Improved Finance Operations Productivity

Evidence and data. Before implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, each of the interviewees’ organizations struggled to scale operations with legacy systems and manual processes. The lack of adequate tools created inefficiencies for finance and accounting staff who struggled to keep up with invoices and bills. Interviewees also noted that their month- and year-end closing activities were slow and required significant labor to complete. Some interviewees had grown through acquisitions and inherited different systems which caused friction during consolidated reporting.

After adopting Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, interviewees gained a consolidated view of data across different departments and subsidiaries. They also automated processes, reducing errors and accelerating their record-to-report, order-to-cash, and procure-to-pay functions. Automation enabled them to handle larger volumes of invoices and reduce time spent on rework.

• The COO at the professional services firm noted that they took two days off their close by eliminating manual data manipulation between different sources. They could also send invoices one to two days earlier with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: “Instead of us cutting and pasting, [Business Central] can almost create the invoice. It pulls in the right information. You still do a manual check, but probably 95% of the invoice is done for us.”

• The CTO at the retail chain stated they reduced close time by 50% due to improved performance from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: “[Business Central] is faster. At the end of the day, the quantity of the data is higher compared to when we were on [our legacy system]. The performance is much quicker.”

• The manufacturing firm benefited from moving its manual purchase order process into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The senior VP of project delivery and operations explained: “Before, we put all that in a spreadsheet and we manually tracked it. Doing it manually was prone to error; now we have some structure with regard to our finance, especially accounts payable and receivable. [Business Central] helped us become more organized and structured. It has saved a lot of hours for accountants that would’ve otherwise been wasted.”

• The CFO at the finance firm added, “We have a higher quality in our invoicing processes, less faults, and also less errors.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization has 15 finance operations users. Each of these users previously spent 24 hours per month on closing activities and 15 hours per month on manual tasks related to AP, AR, and billing.

• With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, these users save up to 30% of their time on closing activities and up to 50% of their time on AP, AR, and billing tasks. These gains come from capabilities such as automated approvals, integrated time and expense, and a single sub-ledger rather than multiple spreadsheets. Improved data quality and stronger audit trails are also a factor in productivity. These benefits increase over three years as the organization integrates more functions into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and automates more processes.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate for finance and operations FTEs is $56.

• The composite has a 75% productivity recapture rate because not all time reclaimed will be reallocated to value-added activities.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• The prior technology environment and process sophistication within finance and accounting functions.

• The size, scope, and usage of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central deployment.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $216,000.

Retired Solutions Savings

Evidence and data. Before deploying Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, interviewees used a mix of legacy on-prem ERP solutions and point solutions to run their businesses. Multiple organizations had acquired significant technical debt through mergers, and all struggled to manage disjointed collections of tools.
Adopting Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central allowed interviewees’ organizations to simplify their tech stacks, eliminating licenses and maintenance spend. All interviewees noted that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central had a lower cost of ownership than their previous deployments, and most were exploring ways to increase these savings by replacing point solutions with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central functionality.

• The CFO at the finance firm stated, “Overall, we have been able to reduce the time spent on managing systems.” They elaborated on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central enabling cost-effective scaling, “We have been able to keep what it costs on a rather stable level, despite [the fact] that we have had high growth.”

• The retail organization eliminated a significant on-prem deployment and replaced it with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The COO noted that by doing so, they recognized large hardware and maintenance savings: “We don’t have to deal with the server maintenance or all the hardware expansion, the backup unit. That’s also reduced. From a cost point of view, even if licensing is a wash, I would still see savings from the cloud side compared to the on-prem side.”

• Interviewees noted retiring a wide range of solutions after adopting Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central — including legacy on-prem ERPs, separate AR/AP tracking systems, timekeeping tools, project costing solutions, and homegrown reporting tools — resulting in cost savings. The COO at the professional services firm explained: “We retired some of the AR/AP tracking systems that we had. These were expensive, clunky, old. We wanted more modern, so we retired them. We retired some of the timekeeping systems that we built. We retired a lot of the spreadsheets. We had project software we didn’t use anymore. We had an internally built sales system that we migrated over to Dynamics. So most of the homegrown systems we got rid of.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• In the prior state, the composite organization spends $40,000 annually on licensing and support for incumbent solutions.

• The composite had one FTE who spent 25% of their time managing legacy solutions. The average fully burdened annual salary for IT FTEs is $136,500.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• The scope of an organization’s legacy ERP stack and the related infrastructure.

• Contract constraints on retiring redundant licenses.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $175,000.

Improved Profitability

Evidence and data. Interviewees complained that in their prior states, they could only optimize their business and profitability as far as their legacy tech stacks would let them. Finance teams spent most of their time on manual processes, and a lack of visibility into business data hampered their ability to track, analyze, and improve operations.
With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, interviewees noted that they were better able to visualize data and make decisions that reduced costs or improved revenue from operations. They also noted benefits such as better project visibility enabling earlier course correction on overruns, fewer unbilled hours, and faster onboarding of new commercial accounts.

• The retail organization experienced accelerated customer onboarding for commercial accounts when using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Reducing onboarding from 20 to 15 days gave the organization five extra selling days per account and accelerated revenue recognition.

• The professional services firm used Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to track, analyze, and eliminate unbillable work on projects. The firm saw margins improve from 42% to 43% on projects due in part to its use of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The COO explained: “Business Central helps us track unbillable time and who is not billing. We catch it quickly. We also, again, tie it into our time accounting system, so when they all flow together, we know who is unbillable, what’s the utilization. It helps us pull all that down for the projects.”

• The CFO at the finance firm explained that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central helped them better plan and execute on projects: “[We have experienced] increased efficiency in the project execution phase and thereby improved the margins, reducing cost spent on each individual project.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization has annual revenue of $50 million. Its average net margin is 10% before Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

• Margins improve 3% by Year 3. This benefit increases from Year 1 to Year 3 as the organization’s use of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central matures and it leverages data collected over time to inform business decisions.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• Geography, industry, and prevailing margins.

• Organizational ability to leverage data.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of 246,000.

Improved Reporting

Evidence and data. Interviewees noted that reporting was highly manual before they adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Employees would have to pull data from disparate sources and spreadsheets to feed into visualization tools. These processes were not easily repeatable, making it difficult to meet auditor or executive deadlines.

Interviewees said implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central simplified reporting, provided self-service tools, and offered integration with Microsoft Power BI. They noted that having a single data model and tight integration with Microsoft productivity tools reduced the overall time spent on generating reports for annual audits and executive presentations.

• The senior VP of project delivery and operations at the manufacturing firm stated, “It was really helpful for us to be able to take all this data and put it in a usable visual format, and it helps with investors and whatnot, because they always want to see data and pitch decks.”

• The retail organization struggled with warehouse audits before using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Report preparation was difficult, and they needed IT teams to help produce reports as fast as possible. The CTO at this organization noted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central allowed them to do this work 80% faster without needing help from IT. The interviewee added that they valued the integration with Outlook and ability to share and access reports quickly.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization’s finance team spends 10 business days on annual audit preparations. The organization reduces this time by 20% in Year 1 to 30% in Year 3 by using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

• The finance team spends 6 hours per week on internal reporting activities. The composite reduces the time spent on these activities by 20% in Year 1 to 30% in Year 3 with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for staff involved in reporting and auditing activities is $56.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• The size and scope of an organization’s operations.

• Prior reporting capabilities and requirements.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $49,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Better CX. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers automated solutions to manual processes, resulting in fewer billing errors, faster invoice delivery and processing, and easier new customer onboarding. The COO at the professional service firm added that in their prior state, a billing discrepancy could derail invoicing for weeks and lead to numerous touchpoints with a client to review costs. They wanted to provide a better customer experience and believed their new, more accurate process helped retain customers.

• Marketing and sales efficiency. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers additional modules for sales and marketing teams that follow the lead funnel. This visibility can contribute to improved lead success rates and top-line numbers. The CFO at the finance organization explained: “We didn’t really have any CRM functionality beforehand, and we now have a little bit. So in terms of following the lead funnel, I’m pretty confident that it has improved our top line. We have much more focus on that, to follow the funnel and act on it. That has had a direct impact on the top line. How high has that been? It’s a little bit difficult to say, but we have seen gradual improvement of our success rates.”

• Improved warehouse management. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central can inform better warehouse management, with accelerated pick and pack and reduced inventory cycle times. The CFO at the finance firm said, “It has helped [our subsidiaries] be on top of inventory and order fulfillment.”

• Reduced DSO. Reducing DSO boosts cash flow, improves liquidity, and allows organizations to explore new business opportunities. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides capabilities like automated reminders, dispute tracking, and customer portals, which help reduce DSO. The CFO at the finance organization explained: “We have reduced write-offs. We have also improved cash flow. And in that sense, we have been able to grow faster than maybe we would have been able to do otherwise.”
  The COO at the professional services firm added, “Our DSO has been reduced because our processing time has been reduced and our accuracy has improved.”
  The senior VP of project delivery and operations at the manufacturing firm stated: “We’re getting paid on time because we’re invoicing on time. It definitely helps us with our cash flow. It helps us understand our backlog better.”

• Better UX. With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, employees were less burdened by common finance and operations frustrations exacerbated by a disparate set of ERP tools. The CFO at the finance firm stated, “It’s a system that has a high degree of usability.”

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. Business Central’s modular nature lets customers add capabilities, such as manufacturing or service management, without reimplementation. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Scalability of the cloud. Interviewees described their ability to scale users and license types for their current business needs. This provides the flexibility to adapt in times of high growth or business headwinds.

• Deeper visibility into the business with Power BI. Power BI extends the reporting and analytics capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central by transforming operational data into interactive dashboards and real-time insights. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central customers can make more informed decisions and exert more control over their businesses by using Power BI.

• Scaling and optimizing with AI. Organizations can further augment the benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central by using Copilot and AI-powered agents — and it comes as an AI-ready ERP foundation. Incorporating AI-powered tools into the deployment can enhance efficiency, streamline business processes, improve collaboration, and enable faster change. Many of the quantified benefits within this study could be augmented or further improved with AI adoption, including:

  • Improved finance operations productivity. As finance data becomes centralized and standardized in Business Central, teams are better positioned to benefit from AI‑assisted capabilities such as Copilot. These experiences can help surface anomalies, summarize financial drivers, and support faster decision‑making, further reinforcing the productivity gains modeled in this analysis.
  • Improved profitability. As visibility improves, AI‑powered experiences such as Copilot can help teams identify cost variances, project overruns, or unbilled work earlier — supporting faster corrective action and reinforcing the profitability improvements modeled in this study.
  • Improved reporting. With unified data and native Power BI integration, organizations are also positioned to leverage Copilot to interpret results, summarize trends, and answer business questions faster — reducing the effort required to turn reports into actionable insights.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).