Microsoft Dynamics SL vs. Sage 300

In the service series, there is a weakness in applying revenue recognition concepts which are a strong point of the project series. It is difficult to get a period sensitive WIP that could be recreated at any time for a point in time (fiscal period).

Incentivized

I believe that Sage 300 ERP is appropriate for a wide variety of companies looking for a system to maintain information in a concise manner. The level of complexity with which it is used is determined by the user group. Therefore, this product is great for companies that are just starting to grow right through to more mature companies looking for detailed data and analytics from their systems.

• Ability to add companies, and sub-accounts on the fly allows for the growth of the system without conversions, and flexible reporting allows for the quick utilization of the data.
• Multi-Company allows for easy and automated data entry and reporting across multiple legal entities and business segments.
• Multi-Company also allows for easy centralization of business processes (AP check writing and Fixed Assets for example), while spreading data entry across the enterprise.
• Ability to Copy/Paste into Dynamics SL has always been a strength- especially from Excel. The additional power of being able to use Excel for a myriad of calculations, including complex allocations, and formatting the result into a JE to paste directly into the Journal Entry Screen has saved countless hours in data-entry, and made re-use of complex items very easy.

Incentivized

• The installation directions are clear and easy to follow.
• The ability to import and export data is also easy allowing you to perform mundane tasks easily and efficiently.
• The security features allow you to fine tune the permissions for the end users so that they cannot see data that you do not want them privy to.

Incentivized

• When we have a lot of invoices rather than just a few large invoices, we can be frustrated by how long it takes Flexible Billings to generate a lot of invoices
• It would be nice if Dynamics SL had an easy integration to some of the nicer salestax tools such as Avalara and CCH.
• It would be nice if the fixed assets module and electronic banking were not third party.

Incentivized

• Although I do like the Bank Reconciliation module, I wish it was a bit more advanced and less clunky. Some transactions cannot be reversed and the module seems slower than others.
• When using copy and paste on all modules, sometimes I receive an error message and the program closes.

Unfortunately, Dynamics' lack of ability to smoothly integrate with our CRM system is causing us to look at other solutions. The efficiencies that we gain by using Dynamics for our day to day accounting are lost in the constant headaches of getting sales quotes to import properly into the system for invoicing. Another major issue for us has been budgeting and reporting. We currently do all of our budgeting and board reporting in Excel, which is too time consuming and inefficient, especially when a system as robust as Dynamics should easily be able to handle this relatively simple task.

Incentivized

It is a solid stable product with a large user community and large ISV community. Support and Training are easy to access and obtain and there is larger reseller channel to ensure the firm you work with is honest. It is scalable and there are multiple deployment and payment options.

SL itself is relatively easy to use and most of the Help Files documentation is well kept and outstanding in the amount of information that is given. Most end users pick up the functions quickly and are off and running after some limited training. There will always be questions and research to be done, but overall SL is relatively easy to follow for a seasoned user

Incentivized

Sage 300cloud is intuitive and user friendly after some training. It does require implementation and training but once that's done, this software is easy to use and navigate. Support for Sage 300cloud is spot on and offers assistance over the simplest to [the] most complex of tasks. Finding information or learning new tasks within Sage 300cloud is relatively easy and educational.

Incentivized

We have had only one unplanned outage for 2 hours in the last 30 months. We shut down for 30 min to 1 hour once a month, but that is for Microsoft OS updates to the servers. Being a 24/7 world wide operation, the reliability is really important. We do get an 8 hour window on the weekend that we can be down for a short period to install Microsoft Dynamics SL updates, but we do not have many of those. On our last version upgrade, we shut the users out at 9:30 am and were fully operational in less than 6 hours. The upgrade was New SQL server, New SL server and 2 new Citrix servers.

Incentivized

Many times support will tell you that your issue is an identified bug and will be scheduled in the future to be fixed in a future release. The knowledgebase has gotten worse in recent years and much more difficult to use. many times you can't find the error during the search

Incentivized

Support for Sage 300cloud is similar to Sage support. Depending on which channel you get to and which Specialist you get, the Support can be spot on and rapid. However, there can be wait times and [occasionally], new functionality isn't always well supported. Support documentation is great and [easily] accessible. Additionally, Support Consultants are great resources when it comes to learning and troubleshooting Sage 300cloud.

Incentivized

Just to let it take its course. The implementation for me once I became a part of my former organization was pretty seamless. Just get to know the basics and call the support team to ask questions if you need help on an issue, should they arise. They are ready, willing, and able to help!

Incentivized

We started with QuickBooks Enterprise when our company was young. We quickly outgrew this program as it was not able to accommodate the financial reporting we needed to satisfy our investors. QuickBooks was also very limited in managing our revenue as we grew. We did try Great Plains and Peachtree (now Sage 50) and we discovered that they were rather complicated for our users. They were not as easy to maneuver and manipulate as SL and we felt that SL was much more "user friendly" and simplified, but still able to produce the same results.

Incentivized

Sage 300cloud is a great cloud/web based option when stacked against Sage 300 and Sage 100 Contractor. These other two systems are on premise and require licenses to access. Sage 300cloud can be accessed from any web page and is a pay as you go model. Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Oracle JD Edwards World are better for larger organizations that are heavy into Service and Work Order Management.

Incentivized

Since the backbone of the database is MS SQLServer, the database can be easily scaled.

Incentivized

• Dramatic improvement in our ability to judge the profitability of jobs.
• Lots of improvements in delivering invoices and statements to customers.
• Automated AP approvals and imaging made our last tax audit a breeze.
• Ease of reporting data is a big plus. Financial statements with drill down capability are very useful.
• One integrated system means less data moving around and more real time information.
• EFT payments, email statements and live linked Excel charts have improved our efficency
• Too many more to name.

Incentivized

• Hard to say - Accpac (in one form or another) is all we have ever used, thus there is no real comparison to make to show impact vs another application.
• Sage 300 ERP is the backbone of our organization - efficiently dealing with payroll and budgets in excess of 30 million dollars per year.

Incentivized