Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations
Are you a growth-focused organization looking for the best Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to help modernize and automate your financial operations? If the answer is YES, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is the solution you’re after.
The cloud-based solution, part of the Dynamics 365 product line, was initially released in November 2016, and was later rebranded in July 2017 to the current Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Although it’s branded in one umbrella, Microsoft licenses the ERP system as two separate apps:
- Dynamics 365 Finance – includes accounting, financials, budgeting, and project management for medium to large organizations.
- Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management – includes warehousing, manufacturing, engineering, and distribution.
Don’t get it twisted, though; Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations is still a single implementation. The fact that it comes with two distinct licensing only means you have to decide whether your users should access both apps or just one, depending on your business needs. That can be a challenging decision, especially if you’re green in the SaaS sector. But the good news is, your Microsoft Solutions partner can help you figure out the perfect licensing arrangement after conducting a thorough business assessment.
Let’s now switch focus to some of the best Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations features plus the benefits your organization can gain from adopting the ERP system.
Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations Features
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations is one of the most feature-packed ERP systems you’ll come across. These incredible features make it effortless to predict future results, prepare financial statements and reports, monitor performance in real-time, make data-driven decisions, among other capabilities. They include:
Cloud-Based
Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ERP system that’s optimally secure and supports remote work. That means your data is stored and protected in Microsoft’s military-grade servers, leaving no room for cyber breaches. With the app deployed in the cloud, you’ll also enjoy several incredible integrations like Power BI that enable interactive data exploration.
Budget Planning and Control
There’s no better ERP system to plan and control your budget than Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations. It comes with built-in capabilities for planning your budgets with quantity and monetary frameworks as well as different workflow approval stages or levels. On top of that, you can also leverage out-of-box budget controls to manage purchase costs, project costs, etc. That way, your organization becomes wearier of expenses and plans better for the future.
Exchange Rate Integration
Does your organization trade in different currencies? If so, you understand that maintaining exchange rates is one of the most tedious processes, right? Well, there’s a more efficient solution in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations. Instead of your team spending lots of valuable time creating exchange rates, they can adopt 365 Finance & Operations, as it integrates seamlessly with popular exchange rate providers like OANDA, saving your team from the need for manual maintenance.
Built-In Audit Workbench
As much as you trust your third-party vendors, you still want to audit their invoices to enhance budget planning and control. The goal is to monitor duplicate expenses, high spenders, among other financials. But instead of doing it manually, your finance and accounting team can leverage the built-in audit workbench to automate the process of auditing sample financial data as well as maximizing control and visibility.
Cost Allocations
With Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, you no longer have to go through the hassle of preparing multiple journals to allocate costs properly. Instead, you can take advantage of the ERP system’s cost allocation feature to distribute costs according to revenues or fixed percentages. You can even allocate costs across multiple organizations as inter-organizational transactions.
Benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations
Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations is capable of helping your organization achieve the following:
- Enhance your financial performance
- Automate and streamline your supply chain
- Become more innovative with a modernized and adaptable platform
- Streamline business activities with connected operations
Let’s see how your organization can benefit from each of the categories.
Enhance Your Financial Performance
Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations can improve your financial performance by:
- Reducing operational expenses through better budget planning, financial process automation, budget control, etc.
- Optimizing your team’s productivity by encouraging the implementation of role-based workspaces, providing integration with Office 365 apps, task prioritization, and intelligent automation.
- Streamlining asset management through efficient tracking of values and reduction of reporting errors, thanks to centralized, automated capital asset management processes.
Automate and Streamline Your Supply Chain
Here’s how Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations can help automate and streamline your supply chain:
- Modernizing business logistics. The system optimizes fulfillment and saves on costs by syncing logistics across transportation modes, warehouses, and sites.
- Streamlining procurement, thus reducing costs and gaining more control, thanks to the automated procure-to-pay processes.
- Delivering timely client response by automating the coordination of order-to-cash processes.
Become more Innovative with a Modernized and Adaptable Platform
Here are the top three ways your team can benefit from the system’s modernized and adaptable nature:
- Enabling flexible deployment, thanks to the platform’s hybrid options that optimize current investments, comply with regulations, and adapt quickly to changing environments.
- Extending the automation of processes across the Dynamic 365 financial apps environment as 3rd party systems.
- Driving innovation by transforming your interactions with clients into valuable ideas through deep insights generated by AI.
Streamline Business Activities with Connected Operations
Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations’ connectedness enables you to streamline business activities by:
- Simplifying resource management, thanks to the scheduling engine and unified resource model that give you real-time visibility into various resources.
- Improving operational procedures by optimizing production parameters for each product category, including make-to-stock, make-to-order, configure-to-order, etc.
- Accelerating product delivery by optimizing the movement of raw materials and finished products, thanks to modernized logistic and warehouse management.
Pure IT is Your Go-To Microsoft Partner in Calgary!
Hopefully, this comprehensive white paper was insightful enough to convince you to migrate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations and tap into the numerous features and capabilities. If you’re looking to adopt the ERP solution, or you’re already using it but can’t seem to find your way around the technical challenges, we can help! Pure IT is an accredited Microsoft Solutions partner with immense experience and expertise in implementing and managing the Microsoft 365 environment for organizations throughout the Calgary area.
So contact us to learn more about how you can leverage Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations to improve productivity!
