More About: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance

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In an earlier article introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance (which I will probably call Microsoft Dynamics 365 or even MS Dynamics 365 just to shorten it), I told you that it enables businesses to monitor the performance of their financial operations in real-time, predict future outcomes, and make data-driven decisions to drive growth no matter where their various business components are located, in a single building or around the world.  I also mentioned that while I personally thought of MS Dynamics 365 as more of an 'enterprise' sized solution, there were many ProAdvisors, among them my good buddy Mario Nowogrodzki, who would argue by saying it fits in with the pricing that is strategic to the Oracle NetSuite and Sage Intacct offerings as well as the target audiences of those products, so we have to think of MS Dynamics 365 as 'mid-market'. That’s why we here at Insightful Accountant will continue to write about it from time to time and also include it in our mid-market reviews and comparisons.

So, when I write an App Aware feature, like the one I did before, it isn’t intended to be a comprehensive review of a product. In fact, it is sometimes just a ‘snapshot’ of one aspect of a feature set associated with software or an app. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is such a diverse product that we would need a multitude of short features to even begin to cover all the functionality it offers. With that said, we will look at a few more key features in this article, and future articles will cover other feature sets as I have time to bring them to you. (I mean you would expect me to write a one-sitting review of QuickBooks if you absolutely nothing about it either, now would you...)!

Microsoft Dynamics 365 gives you the ability to monitor your financial operations here, there and everywhere in real time so that you can accurately predict the outcomes of your business ventures and make data-driven decisions to achieve the business growth you are seeking.  You will easily monitor your cash-flows, identifying trends in both your current and future situations, using intelligent forecasting tools that are easily customizable for your own conditions.

Fully customizable dashboards let you monitor your business giving you improved financial controls and allowing you to make timely decisions to drive growth using real-time financial reporting, embedded analytics, and AI-driven insights. One of their sales personnel took the time to show me how easy it was to personalize dashboards so that you could integrate the specific financial data you need along with the core business processes you are responsible for such that you can easily automate tedious and time-consuming tasks to boost your productivity. That means you can support almost any evolving business model no matter how things, or how fast things are changing, and maximize your company's financial performance to stay on top of where your business is headed.

MS Dynamics 365 lets you create rules-based strategies to help increase on-time payments. That means you can improve your company's cash flow, and save time in managing your receivables. And saving time when it comes to accounts receivable, especially those hard to deal with collections is precious time indeed. Anything you can do to streamline or automate that process will surely get the 'plus' from those people who have that time consuming task to do.

You can go paperless using speedier processes that enhance traceability with configurable electronic invoice document exchange using flexible formats for almost any situation.  You will save time and labor costs by automatically submitting invoices into a streamlined workflow process that allows for easy matching of vendor invoice lines to product receipts. That means more accurate receiving and that means more accuracy in what you pay for.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 process automation, budget control and financial planning and analysis tools make it easy to minimize costs and optimize spending across business geographies.  And MS Dynamics 365 let’s you create configurable business documents like invoices and financial statements without rigorous ‘code’ based requirements. You won't be hiring a programmer to set-up your forms, or build your templates, or design your reports.  With a lesson or two, and the easy steps built-in, you will find that you can do-it-yourself in no time at all.

No matter where you do business, or where you base your operations, or how you conduct business, Microsoft Dynamics 365 adapts to your requirements. You can be a mom-n-pop business that has grown your brick-n-mortar store into a major concern with just one or two local locations, or you can be an international conglomerate with dozens of locations in thirty countries around the globe, MS Dynamics will will quickly adapt to the financial and legal requirements no matter what the changes with a guided, rules-based chart of accounts and a no-code configuration service that simplifies regulatory reporting, electronic invoicing, and global payments.

With all that is going on in my life right now it’s a lot easier to take little bites of a big software giant than to try to tackle it whole. That might be exactly the way you feel about a new software like this one. And that's not only why I’m exploring Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance in bits and pieces as part of our Mid-market Product Review, but why I'm hoping that my approach to the product review could potentially be similar to the approach you might take in implementing this kind of system. First the financial aspects, and then all the other 'goodies' that the software has to offer when you turn on the extra functionality.

So, hopefully, you will find each short article a sufficiently interesting chunk to warrant not only reading but potentially exploring with Microsoft on your own, via chats or a software test-drive, if you are looking for a mid-market alternative to what you are using now.