A Dynamics 365 ERP

comparison guide
Business Central vs Finance & Supply
Chain Management – which ERP is
right for your organisation?
Introduction
Microsoft Dynamics 365 represents the next generation of business applications.
The 365 suite of Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) solutions offers two
solutions – Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply
Chain Management. Both are comprehensive end-to-end ERP solutions capable
of meeting complex business requirements and operational needs. Each ERP has
a set of purpose-built applications like operations, sales, and customer service.
Dynamics 365 offers organisations the flexibility to grow at their own pace and
expand into additional capabilities with ease to run their entire business using
Microsoft Azure cloud services.

However, there can be some confusion when it comes to choosing the right Dynamics
365 ERP solution. There are some clear-cut cases where one is more suitable than the
other. However, for many medium-sized organisations, there is a lot of overlap and it can
be unclear as to what ERP will best fit their organisation’s requirements.

Dynamics 365 Business Central, previously called Dynamics NAV, is Microsoft’s ERP
solution for small and medium businesses (SMBs). It provides all the functionality required
to run your entire organisation. Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management,
previously called Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, is Microsoft’s ERP and
supply chain solution for large enterprises. Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365
Supply Chain Management are available as separate business applications but are more
frequently implemented together to deliver a robust financial and operational business
solution. By implementing both Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management,
you have full capabilities to manage all of the finance, inventory, manufacturing and HR
capability a large enterprise needs. Both of the ERP solutions are easy to connect and
offer out-of-the-box connectivity with Office 365 and access to the Microsoft Power
Platform.

In this guide, we discuss and compare the functionality available in Microsoft Dynamics
365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. The
guide also includes a Q&A section outlining commonly asked questions surrounding
both ERPs.

The guide covers:

• ERP selection considerations

• Dynamics 365 Business Central and Finance & Supply Chain Management
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• Decision drivers PAP

• Licensing and ERP enablement packages.

A DYNAMICS 365 ERP COMPARISON GUIDE

ERP selection
considerations
When comparing the two Dynamics 365 solutions, it is important to understand that
there is a large amount of overlap. For many organisations, requirements can be met
with either solution. Each comparison will be individual to your organisation and will be
highly dependent on your internal skills, resources and growth plans.

When selecting between Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance
& Supply Chain Management, three criteria will form the basis of the decision.

Complexity
How complex is your organisation?

The more complex and unique your requirements are, the more likely that you will
require Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management.

Finance & Supply Chain Management offers more flexibility in the configuration of
the solution than Business Central. For example, if your manufacturing process is
a simple five-step process with a bill of materials in one site, then Business Central
could support you. If you have more complex manufacturing processes that involve
the manufacture of sub-components, complex manufacture routes and operations, or
manufacture across multiple sites and resources involving different skillsets, then this
will be better met with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management.

Scale
How big is your organisation?

This is linked to the first point. The larger your organisation is, the more likely you
are to require more complex capability. For example, if you have a large number of
legal entities or over 100,000 monthly transactions, you might find the out-of-the-box
capability in Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management is better suited to
your needs. This also applies to integrations, if you are looking to connect one or two
systems, then Business Central is perfect for this. If you are looking to connect more
applictaions or import large number of transactions through interfaces on a regular
frequency to Dynamics 365 then Finance & Supply Chain Management is better
equipped to deal with this flow of data.

Another consideration for scale should also be the future scale of your organisation.
What size will your organisations be in three to five years, as this may alter
your decision.
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International
Is your organisation international or UK only? The more legal entities, tax locations,
and localisations required, the more likely you will be better served with Dynamics
365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. Business Central is equipped to support
multiple locations, but if you require multiple tax locations, then selecting Finance
& Supply Chain Management is the better option. You can implement multiple
Business Central tenancies to support different geographical locations using Dataflex
Pro (formerly Common Data Service), however this can result in more complexity in
reporting at group level and managing regular updates.

A DYNAMICS 365 ERP COMPARISON GUIDE

Dynamics 365
Business Central
Small-to-medium organisations. No user limit.

Dynamics 365 Business Central is a comprehensive business management solution

for growing organisations with roughly 50 to 250 employees. These are organisations
that need more than the simple financial and accounting tools they started with, but
aren’t yet ready to make a big investment in a customised ERP system.

Without sacrificing ease of use or speed of setup, Dynamics 365 Business Central
offers a fully powered business management solution in the cloud, with capabilities
spanning financials, dimensions, sales and purchase management, inventory, CRM,
multi-currency and business insight.

Functionality overview
Premium license

Financial Inventory Project Human Additional

Sales Purchasing
Management Management Management Resources Capabilities

General Stock Customer Purchase Job Basic HR Multiple

ledger management management order management currencies
management Absence
Account Warehousing Sales Budget recording Dimensions
receivables invoicing Vendor estimate Workflow
Assembly management Expenses
Account manufacturing Sales order Basic (non-self- Import online
payables management Vendor item resources service) currency rate
Returns catalouge
Budgets Pricing and Outlook add-
Planning discounting Purchase line in extension.
Account pricing
schedules Ship-to Blanket orders Service
address Purchase management
Bank Opportunity invoice
reconciliation Shipping management discounts
agents
Cash flow Interaction Purchase line
forecast Drop management discounts
shipments
Electronic Sales tax
payment Non-stock
items Outlook
Deferrals integration
Advanced
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relationships
Multi currency Production
manufacturing Dynamics 365
Inter-company Sales
accounting integration

Consolidation

Unlimited
responsibility

A DYNAMICS 365 ERP COMPARISON GUIDE

Dynamics 365 Finance &
Supply Chain Management
Large Enterprises. 20 users minimum.

Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management is an advanced ERP solution for
large enterprise organisations with 250 + employees.

Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management have broad
capabilities, and even more so when enabled with other applications such as Dynamics
365 Customer Engagement, Human Resources, Customer Insights, Financial
Insights, Field Service, AI and Mixed Reality and many more. When dealing with a
broad business set including financials, procurement, project accounting, revenue
recognition, asset management, or inventory and warehouse management, Dynamics
365 Finance & Supply Chain Management is a good fit.

Functionality overview

Financial Inventory Project Human Additional

Sales Purchasing
Management Management Management Resources Capabilities

Global Product Sales Purchase Project Employee Office 365

accounting variants quotation requisition quotations self-service integration
structure portal
Product Leads and Request for Work Data
Advanced hierarchy campaigns quotation breakdown management
bank structure tool
Product
reconciliation Sales Purchase
configuration
agreements agreements Timesheets Fleet
models
Scraping/sale management
of fixed assets Bill of Customer Procurement Grants
materials and rebates categories Workspace
Budget formulas Project
planning Commissions Vendor journals Mobile apps
Routes and rebates
Credit and operations Miscellaneous Project Interactive
collections charges Planned budgets and task guides
management Work order purchase forecasts
scheduling Customer orders SharePoint
Integrated and sales Resource storage for
financial Infinite and performance Consignment scheduling documents
reporter finite resource reporting stock and allocation
management replenishment Feature
Intercompany Intercompany Project management
accounting Production sales orders Supplier and invoices
costing sheets purchase
Revenue performance Project ITE
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recognition Quality control workflows PAP
Inter-
Expense Asset company
management management purchase
orders
Preventative
maintenance Supplier
plans collaboration
portal
Preventative
and corrective
work orders

Transporation
management

A DYNAMICS 365 ERP COMPARISON GUIDE

Decision drivers
Beyond the initial ERP selection considerations, outlined on page 3, there are a
number of other factors worth considering when looking to understand which Dynamics
365 ERP would best fit your business needs.

The following table outlines some commonly asked functional and extensibility
questions that we hear from customers when they are evaluating which Dynamics 365
ERP to choose.

Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply

Functional questions Dynamics 365 Business Central
Chain Management

Do I have the ability to analyse Unlimited dimensions sets. Unlimited dimensions sets.
financial transactions across a
number of analysis codes including 2 global dimensions. 10 dimensions combinations per record
business unit, department and as standard.
cost centre? 6 Shortcut dimensions.
Ability to create additional dimensions in
combination.

Is there a maximum number of legal Unlimited, but all entities must be Unlimited across multiple
entities I can have? located in the same geographical geographical regions.
region.

Can I manage entities across several No, localisation is set at the database Yes, can support localisation at the
different countries? level. You can purchase additional entity level for reporting and tax
databases to support entities in different regulations.
countries with different tax regulation.

Am I able to report in different 1 additional reporting currency. Yes

currencies?

Is there an integrated expense solution Available as a 3rd party plugin module. Yes
to manage employee expense claims?

Can I hold multiple budgets at nominal, No, basic budget functionality at a Yes
business unit and department level? nominal level.

Is there an integrated financial Basic financial reporting available. Yes, financial reporter available for the
reporting tool? creation, generation and distribution
Jet Reports is a recommended 3rd of reports.
party module for additional reporting
capabilities.

Can I create my own operational Jet Reports available as a 3rd party Data management tool included offers
reports? plugin module. the ability to create and manage
additional Excel reports.

Is there consolidation and reporting Yes, but limited to entities within the Yes, can be supported through financial
functionality? database. reporter or the consolidation module. ITE
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If additional databases are in place for
other countries, a 3rd party module can
support consolidated reporting across
databases.

Can I manage invoice matching policies Yes, but limited to quantity Yes, supports matching policies with
with price and quantity tolerances? tolerances only. quality and price tolerances.

Is there an auto reversal of Goods Yes, but GRNI is limited to stocked Yes, GRNI postings reversed for stock
Received Not Invoiced (GRNI) products only. and service-based products.
postings upon invoice posting?

Is there Optical Character Available as a 3rd party plugin module. Available as a 3rd party plugin module.
Recognition (OCR)?

A DYNAMICS 365 ERP COMPARISON GUIDE

 Extensibility Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply
Dynamics 365 Business Central
Dynamics add-in’s Chain Management

Dynamics 365 Optimisation Planning - 3

Dynamics 365 Finance Insights - 3
Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection - 3
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights 3 3
Business connectors

Microsoft Outlook 3 3
Microsoft Excel 3 3
Microsoft Project 3 3
Microsoft Power BI 3 3
Dynamics 365 Sales 3 3
Dynamics 365 Customer Service - 3
Dynamics 365 Commerce - 3
Dynamics 365 Project Service - 3
Operations

Dynamics 365 Human Resources - 3

Dynamics 365 Field Service - 3
Dynamics 365 Guides - 3

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A DYNAMICS 365 ERP COMPARISON GUIDE

The right solution for you
When looking at Dynamics 365 for your next ERP solution, you have to decide
between two very capable solutions that, for many organisations, would both provide
an excellent level of service. For larger, more complex organisations that have, multiple
tax locations and complex manufacturing processes, Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply
Chain Management is better designed to meet your requirements.

For medium-sized or smaller organisations that do not require twenty users and have
less complex manufacturing processes, then Dynamics 365 Business Central provides
more than enough capability to run your entire organisation.

Licensing and ERP enablement packages

Price for user’s first Price for user’s subsequent

Dynamics 365
Dynamics 365 app Dynamics 365 app

Dynamics 365 Business Central

£52.80 per user/month
Essentials

Dynamics 365 Business Central

£75.40 per user/month
premium

Dynamics 365 Finance £135.70 per user/month £22.60 per user/month

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain

£135.70 per user/month £22.60 per user/month
Management

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A DYNAMICS 365 ERP COMPARISON GUIDE

Online assessment
Are you still undecided?

We have created an online assessment for Dynamics ERP solutions. The assessment
asks core questions to evaluate your business needs. After completing the questions,
one of our Dynamics 365 consultants will evaluate your information and get in touch
with a high-level recommendation.

Visit our website to take the online assessment »

Product demo and briefing sessions

Our free 2-hour demo and briefing sessions showcase the key functionality available in
Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply
Chain Management.

Dynamics 365 Business Central briefing »

Dynamics 365 Finance briefing »

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management briefing »

Product guides
If you would like to delve deeper into Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365
Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, then access our product
guides to get all the information you need.

Dynamics 365 Business Central product guide »

Dynamics 365 Finance product guide »

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management product guide »

Find out more

Incremental Group is a leading Microsoft Dynamics gold partner, with over 21 years’
experience helping organisations drive digital transformation with Microsoft Dynamics
365, AX, NAV and GP solutions. We help organisations with new implementations,
upgrades, project recovery and ongoing support. We work with all sizes of
organisations across a range of industries. Contact us today to find out how we
can help you.

0345 565 3000

info@incrementalgroup.co.uk
www.incrementalgroup.co.uk