June 08, 2016
Project Accounting
Support Headcount Required
1 - Accounting Background, former consultant implementing SL (Solomon)
TrustRadius
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.https://media.trustradius.com/product-logos/Sr/7i/OTCTGZAJ1NQF.pngMicrosoftProject Accounting2015-04-07T14:22:43.873ZMicrosoft Dynamics SL is used for project management and financial reporting. It is used across the organization. The financial modules provide general ledger details and reporting along with payroll being processed for projects and management.,Project accounting is linked to the Financial modules - there is no need to duplicate data entry. Reporting in Project Modules is extensive.
Validation of fields for data entry and solid integrity of data.
Customizations of screens for data entry for users and addition of fields.,Purchasing does not have a budget validation to warn or stop a purchase from going over budget on a project level.
Project budgeting does not have an interface with inventory ids.
Financial modules could have more quick vewing screens for example a quick way to find the check no. of an invoice.,9,Project data is updated quickly and reporting tools available for management daily.,,1,1,Vendor implemented,1,1,1,1Marilyn McGeachyDynamics SL - A strong product for Now and the Future2014-07-03T18:30:09.044ZMackay 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.,9,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.,,150,2,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.,9,9,8,10Mark SchrierMy 17 year review of Microsoft Dynamics SL is nothing but POSITIVE!2015-04-03T15:58:25.142ZWe 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.,10,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.,,100,1,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.,10Jeffrey MorinDynamics SL-The Right Choice for the Project-Based Organization2014-06-25T22:01:02.664ZWe 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.,9,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.,,10,21,8,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,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,No,Change management was minimal,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.,10,No,10,Yes,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,10,9Jack BoyerDynamics SL Partner Review2014-06-27T21:35:48.919ZDynamics 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.,9,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.,,10,12,3,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,8,Yes,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.Bill AitonMicrosoft Dynamics SL is quite dynamic!2015-03-27T20:31:39.732ZCurrently, 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.,8,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.,QuickBooks Pro,5,5,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,1,Not Sure,Product Features
Product Usability,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.,9,10,Yes,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,8Verified UserWould not purchase SL today2014-06-28T18:35:10.622ZIt is being used for AP/AR in Accounting; users are in more departments than just Acctg. (For example, I am in Land). We were using QuickBooks and this was supposed to streamline our processes and handle more payees. The reporting capabilities were supposed to be great; they are not turning out to be even remotely sufficient for what we need.,It is sufficient to process AP
It is sufficient to process POs,The reporting functions should be much more robust
We have too many glitches and work - arounds
Our support has been minimally effective
The licenses are too expensive for the quality of the product,2,Not my question to answer for our company.,,14,1,AP/AR
POs
Reporting,2,Vendor implemented,6Verified User
Unspecified
Microsoft Dynamics SL
53 Ratings
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