With the release of Microsoft Dynamics 365, there are concerns in comparing the functionality of the brand new Dynamics 365’s Finance and Operation Module with Dynamics GP Financial Management Module.

In this article, I-Net Dynamics will bring you through the differences between products in the Microsoft Dynamics product line. Specifically, we’re looking at the difference between Dynamics GP and Dynamics 365 Fin Ops, because these two offer the most common feature set and overlap, and we get the most questions to help differentiate those when organizations are trying to determine which one is best for them.

Dynamics 365 Fin Ops is Microsoft’s best-of-breed solution,built for larger  MNCs. It competes regularly with solutions such as SAP and Oracle. If your organization is a multinational manufacturer with hundreds of users, D365 Finance and Operations is a solution you should look at. It’s not for the faint of heart–implementations will take upwards of a year or longer and will require on-site, local, dedicated project management, but the solution is powerful, feature-rich and worth a look.

The D365 Fin Ops is essentially AX repurposed to be delivered via Cloud instead of installed on-premise on servers. This new version provides a Cloud-based ERP solution that can be used everywhere without the large infrastructure footprint of AX; on-premise or hosted by partners. It also has tight integration with other parts of the Dynamics 365 Family, such as CRM, so you get an end-to-end business solution containing ERP and CRM.

Dynamics GP will provide all the finance, accountant, processing, supply chain, and distribution tools that a small- or mid-size business might need.

GP gives rich functionality but is not as flexible as D365 Fin Ops. It is typically a little easier and quicker to install and maintain. Thus, if GP fits the needs of your company then it could be a little less costly and take a little less time to set up than D365 Fin Ops.

Though it is a basic accounting package, some users do not find the old-style menus and navigation options intuitive. Some features that are available in competing products are still not present in GP, such as full copy-paste functionality and more intelligent workflow/batch processing functions.

Summary

Each product has its target markets and areas of strengths.

Both Dynamics GP and Dynamics 365 Fin Ops have extremely strong core functionalities running on the Microsoft platform.

GP is intended to do more for its customers out of the box and has a large suite of add-on solutions, some of which have been around for decades.

D365 Fin Ops is built towards large scale implementations, and often requires customizations based on your business.

Ultimately, more important than the product are the capabilities of your Implementation Partner, and the consultants you will be working with.

Great GP partners can handle GP solutions for larger scale needs if required. Conversely, an unprepared D365 Fin Ops implementer would struggle with a small-scale project.

If a partner has done it successfully before, and you like what you see – you increase the chance of a successful implementation significantly.