4 Essential Business Central Features Finance Teams Should Know About
- Kwixand Team
- Jul 23
- 7 min read
Discover the four most useful financial features in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Finance teams are constantly being asked to do more with less: provide more insights, more speed, more strategic input, all with fewer resources and tighter deadlines. That’s where Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central comes in. As a cloud-based ERP solution designed for small and mid-sized organizations, this agile solution helps modern finance departments meet all their challenges head-on. But with such a robust platform, many finance professionals don’t realize they’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible.
In this article, Brian Paquette, CEO of Kwixand Solutions, a CPA and Dynamics 365 consultant, sheds some light on what really makes a difference in the day-to-day operations of finance teams by listing the top features in Business Central that finance teams should be using but often aren’t.
Discover the standout capabilities every finance leader or professional should know about and how they can help simplify your day-to-day.
We'll cover:
Top 4 Business Central Features for Finance Teams
1. Dimensions
For Paquette, dimensions are the most valuable financial feature in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
"The most useful feature in Business Central is dimensions," says Brian. "It allows you to keep your chart of accounts nice and clean, but also allows the recording of additional financial dimensions or attributes. That then allows the later analysis of the data at a much more detailed level."
Essentially, dimensions are values used to categorize entries, enabling you to track and analyze data on documents, such as sales orders. For example, dimensions can show which department or project an entry is linked to. This means you don’t need to create separate general ledger accounts for each department or project.
Instead of bloating your chart of accounts with endless segment combinations, you can use dimensions to track important attributes like departments, projects, regions, or cost centers. This simplifies day-to-day data entry and keeps financial reporting flexible without compromising structure.
More importantly, dimensions unlock more detailed and meaningful analysis. By tagging entries with dimensions, you can slice and dice your financial data however you need. Want to see profitability by project? Track marketing spend by campaign? Compare department-level expenses across regions? Dimensions make all of that possible without resorting to manual spreadsheet work.
2. Analysis Views
A powerful financial feature of Business Central is the Analysis Views.
"Any list page in Business Central, you can activate what's called analysis views," says Paquette. "It gives me the ability to analyze data very similar to an Excel pivot table, but right within the software so the data's always up to date."
Analysis views are built directly into Business Central and function similarly to Excel’s pivot tables, but with one crucial difference: they’re connected to live data. This means there is no need to export to Excel or perform manual refreshes. You can activate analysis views on almost any list page and instantly start summarizing, grouping, and filtering data from nearly any list, from general ledger entries to item sales. This enables faster and more consistent access to financial and operational metrics.
Paquette emphasized how valuable this is for real-time monitoring and decision-making. "This allows me to summarize and organize the data, so I can monitor things very, very quickly," he adds.
This is ideal for quickly monitoring KPIs, identifying trends, or drilling into details, all without needing to leave the system or manually manipulate a spreadsheet. Finance professionals often don’t realize this functionality exists, which is why it’s one of the most underused features in Business Central, according to Paquette.
3. Financial Reporting Capabilities
Another feature that stands out is Business Central’s financial reporting capabilities. Once your dimensions and chart of accounts are set up correctly, Business Central allows you to build custom financial reports that reflect the structure of your business, not someone else’s template.
"Being able to define my financial reports, how I want to see them, analyze them, and review them based on the dimensions and chart of accounts in any format I want gives the ability to manage the business in the most flexible way possible," Paquette explains.
The solution allows finance teams to produce up-to-date financial statements with custom layouts and filters, whether they’re reviewing operating expenses by department or revenue by business line. And because the reports pull directly from live system data, they’re always current and up-to-date. This means you no longer need to wait until month-end or cobble together spreadsheets from outdated exports.
This reporting flexibility is critical for organizations that need to make fast decisions based on real-time data, and it’s especially helpful when presenting to leadership or external stakeholders who expect clear and consistent financial insight. This functionality eliminates the delays and inconsistencies often found in Excel-driven processes.
4. Cash Management and Bank Reconciliation
Managing liquidity and reconciling bank accounts are foundational tasks for any finance department. Business Central simplifies these with its cash management and bank reconciliation tools.
"The way transactions are inherently recorded regarding anything that reflects on cash is automatically recorded in the cash management facilities within the software," says Paquette. "That allows me to manage and view my cash and reconcile to the bank very easily."
Any transaction that touches cash is automatically captured in Business Central’s cash management tools. That means finance teams can get an accurate picture of available funds at any time without manual adjustments or reconciliation exercises.
Paquette also points to the time-saving power of automation. When it comes time to reconcile bank statements, built-in automatic matching reduces the effort involved. The platform can even leverage Microsoft Copilot for AI-assisted reconciliation.
"Using the bank reconciliation features, the automatic matching, and even the ability to build in the Copilot functionality to automatically reconcile my banks really allows me to manage the bank and spend very little time doing that."
These features free up time for finance teams to focus on more strategic tasks rather than getting bogged down in manual reconciliations and error correction.
Why These Features Are Often Overlooked
It might be surprising to hear that all four of these features are often overlooked and underutilized, particularly by organizations already using Business Central. So why does this happen?
Paquette cites a lack of awareness and training as the main reason. "A lot of the time clients are trying to get information out and report on it, but the exercise has typically been to extract the data, manipulate it in Excel, and format it. When really all they're trying to do is get an up-to-date view of that data."
Analysis views, in particular, are frequently overlooked. "We've taken on clients that are already using the software, and they're not aware that some of these features even exist,” he adds.
Another barrier is the perception of the time required to implement these features. "Most of what I've talked about doesn't take a lot of time to implement," Brian explains. "And once configured, they can be used on an ongoing basis. It really eliminates the manual work that's involved on a month-to-month or even day-to-day basis."
How Finance Leaders Can Start Getting More from Business Central
For finance leaders looking to get more out of Business Central, Paquette’s recommendation is simple: start by talking to your Microsoft partner.
"Start by having a conversation with their Microsoft partner," he says. "Finance leaders are definitely capable of researching and reading about the latest developments in the software. But they don’t have a lot of time."
Partners like Kwixand Solutions can step in quickly to identify where a company is struggling and where they’ll get the biggest return on improvement efforts. "Once we understand that, we can help implement a roadmap that gets the biggest benefit from Business Central’s financial management features,” Paquette adds.
Some improvements may involve light training or configuration, while others can be managed by the client directly. The key is to focus efforts on features that provide the biggest return with the least friction.
Client Success: Solving a Tariff Tracking Challenge Using Analysis View
To bring it all to life, Brian shared a real-world example of how these features made a tangible difference for a client.
"One of our clients imports a large number of items that they stock and provide to their customers," Paquette shares. "With the current economic environment and the threat of tariffs, they were really struggling with their real cost of goods and how much they were spending on tariffs."
The client was considering complex manual processes just to track tariff-related costs. "They were thinking of trying to figure out how to implement complex exercises and manual processes to report on tariffs to the executive level."
Instead, Brian suggested a far simpler and more effective solution. "There was a very brief exercise in turning on the analysis views in the right pages and allowing them to summarize, based on time frames and filters, what they were spending on tariffs."
That small change had a big and immediate impact. "It immediately gave them the information they required and set them up to monitor and report on that on an ongoing basis."
Key Takeaway
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers finance teams powerful capabilities to streamline processes, improve visibility, and make better decisions. Valuable features such as dimensions, financial reporting, analysis views, and cash management don’t just help you organize your data. They help you transform it into insight, speed, and strategic advantage.
Whether you’re new to Business Central or have been using it for years, now is the time to take a fresh look at the financial capabilities available to you. Start the conversation with your Microsoft partner, identify your pain points, and put a plan in motion. The return on that investment in both time and business insight will be more than worth it.
Want the Most Out of D365 Business Central? Kwixand Solutions Can Help.
Whether you’re in the evaluation stage or have been using Business Central in your organization for ages, Kwixand Solutions can help you make the most of your solution. As a Microsoft Partner based in Canada, we help businesses across the US and Canada achieve business goals, simplify operations, and set you up for long-term success.
Whether it's setting up dimensions for better reporting, optimizing your financial workflows, or training your team, we provide the expertise and support you need to make the most out of your ERP investment. Book a consultation with us today to get started.
