On-Demand: Building the Cloud ERP of Your Dreams with Business Central | Quisitive
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On-Demand: Building the Cloud ERP of Your Dreams with Business Central
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In today’s competitive business landscape, accounting teams need to stay ahead of the curve to succeed. Manual transaction entry and reporting are no longer enough to keep up with the pace of modern business.

In this on-demand session, our ERP experts will show you how to leverage the power of Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft’s Marketplace to quickly build and launch the accounting system and processes of your dreams.

Current deals and incentive programs are available from Microsoft, making it easier for you to upgrade to a modern accounting system.

What you’ll discover:

The importance of modern accounting and why it’s critical to stay ahead of the competition
The key benefits of Business Central and how it can help you streamline your accounting system
The top 10 plug-and-play apps from Microsoft’s Marketplace and how they can enhance your accounting processes
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Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation
Learn how Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation has been able to improve productivity, ensure the accuracy and accessibility of financial insights, and increase the understanding of cost drivers for better decision-making with Business Central and custom apps developed by Quisitive.
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Streamlining Non profit ERP: Small charity migrates to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in less than four weeks with the help of Quisitive.

Client: Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation

Industry: Non profit

Products and Services: Dynamics 365 Business Central

Country: Canada

“We knew it was time to look for a new ERP solution that could meet our financial management needs and support a remote work environment brought on by the pandemic.”
Jason Kempt
Vice President, Finance & Administration, ORCF

Overview

The Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation (ORCF), an Ottawa-based non-profit, struggled to manage finances effectively due to an outdated ERP system. The lack of multi-segment coding made it challenging for ORCF to allocate costs accurately and report activities to tax authorities. Additionally, the solution’s on-premises server was approaching end-of-life, causing further complications for the organization.OCRF realized the need for a modern cloud ERP solution to address these issues and improve financial management and reporting.

 

After careful consideration, the organization partnered with Quisitive and migrated to Dynamics 365 Business Central. With Business Central and custom apps developed by Quisitive, ORCF has been able to improve productivity, ensure the accuracy and accessibility of financial insights, and increase the understanding of cost drivers for better decision-making.

About ORCF: The Voice for Cancer Survivorship in Eastern Ontario

Founded in 1995, ORCF supports cancer patients and survivors in Eastern Ontario. The foundation operates two main business lines: fundraising and patient support delivery, providing person-centered care to cancer patients. ORCF achieves its mission by offering innovative cancer research, a world-class clinical trials program, and increasing access to care in the region. ORCF’s patient-focused approach and commitment to providing high-quality cancer care and support has earned ORCF a reputation as the voice for cancer survivorship in Eastern Ontario.

The Challenge: Relying on a Legacy On-Premises ERP System & Server Approaching End-of-Life

Before launching Business Central, ORCF’s on-premises ERP system was causing significant challenges for the organization. The systems’ shortcomings increased manual work, errors, and confusion regarding the organization’s financial landscape. To overcome these challenges, ORCF recognized the need for a modern cloud-based ERP solution that could provide advanced features such as multi-segment cost coding, automated workflows, and robust controls that could operate seamlessly in a remote work setting.

 

ORCF’s decision to migrate to Business Central with Microsoft Partner, Quisitive, was based on several factors:

  • Quisitive’s excellent reputation in the local non-profit market
  • The non-profit pricing offered by Microsoft
  • The multi-segment coding feature of Business Central
  • Automated workflows for approvals
  • Business Central’s off-the-shelf functionality
  • Quisitive’s ability to develop custom applications for employee expense approvals and credit card reconciliation, which would round out the scope of the project needs

Getting Started with Business Central in Less Than Four Months

ORCF’s finance team worked closely with Quisitive to plan and launch Business Central in just four months.

 

“We knew it was time to look for a new ERP solution that could meet our financial management needs and support a remote work environment brought on by the pandemic," says Jason Kempt, Vice President, Finance & Administration at ORCF.

 

The implementation process also involved Quisitive creating custom Business Central apps to streamline processes and improve efficiency. One of the custom applications created was an employee expenses app that allowed users to scan receipts and enter expenses, which would then be routed for approval. The credit card reconciliation app automated data entry and eliminated the need for paper. Statements were sent to cardholders and imported into the app, which would then translate the expenses and route them to the unit for approval.

 

Implementing Business Central and Quisitive’s custom apps resulted in significant time savings and improved organizational efficiencies. The ORCF was also able to generate more accurate and accessible reports. The workflows for purchase requisitions and employee expenses were much more user-friendly and efficient than the previous processes, which staff members were very pleased with.

“Implementing Business Central was smooth and efficient thanks to Quisitive’s expertise and support,”
Jason Kempt
Vice President, Finance & Administration, ORCF

Getting Started with Business Central in Less Than Four Months

Since launching Business Central, ORCF has experienced substantial enhancements in its financial management processes. Multi-segment coding has enabled them to understand cost structure more effectively, while automated workflows for approvals have streamlined operations, saved time, and enhanced productivity. With real-time reports based on accurate data, ORCF now has the information they need to make informed decisions quickly. Overall, Business Central has been a game-changer for ORCF, providing them with the necessary tools to efficiently manage their finances and support their mission. 

Improved Productivity and Efficiency

Automating requisition and expense workflows and enabling cloud-based document storage and retention in Business Central has resulted in faster delivery of month-end reports and easier day-to-day financial management. ORFC’s finance team can now complete tasks more efficiently and accurately, allowing them to focus on more strategic and value-adding activities.

 

“Business Central has made our entire organization more productive and informed,” said Jason. “The multi-segment reporting helps non-financial users understand the cost behaviour of our business and we can produce timely financial data and reports without Excel," says Kempt.

Enhanced Accuracy of Cost Allocation with Multi-Segmented Reporting

Business Central’s multi-segment reporting (or dimensions) has improved the accuracy and allocation of costs. By eliminating the need for manual work to allocate central costs to business activities, dimensions have provided a deeper understanding of cost behavior within the organization. 

Increased Accountability and Better Decision-Making

With Business Central, ORCF can easily toggle between budget accountability and the full cost of business activities, including support functions with different budget holders. This visibility has increased accountability on the expense side and facilitated informed decision-making. By providing a clear picture of cost drivers for business activities, Business Central has empowered ORCF to allocate resources more effectively.

Streamlined Expense and Credit Card Reconciliation

Quisitive’s custom-built employee expense and credit card reconciliation apps for Business Central have significantly simplified ORCF’s reconciliation process. With the employee expense app, employees can easily upload photos of receipts or attach PDF invoices to an online form, freeing up their time and streamlining the process. The credit card reconciliation app automates data entry, reducing the chances of errors and saving time for both employees and managers.

 

“The employee expense app is great,” said Jason. “Employees can take pictures of receipts or attach PDF invoices and upload to an online form—which automatically routes for approval. This app has saved a lot of clerical time and puts the onus to code things properly on the business user. Lastly, the approved document makes a properly coded A/P entry in Business Central for the accounting staff to post.”

 

“With the new credit card reconciliation app in Business Central, manual data entry has become completely unnecessary,” continued Jason. “Because the corporate credit card user pre-populates the form with transactions from the bank via CSV upload, everything is done quickly and without errors. This has saved us days of work and ensure our costs are accurately reported.”

“With the new credit card reconciliation app in Business Central, manual data entry has become completely unnecessary.”
Jason Kempt
Vice President, Finance & Administration, ORCF

Greater Accessibility & Flexibility

As a cloud-based solution, Business Central offers ORCF complete accessibility and security. Staff can now access the system and data from various devices, allowing them to work remotely or in different locations. Additionally, automatic updates and upgrades eliminate the need for IT staff to manually install updates on a server or individual devices, ensuring that all users are using the latest version.

 

ORCF continues to enhance its financial management processes in Business Central while exploring more advanced features to identify opportunities for improvement. With their focus on becoming more proficient in the core product, including the fixed assets module, ORCF aims to stay ahead of the curve. Their dedication to leveraging technology and innovation to support their mission highlights their commitment to driving success for the organization and the community they serve.

We are excited to share details of the upcoming release of Business Central 2023, Wave 1, which will cover new functionalities to be delivered between April 2023 and September 2023. This article shares some of the highlights, but additional information and resources are available at the links below:

Business Central 2023 Wave 1 Updates Feature Image: People in office from overhead with the Business Central logo overlaid

What You Can Expect in the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 Release

Every release includes enhancements to usability, accessibility, performance, and reliability.  Business Central 2023 release wave 1 will deliver feature enhancements based on the most popular requests for improvement. Here are some of our favorites based on information from the Microsoft website:

When you manage the accounting for businesses that have a high volume of transactions, it’s now easier to get an overview of progress in the period-end process. The G/L Settlement allows bookkeepers to apply general ledger entries during reconciliation tasks.

Additional updates in 2023 Release Wave 1 include:

To learn more about the entire set of capabilities being delivered during this release wave, check out the release plan for Dynamics 365 Business Central here.

Looking for more information on this new release or if you would like to learn more about Business Central?

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On-Demand: What GP and SL Customers Can Really Expect When Moving to Business Central
Watch as MSDynamics World and Quisitive present a free webinar, where we'll share advice to GP and SL customers planning a move to the cloud.
Watch On-Demand

Whether you're building a business case for moving your on-premises Dynamics ERP to the cloud or would like to know what other customers’ Business Central migration experiences were like, we’ve got you covered!

We've partnered with MSDynamics World to deliver this on-demand webinar, where our Dynamics experts will share their advice to GP and SL customers planning a migration to the cloud.

Watch the recording and see why and how GP and SL users are making the switch to Business Central for boosted productivity, better reporting & insights, and increased staff and client satisfaction, and what our Dynamics experts recommend for a seamless and successful launch of your new cloud ERP system.

What we will cover: 

  • What to expect when you move from GP or SL to Business Central
  • What a typical migration looks like and tips for ensuring it’s smooth
  • How to connect Business Central with Office, Teams, and Power BI for guaranteed returns
  • The top 10 benefits of the cloud that you probably don’t know about
  • Ask the experts – we’re here to answer your questions about Business Central and moving from GP/SL
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The Canadian Paralympic Committee Gets Real-Time Reporting and Decision-Making with Dynamics 365 Business Central
See how Business Central has helped the Canadian Paralympic Committee save time, and produce real-time time reports for decision-making.
Canadian Paralympic Committee Feature Image

In this case study:

Client: Canadian Paralympic Committee

Industry: Non profit

Products and Services: Dynamics 365 Business Central

Country: Canada

“Business Central has transformed our accounting processes and has greatly enhanced our ability to make decisions that have a real impact on our organization and the many organizations and individuals that we support.”
Laurie Cairns
CPA, Executive Director of Corporate Services

About the Canadian Paralympic Committee

Ottawa-based non-profit, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, faced financial reporting challenges caused by multiple projects and manual processes. Thanks to Executive Director of Corporate Services, Laurie Cairns, and Microsoft Partner, Corporate Renaissance Group (a Quisitive company), the company migrated its processes and systems to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

 

A year after implementation and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its global effects, the organization is seeing the benefits of a cloud-based system for streamlined accounting and agile financial and operational reporting on decision-making.

Situation

The Canadian Paralympic Committee is a non-profit, private organization with 25 member sports organizations dedicated to strengthening the Paralympic Movement. The Canadian Paralympic Committee’s vision is to be the world’s leading Paralympic nation. Its mission is to lead the development of a sustainable Paralympic sport system in Canada to enable athletes to reach the podium at the Paralympic Games. By supporting Canadian high-performance athletes with a disability and promoting their success, the Canadian Paralympic Committee inspires all Canadians with a disability to get involved in sport through programs delivered by its member organizations.

 

Prior to launching Dynamics 365 Business Central in April of 2019, the Canadian Paralympic Committee relied on an off-the-shelf accounting tool and manual Excel-based reporting to handle financial and operational planning and analysis. With processes being carried out manually, the organization was experiencing an inefficient use of staff resources and a lag in generating financial reports, which resulted in a problematic delay in strategic decision-making within the organization.

“We needed flexibility in reporting and the ability to generate reports automatically from our accounting software vs. exporting and doing everything in Excel,”
Laurie Cairns
CPA, Executive Director of Corporate Services

Given the complex nature of the organization, the importance of proper expense tracking and approvals, and the volume of projects, the organization needed a better way to manage their business.

The Search for Better Solution

The Canadian Paralympic Committee officially selected Dynamics 365 Business Central and began work in December of 2018 with partner, CRGroup, a Quisitive Company.

With the help of CRGroup, the Canadian Paralympic Committee started in Business Central with a new Chart of Accounts and over 2 years of historical financial data was brought over for reporting. CRGroup worked with Laurie to leverage the ‘dimension’ feature in Business Central to reduce the number of projects significantly. CRGroup created new reports in Business Central that factored in the new chart of accounts and additional 4 dimensions so the Committee could look at their business in real-time and from many different angles and levels – giving them information to make decisions quickly and accurately. Finally, CRGroup worked to create workflows using Power Automate, which would allow for a streamlined approval process and reduce the time it takes to process transactions.

The entire implementation only took three months, and by April of 2019, the Committee was live with Business Central.

Solution

The Canadian Paralympic Committee is a non-profit, private organization with 25 member sports organizations dedicated to strengthening the Paralympic Movement. The Canadian Paralympic Committee’s vision is to be the world’s leading Paralympic nation. Its mission is to lead the development of a sustainable Paralympic sport system in Canada to enable athletes to reach the podium at the Paralympic Games. By supporting Canadian high-performance athletes with a disability and promoting their success, the Canadian Paralympic Committee inspires all Canadians with a disability to get involved in sport through programs delivered by its member organizations.

 

Prior to launching Dynamics 365 Business Central in April of 2019, the Canadian Paralympic Committee relied on an off-the-shelf accounting tool and manual Excel-based reporting to handle financial and operational planning and analysis. With processes being carried out manually, the organization was experiencing an inefficient use of staff resources and a lag in generating financial reports, which resulted in a problematic delay in strategic decision-making within the organization.

“The entire implementation was seamless and smooth thanks to CRGroup. Despite starting at year-end, the CRGroup team was there to support us every step of the way. I built strong connections and friendships with our consultants and was always impressed with their level of responsiveness, experience, and guidance. It was also very helpful that they had accounting designations because they understood the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of our needs.”
Laurie Cairns
CPA, Executive Director of Corporate Services

Benefits

Since launching, the Canadian Paralympic Committee has realized significant benefits from Business Central and Power Automate. By providing greater visibility into projects, expenses and data, and by automating vital tasks, Business Central has helped to save valuable time, streamlined processes, and has produced accurate data and real-time time reports for decision making.

Biggest Impacts of Dynamics 365 Business Central at the Canadian Paralympic Committee

  • Manual entry and reporting processes have been eliminated, shifting staff’s time from administrative tasks to more strategic activities.
  • Month-end close and reporting timelines have been significantly shortened.
  • The flexibility in reporting has allowed the organization to better segment and use data for strategic decision making and in operational planning.
  • Using Power Automate, the organization’s expense claim process was completely automated. Staff can review and approve expenses in Business Central quickly and from anywhere.
  • Errors in expense submissions are now under control due to the ability for users to see coding and identify issues before they are even posted.

As a cloud-based system, Dynamics 365 Business Central has allowed the organization’s finance team and employees to work remotely and securely access their data. This is important for today’s modern workforce that increasingly expects systems and technologies to be available and accessible ‘on-the-go’, but has been especially crucial with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, where staff has required remote access.

 

“Given our current environment and the COVID-19 pandemic, we would have been halted for business reporting if we hadn’t made the move to Business Central. We also would not have been able to be as flexible and nimble in our shift to a remote working environment,”said Laurie.

Better Together: Integrated Business Management with Dynamics 365 Business Central
On-Demand: Integrated Business Management with Dynamics 365 Business Central
Watch our ERP experts shared everything you need to know about integrated business management and moving to the cloud with Business Central.
Better Together: Integrated Business Management with Dynamics 365 Business Central
Easily integrate your systems, data, and people with Business Central's robust accounting and ERP solution.

Dynamics 365 Business Central is the fastest-growing cloud ERP solution for small and medium-sized businesses, in all industries. It continues to move at the speed of light to help companies be more flexible, simplify finances, improve sales processes, manage suppliers and inventory, and create successful projects.

 

With Business Central, you get one solution to automate business processes, empower employees to be more productive, and centralize your company’s operations in one place for rich insights and reporting. We want to show you how you can get moving today!

 

Watch on-demand and discover everything you need to know about getting integrated and moving to the cloud with Business Central:

Get up close and personal with Business Central
What’s new in Business Central to help you stay connected
The instant benefits of uniting your business silos into one cloud ERP solution
How to integrate Business Central with your existing Microsoft solutions like Teams, Power BI, and CRM/CE
Options for moving your existing on-premise system to Business Central
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Why Make the Move?

Organizations across the globe have realized the necessity of cloud-based technology. More businesses and IT teams are replacing their legacy, on-premises solutions with more flexible, customizable, and cost-effective cloud technologies. In today’s market, organizations demand reduced IT costs and accelerating innovation, which is why a growing number of businesses are upgrading their ERP solution like Dynamics GP and SL to Dynamics 365 Business Central. In this article, we will highlight the compelling reasons to pursue your cloud migration transformation.


10 Reasons to Move to Business Central Blog Feature Image: A woman uses a tablet to check in on business data while sitting in her office

The Value of Business Central

1. Get a complete picture of your business

The modern user interface gives a complete picture of your business with visual metrics and a customizable home page. Business Central is completely cloud-based in Microsoft Azure’s environment, unlike on-premises solutions that require slow VPN access, you can access this environment at high-speed from anywhere simply with your Microsoft 365 credentials with easy-to-create reports and dashboards. Plus, the built-in analytics help proactively inform and guide employees and teams.

2. Centralize your data

Spot trends, prevent issues and deliver great customer experiences. Business Central allows you to search, sort, and filter data in what they refer to list views throughout the software, this can include lists such as Customers, Vendors, Chart of Accounts, General ledger entries, and so much more.

Business Central also offers a highly flexible COA structure allowing organizations to create a simple, streamlined list of base accounts, and dimensions to allow for in-depth reporting by using various facets of data.

3. Empower a mobile workforce

Get a user experience that is consistent and secure across your devices, with all the powerful desktop capabilities needed across Windows, iOS, and Android Platforms.

4. Use predictive analytics and AI to analyze business data

Business Central equips organizations with all the best tools to make informed business decisions, here are just a few notable mentions; Predictive Inventory, Sales Forecasting, Cash Flow Forecasting, and Overdue Payment Predictors.

5. Go from quote to cash without switching applications

Set up customers or vendors, create quotes, process orders, and submit invoices all in one place.

Business Central offers an Outlook Integration that allows sales processes to be created directly from the email received from the customer. With ease sales teams can go from an email request to a sales quote or order, all facilitated through Business Central.

6. Get deeper insights

Access, model, and analyze data across multiple dimensions to perform ad hoc, customized reporting. Users can utilize Microsoft Power BI to create compelling dashboards. Combine big data, predictive analytics, and IoT to transform all information sources into more actionable intelligence.

7. Fast user adoption and easy-to-use integrations

Business Central offers the same user interface as familiar Office tools, such as Outlook, Word, CRM, Excel, and more, resulting in less training time and quicker adoption for employees. The Microsoft Platform also allows you to track customer-related information and integrate data related to customers and contacts directly out-of-the-box between CRM and Business Central, removing the need for double-entry.

8. Easy international business and transactions

Business Central has an automatic link to create web services for varying data such as exchange rates. A connection can be created directly to major banks to have exchange rates for any currency updated daily, weekly, or monthly in Business Central.

9. Enhanced search functionality

Business Central has a comprehensive and universal search option that allows you to search for any screen, function, or report simply via matching criteria.

10. Be ready for the future

Your system will always be currently allowing you to take advantage of the latest technology while reducing ongoing upgrade costs. Easily connect Dynamics 365 applications including Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, and other existing systems.

Want to Make the Move to Business Central? We can help!

As ERP cloud technology experts, we understand the challenges that organizations face when it comes to making the transition and ensuring the move will not disrupt operations. That’s why before considering an upgrade to Dynamics 365 Business Central, it is crucial that you explore fit, costs, resources, and all tangible benefits for your organization.

Our Business Central Migration Assessment program was designed to provide expert consulting services to evaluate your needs and current state in Dynamics GP, SL, or other on-premise ERP systems and outline the best plan for migrating your organization to Business Central.

Contact us to learn more about or schedule a migration assessment.

Watch this On-Demand Webinar Today

Presenter: Jeff Vonasek, Principal Architect

When asked about moving to the cloud, most people immediately think about the benefits of any time, anywhere access. However, moving to a cloud accounting solution is more — a lot more.

As your partner, we are here to educate you and help you plan and execute your cloud strategy when you are ready.

Join us as Jeff Vonasek, Principal Architect at Quisitive talks about how cloud solutions deliver greater value with a lower total cost of ownership. Learn how a cloud-based accounting system enables advances in automation, AI and machine learning, data visualization, and data security.