forum, users can submit and vote on product ideas through the "Product Ideas" page.  The ideas with the most votes often get reviewed by the product teams and considered for future releases. This is a great resource for end-users who might otherwise feel their voices are missed, allowing the community to directly influence the platform's evolution.

Now, let’s talk about what’s actually under the hood of 24R2.  One of the most anticipated features is the new user interface (UI).  Acumatica's development team has been working on this for a while; the updated design will to allow users to customize screens sans coding skills.  You’ll be able to move header fields around, add new fields, and tailor the interface to your needs with ease. Unfortunately, this new UI is still in beta, however, it can be enabled if you’re interested in giving it a try. There’s a helpful article on the Acumatica Community site about how to activate it. I haven’t tested it myself yet, but it’s on my list, and I’ll be sharing my feedback soon.

In the meantime, I’ve put together some quick GIFs below to showcase the features and enhancements that have already shipped in the 24R2 beta. If you’re excited about these new capabilities and are curious about upgrading to the 2024 R2 version, stay tuned. I’ll be covering best practices for upgrading in an upcoming post.

24R2 New Features Highlight

Finance:

So, how does it works? The bank sets up an SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) folder and provides read-only access. Acumatica users can configure a bank feed by entering the login credentials and SFTP folder URL. After setting up the mapping between the incoming file fields and the bank feed transaction fields within Acumatica, the bank exports transactions to a file and copies it to the SFTP folder. Acumatica automatically detects the new file, extracts transactions, and performs the following steps:

• On the Cash Transactions (CA304000) form, bank transactions are created for the specified cash account.

• Duplicate transactions are identified by their external transaction ID (Ext. Tran ID) and omitted from creation.

• Expense receipts are generated for corporate cards and employees tied to the bank feed settings.

Files must be in comma-separated values (CSV) format for this process, and the Bank Feed Integration feature must be enabled via the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form to activate this functionality.

Reconciliation Statement Approval

To access this functionality, the Approval Workflow feature must be enabled in the system. You can do this on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, making it a seamless addition to your financial workflows.

 

Distribution:

Now, with Acumatica Cloud ERP 2024 R2, a warehouse manager or receiving clerk can review purchase receipts confirmed by warehouse staff, adding an extra layer of verification to ensure purchase receipt accuracy. This allows the team to make necessary quantity corrections before releasing the receipt, reducing the risk of mistakes and improving overall accuracy.

 

Platform:

• Generic Inquiry-Based OData: Retrieves data from generic inquiries.

• DAC-Based OData: Retrieves data directly from data access classes (DACs).

While the old URLs will remain functional until the 2025 R2 release of Acumatica, it’s highly recommended to update your applications to the new URLs as soon as possible to ensure compatibility and take full advantage of future updates.

This update is crucial for those leveraging OData for data retrieval, ensuring a smoother transition as Acumatica continues to enhance its platform.

The URL for the generic inquiry-based OData interface is:

<Acumatica ERP instance URL>/t/<TenantName>/api/odata/gi

Changes to the Report Designer

For example, the Report Designer delivered with Acumatica ERP 2023 R1 cannot be used to create or edit reports in Acumatica ERP 2024 R2. This means that anyone working on reports—whether they’re consultants or developers—must transition to the updated version to ensure compatibility.

Another key change is how data sources are selected in the 2024 R2 Report Designer. Previously, users could select the WSDL schema of an instance as the source for database tables. In the new version, this option has been replaced. Now, to specify the source of data for a report, you’ll need to enter the URL of the site directly in the Schema Builder.

This update streamlines data source selection and ensures better integration with Acumatica’s evolving architecture, but it does require an adjustment for users accustomed to the old method.

Improvements to Integration Scenarios

 

 

 

Selection of a Branch in the Import Scenario Mapping

In Acumatica ERP 2024 R2, this can be done by adding a row with the new <Set: Branch> command in the Import Scenarios (SM206025) form. The administrator specifies:

• Target Object: Summary area of the record

• Field/Action Name: <Set: Branch>

• Source Field/Value: The branch or company name, or a formula to calculate it

This <Set: Branch> row must be the first row in the mapping.

The following GIF demonstrates this command in an import scenario for AR invoices, where branch selection ensures the correct customers appear in the lookup table.