Difference between
F&O and Business Central
If you are a customer who is still wondering whether to choose Dynamics 365 F&O or Business Central?
Then, you have landed at the right place!
What is Business Central?
Formerly known as Dynamics NAV, Business Central is a user-friendly ERP application by Microsoft, used by over 160,000 businesses worldwide. Especially suited for SMEs with employees less than 500 employees, it has the capability to transform the way you do business by streamlining, automating, and managing finances, operations, sales, and customer service in all one platform.
Essentials – offered at $70 per month per user!
Premium – offered at $100 per month per user!
What is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations?
Formally known as Dynamics AX, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (now, they are called as Finance and Supply Chain Management) is a robust Microsoft Dynamics ERP well suited for large enterprise organizations (more than 500 employees). Dynamics 365 Finance includes budgeting, project management, financials, and accounting for large, international companies, whereas Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management includes engineering, manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution.
Explore more >
3 Key Differences
Between F&O and Business Central
Core Functionality
While both are ERPs, their core functionalities do differ! As you may know now, Business Central delivers simple functionalities related to the financials, accounting and operational modalities but Finance/Operations will showcase elaborate details regarding the same functionalities. For instance, lot and serial number tracking feature are available in Business Central however, Finance and Operations will provide even the pallet tracking and license plate functionality.
Configurability
Business Central is an application which is easy to use, has a smooth interface and hence it can be directly suitable and ready to use after small customization whereas F&O is a bigger, complex and robust ERP application and hence, has more flexibility to configure as per the suitability.
Company Size, Scale of Business Operation
Most notably, Business Central is a simple solution for businesses from having revenue less than 10 million USD and sectors like Logistics, Warehousing, Manufacturing, Retail (less than 1000 employees) are most suitable as per the features, whereas Finance/Operations can be considered for larger businesses from about $100 million up to a billion+.
Differences at a glance!
| Software | Business Central | Finance / Operations |
|---|---|---|
| Former names | Dynamics NAV | Dynamics AX |
| Company Size | Small to Mid (< 500) | Mid to Enterprise (>500) |
| Multi-Company | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-Language | 80+ (English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, etc.) | 30+ (English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, etc.) |
| Multi-Localization | Yes, 1 localization per instance | Yes, Multiple localization per instance |
| Minimum Number of Users | 1 | 20 |
| Implementation Cost | $10K – $700K | $100K – $1M+ |
| Time Frame | 1-6 months | 6-12+ months |
| Deployment | Cloud or On-premise | Cloud or On-premise |
| Most preferred sectors | Distribution/Trading/Logistics, Manufacturing, Small & Midsized Retailers | CPG, Retail, Professional Services, Public Sector, Supply Chain Management, Discrete & Process Manufacturing |
| Inter-company Transactions & Consolidations | Yes (with manual effort) | Yes (Readily available) |
| Warehouse feature | Tracking by batch numbers or serial numbers only | Tracking by batch numbers, serial numbers and accurate pallet tracking |
| Capabilities and integration with other Dynamics 365 Components | Connects financials, sales, purchase, inventory, projects, service and operations | Designer to work out-of-the-box with other Dynamics 365 components. Deep integrations with CRM, HR, Talent, Customer Service, Marketing, and others. Fully covers traditional back-office processes |
| Customization | Yes | Yes |
| Analytics | Easy Integration with Power BI | Easy Integration with Power BI |
| Third party add-on | Yes (through AppSource) | Yes (through AppSource) |
| Scalability | Recommended for businesses who process at least 100+ transactions | Recommended for businesses who process at least thousands of transactions |
How Sonee Sports deployed Finance and Operations with CloudFronts’ assistance.
Read here >>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Data integration is the process of extracting accurate data and information from multiple sources and unifying them so your team members can access it to drive operations faster.
Yes, it is! This is possible by integrating your company’s data by using Microsoft’s tools like Azure Integration Services and Azure Data Factory (ADF).
Yes, our biggest project till date has been for our Switzerland based customer BUCHI Labs. Kindly refer to our customer success story BUCHI Customer Success Story | CloudFronts
The implementation costs differs from one company to other. We can give accurate estimates only after knowing your requirements and business properly on the call. Schedule a call now. Also, we believe in full transparency and hence, our payment terms are based on project delivery milestones.
Yes, 100% remotely. Almost all our clients are based throughout the world – U.S., Maldives, Europe, Asia and Australia. Despite that, we have delivered our solutions successfully. So, remote delivery model is not a constraint – in fact, it is a big boon as we can focus more on delivering to our clients at competitive costs. Above all, our team members do travel onsite during the initial stage, after meeting milestones, & go-live of projects. Please explore our Project Methodology here.
Please fill out our short Contact Us form or email your requirements directly to Solution Architect Anil Shah at [email protected].
