Acumatica vs Dynamics 365 Business Central
Last Updated:Our analysts compared Acumatica vs Dynamics 365 Business Central based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Manufacturing Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.
Product Basics
Pros
|
Cons
|
Pros
|
Cons
|
Request for Free
Request for Free
Product Assistance
Product Insights
- Increased Productivity: Acumatica contains a range of automated capabilities, such as the creation of tax filing reports, calculation of realized gains and losses and tax calculation. By automating these workflows, organizations save employees time and increase productivity.
- Centralized Database: Personalized dashboards and real-time visibility into business processes help reduce inconsistencies and communication errors.
- Support for Multiple Currencies: This system supports transactions across multiple currencies. This is especially beneficial for companies that do business internationally or that have operations in numerous countries.
- Multi-Site Management: Provide users with a broader view of a company’s financial health and status by either segmenting or centralizing accounting among various locations and entities.
- Streamlined Compliance: Tax management capabilities help ensure adherence to tax guidelines. Calculating taxes can be a difficult process, so Acumatica aims to reduce the headache by accounting for use, sales, withholding and other types of tax.
- Centralized Data: Dynamics 365 Business Central leans in to the essence of ERP software — data centralization. For example, the system’s contract management program maintains a shared database of customers and prospects that can be customized and filtered. The program also removes any duplicates found in the system, which is especially helpful when you have multiple people entering prospect information or liaising with customers. Customized dashboards and visualizations are also available for insights developed across your company.
- Accessibility: This software is available either on-premise or as a cloud-based ERP. If you opt to go with a cloud deployment, the solution will be accessible to your employees anytime and anywhere as long as an internet connection is available. This broadly increases the scope of where your employees can complete their duties and access pertinent information.
- Forecasting: Dynamics 365 Business Central contains forecasting tools that include the use of historical demand to estimate future demand. This is helpful because it can improve efficiency, reduce spoilage and improve the likelihood that you will be able to fulfill orders from customers.
- Simple Integration: As a Microsoft product, Dynamics 365 Business Central is well poised for integration. The software can work with programs such as Word and Excel and is also available across iOS, Android and Windows devices. Microsoft offers a wide variety of software solutions that can be connected to Dynamics 365 Business Central, such as Dynamics 365 for Sales.
- Collaboration: Dynamics 365 Business Central provides visibility and control over multiple production sites. This allows you to collaborate with employees located in that facility to determine benchmarks such as optimal inventory level. Additionally, because of Dynamics 365 Business Central’s availability as a cloud-based solution, it is easy for employees to collaborate on and access materials whether they are in a corporate office or at a production facility.
- Security: With this program, you can configure user access to different components of the software. For example, if you don’t want an account representative to have visualization of the payroll, you can limit the scope of a user’s access to the application. Disaster recovery tools also assist with security measures.
- General Ledger: Track all financial transactions occurring in a business and create financial statements such as the income statement and balance sheet. This feature enables users to structure the general ledger by accounts and subaccounts. Users can segment financial reporting by aspects such as department or product to glean more specialized insights.
- Accounts Receivable: Develop and send out invoices for owed payments that have yet to be received and format invoices for printing purposes, PDF or HTML. It also accepts PCI-compliant credit card transactions and can handle refunds, voided transactions and manual charges. The program can connect to bank processing centers through included plug-ins or can be built by the user through Acumatica’s SDK.
- Accounts Payable: The Acumatica accounts payable function contains prepayment tools that allow users to manage requests, apply prepayments to invoices as they come in and issue prepayments. The program can calculate use and VAT taxes and create tax filing reports automatically. Payments can also be aligned with cash flows to reduce the likelihood of late charges.
- Cash Management: The cash management tool integrates with GL, AR and AP functionality. Update balances and store transactions linked to vendors and customers by inputting them into accounts payable or receivable. The program also transfers funds between accounts and supports multiple currencies.
- Currency Management: Calculate realized gains and losses automatically from transactions made with foreign currency, adjust unrealized gains and losses, and prepare auto-reversing entries for open documents that are recorded in a foreign currency. The program adheres to FASB-52 standards for currency translation.
- Tax Management: The program supports use, sales, withholding, VAT and reverse VAT taxes. Calculate taxes automatically based on the assigned tax zone or tax category or make manual adjustments directly within the system. Additionally, taxes are posted to a tax liability account in the general ledger.
- Deferred Revenue Accounting: Acumatica leverages user-established schedules to calculate deferred revenue automatically. Develop schedules using templates or completely from scratch. Post deferred revenue automatically to various financial statements.
- Sales Order Management: Dynamics 365 Business Central’s sales order management module allows you to alter quantity available amounts based on posted invoices. You can also use the program to create prepayment invoices and to manage partial shipments.
- Analysis Reports: The analysis reports tool is based on helping decisionmakers within your company gain meaningful insights that will positively influence daily decisions. With this customizable tool, you can use factors such as customers, items and vendors to view information such as inventory turnover and customer behavior. You can also use this tool to more accurately pinpoint problems across your business that are creating bottlenecks or inefficiencies.
- General Ledger: Accounting and financial reporting tools are a commonly requested feature in ERP software. Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a general ledger in its base package that includes internal and external reporting tools, ability to export data in various formats, employee ledger entries, linking to external documents and reporting in your company’s preferred currency format.
- Requisition Management: Dynamics 365 Business Central’s Requisition Worksheet allows you to optimize your inventory based on factors such as predicted demand and material availability. You can also set minimum and maximum quantity levels to determine a reordering point in your manufacturing center.
- Multi-Site Functionality: With this software, you can track inventory levels across multiple distribution centers, warehouses, production plants, showrooms and more. You can also track inventory as it moves from different locations while accounting for its value during transit.
- Contact Management: The contact management feature allows you to input and maintain a list of your business contacts and prospects. The tool lets you know when duplicate contact information is entered, enables you to issue quotes or sales documents, allows for the categorization of people associated with a specific contact and segments people based on profiling questions.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR): Dynamics 365 Business Central includes support for Kofax Invoice Capture Service (ICS) out of the box. This tool can take information from unstructured PDFs, extract it, and turn it into structured data.
- Currency Exchange Rates: This system allows you to update currency exchange rates as they shift. This can be done either manually or automatically. Dynamics 365 Business Central supports Yahoo and European Central Bank (ECB) currency feeds out of the box, but you can add other currencies to the tool using the currency exchange rates setup.
Product Ranking
#2
among all
Manufacturing Software
#47
among all
Manufacturing Software
Analyst Rating Summary
Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data
Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data
Analyst Ratings for Vendor Qualification Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data
User Sentiment Summary
378 reviews
366 reviews
Acumatica has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 378 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.
Dynamics 365 Business Central has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 75% when considering 366 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.
Awards
Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews
Acumatica reviews from the past year paint a contrasting picture. Users seeking a flexible, scalable, and cloud-based ERP solution with seamless integrations often sing its praises. They especially appreciate the ability to adapt to business growth without data disruption, unlike more rigid on-premise options. Additionally, the user-friendly interface and mobile app access are lauded for boosting productivity and accessibility. However, Acumatica's strengths come with drawbacks. Compared to basic accounting software, its higher cost per application can be a hurdle for smaller businesses. Users with complex needs also mention a steeper learning curve, potentially requiring dedicated IT personnel or consultants. And while its reporting capabilities are decent, some power users crave the advanced customization and drill-down functions offered by specialized reporting tools. Acumatica's biggest differentiator lies in its open architecture and customization options. Unlike some competitors with limited customization or reliance on pre-built modules, Acumatica allows businesses to tailor the platform to their specific workflows and processes. This flexibility comes at a cost, potentially requiring in-house expertise or external support, but for growing companies seeking a future-proof ERP solution that adapts to their unique needs, Acumatica shines. Ultimately, choosing Acumatica involves carefully weighing its strengths, weaknesses, and unique value proposition against your specific business needs and budget. If flexibility, scalability, and robust integrations are top priorities, and you're prepared for the initial investment, Acumatica could be the perfect fit. But if cost-effectiveness and out-of-the-box functionality are paramount, exploring alternatives might be wiser.
Users appreciated Dynamics 365 Business Central's user-friendly interface and automation capabilities, highlighting its ease of use even for non-technical personnel. The streamlined workflows and intuitive layout simplified data entry and task completion, especially compared to competitor solutions with steeper learning curves. The automated processes proved beneficial in eliminating manual work and errors, boosting efficiency in areas like finance, inventory, and customer service. However, some users pointed to limitations in industry-specific features compared to more specialized competitors like SAP Business One or Acumatica. While Business Central excels in core ERP functions, complex needs in manufacturing or healthcare might require additional add-ons or integrations, increasing complexity and potentially cost. Customization, while available, also presented a potential hurdle. While offering flexibility, extensive modifications could necessitate developer expertise, raising implementation time and costs compared to competitors with more drag-and-drop customization options. Business Central's cloud-based scalability was praised, accommodating growth and diverse user needs effectively. This stood out compared to some on-premise competitors with less flexibility. However, very large enterprises with intricate operations might encounter limitations or require additional configuration compared to solutions like Oracle NetSuite designed for such complexity. Overall, user reviews suggest Dynamics 365 Business Central shines for its user-friendliness, automation, and cloud-based scalability. However, limitations in industry-specific features and potential customization complexity compared to some competitors are important considerations, especially for niche businesses or large enterprises.
Screenshots
Top Alternatives in Manufacturing Software
Cetec ERP
DELMIAworks
Dynamics 365 Business Central
Dynamics 365 Finance
Dynamics 365 SCM
E2 Shop System
Epicor Kinetic
ERPNext
Katana MRP
MIE Trak Pro
MRPEasy
NetSuite
Oracle Fusion Cloud
Plex Systems
ProcessPro
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
SYSPRO
SyteLine
Visibility ERP
Related Categories
Head-to-Head Comparison
WE DISTILL IT INTO REAL REQUIREMENTS, COMPARISON REPORTS, PRICE GUIDES and more...
