Microsoft Dynamics SL vs. QuickBooks Time

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

It would be very useful for certain remote jobs that require a high level of presence, as in the case of web development, or remote maintenance sessions, so that when reviewing the work data it is possible to ensure that there will be no failures. By being able to include files in the management, from the equipment tab, it is possible to fully control the hours in which each change in these files were made.

Incentivized

• 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

• Support (their help desk team is incredibly helpful and always quick to respond).
• Ease of access and use (the app is user-friendly an intuitive, and the desktop version is equally as approachable).
• Manager functionality (it's useful to be able to clock employees in and out at multiple events on the same day by sorting them into different groups by manager/event).

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 desktop version of the TSheets schedule does not have a search feature. This makes it challenging to find things you are looking for without extra work
• The app can be a bit buggy. Though it is a great app, there are many reasons that the app will stop syncing and can cause problems with staff scheduling

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

TSheets tech support people, like Shawn Sommer, from Tsheets. She has been instrumental, after terminating the person in charge of TSheets I was left with a learning curve too high to climb but after 10 mins of her instructions I was able to make payroll in no time. She cleared all errors that nobody had fixed before.
TSheets is not a vendor for me, TSheets is my partner in business. Thank you TSheets.

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

Our employees find TSheets easy to use and spend minimal time at reporting hours using it. As an administrator and user of the TSheets "data and information" I am extremely positive on the functionality and reporting that it has provided me. From its ease of set-up to training to reporting, TSheets has made us so much more efficient from an administration standpoint

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

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

I have never failed to have an issue resolved within minutes of contacting Support. Jen D recently assisted my with an export issue and I was back on track in less the 10 minutes. She was knowledgable and thought about the current and future contexts of the issue and assured there would be no recurrence next payroll.

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

I wasn't originally helping with the implementation so not sure.

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

Besides Intuit Payroll (Sage), the only program I've used is WorkBrain through Menards, and it's more as a scheduling guideline for management, employees don't use it to punch in or out or record hours. However, WorkBrain does show scheduling and it matches with a punch clock to record those hours. Every other place I've used has used either punch clocks or handwritten time cards. I think the TSheets is modern, user-friendly, convenient, accessible, and cost-effective for the owners. It also streamlines payroll for the Accountant instead of manually entering all hours for multiple employees by hand into a software program like Sage.

Incentivized

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

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

• As a Microsoft Access software development shop, Help4Access could have built ourselves a time tracking system, but why reinvent the wheel?
• tSheets got us out of spreadsheets and into the cloud in days not months.
• The ROI the first year is over $5,000.

Incentivized