Top 7 Tips for Digital Transformation

with Microsoft Business Central ERP

Whether you are new to the cloud or one of the 160,000+ organizations currently using Microsoft
Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly NAV), this white paper has been written by our team to help
you get more out of your Digital Transformation investments with Microsoft Business Central ERP.
 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION have been
around for years. Best Practices suggest the use of digital technology and processes
to accelerate repeatable tasks, facilitate decision matrices to automate and route
more complex tasks and capture data for greater analytics and insights into OKRs
(Objectives and Key Results). Starting well before Y2K, companies have been trying
to go paperless with the additional use of scanners to digitize documents, email
applications to send digital documents, and EDI to transfer data between trusted
partners – all in a cost-saving attempt to improve productivity and reduce risks
associated with manual processes.
Whether you are new to the cloud or one of the 160,000+ organizations currently using Microsoft Dynamics 365
Business Central (formerly NAV), this white paper has been written by our team to help you get more out of your
Digital Transformation investments with Microsoft Business Central ERP.
In recent years, the emergence and maturity of cloud-based subscription software have allowed large third-party
add-on applications, typically reserved for the large enterprise space, to become more affordable and repackaged
for SMB and Mid-Market organizations, thus yielding a greater ROI for modern cloud-savvy ERP users.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a modern cloud-based ERP platform with built-in CRM functions to
support the growth of SMB and Mid-Market organizations. Microsoft’s cloud-data centers for Dynamics 365 are
powered by Microsoft Azure, and located in major global centers around the world including the United States
and Canada with options for securing your data within local geographies.

BUSINESS CENTRAL – DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

TIP 1 – REVIEW YOUR BUSINESS PROCESSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
TIP 2 – FURTHER AUTOMATE FINANCE PROCESSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
TIP 3 – DESIGN AND BUILD ADDITIONAL LINE OF BUSINESS METRICS . . . . . . . . 5
TIP 4 – CONNECT BUSINESS CENTRAL WITH YOUR CRM ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
TIP 5 – EXTEND SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT REMOTE SELF SERVICE.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
TIP 6 – CREATE AN EXPANDED FOCUS ON COMMUNICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
TIP 7 – EMBED ANALYTICS THROUGHOUT YOUR PROCESSES .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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TIP
REVIEW YOUR BUSINESS PROCESSES
Back to the Basics – Individual process review and time studies.

The original use of time studies started during the beginning of the industrial revolution over 100 years ago.
They focused on a worker’s time spent on individual movements and tasks on a manufacturing line. Fast forward
a century, and there continues to be a number of back-office tasks that can be accelerated, automated, or even
eliminated based on additional business process analysis.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

Manual data entry or keying in data.

Opening, viewing, routing, sorting, saving, and reattaching documents.
Switching between applications, screens, and tabs.
Exporting information into Excel for analysis or processing.
Sending and receiving documents and approvals.

HOW TO RESOLVE:

S tart digital, stay digital – look at integration points between systems. Encourage customers and vendors
to send digital copies rather than paper-based documents.
L ook for process optimization opportunities. Sometimes external experts are able to bring a fresh
perspective to teams resistant to change.
 se machine-based OCR reading of digital documents (Optical Character Recognition) to pre-populate
U
fields with relevant data. Cost savings can range from $1 to $5 per invoice touched.
Increase your adoption of built-in functions within Dynamics 365 Business Central. Many of these
functions continue to evolve for increased usability and enhancement with AI and machine learning.
 dditional Microsoft Business Central user training may help to close gaps. For example, EFT and other
A
digital payments.

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FURTHER AUTOMATE FINANCE PROCESSES
Follow the bouncing ball. Create a process map to follow
key documents and touchpoints.

Take a special look at your financial processes, including your Order-to-Cash and Procure-to-Pay processes.
Review and document how transactions are performed and what documents, decisions, audit trails, and data
are captured. In addition to understanding the end-to-end process at a high level, it is recommended that an
additional deeper analysis be conducted for scenarios that have higher volumes, or are more time-consuming,
as these tasks often represent an opportunity for above-average savings.
Note, there is often a balance between security and controls versus convenience for users. The decisions around
segregation of duties and division of labour may have been made in the past based on the individual needs or
capabilities of previous staff members. By gaining additional data and visibility into these process flows, approval
processes, and reporting inquiries, your Finance team should be able to identify common document flows that
can be optimized.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

Email requests for authorizations to order, spend, and pay that are repetitive or predictable.
T ransactions that are consistent on a replenishment basis or subscription basis – for example, certain
utilities, office water cooler supplies, and quarterly maintenance may align within pre-approval guardrails.
R
 eporting and analytics related to month-end close that is repeated on a monthly basis.

HOW TO RESOLVE:

C
 hange and optimize finance processes, business rules, and reporting to create a greater level of
consistency and repeatability. Think of the 80-20 rule for capturing the majority of tasks.
C
 onsolidate reports so that end-users can quickly filter the reports for their personalized needs, rather
than requiring a custom report or ad-hoc analysis and manual modification.
R
 eview and create new decision trees, approval thresholds, and variance calculations related to approvals,
requests for process visibility and provide automated alerts on an exception basis. A monthly or even
quarterly summary may suffice, rather than daily or weekly approvals for common transactions.
M
 icrosoft Business Central workflow and approvals automation includes a variety of mature tools included
at no charge within Business Central. These functions and capabilities have been enhanced and updated
with recent automatic cloud updates including expanded virtual tables within the Microsoft Dataverse
for Power Apps and the Microsoft Dataverse.

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DESIGN & BUILD ADDITIONAL LINE OF BUSINESS METRICS
Review of business value and value-added functions – OKRs.

The need for analysis and metrics extends far wider than just the Finance team. True digital transformation looks
at areas outside of Finance that can automate other work processes. Sometimes there are apps and automation
unique to specific departments and may require an additional focus or more technical review of data models.
Often data capture and analytics are key skills that the Finance team can share with other operational teams.
Setting goals for desired Outcomes and Key Results (OKRs), formerly known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs),
can set some key measures for success. Some may be proactive and focus on unique value-added efforts, while
others can be more reactive supporting accountability to specific performance expectations.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

D
 epartmental apps, forms, and reports that the Finance and IT teams can help to create and automate.
Can any of these processes be integrated with Business Central as an input or trigger for other processes?
A
 dministrative tasks within departments that could be centralized or automated.
M
 easurable outputs and metrics on a departmental basis that other teams rely on. Map out a value chain
of interconnected metrics that could be used as a scorecard.
A
 re there key metrics from Business Central that should be shared to support or validate the metrics
used within other departmental OKRs.

HOW TO RESOLVE:

F ind opportunities for data and metrics within Business

Central to complement departmental dashboards to
serve as trend-lines, leading indicators, or benchmarks
to validate trends and assumptions used when making
business decisions.
W
 ork with departments to help automate tasks and
reporting through cross-functional workshops building
a shared understanding of process automation.
Consider the Multi-entity Manager add-on for Business
Central to support a centralized approach in cases where there
are multiple divisions or legal entities with common tasks that
can be performed by a single shared-services team.
IT teams can access the Microsoft Power Platform, including
PowerApps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, and
Power BI to create forms, reports, bots, dashboards, and
simple or complex workflow processes integrated with data
found within Business Central, the Microsoft Dataverse and
600+ other data sources, including SharePoint, SQL Server,
Microsoft 365, OneDrive for Business, Salesforce, Excel,
Dropbox, Twitter, and more.

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CONNECT BUSINESS CENTRAL WITH YOUR CRM
Create connections to synchronize data between customer-facing systems
and Business Central.

Delivering an exceptional customer experience includes empowering front-line staff with information and
context to help them perform their jobs. Business Central has built-in CRM functions for common Contact
Management needs. There are also extensions available to improve the management of Leads, Opportunities,
and Customers. However, many Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service-centric teams prefer to use purpose-
built applications, such as Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Marketing, and Dynamics 365 Customer Service,
or even applications from Salesforce.com and other providers.
To create a more seamless all-in-one ERP-CRM platform, use the pre-built connections to link Business Central
with the Microsoft Dataverse, the foundation for Dynamics 365 (CRM) and Power Platform applications.
Providing a unified set of process flows between sales and service with finance, inventory, and WMS
management can provide a stronger foundation for data analytics and greatly benefit manufacturing and
distribution teams through a stronger master data management, offering one source of the truth.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

Inquiries made to Finance from Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service teams that may relate to systems
and data that can be shared or synchronized for a greater level of end-user self-reliance.
B
 uild a common understanding of the data used within systems outside of Business Central that have
common attributes, such as customer and vendor information, mailing addresses, shipping addresses,
preferred products, repeat orders, and other demographic information.
C
 ustomer-facing interactions that are performed by Finance professionals that could be shared with other
teams, such as AR collections and credit checks.
K
 ey Business Central, or CRM field changes, and transactions that can serve as workflow automation
triggers and/or email alerts that kick off additional process flows.

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 HOW TO RESOLVE:

B
 uild a decision matrix with both a listing of list data to be synchronized along with which system will
serve as a source of truth in the case of data conflicts or synchronization errors.
D
 ive into key metrics held within Business Central related to orders and transactions that could benefit
Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service teams, such as top products/services sold for each customer
(Contact or Account).
P
 ush key read-only style information that is typically managed by Finance, such as credit limits, AR
collection status, payment terms, payment receipt dates, and listing of outstanding invoices from
Business Central to be viewed within the respective CRM applications.
U
 se the Business Central Dataverse Connection Setup assisted setup guide to help facilitate the initial
analysis, coupling criteria, job queues, and synchronization mapping on a field-by-field basis using
many of the standard connection points with the Dataverse and Dynamics 365 CRM. Once connected,
Microsoft Power Automate can be used to initiate automated process flows based on key triggers
within Business Central, to initiate processes with Dynamics 365 (CRM). Be sure to read the Microsoft
documentation online for specific capabilities and best practices. For example, the local currency for
your company in Business Central must be the same as the base transaction currency used within your
Dataverse and Dynamics 365 Sales tenant.
M
 icrosoft Power BI can be used to embed reports within both Business Central and Dynamics 365 CRM
applications thus allowing for shared dashboards and reports to provide an aggregated view of relevant
metrics across platforms without a specific need to synchronize data at the database/Dataverse level.

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EXTEND SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT REMOTE SELF SERVICE
Set up integrated web portals and cloud apps for internal and external stakeholders.

As a cloud-based application with a browser-based front end that automatically adapts to each user’s screen
size, there are a number of inherent self-serve capabilities and functions available through the Business Central
Full-user, or the lower-cost Business Central Team Member user subscriptions. The primary purpose of the Team
Members subscription is to support self-serve read-only inquiries along with select fields that can be edited,
such as customer, vendor and item record fields, quotes for Sales Orders, Purchase Requisition requests, and the
ability to submit and/or approve timesheets.
Aligning with the recommendations in Business Central Tip 1, to “Start digital/Stay digital,” the adoption of
self-serve portals can significantly reduce the manual data-entry needs of your Finance team while also saving
others time on approvals, and responding to ad-hoc inquiries. New hybrid work-from-home strategies supporting
a remote workforce have brought back to light the need for additional self-serve remote access for a wide range
of functions and a broader user group than what has been seen in the past.
Software implementation costs, recurring annual subscriptions, and consumption-based fees should be
factored into a business case for change, balanced with the value to both your Finance team and the end-user
business community.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

E xplore options for remote submissions, self-service reporting, and remote approvals. The behind-the-
scenes review, and approval processes are often spread across a wide audience of managers and leaders
whose time may be better spent on strategic priorities than on administrative tasks. Automating such
processes can greatly improve not only morale but overall organizational performance assuming the time
saved is spent on more value-added activities such as coaching, mentorship, and strategic initiatives.
For
 such activities, look at key processes and develop some assumptions around metrics for the time
taken per task (i.e. invoices per day) and the frequency and prevalence of such tasks being performed
across your organization (for example, purchase requisitions, invoice approvals, employee expense
management, report distribution, annual and quarterly budgeting processes, and resource management
tasks, such as time entry, leave tracking, individual performance plans and related approvals for each).
R
 ather than re-creating the wheel and trying to uncover processes suitable for self-service, look to
the mature and emerging cloud application providers with apps that are solving common and proven
market needs.

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 HOW TO RESOLVE:

T here are several cloud-based extensions and external

portals that can be cost-effectively integrated with
your cloud-based Microsoft Business Central. Many of
these focus on major workstreams that include
mobile apps, portal self-service, and facilitate manager
approval workflows.
• Purchase Order requisition portal and PO
approvals workflow
• Invoice and Accounts Payable automation, OCR
coding, and approvals workflow
• Advanced AP matching with POs, contracts,
and recurring transactions
• Online billing portal with payment processing and
Collections Management reminders
• Expense submission portal and mobile apps with
approvals workflow
• Time tracking portal and mobile apps with
approvals workflow
• Leave management/vacation tracking portal and
mobile apps with approvals workflow
• Budget and forecast portal, financial planning,
dashboards, and approvals workflow
• Cloud-based dashboard reporting, data visualization,
and report package deployment
T here are two types of vendor solutions that work with
Business Central. The first is an external portal that is
connected to Business Central in the back end via API’s.
The second is in the form of an extension that functions
within Business Central and leverages the approvals
workflow functions within Business Central. Workflow
approvals can be accessed via the Business Central
Full User, Team Member user, and more recently been
extended to support approvals via Outlook 365,
Power Apps, and Microsoft Teams.
If choosing an external portal that functions outside of
Business Central, there may be merit in choosing a solution
that supports multiple workstreams, thus a greater ability
to provide a common unified user interface to your
end-user community. An example is an external platform
for Purchase Requisitions, Expense Submissions, and AP
invoice approvals all using a common user interface and
approval process.

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TIP
CREATE AN EXPANDED FOCUS ON COMMUNICATIONS
Leverage digital communications tools internally and with customers.

Providing an exceptional customer experience has been the mantra for many top consumer-focused organizations
and is increasingly important for B2B customers, Direct 2 Consumers, and strategic vendors. Communications
related to transactional items, such as notices, order confirmations, surveys, quotes, and invoices can all be sent
through Business Central via integrated Microsoft 365 email for an enriched customer experience.
Internal inter-departmental communications are also important to help facilitate the automation of internal
business processes. Workflow triggers can be set up to automatically email individuals based on key field
changes. These can be related to security changes, adding vendors, purchase requisitions, and payables
approvals. Specific dollar thresholds can be set for when and to whom to send internal notices or approvals to,
as well as designated or multi-step approvals triggered based on a defined approval chain.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

S et up a quarterly cross-functional team tasked to come up with ideas to improve customer

communications. Included may be sales, marketing, and operational teams both at an executive level
as well as those who have direct customer interactions.
R
 eview the types of communications that you receive from your vendors. These may be good examples
for similar communications that you could send to your customers. Similarly, customer satisfaction
surveys may be something to consider sending to your clients.
D
 ocuments that are printed and sent in paper format can often be sent digitally on an automated basis.
The digital version may or may not eliminate the paper version, but in most cases will be faster and
appreciated by the receiving party – your customer or vendor.
F ollow the flow of paper that is sent internally and reviewed by others. Are there specific initials,
signatures, or approvals being captured? Or is the information merely for informative purposes?
B
 eyond just the movement of paper, document retention and storage policies should also be reviewed.
Often digital document storage is cheaper, more secure, and easier to retrieve when needed.

HOW TO RESOLVE:

E mail is an easy-to-use and common means of sending and receiving documents and other
communications to individuals. Generic, shared email accounts can be set up with ease to represent key
customer-facing teams, such as AR, Finance, Supply Chain, and AP.
Internal
 workflow approvals for documents can be sent via email on an automated basis. Using the
standard Business Central document workflow functions, or custom Power Automate apps to attach
documents stored from within Business Central, SharePoint Online, or other cloud-accessible locations.
T hird-party ISV (Independent Software Vendor) applications are available via Endeavour for advanced
email management, collections management, document drag-and-drop into Business Central, as well
as more advanced process automation tools that often include a communications component, such as
budget workflow collaboration and approvals, and notes related to PO requisitions, invoice payments,
and expense submissions.

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EMBED ANALYTICS THROUGHOUT YOUR PROCESSES
Business Central natively supports quick and affordable Power BI Analytics.

The need for quality, trusted data as an input to making informed decisions rather than simply relying on a ‘gut
feeling’ and past experience isn’t a new concept. What is new, is the ease of use, quality of visualizations, and
an overall increased ability to drive user adoption. Known as building a data-centric culture of business users,
Microsoft wants to help you stay ahead of the curve (versus your competition), decision makers need to get
tangible information in a format they can understand as quickly as possible.
Overall, the goal is to help your team “Make Smarter Decisions” and thus improve business performance. One
of the aspects of smarter decisions is data visualization. Data visualization helps people process large amounts
of data by displaying it in a visual format the human brain can quickly comprehend. Data visualizations in the
form of charts, graphs, dials, and other metrics help to make information easier and faster to digest than more
traditional financial statements. Each metric can tell its own story and together with other related metrics on the
same dashboard can tell a broader and more complete story, including storytelling elements such as timelines,
cause-and-effect relationships, and a shared context.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

F inancial Reports, formerly called Account Schedules within Business Central, include common financial
statements, such as a Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, or Sales transaction summary report. These reports are
typically text-based, showing a variety of calculated numbers within a column format. Seek to obtain input
and insights from Finance, executive, and line of business users on what they look at within these reports,
how the data could inform their business decisions, and if there is an additional business context around
the numbers that help distinguish good for bad, and from good to great.
C
 hallenge major strategic and operational decisions to validate whether those who influenced or made
the decision used data and analytics as part of their decision criteria. Would there be value if a repeatable
process was created to help surface similar data on a defined schedule?
L ook for expanded insights from a broader user community to uncover best practices for metrics and
action. Knowing what good looks like will greatly accelerate user buy-in for the adoption of additional
KPI/OKR metrics and associated development – TURST – BC source data.

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 HOW TO RESOLVE:

B
 uild a center of excellence around data analytics, and find an internal champion who can look into
trends and insights, and encourage the adoption of data-centric decision-making based on available
data and metrics.
If trusted data and metrics are lacking, look to different means of capturing the data on a more
consistent and reliable basis. Business Central can be configured to make certain fields mandatory.
Additional options are the use of automation tools, such as OCR (optical character recognition) used
to scan invoices as part of AP automation, or tools such as barcode scanning within a WMS or
manufacturing environment to improve data capture.
T he Analysis Mode within Business Central can be used to create pivot-table style analysis within most
list-view type screens. This level of cross-tab analysis, data filtering, and sorting can often help to find
trends when exported and presented as a chart or graph within Excel.
M
 icrosoft Power BI visualizations and analytics come standard across many of the common screens and
modules within Business Central. Additional custom Power BI reports can also be embedded into key
screens or Role Center home pages. Depending on the source and nature of the data and analysis
some of the Power BI embedded analytics can be accessed without additional fees associated with
Power BI Pro and other paid subscriptions.
L astly, your analytics, including scenario planning, forecasts, and budgeting, can be further enhanced
with third-party tools connected to Business Central for FP&A, corporate performance management,
and financial modeling. Many of these tools have their own built-in workflow tools for managing a
collaborative planning process, as well as distributing reporting packages automatically tailored to
specific audiences.

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About Endeavour Solutions
Now is the time to invest in your team’s future. Endeavour Solutions has been supporting Microsoft Dynamics for
over 35 years across Canada and the USA. We are a proud Microsoft Solutions Provider for Business Applications
with multiple Gold Certifications for Dynamics ERP, CRM, and Cloud Business Applications, including an Advanced
specialization for Small and Midmarket Business Management.

At Endeavour Solutions, our continued success is due to our focus on our Microsoft customers,
our people, and our core values of integrity, trust, and accountability.

Endeavour’s top goals for your Business Transformation:

1. Better utilization of people and resources (less paperwork, more automation).
2. Increasing visibility to data throughout their processes (FP&A with contextual insights).
3. Finding patterns and building predictive analytics (capturing and turning data into actionable information).
4. Getting it right the first time with a proper analysis of your current needs and future potential
(custom-tailored design and implementation).

With offices in Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver, Montréal, Edmonton, and London, Canada, their consultants support
more than 900 active clients throughout North America, including clients using Dynamics GP and Dynamics NAV.
Over the years, Endeavour has been named multiple times to the Microsoft President’s Club – the top 5% of
Microsoft Partners Worldwide.

www.endeavoursolutions.ca

Our team doesn’t just implement software.

We help you make your business better.

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