What’s the Difference Between D365 Business Central and D365 Finance?
To help you evaluate which is the best-fit solution for your business, today’s article explores the key differences between Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance.
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D365 Business Central VS D365 Finance
A leader in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) space, Microsoft offers two ERP solutions - D365 Business Central and D365 Finance.
D365 Business Central is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that consolidates core data from business processes such as finance, sales, inventory, and operations, to provide a single source of truth for business data and facilitate process automation. D365 Business Central is an ideal solution for businesses that want to unify financial data, automate manual processes and enhance decision-making with real-time reports.
D365 Finance is also a Microsoft-powered ERP solution, however it is tailored to meet the complexities of enterprise-scale organisations across business operations like finance, operations, manufacturing and supply chain. Although both ERP solutions offer a centralised view of operations, facilitate process automation, and provide real-time reporting and analytics, the two systems differ significantly in other aspects including user base, cost, and functionality. Below we discuss some of the key differences between D365 Business Central and D365 Finance.
System Functionality
D365 Business Central offers robust functionality for tracking and managing operations across financials, sales, customer service, inventory, supply chain and project management. Based on our experience, Business Central delivers the level of functionality required to meet the needs of most organisations, with the option to enhance functionality by integrating custom solutions built with Power Platform.
Similar to Business Central, D365 Finance consolidates core business processes, but provides features that cater for enterprise or global scale operations. D365 Finance also provides a vendor portal that allows vendors to upload invoices and update delivery dates.
AI Functionality
Both D365 Business Central and D365 Finance subscriptions include Copilot, the AI-powered assistant that helps reduce the manual workload of teams, drive productivity and streamline financial processes. Copilot can automate and assist with tasks like generating content, finding records and analysing data within both ERP solutions.
Copilot in Business Central can provide marketing text suggestions for ecommerce platforms, help create and update customer orders, assist with bank reconciliation, match e-invoices to open purchase orders and more. Copilot in D365 Finance can review and accept any changes to confirmed purchase orders, unlock inventory-related insights, and summarise customer accounts with information like order history and overdue invoices.
Sustainability Reporting
Helping businesses comply with sustainability reporting regulations and streamline ESG reporting processes, D365 Business Central provides features that help businesses track and manage their greenhouse gas emissions according to the 3 scopes defined by EU standards. These features are available with the out-of-the-box Business Central solution. While these features are not available with the out-of-the-box D365 Finance solution, companies can custom build this kind of add-on with Power Platform.
Cost
In terms of implementation, D365 Business Central is generally less complex and can therefore be rolled out in a shorter time frame than D365 Finance, meaning the implementation cost tends to be much lower, as well as the licensing costs.
Both D365 Business Central and D365 Finance are both licensed on a per-user per-month basis, with options for both cloud-based or on-premises deployment. A Business Central Essentials license costs around $70 user/month, while a Business Central Premium license that includes enhanced capabilities for service management and manufacturing, starts at $100 user/month.
The licensing cost of Dynamics 365 Finance can vary depending on your desired functionality, as organisations can choose to implement either D365 Finance or D365 Supply Chain as a standalone or integrate both as one unified ERP system. Licenses range from $210 user/month for a standard license, to $300 user/month for a premium license.
Users
D365 Business Central is the ideal ERP for small to medium-sized organisations, with a minimum number of just 1 user. However, it’s worth noting that as a cloud-based system, Business Central can be customised and scaled in line with business needs, meaning it can support businesses as they grow. In contrast, D365 Finance is best suited for large enterprise-level organisations that have much more complex business processes and require advanced functionality, with a minimum number of 20 users.
| D365 Business Central | D365 Finance | |
|---|---|---|
| Functionality | Incorporates finance, operations, supply chain, sales, project management, service management and inventory. | Delivers more advanced features across finance, operations, manufacturing and supply chain management. |
| Company Size | Small to medium | Large enterprise |
| License Cost | $70+ | $210+ |
| Minimum Number of Users | 1 | 20 |
| Deployment | Cloud & on-premises | Cloud & on-premises |
| AI Capability | Yes | Yes |
| Sustainability Reporting | Yes | No |
To determine which is the right-fit solution for your organisation, you should consider the below factors:
Company size
Number of users
Process complexity
Functionality requirements
Budget
If you would like to learn more about Enterprise Resource Planning software, get in touch with one of our solution specialists today.
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