How Quickbooks Compares to Microsoft Dynamics Business Central

Whether you run a multinational company or a small to midsized enterprise, you need a financial accounting tool. Microsoft Dynamics Business Central and Quickbooks are business solutions that have distinct features and a few overlapping strengths.

Business Central is Microsoft's premier cloud-based ERP system that helps enterprises to organize and automate business processes. QuickBooks supports accounting and basic financial management tasks. Let's explore and compare the fortes and drawbacks of both solutions.

Intuit's QuickBooks Overview

QuickBooks is a financial management and accounting software developed by Intuit. The tool enables businesses to execute essential financial management functions such as generating invoices, receiving payments, tracking expenses, and managing payrolls. Intuit offers multiple QuickBooks editions which feature distinct financial reporting and accounting capabilities.

QuickBooks packages incorporate several debit card and payroll processing add-ons for optimal versatility. You do not require advanced accounting knowledge to navigate QuickBooks' user-friendly interface. The accounting system has several deployment options, including a single-tenant setup that allows you to switch between a public and a private cloud.

Microsoft Dynamics Business Central Overview

Microsoft Dynamics Business Central is a cloud-based ERP software that enables businesses to automate critical processes. Its flexible and customizable design allows companies to meet their business needs as they grow. Business Central enables your business to integrate operations and functions, take data-driven actions, automate supply chains and enhance client interactions.

Business Central's mobile-enhanced functionality allows employees to access it from various devices and locations. The tool's intelligent dashboard conducts quick inventory assessments, allowing for the optimization of supply chains. It also integrates and syncs with wide-ranging Microsoft products, including Microsoft Flow and Office 365.

Microsoft offers basic and premium versions of its ERP solution. Additional capabilities and tools in the premium version include:

• Machine centers
• Production costs breakdown
• Capacity building
• Version management
• Cost worksheets
• Production orders

How Does Business Central Compare to QuickBooks?

Scalability

If your business has significant growth potential, you need scalable financial management software. Business Central boasts superior scalability when compared to QuickBooks. Business Central has a comprehensive toolset to eliminate hitches when your enterprise requires additional tools and resources.

User caps constitute a central tenet of software scalability. QuickBooks Pro accommodates less than five users while QuickBooks Enterprise accommodates 30 users. By comparison, Business Central accommodates 300 simultaneous users.

QuickBooks' scalability falls short of Business Central in international business. Business Central offers a multifaceted solution and can accommodate global supply chain processes, accounting, and financial management in numerous languages. QuickBooks have limited multilingual and multicurrency functionalities.

Database scalability correlates to a solution's long-term viability. Business Central utilizes Microsoft Azure's highly reliable and secure cloud storage capabilities. QuickBooks' single-file storage system affects the platform's speed as the size and quantity of files grow over time.

Security and Accountability

QuickBooks have vague and activity-based user roles. Unlike permission-based user roles, activity-based user roles allow users to access and edit any invoice in the database. Business Central's permission-based user roles give admins greater control over individual user access.

Business Central features user-specific menus, minimizing clutter and enabling users to focus on relevant information. The menus minimize human errors by displaying only tasks, processes, and reports pertinent to their rank. Admins can grant access permission to individual users or groups.

Audit trails highlight the accountability differences between QuickBooks and Business Central. Users can delete or circumvent their transactional history on QuickBooks. By comparison, Business Central has an audit trail that gathers information on user activity and lacks options to delete records.

Customization and Integration

QuickBooks has inferior integration capabilities to Business Central. The solution only allows users to export data from Microsoft products such as MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, and MS Outlook. Business Central integrates with Microsoft products because the solutions sit in a single cloud platform.

QuickBooks and Business Central have unique customization capabilities. QuickBooks users can modify the appearance of receipts, forms, and invoices. Business Central allows for the customization of bookmarked tabs so users can easily navigate around its user interface.

CRM integration sets QuickBooks and Business Central apart. QuickBooks lacks CRM capabilities, and attempts to integrate CRM with QuickBooks is a nonstrategic strategy for an expanding business. Integrating novel software with QuickBooks requires specialized maintenance, additional costs, and training.

Business Central incorporates standard CRM features that enable your business to adopt a future-oriented approach. QuickBooks Enterprise without CRM capabilities is more expensive than Business Central with standard CRM features. Unifying support, data, and operation with one solution simplifies operations for your employees.

Business Central's ability to unify user support allows your business to capitalize on the expertise of certified experts when problems arise. Conversely, integrating CRM with QuickBooks makes it challenging to solve issues since CRM solutions providers do not possess complete knowledge of QuickBooks' systems.

If your team already has a CRM solution that is effective and easy to use, Business Central is compatible with it as well. Business Central can also facilitate dual integration of its in-built CRM system with your existing CRM software. Doing so expedites real-time information sharing between the systems.

Reporting Capabilities

QuickBooks fall short of Business Central in financial reporting options. Business Central supports the following in-depth reports;

• Inventory
• Cost analysis
• Payroll
• Order entry
• General ledger
• Accounts payable

These reporting options allow for a better comprehension of vital metrics and make evaluating personnel and machinery efficiency easier. Poor visibility is a significant liability for businesses. Business central's accurate reporting capabilities help optimize business operations.

Integrating Business Central with Power BI lets you capitalize on advanced reporting capabilities.

Key Takeaways

Microsoft Dynamics Business Central suits your needs if you own a small and mid-sized business with significant growth potential. QuickBooks incorporates accounting functionalities, while Business Central is a comprehensive ERP solution. QuickBooks lag behind Business Central in the unification of operations, reporting capabilities, security, and accountability.

Business Central's higher user cap allows it to accommodate more users as your business expands. You can take advantage of Business Central's low licensing costs even if all its functionalities are not helpful to your business. Contact us today for all your network security needs!