For cannabusinesses and grow companies, choosing between Microsoft Dynamic 365 Business Central vs Quickbooks for your operation can be a make or break for your overall success. While both softwares are able to manage the complexities that relate directly to cannabusinesses, knowing how both of them separately play a role is key to administering the ideal solution for your business. To properly gauge how each software operates as a cannabis financial software, here are some things to consider before choosing.

Quickbooks

Owned by Intuit, Quickbooks has been around for a long time, with multiple versions available such as QuickBooks Online Plus, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Platinum, Gold, and Silver. As you move to a more elite version, you get increased functionality in instances such as advanced reporting, payroll, inventory, and pricing.

Some strengths of Quickbooks include:

• Longevity and Market Presence – It would be difficult to find an experienced accountant that has never relied on QuickBooks. Since the support, community, and public knowledge is very strong, you can greatly reduce training costs if implementing this software to your cannabusiness.
• Full Range of Deployment Options – With Quickbooks, you can run solutions in a “single-tenant” configuration, giving you the option to move the app from hosting in a private cloud to a public cloud, if necessary. Quickbooks is also extremely easy to buy and set up without help.
• Easily Integrated Payroll and Payment Processing – Perhaps the best feature within Quickbooks is its reliable and convenient payroll and merchant service add-ons. These add-ons are well integrated into the QuickBooks platforms, and provide cannabusinesses with plenty of leverage regarding payment.

Overall, Quickbooks is mostly ideal for small companies and tends to lack the full range of functionality required by many vertically integrated or multi-state operators looking to scale. These weaknesses include:

• Weak User Roles and Security Options – With Quickbooks, it’s often too easy for mistakes to be made and for users to have improper access to crucial data.
• Not So Great Audit Trails – With no record of logins/logoffs, or changes to master records, Quickbooks fails to deliver well with audits.
• Limited and/or Inconvenient Reporting Options — Those using Quickbooks may have some general difficulty analyzing customer insights and reporting analytical capabilities.
• Requires Siloed Systems – If your cannabis business is looking to scale in any way, you will quickly outgrow Quickbooks. Having to combine a separate financial software with a seed-to-sale software along with several other piecemeal systems will quickly create inefficiencies and block growth.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

One of the most glaring differences between Quickbooks vs Dynamics 365 Business Central is that the latter is a much more robust software that is part of a true ERP solution, making it significantly more comprehensive and suitable for growing cannabusinesses. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides numerous benefits, which include aspects such as:

• One Solution for your Cannabusiness – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a complete ERP software solution with financials and accounting as the cornerstone of the system. Combining financials, supply chain, manufacturing, operations, and reporting in one place provides real-time data, eliminates double entry, and significantly reduces costly errors.
• Overall Value – Microsoft claims that its softwares have nearly 800 features that QuickBooks does not have. When comparing Dynamics 365 pricing to QuickBooks, the former rings in at $70 USD/user/month, whereas the latter can cost up to $184 USD/user/month for the Platinum edition.
• Good Audit Trail and Reporting – Microsoft Dynamics 365 has a much more clear cut audit trail, better protecting cannabusinesses against errors and employee theft. Its reporting capabilities give users the chance to use a web-based reporting portal, easily connect data to a full reporting solution, see open purchase orders and purchase comparisons in accounts payable, and give different data access permissions to different users.
• Integration With Microsoft Office – For those who also use Microsoft Office, Outlook, Excel, or any other Microsoft products, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central allows for full integration with these programs. This allows for businesses to process quotes and invoices right inside Outlook, which is hugely convenient for many.

Some weaknesses that Microsoft Dynamics 365 faces include:

• Larger investment, but a more comprehensive and secure solution
• Harder to implement, incorporate, and use without prior knowledge

What Cannabis businesses Should Look for in Software

Some major aspects a cannabusiness should explore for their cannabis financial software include:

• Granular tracking and audit trails
• Customizable and scalable software
• Multilingual and multi-currency capabilities (great with Microsoft 365)
• Full integration in line with operations

365 Cannabis

The battle between Microsoft Dynamic 365 Business Central vs Quickbooks is really comparing apples to baseballs. If your cannabusiness is looking to expand, either in size or across state or country lines, the choice is simple. Quickbooks can be a suitable option for small startups, but Microsoft Dynamics is superior for cannabis operators looking to scale.

At 365 Cannabis, our professional team and cannabis ERP software is committed to helping you grow your cannabusiness. We offer a comprehensive, vertically integrated ERP software that scales as you do. 365 Cannabis is built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and customized to meet the needs of the cannabis industry. 

Learn more about how we can bring an optimized solution to your business, or contact us directly for any questions regarding our products or services.