Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) has been a mainstay in the ERP industry, having survived for over 30 years and still providing a feature-rich product that is cost-effective and easy to use.
However, in 2023, Microsoft moved the latest release of GP from Mainstream Support to Modern Lifecycle Support. This means that Microsoft will continue to support GP with bug fixes and regulatory updates but will not prioritize investments in new product features or technologies. The Microsoft Dynamics GP capabilities guide and Resource Directory describe the current capabilities of Dynamics GP. The Modern Lifecycle for GP is described here.
As a result, Microsoft is urging GP users to migrate to Dynamics 365 Business Central or Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management. Still, GP users remain loyal to the software, fearing that they will lose the features they have grown to love over the years.
If you find yourself in that camp, rest assured that you find GP-equivalent features in the Dynamics 365 products.
What does Microsoft Dynamics GP do?
As a comprehensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application, Dynamics GP capabilities help businesses streamline and manage their operations, including:
Financial management – At its core, GP is a financial management application that provides accounting, budgeting, and financial reporting for midsized businesses.
Inventory management – GP helps businesses track stock levels and monitor item movements for efficient inventory management.
Supply chain management – Businesses can use GP to help them manage order fulfillment and inventory replenishment for effective supply chain operations.
Field service management – Managing service personnel in the field can be challenging. GP helps service businesses track service requests and manage scheduling and dispatching service technicians.
Job and project accounting – Companies with multiple, simultaneous projects find it difficult to accurately track costs. GP helps manage project-related expenses, costs, and resources.
Business Intelligence and Reporting – GP provides data analysis and reporting tools for leadership to monitor the company’s financial health and make information-based decisions.
Popular Dynamics GP capabilities that can be found in Dynamics 365
Some of the popular Dynamics GP capabilities are:
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SmartLists – SmartLists provide a way to apply specific filters and sorting options to create dynamics lists of data within Dynamics GP. SmartLists can be exported to Excel for advanced analysis.
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Budgeting – Users can set up budgets within GP or in Excel to help manage their financial planning.
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Financial reporting – GP comes with over 300 customizable reports, including standard financial reports (balance sheet, cash flow, and income statements), plus, users can create customized reports for greater visibility into company’s finances and operational efficiency.
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Preview posting – Users can review the potential impact of posting journals or documents before committing them.
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Payroll and Human Resources – User can manage employee compensation and related functions, including benefits, attendance, time accruals, direct deposit, and reporting.
Comparable (or better) features in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Business Central
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SmartLists – Both Dynamics 365 Finance and Business Central provide List Pages that perform the equivalent as SmartLists in GP. List Pages allow users to filter, sort, and save customized views of data.
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Budgeting – Both Dynamics 365 Finance and Business Central provide features that allow users to define budget plans, subplans, and workflow approvals, as well as defining multiple budgets, a dimensional chart of accounts, and AI capability with Copilot.
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Financial reporting – Both Dynamics 365 Finance and Business Central provide comprehensive reporting capabilities, including financial reports, customizable reporting, Excel integration, and integration with Power BI which provides interactive dashboards and visualizations of financial data.
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Preview posting – Both Dynamics 365 Finance and Business Central provide preview posting to review the potential impact of posting journals or documents before committing them.
Although neither Dynamics 365 Finance nor Business Central offer Human Resources functionality natively, both offer add-on products that provide that functionality. They also integrate with popular Payroll and HR third-party applications through APIs. Dynamics 365 Finance provides US payroll functions and also integrates with Dynamics 365 Human Resources for comprehensive HR functions, including employee self-service, personnel management, benefits, and compensation management.
The cloud is worth the move
If you’re still reluctant to leave GP, consider the advantages of moving to a modern ERP in the cloud. While both Dynamics 365 Finance and Business Central can be deployed on premises, the cloud-native design of Dynamics 365 products provides greater scalability, easier integration with third-party applications, native Copilot AI capabilities, and automatic updates. That alone is worth a second look.
Contact Western Computer to discover the advantages migrating from Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 Business Central or Dynamics 365 Finance and SCM can offer your company.
