GP Chart of Accounts vs. Dynamics 365 Dimensional Accounting

Microsoft Dynamics GP has been a good solution for many years but, as with any aging system, there are some challenges and workarounds required as you grow. If you find your chart of accounts has become big and bloated and difficult to manage, you’re going to love dimensional accounting in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. 

Your ERP solution must give you insight across your operations and enable you to make better decisions as a result. There are multiple ways ERP can do this, but at its simplest it comes down to reporting. If you currently use GP with a traditionally segmented chart of accounts, it’s no exaggeration to say that transitioning from GP to Dynamics 365 dimensional accounting will revolutionize your accounting and reporting. You’ll be able to gain insight in minutes from data that would have previously taken days of work to analyze.  

In this article we explain the major difference but encourage you to see how it all works by watching our on-demand webinar, Dimensional Accounting in D365 Business Central. 

Chart of Accounts in Dynamics GP 

Although maintaining a chart of accounts that’s as simple as possible is a best practice for preventing confusion and errors in GP, it’s inevitable that as your business grows, so does your chart of accounts.  

Adding departments, service levels, product lines, and other segments is simply necessary to track all the information that’s important. However, as you’ve likely experienced, it can quickly become extremely difficult to navigate, decide which accounts to use in which circumstances, and find the information you need. You end up sifting through hundreds of accounts for data entry, daily tasks, and analysis. All of this adds up to more mistakes, slower reporting, and less insight.  

Dimensional Accounting in Dynamics 365 Business Central 

All those problems we mentioned above have been solved with the dimensional accounting capabilities of Business Central.  

What is a dimension in D365? 

Dimensions are a user-definable list in which you can track any characteristic you want. In Business Central, there’s no limit to the number of dimensions you can create. This means you can set up a simple chart of accounts and add as many user-defined dimensions as you need. It’s then easy to simply sort by one or more dimensions to find the information you’re looking for and quickly create detailed, helpful reports.  

Here are some examples of how dimensional accounting in Dynamics 365 reimagines and revolutionizes the traditional chart of accounts: 

• Rather than setting up numerous accounts, simply set up one primary account and tag entries with different dimensions such as product line or geographic unit. 
• Quickly sort information based on multiple characteristics, such as customer type, location, and item type. Just select the dimensions you want to analyze. 
• Easily create flexible reports using dimensions and filters within Business Central, Excel, Power BI, or another reporting tool. 
• As your business grows and changes, just add new dimensions – no need to worry about restructuring your entire chart of accounts.  

Ready to learn more about dimensional accounting in Dynamics 365? 

We get really excited about dimensions because of how we’ve been able to help our clients streamline and simplify accounting with Dynamics 365. If you’d like to see dimensional accounting in action, check out our webinar Dimensional Accounting in D365 Business Central or contact our Dynamics 365 experts today!