Best Practices in Finance Implementations

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Best Practices in Finance Implementations

Achieve Financial Excellence with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

The primary objectives of implementing Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations are to attain financial management and accounting excellence while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. After successful implementation, the business should be equipped to generate financial insights from any location and at any time, thus replacing the need for Excel.

Efficient implementation should provide the following benefits:

  • Reporting, budgeting, and processing are facilitated by a streamlined organizational structure
  • Operational costs are reduced by automating manual operations
  • By standardizing the processes, operations can be made more efficient
  • With prompt, precise, and compliant month end closing, costs and efforts can be reduced
  • Reduce the probability of non-compliance with regulatory requirements
  • By automating financial statement generation, offer a single source of truth
Even after adopting the new system, many firms fail to realize these benefits. The majority of the time, facts indicate that budget checks are either not enabled within the system or are routinely overridden. Before the month ends, the finance team must make several modifications, but accountants know that reconciliation and frustration are synonyms for each other.

Here, are several best practices that can assist in achieving the project's goals:

organization hierarchy:

The organizational hierarchy is an important area to focus on during implementation, but it is often overlooked in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. A draft of the hierarchy should be created with the CEO's input and then discussed with various departments. Standardization of Business Units, Cost Centers, and Departments is the ideal goal.

chart of account and dimensions

Instead of adding more accounts to the Chart of Accounts, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations offers the ability to build Financial Dimensions. After defining all dimensions, it is advisable to evaluate the chart of accounts to see if any accounts are no longer required due to the existence of a pertinent financial dimension.

Intercompany Accounts

It is advisable to construct unique accounts for each company as it makes setup and reconciliation easier, even though the Financial Dimension function can be used for the legal entity to generate less Inter Company Due to Due From accounts.

Financial Period Close Workspace

The Financial period close workspace helps in tracking financial closing processes across companies, areas, and people. This should be set up throughout the implementation as a best practice. Financial Reporting delays have been attributed to improper period close workplace arrangements.

Start with the Output

When creating the Finance System, it is preferable to start by considering the output formats before moving on to the input. Poor implementation will be defined as insufficient output from the system or the necessity for manual adjustments in output produced by Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.

Master Data Cleansing Team

Effective implementation configuration is completed with excellent master data. A distinct team must be assigned to the Master Data Extraction, Transformation, Cleansing, Loading, and Validation Activity at the start of a project. Numerous tools are available to help with the specifics, but it would be best practice to begin this activity early on in the project. Chaos and compromise will always ensue from waiting until the cut-off dates.

Historical Data Migration

The historical data migration project must not be incorporated into an implementation project. Although the topic at hand does not specifically address whether or whether we should transfer our historical data to a new system, it would be wise to keep that effort separate. Involve distinct teams with expertise in data migration projects.

Conclusion

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is a comprehensive suite of solutions to optimize costs and maximize returns. It offers businesses the tools to save time and money while creating a competitive edge. With the right guidance, businesses can leverage this solution to find the best cost-optimization solution for them.

Take charge of your financial management and accounting with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations today.

Contact us at info@intertecsys.com

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