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Differences between D365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance

Nowadays, it’s very easy to perform an internet search and ask for the differences between D365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance. Both Copilot and Chat GPT are happy to provide technical comparisons. So why are so many clients unsure which one to select? We are going to give you our point of view from the perspective of a consultancy that works with both products. Revertis has experience with both products and knows very well how far each one goes.

Our focus will not be on technicalities (which are the easiest to find on the internet) but rather trying to explain why to lean towards one solution over the other.

 

Origin of the two solutions

To explain why Microsoft has two products in its portfolio instead of just one with versions, we have to go back to the products’ origins. We already know the saying, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.”

D365 Business Central is the Cloud evolution of Navision.

D365 Finance is the evolution of Dynamics AX, or also AXAPTA.

As has happened before, when Microsoft wants to enter a market, it buys an existing product. This was the case when it wanted to enter the ERP world. Microsoft acquired a company that already had both products in its portfolio, Navision and AXPATA.

Each one had a different origin and used different technology. Originally, D365 Business Central was a more mature product implemented in a large number of companies, while Dynamics AX was a star product, very recent, and with a much more open and innovative technology and work philosophy.

Nowadays, the message to offer one product or another based on the company’s size is quite common. At Revertis, we think there are more parameters to take into account, as we can find very large companies that are managing perfectly with BC and, conversely, companies with few employees that handle D365 Finance in a very agile and effective way.

 

Cost comparison: D365 Finance vs D365 Business Central

We cannot ignore the cost of both solutions.

D365 Finance has a minimum of 20 licenses, whereas this restriction does not apply to D365 Business Central.

Therefore, the cost of the D365 Finance solution is difficult to justify when the client has a reduced volume of users/licenses.

So, does turnover volume influence the evaluation of both solutions? In this respect, there is no clear figure.

A company can have numerous employees, invoice 50 Million euros a year, buy a single product for €10,000.00, and sell it for €20,000.00 to very few customers. In this example, it seems obvious that it doesn’t need a complex system to manage its business. Another client may have a turnover of 6 Million euros, few employees, and a complex manufacturing process, purchase of raw materials indexed to the stock market price, international distribution, thousands of customers, etc. We see that the situation of the two companies is totally different from a complexity point of view, and therefore the information technology solutions to be applied will necessarily be very different.

At Revertis, we evaluate each client’s situation more based on the business’s information technology situation and needs rather than on economic volume.

Therefore, the cost of licenses, while a parameter to consider, should not be the sole determining selection factor.

When D365 Business Central is right for me

At Revertis, we advise companies that have a relatively simple business with controlled growth to lean more towards D365 Business Central. The solution is very complete. D365 Business Central can be easily customized to bridge the gap that may exist between your needs and the standard version, but generally, the installations where we usually apply BC tend to require few modifications.

We often hear talk of a “Vertical” for a type of business in D365 Business Central. The vertical should generally be interpreted as a series of specific adaptations for a particular sector, encapsulated in a package that must be acquired, installed, and maintained separately.

At Revertis, we promote working with the original product to avoid greater dependencies.

When D365 Finance is right for us

We steer towards a D365 Finance solution when some of the following factors are present:

  • Your company has an expanding business, with high growth forecasts.
  • You have complex manufacturing, distribution, or service management processes.
  • You need to automate common processes repetitively.
  • You require adapting business cycles and technologies to your specific business processes in a very concrete way.

D365 Finance gives you more control over your resulting information technology environment.

As an example, we can compare the differences in financial management between the two products

Business Central: Offers basic accounting, simple budgets, and up to 8 financial dimensions.

Finance: Includes advanced budget control, analytical accounting with cost distributions and complex accounting allocations, extended Fixed Asset Management and CMMS, unlimited financial dimensions with dependency hierarchies and application/restriction rules between them…

From a usability perspective, you will also find in D365 Finance access more geared towards information entry by multiple users simultaneously, greater flexibility in recording journals and financial collection and payment operations, as well as in general journals, and access more oriented towards presenting summarized information, avoiding the use of reports.

For its part, BC incorporates a very useful on-line information analysis facility, through its “analysis mode” tool, built into all transaction entry screens.

There is no clearly defined criterion for leaning towards one solution over the other. Therefore, we believe it is important to select a Partner that has extensive experience in both products, as is the case with Revertis. At Revertis, we are capable of detecting your needs and guiding you towards one solution or another. More than 20 years of experience with exclusive dedication to Microsoft environments back our ability to advise clients.

 

At Revertis, we are aware that selecting a new ERP is a crucial decision that will affect the company’s future in the long term. Moving from D365 Business Central to D365 Finance or vice versa is not done through a simple license change or an update. It is a complex project. For this reason, it is very important to select the product well from the start.

Revertis can help you make the right decision. The investment you make in the ERP must allow the company to grow by relying perfectly on its information system. This system must accompany you and help you evolve. In no case should the system condition your business decisions or your growth.

With a Partner like Revertis, you can be sure of selecting the right product for your business and setting aside your technological worries for good.

 

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5 tips to successfully migrate your document management to Microsoft 365 SharePoint

 

Over the years, we have carried out several document management migrations to M365 SharePoint. We have also been contacted by several clients who had migrated to SharePoint and were not getting the most out of it. In this article we are going to summarize the 5 most common mistakes we encounter when a client wants to migrate their document management to SharePoint, and we will detail how to avoid them.

At Revertís we adapt SharePoint to each client. Make no mistake, the intention is not to force your teams to change their working method, but rather to adapt SharePoint to your needs so you can work more effectively.

At Revertís we do not have a SharePoint implementation model that we copy and paste for every client. Each client is different. Some are organized by departments, others by clients or projects. We must find the model that best fits your business.

  1. Replicating the structure of our file server in SharePoint

Whether your files come from a file server, from Dropbox, or from any system, we almost always find a vertical folder structure. Users with experience in office software (I include myself in this group) have gotten used to having our folder tree well organized. On many occasions, to reach our file we have to “open” four or five folders.

SharePoint allows you to use a flatter structure for documentation. In addition, we can create “weaker” links between groups of documents so that when there are changes in our organizational structure, it is much easier for us to reorganize document management.

This concept clashes a lot with most users. Younger people are more used to working with these concepts. It is similar to comparing a CD collection with Spotify. We keep CDs at home, neatly organized on a shelf, while younger people search the complete music collection for what interests them and create shortcuts to get to what they like.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Migrating all files ot SharePoint without debugging

A very common mistake we encounter is migrating all files wholesale. Implementing SharePoint is the ideal time to carry out a cleanup. Really, how many times do we access a file that we haven’t opened for more than 5 years? Time is not the only criterion. Files from people who left the company years ago are on our servers taking up space; technical sheets for obsolete products, etc. We find that no one wants to take responsibility for “deleting” this data. It has to be done. If it is really problematic, we move this data to a “storage room.”

 

Removing duplicates is also a good alternative to avoid overloading our SharePoint. And, as you can imagine, keep an eye on photos and videos. We come across 25 almost identical photos and videos of products that are already on mass-distribution platforms. SharePoint lets you open a folder and save links of interest to the videos.

In the end it’s like when we move house. We take the opportunity to throw away things we don’t use.

  1. Define the structure of Our SharePoint before starting to Migrate

Just as we don’t start building a house without plans, we don’t start the migration of our document management without having a Group Site structure in SharePoint.

This work is essential but does not limit the ability to make changes in the future. Don’t think that once SharePoint is organized, changes are difficult. On the contrary, SharePoint allows you to adapt to changes in your company quickly without loss of information.

It is also a good time to define our SharePoint style: corporate colors, folder structure, and document libraries.

We are often contacted by clients who have migrated their entire file server to a group site. Sometimes for security reasons: the current file server was showing signs of failure. Most of the time it is due to lack of knowledge of the tool.

  1. Change management

Adapting to SharePoint is a change for users. You need to plan a training program. It’s not many hours, but it’s important that the end user feels they master the tool. If the user understands and controls the concepts of Group Site, document library and how to search, it’s a big step toward a successful implementation. Providing quick access to information (without opening 5 folders) also helps product acceptance.

Depending on the size of your company, it is not necessary to migrate all departments at once. In small structures, this can be done without issue. In larger companies, it is advisable to proceed by projects or departments and roll out SharePoint progressively. Once one team has been migrated, the other departments will come asking when their change will happen.

  1. Permission management in SharePoint

SharePoint allows full control over access to documents: read, edit, delete. It’s easy to fall into the temptation of adding too many controls. It is more advisable to create several group sites or document libraries before granulating permissions within a folder structure. Over time you can then consolidate.

Above all, at the beginning, it’s better to use simple security groups and gradually add the restrictions that seem appropriate.

Controlling our documentation toward the outside is important as well. You must manage what we allow our users to share externally.

I always get a lot of criticism when I explain that the HR department must be involved in this area. We all understand that when a new employee joins, Human Resources knows whether a phone line will be provided, where their workstation will be, whether they have a car. And access to data?

Without expecting them to become IT specialists, HR should be able to explain to the IT team what kinds of data new members should have access to. In my view, M365 licenses should be treated the same as loaned equipment. In the end this new employee will have access to our know-how. Isn’t that the most important thing in our company?

Bonus

Once document management has been migrated, I invite the members of the IT team to explore what they can do with metadata. SharePoint allows you to add various metadata to documents and organize views of the documentation based on that metadata.

With good metadata management, some experts say you can reduce by up to 30% the time our staff spends searching for information. It is difficult to demonstrate 30%, but from experience it is true that access times are shortened.

Before migrating your document management, don’t hesitate to contact us. Revertís can help make it a success. It always takes much longer to modify later than to start off on the right foot.

 

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GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO OPTIMISE DYNAMICS 365 F&O LICENSING

It had been a while since any news in the D365 Finance ERP world had caused such a stir in the industry.

For several months, Microsoft has announced that it will reinforce license assignment policies directly within customers’ ERPs.

According to the latest published RoadMap, starting September 1, D365 Finance users will receive a warning if their current license does not allow them to access a part of the application enabled by their security role. From November 1, if the user has not regularized their corresponding license, they will not be able to operate.

At REVERTIS, we have developed a very clear and effective internal audit tool that provides both a global and user‑by‑user overview of the current license assignment situation, the percentage usage of different D365 Finance features, and any existing gaps. At the same time, we propose a highly optimized method that allows you to align correctly and optimally with Microsoft’s newly applied restrictions, while ensuring the continuity of your operations and the access and features used by your users.

We believe it is the Partner’s obligation to accompany, support, evaluate, and correctly advise each client’s situation, safeguarding their interests by always proposing the best options and adjusting licensing costs while respecting the manufacturer’s current legal and regulatory requirements.

We recommend reviewing the situation well in advance to prevent the resulting reconfiguration from causing a significant financial surprise or impact.

Talk to us to let us know your situation, and we will be happy to advise you on the actions to take and the optimization possibilities each specific case can achieve.

To put things in context, the licensing model of Dynamics AX 2012 and earlier versions did not impose operational restrictions. This allowed free work in development stages and environments, planning production growth gradually. Microsoft trusted that companies would purchase the correct number of licenses, although throughout our experience, we have found clients who were not properly licensed. In these cases, we have always advised clients on the licensing model to apply, according to their needs and workforce. The model in use allowed a certain degree of flexibility within reasonable limits.

As the manufacturer and owner of the software, Microsoft has always had the authority to perform audits and verify the number of users. In some cases, this has revealed the need to correct irregular situations caused by incorrect or incomplete information and lack of guidance from the Partner to its clients.

 

When D365 Finance licensing and its various cloud attach models began to be commercialized, we saw that the licensing model initially allowed flexibility similar to previous AX 2012 versions. Even in these scenarios, we found clients who were not properly advised to review security roles and ensure adequate user licensing. In these cases, licensing and security profile generation was often treated as a mere formality rather than an important part of the project implementation or migration. Starting August 31, Microsoft will apply a restrictive limitation on license assignment.

At REVERTIS, we have been working on these situations for years, properly assigning security profiles and the correct types of licenses to users, which they inevitably need to perform their tasks correctly. This methodology has two main advantages: simplifying the tool’s usage for each user (showing them only what they need to see and use) and ensuring management that both data access and licensing costs are properly controlled. Reviewing these elements with our methodology will allow you to avoid unnecessary extra costs and provide greater control over the information each of your users can see and perform in your business environment.

Moreover, due to the security and confidentiality implications of these aspects, we have always considered that establishing proper profiles, roles, and licenses is one of the initial tasks in any D365 Finance implementation or migration project.

Over the years, we have developed the know-how to optimize the necessary licensing costs, not only for this solution but also for any other environment or work tool within the Microsoft Cloud ecosystem.

At REVERTIS, we believe our clients should be properly advised and licensed. Our clients can always upgrade to higher models when their needs increase and require it.

We have demonstrated this both in Microsoft 365 and D365 Finance. Every time we review the licensing of a new client working with more than 50 Microsoft 365 licenses, we typically generate 20% cost savings simply by properly reallocating each license based on the actual usage each user makes of the applications and available features, without changing the users’ working methods.

Similarly, both in D365 Business Central and D365 Finance, we can offer automations that allow you to reclassify some of your current users to Team Member licenses, always guaranteeing the execution and use of their needs within the system.

In the specific case of D365 Finance, this optimization is not strictly limited to reviewing security profiles; in some cases, by proposing simple operational changes, we have been able to reduce the number of full licenses and switch to Activity or even Team Member. Other times, with certain developments, we have optimized license usage. The economic difference is substantial. For us, it is so important that we believe clients should include these evaluations and concepts in all implementation and/or migration projects.

At REVERTIS, we believe that both consulting/programming costs and licensing costs should be fair and necessary, and we are here to help you in your case.

 

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Migration from Dynamics AX to D365

Microsoft dynamics 365

As experts in Dynamics AX solutions for all its versions and experts in Dynamics 365, we present this article with the aim of giving you a much simpler view than you can imagine about the advantages and the process to migrate to D365 in the cloud.

First of all, you will get direct and immediate access to your data, from anywhere. Simple, Immediate and Efficient, just by opening your favorite browser (Chrome, Edge, Opera, Firefox, etc…).

Migration from Dynamics AX to D365

This simple access implies a whole deployment of connection, availability and security technologies underlying the system. This entire system is transparent to the user and is directly managed by Microsoft. You will never again have to worry about your Dynamics AX infrastructure needs, communications, servers, opening VPN’s, remote desktop access, etc… Your data will be more secure than ever on Microsoft’s D365 platform and managed in the most optimal way possible, with no downtime.

D365

It will avoid the entry into IT obsolescence. Until now, it was common to have to migrate Dynamics AX version every 4-6 years, acquire new servers and have to re-invest in infrastructure to upgrade to the latest versions of operating systems, Office, ERP’s CRM’s etc… D365 publishes periodic updates, two annual mandatory updates, through an exclusively technical, controlled and documented procedure that will involve a minimum investment of time. Nothing comparable to the complex process involved in a traditional version migration.

Migration from Dynamics AX

With D365 in the cloud, you will detach yourself from the traditional vision of technologies to have your accesses as a “commodity”, that is, as if it were the electricity or water of your establishment. You don’t need your IT staff to spend their time on the ERP infrastructure; Microsoft already does it for you. The TCO (Total Cost Owner) concept is obsolete, now we are talking about Pay Per Use. A more practical concept, directly included in the income statement and in the definition cost of each job or person. In short, a much simpler system, much less problematic and much safer than the traditional method of ownership based on management with own resources.

As a derivative, the implementation of D365 projects is also much more agile than in Dynamics AX. There is no need to provision or configure infrastructure (hardware, servers, disk arrays, communications, backups, etc…). In fact, the start-up is immediate, even faster than with Office 365. You don’t even need to download the program for local execution. Everything works directly in the browser, accessible from minute 1. This situation also greatly reduces costs, time, resources and the degree of possible complications in traditional ERP implementation and migration projects.

D365 offers you the same functionality that you have today in your Dynamics AX or CRM “on-premise”, even extended with the integration of the capabilities of Microsoft’s Power Platform. With Power Apps we put at your fingertips, whether on your smartphone, tablet or PC, applications specifically tailored to your users’ needs, to optimize access to your information. These users can then perform the specific functions they need to carry out, without having to access the D365 interface directly. This optimizes the consumption of access licenses and only has to customize the APP without having to interfere with the D365 application itself. All this, always accessing the same integrated D365 data, but from Power Platform.

Migration from Dynamics AX to D365

You will work more “on-line”, with a more complete presentation and analysis of the information, with forms integrated in Excel that directly offer you groupings and/or counts of the records that you are visualizing in “table” format, with “Drill-Down” navigation possibilities, until you reach the last detail of each transaction.

Integration with Power BI

The integration with Power BI makes it possible to obtain compact analyses that are much more oriented towards the company’s efficiency, through the arrangement of indicators and dashboards. In any case, it is always possible to access the capillary detail of the information presented and export the results to Excel.

We can use the work areas to test the integration with Power BI reports and centralize in these areas the most commonly used options and operations. This avoids having to navigate through different menu options or even having to manage groupings by categories in the favorites menu.

In terms of customization, the D365 environment allows you maximum flexibility and the best adaptation and sharing of the view of controls, forms and screens that you create among the different users of your organization. Special mention should be made of the “views” section, which allows you to have different versions of the same entity, depending on the objective you want to achieve, hiding and/or highlighting more or less information with a single mouse click.

Migration to D365

Migration from your previous version of Dynamics AX to D365

The migration process from your previous version of Dynamics AX to D365 requires very specific and perfectly measurable technical steps.

On the one hand, there is the migration/adaptation of the customizations that you have in your current version of Dynamics AX. This work is purely technical and it is decided whether to transfer each of the customizations or remove them in favor of the standard functionality in each case.

On the other hand, in REVERTIS we commit ourselves to migrate also all your current data. We understand that the information is patrimony of the company and we do not have to do without these historical data, unless the client considers more optimal and advisable to initiate a new installation with the minimal migration of teachers and alive balances. In the case of opting for a complete migration, we apply the procedures recommended by Microsoft and we guarantee that all your information will pass to the new environment correctly, as it can not be otherwise.

One of the most important aspects of the migration is the support we offer you from REVERTIS to make decisions about which customizations to keep and which customizations to discard. The goal is always to take full advantage of the new D365 standard functionalities. Going even further, REVERTIS can advise you on the possibility of using Power APP’s as a means of working with information by some of your employees, thus optimizing costs and access to use the Microsoft platform.

Finally, in your migration process, we consider in a very special way the training of your staff, as well as the different start-up simulations we perform, always with the aim of ensuring that the day of the implementation of the new platform, both the system and the information, as well as the users, are all perfectly prepared to ensure business continuity without interruptions.

migration

And most importantly, once you are up and running on D365, you will never again have to worry and spend your time on Dynamics AX management, maintenance or investment in IT infrastructure, nor make additional investments or future migrations, thus avoiding technological obsolescence once and for all.

Do not hesitate to contact us to evaluate your migration from Dynamics AX to Microsoft’s definitive ERP platform: D365. We can give you access to a test environment or perform a demo and you will clearly see the advantages of migrating to this working model.

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TicketBAI POS, fully integrated with D365 and Dynamics AX

ticketbay software

Revertis announces the market launch of our POS application, which allows to meet the requirements of TicketBAI. This POS is directly connected to the back office managed by any version of Dynamics, both in modern versions of D365 and in previous versions, Dynamics AX 2012, 2009 or even Navision/Business Central.

REVERTIS’ TicketBAI solution

The solution TicketBAI of REVERTIS allows to cover the requirements of the foral administrations of finance of the Basque Country, for the companies that realize and declare his operations of sale in this community. Independently of the physical place where the sales operations are realized, if these companies end up declaring their sales in the community of the Basque Country, it must be realized by means of the mechanisms indicated in the TicketBAI process of the pertinent administration. All this in real time and connected to your ERP D365 no matter the version.

The final objective is that the client/consumer can check at the moment that his purchase operation (sale for the company/trade) is legal and is declared in the Treasury. For this purpose, on the sales receipt, we show the TBAI Code and the QR code that will direct you to a specific web page of the Tax Authorities in order to verify the correct registration of this sale.

 

On the other hand, the company/trade must have uploaded/reported this same sales transaction to the corresponding tax office (by means of an XML file and a service enabled for this purpose). In this way, when the consumer consults this operation, he/she will find that it has been correctly declared to the Tax Authorities and that therefore it is a legal and declared purchase/sale operation.

TVP ticketBAI Front End

Revertis has taken advantage of this project to incorporate a modern and functional design to the POS screens. It has not been limited to modernize the client’s POS but to propose a TVP with a new “look and feel”. We have resorted to modern icons and a screen structure more appropriate for today’s times.

 

We have adapted the POS to the commercial image of the client, collaborating with a team of designers who have helped in this aspect. The POS is also a brand image when a customer enters the store. A TVP with modern displays gives you a cutting-edge store feel.

Types of invoices or receipts generated by TicketBAI software

The REVERTIS TicketBAI solution applies TBAI for the following sales transactions carried out at the POS:

Ticket sales operations (positive or negative/returns/cancellations):

    • Communication is generated to TBAI at the same moment the transaction is registered by the SCGT.
    • The QR code is printed on the sales ticket delivered to the customer at the same time the transaction is registered, with the response (13-character string) of the XML file generation, performed by the SCGT.
    • From the Dynamics or D365 backoffice, at the moment of generating the grouped invoice (Invoice summary entry) of these operations (per day and per teinda/TPV), a communication is made to TBAI of these operations.
  • Invoice sales transactions (positive or negative simplified invoices/credit memos/cancellations):
    • Communication to TBAI is generated at the same time the transaction is registered by SCGT.
    • The QR code is printed on the sales ticket delivered to the customer at the same time the transaction is registered, with the response (13-character string) of the XML file generation, performed by the SCGT.
    • The Dynamics AX or D365 backoffice does not perform any communication operation to TBAI, since these operations have already been communicated by the SCGT.
  • Credit sales transactions:
    • No communication is generated to TBAI at the time of registration of the transaction by SCGT.
    • The QR code is not printed on the sales ticket given to the customer at the time of registration of the transaction.
    • From the Dynamics AX or D365 backoffice, at the time of generating the invoice for these operations (Invoice (art. 6, 7.2 and 7.3 of RD 1619/2012), a communication is made to TBAI of these operations.
  • Other operations of registration in invoice that are performed in the BackOffice and that do not come from the SCGT:
    • No communication is generated to TBAI at the time the transaction is recorded by SCGT.
    • The QR code is not printed on the sales document delivered to the customer at the time of registration of the transaction.
    • No cases have been identified that respond to this scenario, as all sales invoices that are registered in the Dynamics AX or D365 backoffice come from the SCGT. In the event that any operation is carried out through this operation (registration of an invoice/credit memo directly in Dynamics AX or D365), no communication operation would be carried out to TBAI.

Revertis TicketBAI POS solution

Do not hesitate to contact Revertis to evaluate our REVERTIS TicketBAI solution fully delivered to Microsoft ERPs:

  • Dynamics AX, AXAPTA
  • D365 (all solutions)
  • Navision and Business Central

We offer you a test environment where you can see more details of the solution.

ticketbay software

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Dynamics AX to D365 Migration

Migración a D365

One of the questions that we at Revertis, as an Official Dynamics AX and D365 Partner often receive is what is the reason to migrate to D365 if my AX 2009 or AX 2012 are working great for me? Let’s start with the year 2009. At that time, the best-selling cell phone was the Nokia […]

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