Dynamics 365 Business Central Review

I really liked the Microsoft Business Central program when we did a demo on it. They had an strong financial management program that would have been a good fit for our Township.

However, when we got to the quote and budget conversation we found that the system was going to be a bit outside of our budget range.

They system is built as an ERP to work across multiple industries and because of that, we have struggled to make it work for our business as a food manufacturer. There is no real time visibility. Any production reports we run are several days behind. We also lack traceability or LOT tracking. We have a string of paper across our multiple production rooms. We have an enormous amount of waste because of the lact of automation and because of all of these deficits, have set our focus on a more industry specific ERP.

We looked at a few systems and after reviewing Microsoft Dynamics we felt their quote was well out of our budget range. We are a manufacturer of tobacco accessories and they quoted us like $200,000 for set-up. So we ruled them out after that.

Dynamics is a great ERP but not necessarily the right choice for a scaling Cannabis business. To meet our needs as a vertical business, the software has been so built out and customized, it operates very convoluted. No features are simple and as the business continues to scale, and potentially expand into other markets, we do not feel the software will be able to sustain us.

After trying, and failing, to make Quickbooks Enterprise work for our compnay, we moved to Business Central. We have multiple entities and in being able to consolidate our needs onto one program, we had an 80% cost reduction from when we were using Quickbooks. I was familiar with Great Plains prior to our search but this was not the same program, much more flexible. Throughout implementation they have called me daily. Any issues or questions, they have quickly respond to and resolved.

We’re using Microsoft Dynamics 365 and actually loving it. The support has been amazing too.

The solution can do a lot more than I need. I had a primary need for inventory and CRM and I’m glad it can be bought in a way to just handle that. I will probably only be covering 25% of the available functionalities, so it’s good to know that I can always expand my use down the road if needed.

Microsoft Dynamics Business Central is designed for growing businesses that have outgrown their accounting systems. It’s an all in one business management solution that easily and seamlessly connects people and processes together.

It’s deeply integrated with Office 365 and includes built in intelligence so it’s easy to make better business decisions.

Business Central connects your people and processes with a single unified system. It manages financials, project management and operations, supply chain, sales and service management, and reporting and analytics.

Functions like payroll, CRM systems, are just integrated, so people can share the most current data and respond to customer requests faster with more accurate information.

This is replacing Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Business Edition. It’s a great leap forward in capability in cloud offerings for Microsoft with business applications.

Business Edition was very limited in what it had. Microsoft has swung the pendulum the other way and now has a full ERP at a very reasonable price point. The way that Microsoft has split it out is into an Essentials and Premium edition. It’s licensed by modules and you can’t mix or match (it’s either essentials or premium).

The Essentials package takes care of everything fundamental except for manufacturing and service. The general ledger, payables, receivables, ability to cut checks, budgets, consolidations, multi-currency, are all included in Essentials. It’s a mid-market ERP, so you can sell stuff and ship stuff. It’s great if you need project accounting and things like that.

I will say inventory is here, as well as lot management and serialization, but inventory planning is not. That’s a premium module in their manufacturing area. It does require requisition worksheets or planning worksheets in MRP to be turned on. That is the biggest limitation in the Essentials, so keep that in mind if you need that functionality.

Distribution and shipping, warehousing with bins, document management with OCR, some HR, and Office 365 integration is great. The ability to edit lists in Excel or if I’m in my outlook I can instantly see their receivables directly in my outlook. It’s very extensive.

It was an easy setup, and the lowest cost ERP that I found (something like $40/user for the financials product). It just made the most sense financially to go with Dynamics 365. I also enjoyed the name brand recognition of a Microsoft product.