- Feature
- Use audit fields in analysis mode and profiles
- Availability
- Generally available (October 2026)
- Industry focus
- Community pharmacy chains
Community pharmacy chains operate under close regulatory oversight. Beyond clinical systems, their back-office records matter too: supplier set-ups, price changes, stock adjustments and credit notes all affect controls and margins. When something looks wrong, the first questions are who created it, who last changed it and when. Business Central 29.0 makes those answers easy to find and analyze.
The industry challenge
Every Business Central table includes system audit fields that record when a record was created and last modified, and by whom. But these fields weren't easy to use in everyday analysis. Typically, people needed:
- A developer to add the fields to pages
- Page inspection to check a single record
- An export to Excel to analyze many records at once
For a pharmacy chain's internal audit or finance team, that friction meant audit questions took longer than they should. Reviewing all supplier bank detail changes in a month, or all stock adjustments created by a particular user, was harder than it needed to be.
What Microsoft delivered in Business Central 29.0
According to Microsoft, users can now use system audit fields in analysis tabs and add them directly to pages in profiles.
An MVP walk-through notes that this release also introduces new system fields showing the user name and full name of the person who created or last modified a record. These are friendlier than the underlying user ID values and can be added in analysis mode or through profile customization without code.
Where the value shows up
| Business area | Impact for a pharmacy chain |
|---|---|
| Internal audit | Quick analysis of who created and changed key records |
| Fraud prevention | Easy review of sensitive changes, such as vendor bank details |
| Stock control | Visibility of who made stock adjustments and when |
| No-code set-up | Audit columns added through profiles, not development |
| Accountability | Clear ownership of records across branches and head office |
The benefit is turning audit data that already exists into something people actually use. Analysis mode lets an auditor group, filter and pivot by user and date in seconds.
A worked scenario
Consider a chain of 35 community pharmacies with a central buying and finance team (an illustrative example). Internal audit wants to review all changes to supplier records in the last quarter, after a phishing attempt targeted the accounts payable team.
The auditor opens the vendor list in analysis mode, adds the modified-by and modified-at audit fields, filters to the quarter and groups by user. Within minutes, she sees every vendor changed, who changed it and when. One change stands out, and she checks it against the supporting documentation. The finance director also asks the administrator to add the audit fields to the vendor list for the AP team's profile, so changes are visible day to day.
Adoption considerations
- Identify sensitive records. Focus on vendors, customers, items, prices and bank accounts.
- Use profiles for visibility. Add audit columns to pages for roles that need them, such as finance and audit.
- Combine with the change log. Audit fields show the latest change. The change log shows field-level history where it's enabled.
- Respect privacy. Users' names become more visible, so explain the purpose to staff.
- Build standard analysis tabs. Save and share audit-focused analysis tabs for repeat reviews.
The bottom line
Pharmacy chains need strong, simple controls across many sites. Audit fields in analysis mode and profiles in Business Central 29.0 put "who and when" information at everyone's fingertips without development. It's a practical boost to internal audit, fraud prevention and everyday accountability.
If your organization wants better visibility of changes to key records, it's worth setting up audit-focused views with an experienced Business Central adviser.
Sources: Microsoft roadmap 573322 · Dynamics 365 Lab: New system flow fields