In the competitive world of business software, finding the perfect solution for your organization can be a daunting task.
Two popular options, QuickBooks Online and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, are often compared by small and medium-sized businesses.
In this article, you will find a comprehensive comparison of QuickBooks vs Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to help you make an informed decision.
| Sr.# | Parameters | Quickbook | Business Central |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Software Nature | Accounting Software with Payroll and Inventory Features | Comprehensive ERP |
| 2 | Owned by | Intuit | Microsoft |
| 3 | Market Presence | Since 1992 | Since 2018 |
| 4 | Software Language | C++ and uses Sybase as the backend database. | AL Language |
| 5 | Product Listing | QuickBooks Online Plus QuickBooks Enterprise QuickBooks Premier QuickBooks Accountant | Essentials Premium |
| 6 | Initial Pricing | $30/per month for online | $70/per month |
| 7 | Pricing Range per month | $30 to $200 | $70 to $100 |
| 8 | Discount Scheme | it often provides a 50% discount for the first three months across all plans. | Not usually offer discount |
| 9 | Trial period | 30 days | 30 days |
| 10 | Customer Support | Chatbot, live chat, callback phone support | Web and phone incident submissions; Professional direct support for $9/user/month |
| 11 | Knowledge base Learning | Help articles, video tutorials, blogs, setup guides, troubleshooting advice, and a community forum | Comprehensive reading materials, video tutorials, community forum |
| 12 | Usage | User friendly - becuase its just accounting software | Need training to some extent as this is ERP |
| 13 | For Industries | Small to Medium Size Simple Functional and Business needs | Medium to Large Size For Complex and specific business needs |
| 14 | Reporting | Essentials reports | Advance Reports |
| 15 | Dimensional Reporting | No | Yes |
| 16 | SAAS Solution | Yes. Hosted on Cloud | Yes. hosted within Microsoft Azure datacenter |
| 17 | On Premise Version | Yes. Need Computer storage and high RAM | Requires investing in servers, storage space, and power |
| 18 | Integeration | More than 650 popular business app like stripe, amazon, paypal, shopify etc | It integrates with Microsoft business applications like Microsoft Office and Outlook. If you use Microsoft Office, Outlook, Excel, or any number of other Microsoft products, you’ll be impressed by how easy it is to use — and how easily the data flows between applications. It can also connect to third-party apps like Gmail, Zoho, HubSpot, and Salesforce. |
| 19 | Free Updates | Yes for all version and Products | Online SaaS (Software as a Service) option with no customizations or third party apps – YES Online SaaS (Software as a Service) option with customizations – POTENTIALLY Less cost then original cost. Online SaaS (Software as a Service) option with third party apps – YES On premise or hosted options – NO |
| 20 | Reports | 80+ reports that are fully customizable. You can generate Profit and Loss, Sales, and Expense reports, depending on your plan. You can view Sales and Expense reports by day, week, month, or year. | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers advanced reporting and analytics capabilities. You can create customizable financial reports, The platform supports multi-dimensional analysis to help you make informed business decisions. |
| 21 | Inventory Management | QuickBooks Online comes with basic inventory management features that help small to medium-sized businesses efficiently track and manage stock. | Dynamics 365 Business Central offers advanced inventory management capabilities, including real-time inventory tracking, automated reorder points, multiple warehouse support, and item categorization. The platform streamlines supply chain operations, optimizes stock levels, and enhances order fulfillment. |
| 22 | Project Management | QuickBooks Online provides essential project management features, including project profitability tracking, budget creation, and client billing based on milestones or hourly rates. These capabilities allow users to monitor the financial performance of projects, manage budgets, and ensure efficient project execution for small to medium-sized businesses. | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers comprehensive project management capabilities, such as project tracking, resource allocation, time and expense management, and budget control. The platform enables users to monitor project progress, optimize resource utilization, and gain insights into project profitability, ensuring efficient project execution. |
| 23 | Scalable | QuickBooks is not scalable. If you are a business that is growing, has plans to grow, or has already grown — you will find that the architecture of the QuickBooks database is insufficient. When you approach 1000 transactions/month or multiple users accessing the system at the same time, QuickBooks gets slower and slower. In addition, QuickBooks doesn’t have multi-lingual functionality, which limits international growth. | Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a more comprehensive set of modules, including advanced ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) capabilities. These features are designed to support businesses with more complex requirements or those looking to scale and expand their operations. |
| 24 | Customization | Limited Customization | Business Central allows for a high degree of customization, enabling businesses to tailor the system to their specific requirements. |
| 25 | Weaknesses | It’s too easy for mistakes to be made and for users to have improper access to data. Issued Invoices/ GL entries can be easily edited. General difficulty across customer insights and analytical capabilities. It is not scalable. They have limited options for billing formats, and you will have difficulty billing third parties or different client locations. It is inadequate for inter-company reporting. You also can’t work with deferred revenue or expenses in QuickBooks. These weaknesses can leave businesses on QuickBooks vulnerable to losses due to errors and even employee theft. | Setting up Business Central requires time, professional assistance, and data migration, leading to implementation costs, in addition to product licensing costs. When you choose Business Central / Dynamics NAV On-Premise, you’ll have to pay for your own servers, as well as a space to house them, electricity to power them, and other costs. Further, The on-premise solution offers less data security benefits, necessitates more frequent attention from your IT team, and costs more in the long term. It also means that your data will be protected by your own IT staff rather than Microsoft’s Azure Cloud. its need larger investment to deploy payroll in Dynamics 365 Business Central than in QuickBooks. Instead of receiving free and automatic updates from Microsoft, you will have to pay for future updates. Since it is complete ERP so this makes it more complicated and detailed than is necessary or beneficial for very small enterprises with fewer than five employees. |
| 26 | Strengths | One of QuickBooks’ strengths is its longevity and market presence. QuickBooks has a full range of options for deployment. You can run the solution in a “single-tenant†configuration. It is also quite easy to buy and set up QuickBooks without any help. Easily integrated payroll and payment processing. Quickbook Accountant can easily be available in Market. | The audit trail in Business Central / Dynamics NAV is far more thorough, safeguarding organisations from errors and employee theft. Users in Business Central / Dynamics NAV, for example, must reverse cancelled transactions rather than delete them (whether accidentally or intentionally) In terms of reporting, Business Central / Dynamics NAV’s capabilities are very extensive, allowing you, for instance: >use a web-based reporting portal >see open purchase orders and purchase comparisons in accounts payable >connect your data easily to a full reporting solution, Power BI >see salesperson performance analysis in order entry reports >give different data access permissions to different users The fact that Business Central / Dynamics NAV is connected with the rest of the Microsoft stack is obviously a huge plus. If you use Microsoft Office, Outlook, Excel, or any of the other Microsoft products, you’ll be amazed at how simple they are to use |
| 27 | Multi currency | Yes Multicurrency helps you record foreign transactions easily without worrying about exchange rate conversions. | Yes Multicurrency helps you record foreign transactions easily without worrying about exchange rate conversions. |
| 28 | Credit Card Processing | Yes, As Add-On | Yes, Through Apps |
| 29 | Defined User Roles | All users have the same role of functions. | Business Central’s well-defined user roles ensure data security by providing users with role-based access. That way, only the authorised users can gain access to the system database, limiting possibilities of unwanted data theft. You can also limit and monitor user access, for instance, to keep one department, say marketing or sales, from accessing the files and data of another department, say accounting or HR. |
| 30 | For Freelancers | Good Choice | Not feasible for freelancers |
| 31 | Quickbook to Business Central integration | There isn't a direct QuickBooks Dynamics CRM integration. However, you can still connect the two platforms using third-party integration tools like Zapier that can help bridge the QuickBooks Microsoft gap by syncing data and automating business processes. | There isn't a direct QuickBooks Dynamics CRM integration. However, you can still connect the two platforms using third-party integration tools like Zapier that can help bridge the QuickBooks Microsoft gap by syncing data and automating business processes. |
| 32 | Audit Trails | Good | Poor |
| 33 | Last but not the least | QuickBooks is a popular accounting software for small businesses that offers great functionalities in terms of managing finances and accounting. | Whereas Business Central is an all-in-one ERP solution capable of streamlining, managing, and monitoring not only the financial department but also other departments as well. |
DashBoard Look
QuickBooks or Microsoft Dynamics 365: Which One is Right for Your Company?
Overall, We would score a WIN for Dynamics 365 Business Central in most cases.
There are a few scenarios in which you might choose QuickBooks, though:
- Your company has five or fewer staff members.
- You only have one accounting staff members and you plan to keep it that way
- You or your accountant is deeply knowledgeable in QuickBooks, and
- You’re willing to continue training for new versions of QuickBooks rather than learning a new tool.
You should probably choose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central if:
- You perform more than 1000 transactions/month (or might get there in the next 6-12 months).
- You have plans to expand to more than one country, or you currently operate in multiple countries.
- You need to handle deferred revenue and/or expenses.
- You place a premium on the reporting ability of a system.
- You want your information to be auditable.
- Security is a concern for you.
- You want the want the efficiency gains from having your accounting solution truly integrated with Outlook and the rest of your Office suite.
From where i can buy Business Central with complete integration and Supports ?
Hull Technologies is dedicated to providing exceptional services on the Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 platforms. With their specialized expertise in this field and extensive experience handling several significant implementations, the Hull team is strongly committed to delivering an unmatched level of customer satisfaction.
Click here to get quotation for Business Central – ERP
Conclusion
Both QuickBooks and Business Central are reputable accounting solutions, each with its own strengths and suitability for specific business contexts. Carefully assess your business requirements, current size, and future growth plans to determine which platform aligns best with your goals. Whether you opt for the simplicity of QuickBooks or the comprehensive functionality of Business Central, investing in the right accounting solution is a crucial step toward ensuring the financial health and success of your business.
Author: Syed Haseeb
