Dynamics 365 Business Central: Essential vs Premium comparison

I’ve received this question from many sources, so I’ve decided to share here what is clear at today (official Microsoft news). Hoping it could be useful to start thinking if it could fit your business.

Essential version:

Multiple languages

Switch languages on the client in real time, provided that the desired language is available.

Reason codes

Define a set of reason codes that can be assigned to individual transactions throughout the system, providing user-defined audit trails.

Extended text

Set up an unlimited number of lines to describe inventory items, resources, and general ledger accounts.

Intrastat reporting

Automatically retrieve the necessary data to report Intrastat information to statistics authorities. Local customs authorities can inform you whether your company is obligated to file such a report.

Outlook integration

Synchronize your to-do items and your contacts with your meetings, tasks, and contacts in Outlook.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT:

Basic General Ledger

Set up a company and start posting to the general ledger, chart of accounts, general journals, VAT facilities, recurring journals, and source codes.

Budgets

Work with budgets in general ledger accounts.

Deferrals

Set up deferral templates that automate the process of deferring revenues and expenses over a pre-defined schedule.

Basic fixed assets

Keep track of fixed assets and related transactions such as acquisitions, depreciations, write-downs, appreciations, and disposals.

Audit trails

The system automatically assigns audit trails and posting descriptions to every transaction. In addition, users can define reason codes to create complementary audit trails.

Bank account management

Create, operate, and manage multiple bank accounts for catering to your diverse business needs and across different currencies

Reconciliation

Reconcile your bank statement data automatically to open bank account ledger entries end keep track of all your bank statements.

Dimensions

Add unlimited dimensions to any ledger for advanced transaction analyses.

Currencies

Manage multiple currencies throughout the system, including payables and receivables, general ledger reports, resource and inventory items, and bank accounts.

CRM:

Contacts

Maintain an overview of your contacts and record your contact information for all business relationships.

Campaigns

Organize campaigns based on segments of your contacts that you define.

Opportunity management

Keep track of sales opportunities, section your sales processes into different stages, and use this information to manage your sales opportunities.

Dynamics 365 for Sales integration

Integrate with Dynamics 365 for Sales in a few easy steps to synchronize your data, including sales orders, item availability, units of measure, and currencies.

SUPPLY CHAIN:

Sales order management

Manage sales orders, blanket sales orders, and sales order processes.

Basic receivables

Post sales transactions in journals and manage receivables; register customers and manage receivables using general journals.

Purchase order management

Manage purchases, blanket orders, and purchase order processes.

Locations

Manage inventory in multiple locations that may represent a production plant, distribution center, warehouse, showroom, retail outlet, or service car.

Item transfers

Track inventory as it’s moved from one location to another and account for the value of inventory in transit at various locations.

Basic warehousing

Manage items on a bin level. Pick and put-away items in a bin and move items between bins using a report that optimizes space usage and picking processes.

HUMAN RESOURCES:

Employees

Group and track employee information and organize employee data according to different types of information, such as experience, skills, education, training, and union membership.

Expense management

Post expenses against employee cards to track and reimburse their expenses.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT:

Resources

Register and sell resources, combine related resources into one resource group, or track individual resources.

Estimates

Monitor resource usage and get a complete overview of your capacity for each resource with information about availability and planned costs on orders and quotes.

Jobs

Keep track of usage on jobs and data for invoicing the customer. Manage both fixed-price jobs and time-and-materials jobs.

Time sheets

Time sheets are a simple and flexible solution for time registration with manager approval and integrate with Service, Jobs, and Basic Resources.

PREMIUM version:

SERVICE MANAGEMENT

Service orders

Register your after-sales issues including service requests, services due, service orders, and repair requests.

Service price management

Set up, maintain, and monitor your service prices.

Service item management

Record and keep track of all your service items, including contract information, component management, and BOM reference and warranty information.

Service contract management

Record details on service levels, response times, and discount levels, as well as on the service history of each contract, including used service items and parts and labor hours.

Planning

Assign personnel to work orders and log details such as work order handling and work order status.

Dispatching

Manage service personnel and field technician information, and filter according to availability, skills, and stock items.

MANUFACTURING:

Production orders

Create and manage production orders and post consumption and output to the production orders.

Version management

Create and manage different version of the manufacturing bill of materials and routings.

Agile manufacturing

Plan rush hours, make exceptions, and handle last-minute changes to your processes with multiple planning options.

Basic supply planning

Plan for material requirements based on demand, with support for master production scheduling and materials requirements planning.

Demand forecasting

Plan and create production and purchase orders, taking into consideration the demand forecast together with the level of available inventory and parameters of requirement planning.

Capacity planning

Add capacities to the manufacturing process. Set up routings and use these routings on production orders and in material requirements planning.

Machine centers

Manage capacity on several levels; on a more detailed level for machine centers and on a consolidated level for work centers.

Finite loading

Take capacity constraints into account so that no more work is assigned to a work center than the capacities can be expected to execute during a given time period.