Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC) is an all-in-one business cloud-based management tool designed for small and medium sized businesses. It’s a popular choice because it is a robust and scalable solution, but you can also use it to automate your financial reporting across your all your business to business (B2B) operations to improve accuracy, save time, and make better decisions for the future.
You can have a complete overview of your financial information from your B2B online ordering system, sales, service, and operational functions to monitor and improve performance and streamline processes.
What Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central does
Designed for modern businesses, Dynamics 365 BC allows you to easily connect your general ledger (GL) and financial reporting. You can quickly tailor, extend and build applications to fit your specific needs with very little need for code development.
D365 BC can really make a difference to your B2B online ordering system by speeding up your financial close and reporting, streamlining accounts receivables and payables, and automatically reconciling accounts. You can quickly and accurately generate multiple financial reports and monitor compliance. Your quote to cash process can also be improved because you can respond more quickly to sales enquiries and service requests as well as streamlining your payment process.
In addition, Microsoft Power BI allows you to connect and visualize your data to create useful business intelligence. It’s easy to use and will help you understand your data more fully from a single live dashboard. You can connect to hundreds of data sources and build reports that can be shared across your organization in real time. You can ask questions in natural language with the Q&A feature and see predictive representations as you type.
It includes reports, tracing functions, and tools that will help your teams to provide accurate information to your finance department. You can have instant access to account segments or dimensions without any additional tools or configuration. You can also refine cashflow forecasts by modeling and analyzing data across multiple dimensions.
D365 BC Workflow is easy to use to streamline and simplify business processes and Microsoft’s role-based security will help you to reduce the costs of accessing and tracking data across systems. Tools like the Solver Data Source Connector provide access to dashboards and information so your teams can work together wherever they are based.
Recommendations can even be generated for when to pay suppliers, access discounts, or avoid penalties for overdue payments.
New to Business Central
New functionality is due to be delivered from October 2022 to March 2023 including enhancements and more efficient automation for Power Automate to help create more customized workflows.
Earlier this year Excel layouts were introduced for reports and the next release wave will allow you to choose your Excel layout in the request page when you run your reports.
An application programming interface (API) for finance is also planned for both Excel and Power BI for more detailed analysis on data from your GL with dimensions or segments. This will include new template Power BI apps to help new users get started with reporting in Power BI, a set of standard financial reports, and a dashboard with financial key performance indicators (KPIs) and aggregated GL information.
The benefits of automated financial reports
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are intended to make financial information consistent, transparent, and easy to compare around the world but they are adding to the financial reporting burden for many companies. Accurate financial reporting is also increasingly important as an operational tool and to improve decision making.
At the same time finance executives are playing a growing role in strategic planning so there’s strong motivation to spend less time on basic and repetitive accounting activities so they can prioritize evaluating new business models and opportunities. Faster and easier reporting means you and your team can do more with less.
One of the challenges many big organizations face is accessing and using data held in operational silos. It is often in different formats and might not be updated at the same time or with the same frequency, making accurate reporting very time consuming and expensive. Manual processes are often needed, further affecting consistency and accuracy. Training and specialist skills are often required adding a level of risk when key employees leave and reducing flexibility within an organization.
Standardization and automation are essential to improve your financial reporting processes and to deliver in-depth analytics and simplified financial analytics. It is also an important tool to help you meet the requirements for external reporting and disclosure such as Value Added Statements or Five Year Financial Summaries.
Implement automated financial reporting with a trusted partner
An overview of how automated financial reporting can improve performance is the first step to effective implementation. This is likely to include audit readiness, interim reporting, regulatory compliance, financial statement analysis and other qualitative criteria.
If you’re looking for seamless implementation of D365 BC to fully integrate your financial reporting and B2B online ordering system, Cloudfy offers you a best-in-breed solution.
As a certified Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, we can integrate any data between D365 BC and Cloudfy. Your wholesale customers will benefit from a seamless self-service purchasing experience with real-time access to your inventory levels and pricing along with their account balances and order history.
Find out more about D365 BC, the Cloudfy connector and the power of real-time financial information.
