Mapping QuickBooks Features to Business Central: What Changes to Expect

Business Central comes with an impressive reservoir of available functionalities that far outweigh what is available within QuickBooks. At the same time, there are key differences between how both systems work. In this blog post, we will walk you through how QuickBooks features map to Business Central, highlighting what changes to expect and how the transition will improve your business operations.

1. Financial Management: From Basic to Advanced

QuickBooks

QuickBooks offers some general ledger, accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), and a few basic reporting capabilities. It is a fantastic application for managing small to mid-sized financial data management. However, as your business grows further, you may realize you need more features, such as consolidated financial statements, advanced reporting, and multi-currency transactions.

Business Central

Business Central offers far more comprehensive financial management capabilities than QuickBooks.

  • General Ledger: Both QuickBooks and Business Central have a general ledger recording all financial transactions, but Business Central offers a more flexible chart of accounts with multi-dimensional reporting.
  • Accounts Payable/Receivable: QuickBooks has very rudimentary AP/AR features, but Business Central is much more automated in handling “automated invoice matching,” payment scheduling, and provides more than simple transaction tracking in the management of vendors and customers.
  • Consolidated Financial Statements: Business Central will easily consolidate information from different departments or subsidiaries. It can prepare consolidated financial statements, unlike QuickBooks, where usually add-ons or workarounds are required for the kind of consolidation needed.

2. Inventory and Supply Chain Management: Beyond the Basic Tracking

QuickBooks

QuickBooks provides fundamental inventory tracking that is not functional enough for more complex inventory management, supply chain processes, and real-time update use cases. For a business, the inventory size is probably going to limit monitoring of stock levels, handling several warehouses, or serial number tracking when the inventory size is massive.

Business Central

Business Central provides an integrated set of robust inventory and supply chain tools:

  • Inventory Management: Although QuickBooks does monitor inventory quantity and costs, Business Central can manage your inventory very minutely; multi-location stock management, automatic inventory replenishment, and real-time updating of the stocks are also there. Advanced serial and lot tracking, stock forecasting, and closer integrations with suppliers are some more advanced features.
  • Warehouse Management: Business Central also supports far more complex warehouse operations, like bin locations, inventory pick and pack, and mobile warehouse operations that QuickBooks doesn’t support.
  • Supply Chain Management: Business Central’s supply chain management features include real-time visibility of inventory, demand forecasting, and seamless order management across different channels.

3. Reporting: From Basic to Dynamic Insights

QuickBooks

QuickBooks provides standard financial reports, including balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and tax reports. These are usually enough for small businesses, but they can be limited when you need more in-depth analysis or the ability to customize your reporting.

Business Central

Business Central greatly enhances reporting capabilities:

  • Customizable Reports: Business Central can generate highly customizable reports tailored to suit one’s business requirements. It supports drill-down features that can render many details and has advanced reporting features such as KPI, trend analysis, and profit margins by department or region.
  • Business Intelligence: Business Central offers real-time visualization of data by integrating into Microsoft’s Power BI. Users will get an interactive dashboard with predictive analytics capabilities much more powerful than the simple reporting QuickBooks has to offer. You can monitor business performance by department through some strong data-driven insights.

4. Multi-Company/Global Operations: A Game-Changer

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is limited in managing complex multi-entity or multi-currency businesses. Although you may manage multiple companies in QuickBooks, it consumes a lot of manual effort or third-party add-ons. It does not support multi-currency operations or consolidations across various countries natively, which means that global business expansion can become more challenging.

Business Central

Business Central was designed to take care of multi-entity structures as well as handle global businesses.

  • Multi-Company: Business Central allows you to manage multiple entities seamlessly from within a single instance. You can create and manage separate financials for different companies and consolidate them with ease, ensuring that each entity operates independently but reports cohesively.
  • Multi-Currency & Multi-Language: Unlike QuickBooks, Business Central supports multi-currency transactions and consolidations across regions. This makes it much easier to handle international operations, manage currency fluctuations, and comply with local regulations.
  • Localization: Business Central has localization for most countries. Tax configurations and reports are localized to your region’s regulations.

5. Automation: More Than Just Time-Saving

QuickBooks

QuickBooks has a few automation capabilities, such as recurring invoices and automatic payment reminders. However, these are only for basic financial processes and not in other areas such as procurement, manufacturing, or customer relationship management (CRM).

Business Central

Business Central takes automation to the next level:

  • Financial Automation: Business Central automates workflows for invoicing, payments, and reminders, but it also integrates more advanced automation for processes such as procurement, sales order processing, and expense management.
  • Workflow Automation: Business Central supports automated workflows across multiple departments, allowing you to streamline approval processes, notifications, and task assignments.
  • Approval Workflows: Business Central enables you to define approval hierarchies and automate document approvals for purchases such as purchase orders and sales invoices.

6. Integrations: Bridging the Gap Between Systems

QuickBooks

It may also support connecting with third-party tools, though often it would be clumsy, and the scopes are very narrow. You will often require separate apps or must engage in custom development for other CRM, e-commerce, and reporting needs that are advanced.

Business Central

This product is natively built with a wide integration range of different tools.

  • Microsoft Ecosystem: As a product of the Microsoft family, Business Central easily integrates with Office 365, Teams, Power BI, and Azure. That’s to say that you can control your entire business from a single place.
  • Third-Party Tools: There is an endless array of third-party tools with Business Central integration: from the more generic needs, such as CRM or HRM, to very specific tools such as specialized manufacturing software.

7. User Interface and Customization: More User-Friendly

QuickBooks

QuickBooks has a very user-friendly interface that is intuitive for accounting professionals, but the layout and design are a bit rigid, so it cannot scale or be customized to specific needs.

Business Central

Business Central offers a much more flexible and customizable interface. Modern dashboards, drag-and-drop functionality, and personalized views enable users to tailor their workspace according to their roles. Business Central’s intuitive interface and customizable workflows make it easy for users to work efficiently across departments, whether they are in accounting, sales, or operations.

Conclusion: The Migration Journey

Migrating from QuickBooks to Business Central is a huge step, but it can open incredible opportunities for growth and efficiency. Although QuickBooks is a great tool for basic accounting and financial management, Business Central is designed to take your business to the next level by offering enhanced features in financial management, inventory, reporting, automation, and integrations. By understanding the key differences and the improvements Business Central brings, your business will be better prepared to embrace the change and harness the full potential of your new ERP system.

Are you ready to leap? Mapping your QuickBooks features to Business Central is just the start. Let’s ensure a smooth migration and help you unlock greater business potential!