Businesses of all sizes and types are increasingly looking for a one-stop shop for their ERP needs. Although there are hundreds of varied tools targeting specific business sub-requirements, the ideal remains a single portal through which companies can effectively manage their operations across the entire value chain.
Microsoft, the universally known leader in multiple software segments, is increasingly popular with both small businesses and enterprise customers, although the specific offerings targeted at each segment vary somewhat. This article will discuss which is best for your unique use case and provide a comprehensive overview of each.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Overview
Microsoft Dynamics 365 (only D365 from now on, for the sake of simplicity) is a comprehensive set of Microsoft-owned tools, features, and platforms for business owners and enterprise operations. A far cry from commonly used Microsoft tools such as its Office suite, D365's many products offer a series of comprehensive solutions for businesses of all types and sizes.
Across its many business domains, D365 offers tools targeted at use cases such as:
- Sales
- Customer management, including customer service and analytics.
- Human Resources
- Supply chain management
- Operations
- Marketing
- artificial intelligence and mixed reality
These are just a few of the varied use cases for D365. Still, two core products tend to get the most customer attention, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs): Microsoft D365 Business Central and D365 Finance and Operations.
Although both act as an all-in-one ERP, they offer different benefits and each works better in specific operational contexts. Understanding which is best for your operation is important to maximizing its features.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is generally better for smaller operations and SMBs. However, using the platform for most sole proprietorships, sole proprietorships, or independent businesses tends to be overkill (which applies to D365 Finance and Operations, which we'll cover below).
SMEs, depending on their specific field and function, often use D365 Business Center as a centralized platform (hence the name) to execute the most common administrative, financial and operational business functions. Features commonly leveraged in SME sectors include:
D365 Enterprise Central Financial Management
D365 Business Central offers SMEs the same tools as many accounting and accounting firms. accounting platforms; The benefit of D365 over other options such as QuickBooks is that it is an integral part of the larger ERP ecosystem rather than nested within third-party software. D365 Business Central financial management tools include:
- Basic bookkeeping and accounting and robust reporting tools to develop insights from financial data.
- Cash flow management and forecasting.
- Support for multiple currencies and languages and region-specific tax management to facilitate cross-border transactions and international deals.
D365 Business Central Sales Management
D365 Business Central offers SMBs tools comparable to many high-end CRMs, but nested natively within the Microsoft ecosystem, easier to use and without unnecessary features that many SMBs pay for but never use. As an example of the convenience of D365 Business Central's sales and customer management, you can manage and track customer journeys throughout the sales chain and even manage processes within Outlook instead of outsourcing to another third-party platform.
D365 Enterprise Core Automation
Although we can increasingly outsource important business functions to digital tools (rather than, say, analog accounting records), we are often still burdened by tedious manual data entry that demands undue time and attention while increasing risk. of error and, in the worst case, outright fraud.
That's where workflow automation comes in: By automating tedious, repetitive, and simple (but time-consuming) tasks, D365 Business Central helps business owners unlock one of their most valuable assets: capital. of time.
D3654 takes advantage of one of Microsoft's emerging ai-powered tools, called Co-pilot, to run those automations. While its automations span the entire operational spectrum, one of the most useful for enterprise finance teams is optimized bank reconciliation, which is achieved by leveraging Copilot ai to analyze bank statements, match them to existing transactions, and create inbound proposals for any mismatched transaction.
Combine D365 Business Central workflow automations with enhanced accounts payable toolslike Nanonets, and a virtual flywheel can be created that needs little to no human intervention or oversight – just a periodic review to ensure everything is on track.
D365 Business Central Pricing
Although you can try it for free, D365 Business Central starts at $70 per user per month for the Essentials plan. The Premium level of the platform costs $100 per month.
Limitations of D365 Business Central
As with any solution available on the market, some will find drawbacks and limitations in D365 Business Solutions. Assuming you are part of the target audience (SMBs) and not a large or complex operation, common limitations include:
- Fewer customization options than fully scaled ERPs.
- It is a somewhat high cost, especially if all staff and employees are expected to use the system.
- While the tools fit perfectly into the Microsoft ecosystem, you may have trouble syncing unrelated third-party platforms and apps.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365 F&O) is a scaled ERP that offers many of the same core upstream functions as D365 Business Central with two differences: it is aimed at larger, more robust and complex operations, and it has a higher level of tooling . granularity and customization to fit the unique needs of those large organizations.
Note that Finance and Operations Technically it refers to two discrete services: D365 Project Operations and D365 Finance. But, since they are complementary and usually used together, it is easier to view them from a single unit perspective.
D365 Operations and Finance Analysis and Insights
On the financial side, D365 F&O's key strength for large organizations lies in its robust set of analytics opportunities to help companies optimize their financial picture and accurately forecast different contingencies and courses of action to drive strategic decision making. These tools include:
- Cash flow tracking and trend projections.
- Powered by ai Customer payment prediction tools to mitigate cancellations.
- Budget optimization through historical data analysis.
- A variety of reports and operational workflow Analytics adapts to almost every need imaginable.
D365 Operations and finance process management
Too often, we find ourselves caught up in administrative minutiae, getting too immersed in systems and processes that can optimize our operations, but at the cost of hundreds of man hours (or more) spent developing, fine-tuning, and fine-tuning those systems. . D365 F&O alleviates some of this burden by simplifying common workflows and processes, such as:
- Remote and mobile sending of times and expenses.
- Effective compliance monitoring, whether aligned with internal controls or regulatory requirements.
- Accurate reporting and valuable insights to see which workflows are working, which need adjustments, and which aren't adding value.
D365 Automation of operations and finances
With automation being a hot topic across businesses with the advent of ai, it is no surprise that D365 F&O also provides users with a range of automation tools to streamline processes, which along with its process management features , can reduce the time spent executing manual processes while minimizing human labor. mistake. These automation workflows include:
- Digitized billing for both accounts payable and receivable.
- Predictive, rules-based credit management to assess customer default risk and manage cash flow.
- Centralized business intelligence integrations to aggregate data into an easy-to-read and understandable dashboard.
D365 F&O also syncs with Nanonets for Turbocharge your accounts payable automation by streamlining all processes in the Microsoft Dynamics system, starting from import and passing through GL coding and supplier creation, and then ending with invoice synchronization in D365.
D365 Trading and Finance Pricing
D365 Finance and Operations is an enterprise-grade platform; As such, it is priced at an enterprise level. Expect to pay $120 per user per month for D365 Operations, while D365 Finance costs $180 per user per month for the basic platform and $300 per month for advanced features.
D365 Operations and Finance Limitations
If you're an SME, you'll probably find D365 F&O well beyond your personal price point. However, if you are an enterprise-sized customer looking for solutions, keep in mind that common D365 F&O complaints include:
- A long and somewhat complex integration, implementation and onboarding process; Complexity increases the larger your organization.
- A related point to the previous point is user training: expect an extensive onboarding process for new and existing employees; This is compounded if your organization is used to working with other vendors.
- As you saw in the previous paragraph, costs are high even for large companies.
Last Look: D365 Business Central vs. D365 Finance and Operations
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Operations and Finance offer similar core features, but their implementation and scope are quite different. Smaller organizations will benefit from D365 Business Central's key features and can likely replace a variety of platforms for a similar overall price. Likewise, enterprise-level customers will likely find everything they need in D365 F&O, albeit at a high cost.
Still, if you're interested in pulling the trigger on any of the Microsoft D365 platforms but are 1) worried about synchronizing your existing software ecosystem or 2) find some features missing, don't worry: both Business Central and D365 F&O offer a third option. Third-party integrations to help integrate your operational landscape and plug any gaps in platforms you may discover.
For example, Nanonets integrates with Microsoft D365 to offer improvements AP Automation Tools which are built on the solid foundation of Microsoft. For example, the Nanonets integration allows users to initiate accounts payable processes and workflows by simply sending an invoice. Nanonets takes it from there, using ai to extract data from customers, suppliers, chart of accounts, payment information and more before ensuring the information is accurate. and quickly migrated to Microsoft Dynamics 365.
