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Microsoft Dynamics SL

Microsoft Dynamics SL

Overview

What is Microsoft Dynamics SL?

Microsoft Dynamics SL is one of the ERP products in the Dynamics family. This product was acquired from Solomon 2000. The product is typically used by SMBs, particularly in project-based businesses (e.g. construction). It has strong accounting and project management…

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Recent Reviews

Dynamics SL

9 out of 10
July 05, 2014
Incentivized
We are resellers and consultants for Dynamics SL. We support clients in the Professional Services, Bio-Pharma, Insurance, Distribution, …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 35 features
  • Accounts payable (10)
    7.6
    76%
  • Single sign-on capability (9)
    7.4
    74%
  • Standard reports (9)
    7.1
    71%
  • Custom reports (9)
    6.1
    61%
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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is Microsoft Dynamics SL?

Microsoft Dynamics SL is one of the ERP products in the Dynamics family. This product was acquired from Solomon 2000. The product is typically used by SMBs, particularly in project-based businesses (e.g. construction). It has strong accounting and project management capabilities.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

081814 SSYH Collections Manager Demo

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LinguaPack for Dynamics SL Demo

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Microsoft Dynamics SL 2015 Quick Query

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Microsoft Dynamics SL Bank Reconciliation Demo

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Features

Payroll Management

Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.

8.5
Avg 7.2

Customization

This addresses a company’s ability to configure the software to fit its specific use case and workflow.

6
Avg 7.2

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

7.3
Avg 8.1

Reporting & Analytics

Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.

6.8
Avg 7.0

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

Financial management solution, including capabilities for general ledger and configurable accounting

7.4
Avg 7.6

Inventory Management

The ability to track and manage the flow of goods or materials into and out of an inventory.

4.3
Avg 7.9

Order Management

The ability to process orders, and track them from quote to cash.

6.7
Avg 7.8

Subledger and Financial Process

Revenue management solution including capabilities for subledgers and financial processes

5.8
Avg 7.4

Project Financial Management

Project financial management solution including capabilities for project budgeting, cost control, billing and contract management.

4.7
Avg 7.6

Grants Management

Grants management solution for higher education, public sector, or non-profits with capabilities for managing financial awards for program and project funding

6.3
Avg 7.6

Manufacturing

Manufacturing solution for managing manufacturing processes and costs.

6
Avg 7.5

Supply Chain

Supply Chain Planning solution with capabilities for planning, performance monitoring, change responses and execution.

6
Avg 7.2
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Product Details

What is Microsoft Dynamics SL?

Microsoft Dynamics SL Integrations

Microsoft Dynamics SL Competitors

Microsoft Dynamics SL Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft Dynamics SL is one of the ERP products in the Dynamics family. This product was acquired from Solomon 2000. The product is typically used by SMBs, particularly in project-based businesses (e.g. construction). It has strong accounting and project management capabilities.

Infor ERP, NetSuite ERP, and Sage Intacct are common alternatives for Microsoft Dynamics SL.

Reviewers rate Accounts payable highest, with a score of 7.6.

The most common users of Microsoft Dynamics SL are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(68)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Mackay Communications, Inc deals in all phases of Marine Navigation and Communication systems as well as emergency satellite communication equipment and services. We use all the modules of Dynamics SL except the Project related modules. We use the product to track field service, sales, inventory, and purchasing for a world wide 24 hour a day business located in 7 countries. Using the multi-company features, we are able to use a single repository for Inventory, vendors, customers, sales and service activities.
  • Field service modules (dispatch, contracts and equipment tracking) work very well for us. Each service location has control of their operations, but their service information is visible across the company.
  • Multi-company operations are a great benefit. We have 7 individual corporations operating in a single database. there is a single repository for shared information, allowing us to appear as a single seamless operation to our customers, while maintaining separate operational reports and separate and consolidated financial reporting.
  • TCO is very competitive. We have invested less than 150 K in the Product and user licenses. Our annual fees for support are under 30 K.
  • Dynamics SL has a strong independent Users Group. This resource is very valuable as I know people across the world that are a good forum for seeking answers.
  • Customization Manager and the Visual Tools software development kit allows us to easily customize and extend the functionality to meet changing business requirements. We have created solutions for Inter-Company inventory transfers, multi-currency financial reporting and many small changes to enhance productivity
  • The field service module is not multi-currency compliant. I would like to have this feature added to the product in the near future. We have customized the modules to print in multiple currencies, but the underlying data is stored in a single base currency.
  • Payroll reporting is weak. Workers compensation reporting needs a lot of work. We have outsourced the fulfillment of depository and tax reporting (W-2, tax deposits, reporting and filing.
  • Financial reports (FRx and Management Reporter) are slow and cumbersome. We have built our own financial reports and reporting trees that are much faster and more flexible.
It's extremely useful in a multi-company environment. Service Dispatch, Contracts and Equipment are very useful to our company. The project reporting modules are very powerful. We do not currently use them, but we have plans to add them in the future. If you are in the Service, Construction and Professional Services fields, then this product deserves consideration.
  • Through tracking productivity gains, in 2012 improvements to the system (customization and business rule enforcement) saved over 1200 hours of employee time. These changes contributed the same effect to the bottom line as increasing sales by 2,000,000 dollars. We had a similar result in 2013.
  • Since we can produce changes to the system and new functionality, we are more responsive to the changing needs of an expanding global business. We have been able to fulfill the invoicing and reporting needs of each country in which we do business.
I have evaluated many competitive products in the past. Dynamics Nav, Mass90, Dynamics GP, Platinum and others. This product is ahead in TCO and flexibility. Since the customization uses standard Microsoft tools (VBA, Visual Studio, and MS SQLServer, Object Model) it is much better go companies that want to be highly responsive to changing business conditions. The SDK (software development kit) is not an add-on toolkit, it is the exact same tools used to create the original product. It makes it very easy to integrate changes that have the same look and feel across all operations.
150
Field Service Dispatch, Service Billing, Service Contracts, Product and service quotes,Product and Equipment Sales, Inventory, Purchasing, Billing, Collections, all phases of accounting (A/P, A/R, P/R, G/L, Financial reporting). This product provides all our needs except for a specialized product we use to bill for Satellite Phone service plans and usage billing.
2
Support and enhancement is a 2 person operation. We have 3 on staff to support the IT infrastructure. Dynamics SL support requires a support and testing person and a developer level person to design and produce enhancements to the product. The support testing person is tasked with; responding to user requests for assistance, user account maintenance, testing enhancements, Crystal Reports, SQLServer Reporting Servicesand other operational duties as assigned. The developer skill set is; design skills, database skills (prototyping and T-Sql programming), and programming skills (VBA, Visual Studio - Visual Basic.net, Crystal Reports and Sql Reporting Services). Both positions require excellent listening and communication skills.
  • Customization and modification of the 'out of the box' programs. Using VBA and Customization Manager, there are few things that can not be modified and enhanced to adapt the software to the company.
  • Software Development Kit: Although the users do now directly use this product, they see the enhancements that are provided by creating new screens and functionality. We have added over 50 new screens to the product.
  • Shared resources (Customers, Vendors, Employees, Inventory Items, Dispatch, Reporting, ...) allows us to expand the number of company without 'Data Synchronization' headaches caused by products that do not let multiple companies reside in a common database.
  • We were able to customize the system to create a streamlined way to transfer and track inventory between companies,
  • Implemented an extended notes feature that allow for multiple comments and notes that can be attached to any screen.
  • Created out own Financial Reporting that is fast and responsive.
  • We plan to add more multi-currency reporting ans tracking features.
  • Implementation of project accounting is in the short-term future.
  • Mobile field service applications are also in the short-term future.
Since the backbone of the database is MS SQLServer, the database can be easily scaled.
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.
Jeffrey Morin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Microsoft Dynamics SL as our financial software handling all accounting operations, from daily AP, AR, to GL and as a financial reporting base. We also use the project module to manage our projects. Everything we do in our operation is project centric and this software gives access to all staff on every aspect of each and every project, from hours, to expenses, revenue and AR. We use the core of SL in accounting with each of four accounting/HR staff members having an installed version on our computers. We have eight offices around the country from coast to coast, central and south. Each office has access to our Business Portal or Apps to enter projects, time, expenses and to review each project. We have complete transparency of operations in daily project information. Accessibility is extremely important to our continued success in managing projects. We came from a good number of users all accessing "Solomon" directly to the light user version and we could not be more pleased with performance and daily use.
  • AP, AR and GL processing is straight forward and quite efficient. Period posting is a great control of operations.
  • Project setup is quite easy for users, as is review and analysis. We manage by budget for each project and have never had an issue or need for additional information
  • Time and Expense capturing by employees is painless and efficient. This is highly important to a project centric organization. It meets our needs and users are content.
  • 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.
Does the out of the box version of Microsoft Dynamics SL meet our needs? Many companies have rituals and functions that were established to accommodate what they have to do in the software they use. Take a good look at standard SL in the modules needed, if those functions meet your core needs go with it. Customizations can be done, but keeping a streamlined product allows for quicker and painless upgrades. With that, you gain the benefits of the product that Microsoft Dynamics has put in place to improve the product. Think about reworking internal procedures to meet a standard software.
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting (2)
100%
10.0
Accounts payable
100%
10.0
Accounts receivable
100%
10.0
Subledger and Financial Process
N/A
N/A
Inventory Management (3)
N/A
N/A
Inventory tracking
N/A
N/A
Automatic reordering
N/A
N/A
Location management
N/A
N/A
Order Management (4)
N/A
N/A
Pricing
N/A
N/A
Order entry
N/A
N/A
Credit card processing
N/A
N/A
Cost of goods sold
N/A
N/A
Payroll Management (3)
N/A
N/A
Pay calculation
N/A
N/A
Benefit plan administration
N/A
N/A
Direct deposit files
N/A
N/A
Reporting & Analytics (3)
56.66666666666667%
5.7
Dashboards
40%
4.0
Standard reports
40%
4.0
Custom reports
90%
9.0
Customization (2)
N/A
N/A
API for custom integration
N/A
N/A
Plug-ins
N/A
N/A
Security (2)
100%
10.0
Role-based user permissions
100%
10.0
Single sign-on capability
100%
10.0
Grants Management
N/A
N/A
Project Financial Management
N/A
N/A
Project Execution Management
N/A
N/A
Procurement
N/A
N/A
Risk Management
N/A
N/A
Logistics
N/A
N/A
Manufacturing
N/A
N/A
Supply Chain
N/A
N/A
Product Lifecycle Management
N/A
N/A
  • With the switch to SL 2011 and the use of the Business Portal or APPS we were able to eliminate employee time and effort to data enter what we need for project management. We have been able to drop that admin time by roughly 3 FTEs corporate wide one of which was a full time accounting professional.
  • Training time on this product has been streamlined with out of the box functionality. We get better use and greater consistence of data within the structure that we put in place, from drop down lists to tables restricting data entry to what we want to measure. Overall with the uploading of data from 1975 we have a full scope of project information to review as needed in this product. You cannot ask for more than that.
  • Data structure is so strong within this product that when we need to pull it out into Excel we know exactly where it lies and how to access. IF we were ever to migrate to some other software, we know what we need and where it is. But since we have been on this product since 1999, I think we will stay.
  • Microsoft Dynamics SL has a fantastic USER GROUP that allows me to connect with others in the industry to learn from them and share what I know. I am a strong believer in this power and this product offers just what I need in user group meetings.
I have been on this product for 17 years. I have worked with Great Plains and have worked with products in the Health Care industry and believe this product pulls in all the main functionality into basic core modules and allows users to quickly grasp how to use the product. This also allows for greater efficiencies by all staff who touch this product. I worked as a consultant for the early version of Solomon. As a financial consultant, I had to get into a company and learn quickly the operations on the old software to get them ready for a switch to this one. In the four years of working as a consultant I had seen a good deal of other software that did not match up to the power and extreme efficiency of data flow that SL has. Once users were trained, they agreed.
100
All of our employees have to use this product to enter time and expenses. 80% of employees use this product to review and analyze projects. Everyone has accessibility to the product in the office and remotely which is of great importance to an appraisal consulting firm.
1
I have to say that I have complete control of the software, from setup to use to upgrades to all reporting, and I have absolutely no issues managing the product. Of course when it comes time to upgrade our IT staff of two get involved but directed by me and our VAR. I think that says a lot to the overall efficiency of the product. Yes I have a few years of experience but it is a great fit.
  • Project review and analysis for budget to actual and expenses.
  • AR review on each project and with the DocShare feature everyone in the company has access to all invoices generated - JUST IN CASE there are AR issues. And of course we all know that is never a need! :)
  • Time and Expense review and approval by management can be done in the office and remotely with the Business Portal and/or Apps.
  • With the use of the Business Portal we have been able to setup Docshare giving access to project invoices. We have also added all our dashboard reporting to the portal and use it as our hub.
  • We have been able to access all project data in Excel views allowing us to dig into operations with great detail.
  • Once the apps are all there, we hope to expand accessibility to our product to the managers and staff who spend most of their time out of the office on the road. Though we can access via VPN the apps look promising.
It meets all of our needs. Users and management are pleased with ease of use and the end result of data management in reports.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, it is not being used at my organization. It was highly utilized at my last organization, where I worked for 3 years. It was predominantly used within the finance and accounting department, where we used it to keep track of our G/L accounts as well as make debit and credit adjustments to our factories overseas. It helped us keep track of what we owe and what is to be paid out to us.
  • Easy to create debits and credits to applicable accounts.
  • Easy to keep track of payments, which can be seen on the easy to access Aging report.
  • Easy top view line items of each transaction made to each account
  • Difficult to reverse an incorrect entry.
  • Difficult to complete some tasks without authorization to certain modules.
  • Would freeze up a lot, and would therefore have to start over.
I worked within finance and accounting and I feel like for the most part it is extremely user friendly. Despite a few bugs/glitches in the system, it was very straightforward and easy to use. It gives you what you are looking for. Definitely recommended to keep track of the books.
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting (2)
80%
8.0
Accounts payable
80%
8.0
Accounts receivable
80%
8.0
Subledger and Financial Process
N/A
N/A
Inventory Management (3)
N/A
N/A
Inventory tracking
N/A
N/A
Automatic reordering
N/A
N/A
Location management
N/A
N/A
Order Management (4)
N/A
N/A
Pricing
N/A
N/A
Order entry
N/A
N/A
Credit card processing
N/A
N/A
Cost of goods sold
N/A
N/A
Payroll Management (3)
N/A
N/A
Pay calculation
N/A
N/A
Benefit plan administration
N/A
N/A
Direct deposit files
N/A
N/A
Reporting & Analytics (3)
86.66666666666666%
8.7
Dashboards
80%
8.0
Standard reports
90%
9.0
Custom reports
90%
9.0
Customization (2)
N/A
N/A
API for custom integration
N/A
N/A
Plug-ins
N/A
N/A
Security (2)
70%
7.0
Role-based user permissions
70%
7.0
Single sign-on capability
70%
7.0
Grants Management
N/A
N/A
Project Financial Management
N/A
N/A
Project Execution Management
N/A
N/A
Procurement
N/A
N/A
Risk Management
N/A
N/A
Logistics
N/A
N/A
Manufacturing
N/A
N/A
Supply Chain
N/A
N/A
Product Lifecycle Management
N/A
N/A
  • Increased employee efficiency. While using this program, I was able to complete payments to factories pretty seamlessly. I just had to select the invoice that was getting paid, and include it in the batch for payment.
  • Better customer service. I was able to better communicate with factories what was owed to them and why by entering the debit or credit notes and adding them to the batch to submit for payment.
They were both pretty easy to use, but I started using Microsoft Dynamics SL so it was a matter of knowing and becoming familiar with this program first. I became very accustomed to the modules and how to navigate the program.
5
They were the accounting department, which was made up of five people. Each had a different specialty, such as accounts payable and accounts receivable. Mine was accounts payable, where I would pay our overseas factories on a biweekly basis.
5
These were accounting and financial professionals who helped maintain the support of Microsoft Dynamics SL. They also had many years of experience with accounting and finance programs and technology.
  • Helped us figure out what invoices were due or past due.
  • Helped us reconcile our accounts
  • Helped us keep track of what we were owed and what we owed other factories.
  • Helped us chase factories when we received a short payment
  • Continue to help keep track of our books
At the organization I am working for now, we do not use Microsoft Dynamics SL.
Not Sure
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
This program was used before I worked for my former organization. I feel that based on the price and the usability of this product, they were able to adapt it and utilize it right away. It was extremely applicable to keep tabs on our books, especially considering the industry they are in.
I didn't have any say in the purchase and use of this product, but I am glad I was able to have such a great experience getting to use and become familiar with this program. It gave me a much better understanding on how this financial technology is so necessary in business.
  • Implemented in-house
No
  • How to switch modules to fully utilize the system.
  • How to receive further authorization to modules.
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!
They give you the answers to your questions quickly. Extremely supportive support team.
Yes
It was resolved quickly. The issue at my last job was that the program would freeze up or close out automatically. It was quite frustrating, so I initially went to my former organization's IT department. When he couldn't reach a resolve, he was calling the support team. They were able to walk him through the issues and help him better assess the problem so that it could be prevented in the future.
When our program froze, they were extremely capable of helping to resolve the problem. They told us that it was a bug and to resolve the issue the program just had to be reinstalled and the computers rebooted. Once that was complete, the program was working like new. The support team was extremely gracious and cared about the issue at hand and the progress we made.
  • Creating debit or credit adjustments
  • Creating batches for payment
  • Downloading and printing the aging report
  • Deleting incorrect debit or credit notes
  • Deleting already printed checks
It takes some getting used to, especially if you aren't very technologically savvy. But I promise, it is definitely easy to manage once you've gotten used to it.
Jack Boyer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We are a professional services firm mostly with client billings of time making up 70-80% of our revenues. Creating billing transactions from timecards based on many different rules that are sometimes client based, task based, project based or even fixed price-make for the need for some capable software.

We are much happier with the web apps having moved off of the business portal time entry tool which was extremely slow and time consuming.

We use Dynamics SL across the whole organization and everyone enters a timecard. We use the software for expense reporting and evaluating which were good projects and bad, which tasks were good and which were bad. We use the software to help us make better estimates on future similar projects.

We've used Dynamics SL the entire 20 years we've been in business and really love it.
  • Facilitates Time Entry from any device.
  • Facilitates billing with "Allocator" which is really a transaction creator-creating billing records from time cards using unique rules
  • Simplifies the review of draft invoices-making transactions not ready to be billed yet default to the next billing period so revenue does not "leak".
  • When we have a lot of invoices rather than just a few large invoices, we can be frustrated by how long it takes Flexible Billings to generate a lot of invoices
  • It would be nice if Dynamics SL had an easy integration to some of the nicer salestax tools such as Avalara and CCH.
  • It would be nice if the fixed assets module and electronic banking were not third party.
Organizations that have challenging project accounting needs should definitely review this product. Very few products come close to Dynamics SL in handling these broader project accounting needs as well as Dynamics SL. We have had clients insist on buying Dynamics GP because someone in their firm already knows it-only to learn that they should have gone with SL as we suggested. Organizations that need extremely robust Order Management features should also look at Dynamics SL closely. Not only are the features very strong-they are also project-centric so if you need 5 different lines on a sales order to update 5 different projects-no problem. You can even enter a project on the fly while entering a sales order-assuming you have permissions.

Dynamics SL, like Dynamics NAV has a tremendous toolset for customizing. If you allow the customizing to occur-make sure that you have the staff or budget to support lots of customizations as the mods do make support and upgrading a bit more challenging.
  • Less time needs to be invested to create invoices from timecards.
  • Project profitability is right there for you to review as the whole product is "project-centric"-we do less of the work that tends to lose us money and more lucrative work.
  • The ease with which we are able to hide unwanted fields makes data entry simple.
  • The intuitive naming of the tables makes report writing much easier than most accounting/ERP products.
We selected Dynamics SL because our business lives and dies by the success of our projects. A product that can tell you that you have a problem before you invoice, helps you get your project back on track much better. It's also much easier to evaluate across projects, tasks and project types-what you do well and where you need to improve.
Dynamics SL requires very little maintenance for us in part because we set it up correctly and partly because we stay current with the releases.

We have a lot of Dynamics SL experience on staff so if anything bad were to happen we could fix it right away. Fortunately this has not happen in a long time. Microsoft has improved the testing process on this product so that service packs and new version are cleaner.
21
Accounting, professional services providers, managers. We use most of the modules available.
8
We have people that do support for our Dynamics SL users so perhaps this is not a fair question for us. Just about everyone on the team can provide in-house support if we were to need it. We rarely do need it however as the software is stable for us.
  • Time Card Entry
  • Time Card Approval
  • Billing transactions that get generated automatically from time cards.
  • We charge trip charges based on distance to clients offices in Flexible Billings
  • We've created SQL Reporting Services reports that red, yellow and green light utilization from services professionals on the team.
  • We use Quick Queries to fetch worked, billed, and realized time for all.
  • We could use the purchasing and inventory modules better
  • We could integrate with nice requisitions products such as Paramount's Workplace.
  • We could share our nice project accounting data with clients on a portal that is part of SharePoint.
No
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
  • Vendor Reputation
Ease of converting time cards to draft invoices was probably most important to us. This is how we make money and we don't want our managers having to invest a lot of time on admin work when they can have a tool that does most of the work here automatically.
We are happy with where we ended up. I would not change anything. We were thorough and practical and have a solution that does not take us a lot of time to do our work.
  • Implemented in-house
  • Professional services company
We are a professional services firm that implements Dynamics SL, Dynamics GP and Dynamics NAV so we did this ourselves as you would expect. The process was easy and painless in part because we understand the software so well and have such a broad team of support specialists to help with questions.
No
Change management was minimal
Because we had a process that worked and only needed the software to automate that process - we did not need to go through any organizational change to be successful. Our firm is only 21 people. When we do this for clients we do often document an "as is" and "to be" workflow so that we have a blue print before we start to build.
  • Finding time to work on it while doing the rest of our work
  • Configuring the allocator module to default exactly what we needed into the draft invoices
  • Getting every one to enter time weekly-no exceptions.
Don't use a firm to help you unless they have a fair amount of experience. This product is deep and broad-get all the capabilities you paid for.
No
We provide this support ourselves to users of Dynamics SL-so we don't need to buy it. The group that we speak to at Microsoft has a lot of experience and passion about doing a good job when we do need to contact them. We have over 100 years of Dynamics SL support experience so it is rare that we need to call Microsoft.
The Boyer support team here has a team that can do environmental support, application support and custom programming support. Our clients tend to get to the right person fairly quickly due to our use of Dynamics CRM to assist with the queue. Microsoft has a team of people with 10+ years of experience when we call or email so the answers come quickly on the rare time that we need their help.
Yes
It depends on the severity of the problem. Serious problems get dealt with quickly. Issues where it is difficult to discern if the "bug" is really a design disagreement between what the user wants and what the software does obviously take longer. We can typically mitigate these differences with either a work around or some custom code for our clients.
We have gotten tremendous support from Microsoft on all 3 products-not just Dynamics SL but Dynamics NAV and Dynamics GP as well. I would say that Microsoft goes the extra mile in that they will even help debug a partner's code rather than just say "it's your fault-deal with it". This is rare for us but is happening now and we are getting the help we need for a very large Dynamics SL client.
  • Integrating sales order lines with project revenue and costs is unmatched.
  • Having project costs and revenues entered from any screen is extremely handy. You can make a Journal Entry to a project-updating both project and task
  • Hiding fields, making fields required, even creating your own screens and reports with the toolset are easy relative to most accounting software/ERP solutions.
  • Archiving data to a data warehouse if custom tables and custom programs have been added.
  • Transaction Import is not quite as easy to use as other transaction importing tools-but it's free.
  • Modifying some of the project accounting reports in Crystal is a bit difficult at times.
Yes
It works great. It's built with HTML 5 so works on any browser, tablet, or phone. This was such a huge and needed improvement to Dynamics SL! we are very happy that Microsoft made this investment as people get crabby when it takes them too long to enter their time.
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.
Bill Aiton | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Dynamics SL is used by our firm to do all accounting, payables, receivables, billing, project accounting and financials. We use many add on products since we resell this product and support over 200 customer users. It gives us experience on what works well to solve our problems and our customer needs.
  • SL Dynamics has a deep background in project costing. For over 15 years, the product has focused on this type of business and added deep functionality. We have many government contractor and other professional services firms that run their business a project at a time and SL is a great fit.
  • SL also has strong multi company accounting capability. One of our customers has 52 entities. Due to and Due From accounting is automatically managed. Cost allocations to entities is quite strong. Users can work in more than one company at a time.
  • SL also has deep functionality for distributors. Inventory, Sales order and purchasing are quite strong. For firms that have inventory and also are project oriented, it is one of the few products that manage both functions in a single system.
  • Core financial accounting is also strong and there are many add on products that enhance the capability of the product.
  • Because the product has been used in Windows since the mid-90s, there is a lot of feature depth. This sometimes gets in the way of customers with simple needs. Training can usually address this concern.
  • The application is client server at this time, so it can be hosted in the cloud using Terminal Services. Web enabled functions are starting to be released in the last year and more are to come, so in a few years, the product will be browser based.
  • The payroll module (used by less than 10% of our customers) could be easier to use and needs some new features, but it is a 3.5 out of 5.
  • Microsoft doesn't have a good budget solution, but there are good products from Solver (BI360) that do a great job of addressing complex budgeting needs.
  • The main reports in SL are Crystal and SSRS. Third party tools for simple reporting are available to help get data out. The new Smart Reports address this need also.
We see this as a great fit for the right company. I would say easily a 9 out of 10 and I don't have another 10 product in mind. It really depends on customer needs. Many times, it is an excellent solution for many companies.
There are other distribution solutions that are easier to use, so it might not be the first choice for that type of firm.
Payroll and HR are not the strongest in this product so a company that needed the best in that area, might look at Dynamics GP.
For Professional Services firms, it is an excellent choice!! One of the best.
  • Dramatic improvement in our ability to judge the profitability of jobs.
  • Lots of improvements in delivering invoices and statements to customers.
  • Automated AP approvals and imaging made our last tax audit a breeze.
  • Ease of reporting data is a big plus. Financial statements with drill down capability are very useful.
  • One integrated system means less data moving around and more real time information.
  • EFT payments, email statements and live linked Excel charts have improved our efficency
  • Too many more to name.
We used Connectwise, which did a good job costing function, but had to be periodically integrated and lacked some reporting capability.
We looked at GP but it does not have good project accounting, so it was not a good fit for our company.
We looked at NAV but there was too much customization required.
We used to use MAS 200, but the database was proprietary and the technology was very old and slow to change.
Deltek is used by many firms in our business, but feedback from customers that changed to Dynamics SL led us to avoid that choice.
We also looked at SAP Business One, but the product had weak job costing and limited functionality.
We couldn't run our business without it and it's a great fit. Plus we are a Dynamics SL partner with over 200 customers using SL. It's our comfort zone.
12
Accounting department, Executive leadership for financials, project managers for billing and project measurement, marketing for customer infomation.
3
A network engineer, a consultant and one of our owners. Of course,we are a Dynamics SL partner so most of our firm could support the product.
  • Project costing and analysis
  • Corporate financials
  • Expense reimbursements to employees
  • Email distribution of invoices and statements
  • Inventory and product billing
  • Excel reports for Top customers by year and all to date
  • Completely paperless expense reports with EFT payments direct to employee banks accounts
  • Project alerts and other alerts for out of bounds conditions and proactive analysis
  • Cloud deployment with no on site servers or equipment/software.
  • More integrated document storage and approval
  • Web based budgeting system
  • Automated email distributions of statements to internal Project Managers and Executives based on past due automated testing
  • Additional alerts to internal staff.
Yes
Microsoft and our firm have programs to get access to premium support. Less than 5% of customers have to get this as the standard support is quite strong.
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.
Yes
We have reported customer issues related to bugs and have found that the delivery exceeds the promised time in many cases. Bugs are taken seriously by Microsoft. Good experience here.
SSi Consulting (my firm) has an assigned Escalation Manager at Microsoft. We don't have to use them often, but when necessary, they can bring a team to focus on a customer problem and solve it quickly. It can be very helpful.
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