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Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question

Posted on by 11

As a Business Consultant and CPA at the Executive Level for more than 5 years now, I've been exposed to numerous clients who are using some form of Dynamics. There is a similar theme to all of them:

  1. They invested a lot of time and energy into the implementation
  2. The implementation was handled by a 3rd party service rep (I realize this is the whole model in itself)
  3. The implementation is riddled with errors that make everyone internally frustrated
  4. The end-users I meet seem to hate relying on such an inherently confusing and frustrating system. As a result, many give out that energy of feeling trapped at their jobs because they need the income and know they are stuck with this system that their employer just spent an ungodly amount of money on.
  5. Reporting on it is an absolute nightmare. Yes it is feasible to make what you want, but to sell something as "accounting software" and not even supply standard and adequate financial reports is even more frustrating... now the client needs to hire an expert in programming these reports.
  6. Navigating the system is not as intuitive as it could be, doing a simple task that would take 5 minutes with competitor's products can easily take 30+ minutes in BC. 
  7. Yodolee is a headache to deal with should you ever have issues with banking feeds. Who does QBO use to support this service? Is it hosted internally? BC developers need to go use that bank feed connection and the net result to realize how streamlined that is vs 10 steps in BC
  8.  Carries a theme of being over-promised and under-delivered. I'm not an expert in BC, but rather accounting. My job simply helps to support getting their accounting disaster under control (typically caused by setup errors)... to a place where things WORK (nothing mind-blowing)

I think part of the issue is that Microsoft has outsourced the delivery and support of this product from it's root. If the developers of the product are not customer facing, all they will continue to do is put lipstick on a pig and see how much their reps are able to gouge people for on implementations. At this day and age, setup should feel something like setting up a WordPress site... instead it feels like a failed product that Microsoft should either re-design from the ground up and actually be directly customer facing OR let this product burn in the same layer of hell with AOL, Enron and Time Warner (I hope sooner than later on this one). 

I've got nothing but respect for Microsoft and the MANY great ideas and products that have helped deliver so much change in the world. Unfortunately, Dynamics is a failed idea. I vote it's either time to revamp it or sell off the product to a company that can better support it.

If Netsuite or QBO were boats, they'd be speeding along the waterfront with ease... if Dynamics were a boat, we'd already be sinking from day 1. 

Thoughts?

  • Suggested answer
    Valentin Castravet Profile Picture
    Valentin Castravet 4,486 Super User on at
    Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question
    Its unfortunate many feel so strongly about the system. Obviously I am biased, but I truly feel Business Central is a great system, and have received similar feedback from clients using it. 
     
    Based on my experience and is the common thread in here, there a lot of bad implementors out there. A system delivered by a bad implementor is like buying a new car and being limited to driving a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour. It doesn't matter how good the car is, who would be happy with that?
     
     
  • Suggested answer
    CU09052339-0 Profile Picture
    CU09052339-0 on at
    Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question
    This is exactly how we feel.  We never could get it live.  Training was so bad from S.A. Global that we had to just crash the project and we are so so deep into it.  Nothing was intuitive.  QBO literally is so much easier.  I thought it would allow us to be more precise with inventory, but it only seemed like a headache.  I wouldn't suggest it at all. 
     
     
     
  • Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question
    Absolutely.
     
    After two years I agree with all of your points except one and I have no experience to comment on that. It may be that project manager  picked the wrong partner (no experience of our sector - not a clever idea)
     
    But Microsoft in the UK have just advertised for a Head of Finance role with Sage experience - sums it up for me
  • mattcbs Profile Picture
    mattcbs 20 on at
    RE: Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question

    Yes. Absolutely horrible package to use in my role as a book keeper.

    Where other accounting packages allow for a simple one click void of an invoice or other transaction, business central requires a credit memo & refund to be entered, just to void the invoice & shortcuts like "create corrective credit memo" will not work in a lot of situations meaning it all has to be done manually from scratch a lot of the time.

    It will not allow you to edit the amounts on any posted invoice or transaction. again requires a credit memo applied to the invoice & a refund applied to the payment, even for tasks as basic as penny corrections due to VAT rounding errors. These are tasks that take a couple of seconds in quickbooks, versus 5 minutes each in BC, often more time than that if a transaction requires a bit of analysis

    You cannot drill down directly into any sales or purchase invoice from bank reconciliations.

    These are just my top 3 gripes, but i have many more. When the time comes from me to move on from this role, I will be actively avoiding any business that uses BC as it's ERP system like the plague. Its not that I am only experienced in small business packages like Quickbooks, Xero etc. I have extensive experience with Oracle too & it is so much more user friendly than BC as an ERP system from a finance worker's perspective. I have to wonder if the people at MS who code this platform have any experience in bookkeeping or accounting whatsoever. It certainly appears not.

  • Suggested answer
    Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question

    Hello,

    I have read your posting and it is hard to reply but I will try... Not sure who implemented your customers or your company but there are many Partners or Private NAV/BC contractors that do not know how to implement. They have not had the experience nor understanding how to implement the functionality and features. I have been implementing, consulting, and architecting NAV/BC for over 22 years. I was a previous VP of Finance and Controller for Manufacturing and Supply Chain companies. Understanding a business, processes and best practices allow qualified implementers to truly setup, test, and migrate companies to BC.

    Many of your bullet-points I have not any issues but again, you have received poor service and sorry to hear this. You might consider looking for another Partner who can help.

    Thanks,

    Steve

  • Suggested answer
    MahGah Profile Picture
    MahGah 15,407 on at
    RE: Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question

    Hi

    I really do not know if this is a valid post or.. but 

    I have worked with Netsuite / SAP One / Oracle / Business Central. I also was part of implantation team for all of them. Many points that you mentioned could be valid for all of them. I know you need partner to implement Netsuite similar to Dynamics. ERP implementation also is not an easy task. You can find a very good report named Clash of The Titans that compare all these systems together.  https://www.panorama-consulting.com/resource-center/2021-clash-of-the-titans-sap-vs-oracle-vs-microsoft-vs-infor/

    Each of these ERP have their own Pros/Cons and I know I never been satisfy with either of them. I wanted part of this, part of that, etc. 

    All that being said I agree that Microsoft can do a better job to help their end users. The idea website is a good place for Microsoft to focus on.   experience.dynamics.com/.../

    In general I realized if all company needs is accounting software than it is better to use accounting software such as QB rather than ERP systems. it is a great article below. 

    https://www.archerpoint.com/blog/Posts/erp-and-accounting-software-differences

    At the end I think user satisfaction highly depends on how internal team train / educate end user and also quality of implementation. Sometimes a good software with bad implementation can create disaster. In addition, if internal team does not provide great education / training to end user then this could cause lots of issue. 

    Thanks 

  • hhjklhkh Profile Picture
    hhjklhkh 5 on at
    RE: Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question

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  • uyguy Profile Picture
    uyguy 5 on at
    RE: Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question

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    dfg 5 on at
    RE: Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question

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  • yuiyui Profile Picture
    yuiyui 5 on at
    RE: Does Business Central Make Anyone Else Want to Punch Themselves in the Face? Serious Question

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