Deltek Costpoint vs. Dayforce vs. Microsoft Dynamics SL

Deltek Costpoint is the most frustrating and clunkiest software I've ever used, and I've been using software for 30 years. The interface appears to have been developed before the internet and HTML and does not appear to use any modern widgets made for HTML. Every button click or menu selection requires a pause while something else loads. Our employees waste much time trying to figure out (what should be) simple tasks, and I've spoken with nobody in our company that likes the software. We've had trainings on Costpoint, but people still have issues constantly.

I think Dayforce is a great option for a large and/or Global organization. I do not think it would be the best fit for a very small company or business. It really shines for enterprise organizations with multi-locations. While a small business could use it, I would say it has too many bells and whistles that might feel overwhelming to a smaller organization.

Incentivized

For a small to mid-size business, MS Dynamics SL is effective. We are capable of managing our finances with a very low risk of error. We have worked with MS Dynamics for almost 15 years and have more than doubled the size of our business in that time with very few issues from the program. We have exponentially increased our revenue and reporting demands and have found SL to be very dependable and stable. The program does have the occasional glitch and those are sometimes outside of the realm of expertise of our IT department. SL support is excellent, but their timeliness is not as urgent as ours.

Incentivized

• I love how you can cut a check and it opens a PDF version so it can be saved for retention at a later date if needed.
• I love how you can research vendor history different ways. It allows you to input a range or just enter one at a time.
• I also love that there are tons of reports that can be run to help with any projects.

Incentivized

• Payroll - it shows everything in real time and it runs quickly.
• People - Having all employee details from the offer letter to W2 information in the same spot.
• Dayforce Wallet: The on-demand feature is fully integrated with Timesheets and Payroll. What shows in one will be in the other.

• Provides flexibility for complex project based cost accounting
• Strong and flexible allocation processer for cost allocations, markups, and pricing
• A "Flexible Billing" module under the project controller series that allows for multiple billing formats ranging from fixed price schedule of values, T&M or Cost Plus, and scheduled billing.
• Flexible reporting with options using Crystal Reports, SSRS, a Quick Query tool, and ability to tie into MS Office tools such as MS Access and MS Excel
• Tight integration with Financials, but also the ability to integrate with modules such as Sales Order, Inventory, and Field Service
• Customization abilities ranging from a VBA (visual basic for application) foundation to allow customizing existing forms to the ability to use the SDK (Software Development Kit) to build more complex customizations that integrate with Dynamics SL.

Incentivized

• Customer Care - this is probably the one area that needs the most work.
• Quality Control Testing - if this area had a higher level of detail prior to releasing updates, it might mitigate the number of patches required for customers.
• Cloud Based Product doesn't work for every customer. Get multiple references before considering moving to the cloud offering.

Incentivized

• There have been a few instances of users being locked out of Ceridian due to recent upgrades. Not ideal when an employee wants to see their paystub and is suddenly have login issues.
• Not the best for when an employee is transferred to another country as their employee number is locked to their SIN or SSN. And, we are required to create a new user record with a new employee number for the new country.

Incentivized

• Reporting in the Project module is lacking functionality. I understand that most companies have specific needs when it comes to tracking project information but the standard reports are not good.
• I would recommend a product like Management Reporter that is for Projects only. Project Reporter should allow users to pull in all Project related data into reports.
• Fixing suspended batches. Obviously all of us users have experienced this mess. SL knows what needs to be corrected and there could be some step by step fixes in a separate repair module to do the steps we do in Query Analyzer.

Incentivized

The cost for our size company may be to high by the time we review, because when purchasing additional licenses on two separate occasions, only 3 months apart, there was a price increase.

Incentivized

We are highly invested in Ceridian's Dayforce product. It give us the flexibility and scaling that our growing company needs. Its potential reaches beyond the basic HR functions to the decision making that our Management Team needs. Ceridian is always innovating the employee and employee experiences to offer cutting edge options.

Incentivized

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

For what we mainly use Deltek for it is a great system. The cost for licenses can become an issue because as a growing company we are in need of licenses from time to time and the process is very cumbersome.

Incentivized

I think it's very usable for the employee. I don't think it is as easy for the HR/PR admins - especially if there is an issue. There are so many setup screens that need to be looked at to try to figure out why payroll isn't calculating properly, hours aren't feeding over correctly, or benefits are not calculating properly. For the most part, they can't do their own troubleshooting. The same is true for the managers. Our managers find it cumbersome to go into make any schedule changes after the schedules have been generated.

Incentivized

I rate it a 10 because we have removed the fields we don't need so users can really crank the data into the system. The software was designed for the professional services firm in mind but does a tremendous job for construction firms and "blended" companies that are both distribution firms but project centric as well. Perhaps they drop ship inventory to a project where their employees or subs need to work on a project for example.

Incentivized

Dayforce's high availability ensures that our HR processes are supported around the clock, which is critical for a global organization like ours. The platform is cloud-based, offering reliable access from any location at any time, allowing our employees, managers, and HR teams to stay connected regardless of time zones or geographic locations. This level of availability ensures that payroll processing, employee self-service, and real-time data access continue uninterrupted, even during peak periods or unforeseen disruptions. The system’s robust infrastructure minimizes downtime, which is vital for operations that span multiple regions. Additionally, having a centralized platform that’s always available helps keep our teams aligned, ensures compliance, and facilitates timely decision-making across all our locations.

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

We haven't noticed any slow-down due to the integration of Dayforce WFM with our Ceridian HPL products (HRIS and Payroll). The new HTML view of the timesheets don't load as quickly as the old Silverlight view - however, we have gotten used to the change.

The software is so huge and clunky that I wouldn't know how to ask for support. Here is my example of support needed: "Hello, I'm filling out my timesheet like I have been doing every day for years, and suddenly this error message came up that says "Error: 6HX7: PLC not available". I just made that up as an example of the cryptic error messages, but what is that telling me?

Most of the time the support is great; it's not always super efficient but I always get the help I need. Occasionally it takes a lot longer than we had hoped or get conflicting responses. We had one ticket recently where we were told we would have to pay the service team to support us on the project and then another person called the next day with the solution to our query and was able to find a solution easily. Generally, though, the response is great and they either walk me though how to do something via a Zoom Meeting or they email step-by-step instructions on how to do it and say if I have questions we can set up a meeting to discuss further.

Incentivized

Support is only used when needed, so unfortunately ,they get all the odd issues. It's a difficult business, but Microsoft and our firm do a great job of meeting customer needs. We get routine feedback that our support services are very good.

Incentivized

Because the training we reviewed at Insights has changed how we use the system everyday. This is a key factor in our training.

The courses are very interactive and informative. There are classes for every topic, which allows you to make the most of the system. There are also some "go at your own pace" course which is a great option for a busy schedule.

Incentivized

It would be great if there were better training documents that could be downloaded without having to go through the DLZ.

Incentivized

Have a strong internal team. Communicate with your implementation team - they are there to make it work for you. Take the time to really think about how you want the system to work for you - in some cases, you may need to rethink your own business practices to see if you are working harder when the system could do it for you

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

• Deltek Costpoint was able to provide a few more dimensions than ADP and is better prepared for larger international integration.
• DATABASICS can meet our dimension needs and provide the same services as Deltek Costpoint at a much lower cost.

Incentivized

I can't speak much to how it would be if we had all of these features separately since I started with Dayforce all being integrated and have no other experience, but having it all in one place has made the completion of all of these HR tasks seamless. We can direct all of our energies into the same system, and it makes it easier to field employee inquiries and to troubleshoot when we need to

Incentivized

Of the comparable mid-range ERP systems, Dynamics SL competes at the lower end based on price, but also above the high-end based on flexibility, data, and reporting. Being able to stay with the same core accounting from a $100 million dollar company to a $3 billion dollar company shows the range of capabilities.

Incentivized

Overall, we are extremely happy with the Dayforce WFM module. Our biggest pain point is concerning the twice annual software upgrades - which is the only reason I haven't rated them as a '10'. Because every customer is configured differently, the upgrades can sometimes have adverse effects on our current configured policies/rules. And although they roll-out the upgraded version in a test environment several weeks before go-live, not all testing is accurate in that environment. Some issues do not present themselves until you are working with live punches.

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

Incentivized

• Costpoint has made it possible for our business to get our invoices paid quickly and on time
• Costpoint has made it possible for our business to get a ISO audits cleared every year
• Costpoint has made it possible for our business to always setup projects in a standardized manner that either meets or goes beyond the industry standards.

Incentivized

• Performance Reviews/Comp used to be handled via paper and tracking/reporting was a nightmare - having all of that in the system is so much more efficient and provides huge ROI
• Our organization used to have big problems with hiring managers going rogue and hiring positions that aren't approved by Finance - we built an approval workflow in the system that triggers before any req is approved which has completely solved this problem
• Dayforce Wallet has been a huge perk for our employees - it's heavily used and our crew love it

Incentivized

• More time is spent on manipulating reports which can and should be automated.
• Lack of electronic invoicing process and other green technology features creates more cost on printing and storage costs.
• The lack of a user friendly interface requires more training and a bigger learning curve for staff.

Incentivized