Accounting and Audit News

published on 30 April 2024 I reading time approx. 2 minutes

5 REASONS WHY MICROSOFT DYNAMICS IS A POPULAR ACCOUNTING SOLUTION

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a popular accounting solution due to its comprehensive suite of tools that cater to the diverse needs of businesses. It offers a powerful accounting module that streamlines financial processes, enhances visibility, and aids informed decision-making.

1. User friendly interface

Dynamics 365 is easy to navigate, which increases productivity, efficiency and reduces training time. It provides intuitive tools and menu for each module, facilitating daily tasks. For instance, the software provides easy hyperlinks in every view allowing user to switch easily from one view to another and delve deeper into the task they are working on.

Let’s say we open a general ledger from the trial balance; when we click on a purchase entry, find the linked purchase order therein and again use hyperlinks to open the order, we are further able to look into details like inventory items, vendor details, tax details etc. Hence it provides a full audit trail without having to go back to the home page each time.

2. Scalability

Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides two variants to cater to different business needs.

First, the D365 F&O version is built to support large enterprises with complex operations, multi-national presence, and wide range of processes. The second version, Business Central is ideal for small to medium sized organisations which operate on simpler business processes and structures. The second one being affordable enjoys widespread popularity.

3. Task Recorder

This is a star feature provided by Microsoft D365 F&O. This tool allows recording of step by step actions necessary for executing any task. Organisations can create libraries for task recordings. These can be organised by country, with sub-libraries for each department and function. Within these sub-libraries, individual task recordings can be created for all tasks that a department needs to execute. This functionality reduces training efforts, curtails human errors and reduces dependency of an organisation on key ERP users. This not only allows smooth go-live support, it also helps in transitioning teams or updating processes in the long run. The recording can used as a manual or as an interactive guide which provides prompts to users on the live screen!

4. Integration and customisation

The standard versions of Dynamics 365 provide a wide array of reports and functionalities to meet most of the business requirements reducing the need for customisation. Additionally, extensive customization capabilities allow businesses to tailor the dashboards and reports for each business vertical and workflow enabling faster decision-making. Dynamics 365 integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products, such as Office 365, Power BI, and Azure.

For instance, Dynamics 365 provides standard reports to cater to GST and withholding tax compliances in India.

5. Unified Platform

One of the primary advantages of using Dynamics 365 for accounting is its integration across all modules such as sales, inventory management, finance, human resource etc This allows for real-time data sharing across departments without human interaction, eliminating silos and fostering collaboration. Typically, in any organisation, sales and procurement executives need to interact with finance teams to obtain status of receipts and payments from respective customers and vendors. Whereas, in Dynamics these executives can view customer / vendor ledgers and obtain real time information. In another scenario, sales representatives have real time access to on-hand warehouse inventory thereby allowing faster sale-pitches and eliminating the need for interaction with warehouse personnel thereby resulting in faster turn-around time.