Learn more about Acumatica and Dynamics 365 Business Central so you can select the right ERP technology for your unique business needs.
Acumatica and Dynamics 365 Business Central are both top-rated ERP solutions built in the cloud, and each has expansive capabilities that give your business a scalability advantage. Both solutions are designed to provide insights for small- and medium-sized businesses with the numerous features and add-ons large enterprises rely on. Acumatica and Dynamics 365 are excellent cloud solutions but do have some large differences. Acumatica is a suite of software that can cover most areas of business while Dynamics 365 Business Central emphasizes human resources, accounting, and marketing solutions. It’s crucial to analyze what technologies are already in place within your organization as both ERP systems have different integration capabilities. Examining both platforms’ features and integration capabilities can help you select one that best meets your business's unique needs.
Below, we’ll explore the different benefits and functionalities of these two ERP solutions to help you make an informed decision.
Financials
Dynamics 365 Business Central is a highly efficient finance and accounting solution. With its built-in business intelligence features, it can predict sales and revenue using historical data which can help businesses create predictions of how they want to grow and scale in the future. Dynamics 365 Business Central has fast reporting features that accelerate the financial closing process, allowing it to be quick, painless, and repeatable within each cycle.
The solution can also prioritize leads based on revenue potential to help sales team’s focus on more qualified leads. This can help sales reps move customers through the sales funnel more quickly, and, with proper communication, leads to closing more deals. Additionally, Business Central can easily manage your cash flow, bank reconciliations, fixed assets and more. Business Central has deep financial visibility.
Acumatica tracks finance information to help with month- and year-end closing and ensures compliance. The detailed project accounting features within Acumatica help businesses deliver projects and billing on-time and on-budget. Both accounts receivable and accounts payable software within Acumatica tracks business expenses in a single, centralized location to give users one source of truth. Acumatica can also manage your cash flow and, with its recurring revenue management feature, helps to streamline and automate various billing routines. Capture expenses, time entries and e-signatures on the go with access to the mobile version of Acumatica. Finally, Acumatica provides businesses with more visibility into their data whether it be financial, customer, or sales.
Automations
Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed to simplify the user experience by automating repeatable processes. It can be set up to automate almost any workflow and process, allowing you to focus on more important tasks. By automating communication processes both internally and externally, you’re able to accelerate business growth and overall success. In doing this, the number of errors is limited, which ends up reducing overall costs for any business.
Additionally, when information is changed or added in Dynamics 365 Business Central, users are notified so they can adjust any attached automation if needed. Automating these notifications saves time when troubleshooting issues or improving processes, so productivity continues steadily.
Acumatica can also automate business processes extensively to simplify the user experience. Data analytics and reporting can be viewed and customized in minutes thanks to its automatic capabilities. It can also automate packing and transferring processes and keep track of lot and serial numbers so leaders can manage specific inventory details. This automation benefit leads businesses to more efficiently complete tasks correctly and leads to business growth.
Inventory and Manufacturing Management
Dynamics 365 Business Central provides dashboards and visuals that provide insights into inventory and warehouse management. Users can view where products are in the supply chain lifecycle, detect errors, and view shipping dates and information. Leaders can make informed decisions on how to make production most efficient by getting automatic notifications from Business Central.
Acumatica is also a highly efficient warehouse and inventory management tool. It helps businesses keep up with their growing market demand by flexible item management, quality traceability, and replenishment alerts. Much like Business Central, it automates the production process, while outlining different steps in the processes and informing business leaders what they need to know about their inventory.
CRM and Other Additional Integrations
Because Dynamics 365 Business Central is part of the Microsoft technology stack, it connects seamlessly with other Microsoft technologies, including Dynamics 365 Sales and other CRM add-ons. By connecting these technologies, users gain project insights and lifecycle information from Business Central while receiving extensive data regarding customers and the sales process in Dynamics 365 Sales.
Implementing both solutions enables business leaders to prime intel into what processes are contributing to ROI and which areas need improvement. Users of Dynamics 365 Business Central also enjoy higher productivity levels as it connects with Microsoft 365 tools such as SharePoint, Teams, and Microsoft Planner. Users can track tasks and data across any Microsoft solution which simplifies the life of the user and eliminates the need to switch between platforms to complete work.
Within Acumatica is its own fully integrated CRM. Their CRM works together with Acumatica’s financial management capabilities and is similar to the features within Dynamics 365. It's easy to manage customer and finance information on the go as Acumatica has mobile tools that update in nearly real-time. Connecting these tools creates a user-friendly experience and promotes seamless communication. Additional tools can also be integrated with Acumatica though it’s dependent on specific product use cases and number of users.
Customization
Dynamics 365 Business Central is highly customizable. Users can choose what is displayed in personal dashboards, what data is tracked, and how it connects and works with other business processes. Business leaders can then make informed decisions based on gathered insights, and further customize data and reporting processes. The customizations available in Dynamics 365 show businesses what areas need more attention, and which are working well. Personalize Business Central dashboards to automatically show users data relevant to their roles, improve the user experience, and help complete tasks in a timely manner.
When building out your Acumatica ERP, you can select which features and modules your business requires. This ensures your system is not bogged down by unnecessary features you aren’t using. You can add additional features as needed as your needs grow and change. By enabling business leaders to choose which features they want to include, they’re able to maximize their investment and more quickly meet business needs.
Pricing
Dynamics 365 Business Central licenses are charged per user. The upfront cost is reasonable, but as your business scales and brings on more users, costs can add up quickly. If your business needs connections to additional Microsoft Platforms, account for those costs. When integrating with additional Microsoft systems, data seamlessly communicates across all tools which allows processes to be completed more quickly and delivers an increased ROI.
The Acumatica price is determined by computing power required rather than per user. Unlimited users can access Acumatica and contribute to the solution at one time. Many would argue this is a more scalable solution as it is easier and quicker for new employees and suppliers to be added to the system and thereby quickly access needed information. However, this type of pricing may not be sustainable in the long run, especially as your business grows and requires more computing power. This can quickly drive up the cost.
Conclusion
Dynamics 365 Business Central and Acumatica are both excellent cloud solutions. Both can be used to optimize your business processes, provide rich data insights, and help you make actionable data-driven decisions as both solutions monitor the entire sales and product pipeline.
Dynamics 365, however, offers extensive integration capabilities and in-depth, detailed insights into business' financial processes, and more, making it the ideal ERP solution. Dynamics 365 is also more universal in its integration capabilities, and can easily connect with your existing and additional data systems. Dynamics 365 Business Central’s ability to display Accounting, Human Resource, and marketing information in an easy-to-understand way is irreplaceable and is sure to benefit your business teams.
JourneyTEAM has vast experience helping companies across sizes and industries customize Business Central to meet their unique needs. Dynamics 365 Business Central is the cloud ERP solution that empowers businesses to meet their scalability goals and simplify the user experience.
Add the solution that makes the most sense with your existing technology stack, and if you need an implementation partner, contact JourneyTEAM.com today.