your comprehensive guide to dynamics 365 for finance and

Your Comprehensive Guide to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

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Introduction 3

Capability overview 4

Integration and extensions 12

Pricing 13

Contents

YOUR COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR

FINANCE AND OPERATIONSincrementalgroup.co.uk

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IntroductionThe Microsoft cloud ERP application for enterprises

We have compiled this guide to provide you with all the information you need on Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (formerly called Dynamics AX).

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is the Microsoft cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application for mid to large scale organisations. With real-time intelligent insights and an intuitive user interface, it helps you make smarter decisions and transforms business processes with proven methodologies. Through the availability of the cloud, you can now offer your business users the flexibility to work anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations offers one evergreen solution to all customers, empowering them to leverage the most current capabilities and innovation in an environment that eliminates the cost and disruption that defined enterprise software upgrades in the past. It includes features for managing financials, manufacturing, procurement, stock & warehouse management, project management & accounting, retail and HR, all of which help organisations become more efficient.

What makes Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations unique is:

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» It unifies financial and business operations for real-time insights across your organisation enabling you to make smarter decisions

» It transforms your organisation by efficiently redesigning processes without disrupting your ongoing operations

» It leverages powerful, flexible, and intelligent cloud ERP to grow your organisation knowing your information will be secure

» Works seamlessly with other Microsoft products, such as Excel, SharePoint, and Power BI, to enhance and extend the functionality of the solution

There are significant improvements to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, from its predecessor, Dynamics AX.

The main gains are that Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is a complete cloud-based solution accessible through a web browser, whereas Dynamics AX is primarily a desktop-based application with limited web and mobile components. Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations can be used everywhere without the substantial infrastructure footprint of on-premise or hosted AX applications. It also offers standard integration features with other parts of the Dynamics 365 family, such as Customer Engagement (CE) and Talent, providing a full end-to-end business solution for all your commercial, financial and operational needs. YOUR COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE

TO DYNAMICS 365 FOR FINANCE AND OPERATIONS

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Below is a summary of the main areas of functionality Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations offers. Like most modern Microsoft applications, it is a cloud-based solution that is accessible anywhere on any device. Microsoft operates a 99.9% SLA on Azure, so all you need is an Internet connection.

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations includes unified financial and operational insights and actionable intelligence in real-time. It also supports manufacturing capacity planning, production scheduling, sequencing, and shop floor control. It provides complete visibility and intelligence in warehousing, transportation processes, and operations to improve control and efficiency.

Capability Overview

Warehouse and Inventory Management

Retail Supply Chain and Logistics

Project Management and

Accounting Manufacturing

Financial Management

Cloud Services



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Financial ManagementAccounts payableEnter vendor invoices manually or receive them electronically through a data entity. Review and approve invoices. Invoice matching, vendor invoice policies, and workflow capabilities to automate the review process.

Accounts receivableCreate customer invoices based on sales orders or packing slips. Receive payments using several different payment types.

BudgetingLong-term planning and annual budget planning are supported through the budget plan document. Budget plan documents are tightly integrated with Microsoft Excel.

Cash and bank managementCash and bank management capability to maintain the legal entity’s bank accounts and the financial instruments that are associated with those bank accounts.

Account structures enhancementsExport account structures to Excel for easier filtering. FactBoxes have been added to the account structure page for easier access to important information when account structures are defined and edited.

Global journal entryEnter a general journal for any company the user has access to, regardless of the company the user is logged into. This improves the efficiency of organisations consisting of multiple legal entities.

Financial reporting 22 out-of-the-box financial reports are included to give you a jump start on report design. These reports can be accessed from multiple menu items.

Budget plans and forecasts enhancementsCreate and edit budget plans using Excel and Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Templates for Excel workbooks can be generated by using the budget plan layout setup.

Customer invoicing workspaceThe workspace can be accessed through Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. It facilitates the customer invoicing process and includes different views of invoice work.

Expense managementUse expense management to create an integrated workflow where you can store payment method information, import credit card transactions, and track the money that employees spend when they incur expenses for your organisation.



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ManufacturingFinite and infinite capacity and materials planningCreate maximum flexibility with tightly controlled scheduling, with finite or infinite capacity scheduling practices. Includes the ability to support multiple plans to simulate material and capacity requirements based on varied scenarios.

Job scheduling and sequencingDetailed scheduling and capacity planning with the ability to separate each operation into individual tasks. Job scheduling allows for the synchronisation of a production order’s other jobs with the flexibility to specify start and finish times.

Resource managementIdentify long-term staffing requirements by providing a skills library for tracking employee skills, experience, certification, and other distinctions. A search tool within the module matches employee skills with availability offering best-fit scheduling options.

Shop floor managementInsight into the production environment by automating the collection of employee schedule information and production data.

Work order managementJob costing aids in developing more flexible business structures by specifying crucial cost-saving opportunities.

Production configurationMultiple attributes and rules in product building to create a custom bill of materials with each order.

Lean manufacturing 22 out-of-the-box financial reports are included to give you a jump start on report design. These reports can combine various supply, sourcing, and production strategies in a mixed-mode manufacturing environment such as production orders, purchase orders, batch orders, and transfer orders.

Forecast schedulingEnable long-term planning of materials and capacity by calculating gross requirements based on forecasts.

Production floor management workspaceThe production supervisor can check whether materials for scheduled production orders are available on the required date, and how many production orders are in the scheduled state and are pending release. Information about material availability is automatically updated.

Job card device pagePerform traditional tasks, like starting, ending, and reporting progress. View attachments, break for lunch, and perform other activities. The job card page fits well on mobile devices.



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Supply Chain & LogisticsDemand forecastingUse Microsoft Excel to update your demand forecast, helping to increase efficiency and productivity. Take advantage of the integration with Excel when working on your demand forecast.

Azure Machine Learning integrationBased on historical data and defined variables based on your requirements such as weather or traffic conditions you can integrate Azure Machine Learning into your demand forecasting process to help you better predict and anticipate potential issues.

Inventory management Track items by inventory dimensions, including site, warehouse, pallet, location, batch, and serial number. Lower inventory costs and improve turn-over with advanced inventory allocation.

Multi-site warehouse management Manage storage locations and material handling within warehouses. Apply advanced inbound algorithms using multiple warehouse zones and replenishment strategies. Optimise picking with a choice of picking methods, and track inventory.

Material handling Increase the quality of material handling within the warehouse with browser-based mobile handheld Radio Frequency devices. Create mobile handheld device menus from Dynamics 365, including creating new menus for each user or user groups, changing layout and colours, and determining error logging and actions.

Quality management Improve business processes for quality assurance, quality control and lot traceability. Manage the test process. Set aside items in quarantine using quarantine orders.

Master planning Forecast delivery dates using operations or bottleneck scheduling. Calculate available-to-promise (ATP) and capable-to-promise (CTP). Plan across multiple sites.

Global visibility Utilise role tailored workspaces to present and explore production, warehouse, and transportation options for your customers.

Vendor collaborationInviting vendors to collaborate directly in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations improves the vendor’s visibility of purchase orders and ensures a shared view on responses to purchase orders.



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Warehouse and Inventory ManagementRun your warehousing efficientlyGet a holistic view of stock for efficient order fulfilment. Track every item transaction and movement by setting up bins based on warehouse layout and storage unit dimensions.

Warehouse enhancements for high volume distribution centresProductivity features include - create work after packing, group containers, and create a release policy for packed containers.

Warehouse operation enhancements Warehouse operations features include - support for container types in inbound processing, reverse ship confirmation is enabled for all source documents, support for receipt and put away of pallets containing mixed items.

Quality managementManage and improve turnaround time when dealing with nonconforming products and link diagnostic results to correction tasks to rectify problems and prevent future recurrences.

Improve transportation planningManage load building strategies to control maximum values for transportation based on weight and height of the vehicle.

Mobile working Utilise mobile workspaces to support the updating of stock movements from areas of your warehouse.



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RetailDrive unified commerce Increase revenue, customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty by delivering a consistent shopping experience.

Create a modern store experience Manage stores efficiently, increase sales, and instantly adapt to the changing needs of your customers.

Increase band loyaltyEnable customers to earn and redeem points, use gift cards and promotional coupons across channels.

Tailor product selection and recommendationsOffer more product selection and recommendations through advanced analytics that provide the best of both online and inline store shopping.

Effectively manage merchandising Improve ROI and product demand by centrally managing merchandising, including product information, categories, assortments, and pricing.

Streamline sourcing and replenishment Acquire stock from the right supplier at the right price to allocate and replenish stores based on season, market demand, and competitive measures.

Optimise operations through insightsReduce fulfilment costs, improve stock utilisation, and efficiently manage your organisation by using customer and operational insights.

Amplify sales and promotionsTarget product and promotion by category, channel, season, loyalty, and tier to impact revenue.

Innovate with a modern and adaptable platform Drive innovation at a global scale with an application that is easy to tailor, extend, and connect to other apps and services.

Meet changing business needs Drive actions to support multi-company, multi-brand, and multi-channel global operations.

Invest with confidence Improve point of sale (POS) responsiveness and safeguard your data with a global network of state-of-the-art datacentres with geographical proximity.



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Project Management and AccountingManage customer driven projects Utilise the integration between sales and projects to support the management and financial realisation of Operational Costs of Sales (CoS) and Revenue.

Control project budgets Apply budgets and forecasts at company, department, and project level to manage costs and anticipated revenue.

Visibility of project breakdownManage estimated costs, revenues and Items requirements on Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Manage project resources Utilise project resource scheduling to allocate resources, including tools, facility, employee, and contractors, based on availability and skills.

Record time workedControl time and costs booked to a project through timesheet submission and approval.

Visibility of project spend Report and control project spend by recording and raising all purchases, hours, and expenses required directly through the project.

ExpensesSteamline the submission of project expenses for approval through the Expense Management module and the mobile application.

Streamlined invoice generationGenerate customer invoices proposals directly from the project and submit for approval prior to posting.

Report on project financialsGenerate project statements and reporting of budget vs. actuals.



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Cloud ServicesFlexible deployment optionsGet real-time information on almost any device, at any time. Leverage the unmatched rapid and scalable deployment options that offer you the best of both worlds (cloud and on-premises) to meet your global business requirements and have the flexibility and ease to change as your organisations needs evolve over time.

ScalabilityCloud deployments provide a cloud service that is easy to scale-up or down as needed, as well as data centres that are fully managed by Microsoft. The time spent implementing Finance and Operations can be significantly shortened, fewer customisations may be required, and the costs of IT hardware and infrastructure are lower.

Application lifecycle managementCloud deployments include high availability, disaster recovery, sandbox environments, and application lifecycle management. These are combined with cloud-based systems of intelligence, infrastructure, compute, and database services, in a single offering. When needed, data failover in the cloud, automated deployment and continuous updates, and elastic compute capacity are available. A cloud deployment also provides data aggregation, financial reporting, and intelligence.

Shop floor managementInsight into the production environment by automating the collection of employee schedule information and production data.

Broad integrationThe cloud service provides you with the greatest value, the broadest range of functionality, the best application lifecycle experience, the easiest and broadest integration with Microsoft Azure services, the best option for business insights and intelligence, and the most value for technology investments.

Cloud deployment services Reduced deployment efforts and complexity. Native deployment to the Microsoft Azure public cloud and improved self-service installation of in-store components to make configuration easier and more intuitive.

Globalisation and translation18 country localisations, Arabic language support, user documentation in 24 languages.



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Microsoft has embedded Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations with built-in intelligence. This includes smart insights and analytics that are surfaced throughout the solution and automatic charts and graphs with a range of visualisation options. This makes it easy to gain organisational insight and take action. You can extend this capability with Power BI.

Integration and Extensions Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is configurable and gives you excellent capability out-of-the-box, but it does not stop there. You also get as standard, full integration with Office 365, The Power Platform - PowerApps, Flow, Power BI, and AppSource.

There are three main ways you can extend and integrate:

Intelligence and Reporting



AppSource

Use pre-built solutionsfrom Microsoft and itspartners to extend thecapability of Dynamics365 for Finance and Operations. This provides you with capabilityfor more specialistbusiness processes orindustry needs. There arethousands of solutionsavailable and more gettingadded over time. It is the easiest way to extend capability.

PowerApps

PowerApps is Microsoft’sNo-code applicationdevelopment solution thatallows you to build customapplications and connectthem to Dynamics 365for Finance and Operations via the common data service. This provides unlimited potential in ways you can extend your capability and capture and display data to your employees.

Custom Applications It is easy to developapplications that workand integrate withDynamics 365 for Finance and Operations with the robust API’s available and anumber of connect apps.You no longer customisethe underlying code inthe solution instead you canadd features and morecapability.

One platform. Unlimited Potential.

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There are two cloud pricing plans available – the Dynamics 365 Plan and the Unified Operations Plan, with the ability to add Team members. The pricing is on a per user per month basis as it is a cloud-based subscription solution. All prices include the Microsoft cloud platform and hosting fees and includes access to Microsoft PowerApps and Flow.

Pricing



Dynamics 365 Plan Unified Operations Plan

The Dynamics 365 Plan is a cost-effective plan that encompasses all of the Dynamics 365 modules. It provides users with full access for all individual apps within Dynamics 365, including Finance and Operations, Sales, Talent, Retail, Marketing, Customer Service, and more.

For organisations looking for a conventional ERP system, the Unified Operations Plan is the best option. This plan includes Finance and Operations, Retail and Talent applications, along with highly flexible user licenses.

£158.40 per user each month £143.30 per user each month

Team MembersExecute basic processes and share knowledge. £6 per user each month

Operations ActivityPerform transactional tasks with Finance and Operations or Retail. From £37.70 per user each month

Operations DeviceAccess Finance and Operations or Retail functionality through a shared, licensed device. From £56.60 per user each month

Retail Deliver unified commerce across all channels. From £128.20 per user each month

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We are a leading Microsoft Dynamics gold partner, with over 20 years’ experience helping organisations drive digital transformation with Microsoft Dynamics 365, AX, NAV, and GP solutions. We help organisations with new implementations, upgrades, project recovery, and ongoing support. We work with all sizes of organisations across a range of industries.

Contact us today to find out how we can help you.

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