Transforming Finance: How Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Delivered a 4 Day Close for Norham Industries

In a landscape of constant change, finance teams are expected to do more with less—faster closes, deeper insights, and rock-solid compliance. Many still operate with outdated ERPs and spreadsheets that slow them down. This was the case at Norham Industries, a fast-growing global manufacturer that faced lengthy close cycles and fragmented systems.

By implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Norham revolutionized its finance operations—achieving a 4-day month-end close, eliminating manual reconciliations, and gaining real-time control over global financial performance.

In this blog, we break down the journey: the challenges, solution, outcomes, and lessons that can help your finance team do the same.

The Challenge: Complex, Disconnected Finance Operations

Norham Industries operates across five countries, manufacturing industrial materials for global clients. As growth accelerated, its finance operations became increasingly difficult to manage. Key challenges included:

• 14-day month-end close due to manual data collection and reconciliation
• Multiple disconnected ERPs, each with its own chart of accounts
• Lack of real-time visibility into financial KPIs and cash flow
• Intercompany transactions handled via spreadsheets
• Audit and compliance gaps due to manual journal entries

Finance leadership knew they needed to unify systems, eliminate inefficiencies, and scale for international growth. They chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance to lead this transformation.

Why Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance was selected for its modern, cloud-native capabilities that directly addressed Norham’s pain points.

Core Features Implemented

• General Ledger – centralized across all regions, with dimensional tracking
• Accounts Payable & Receivable – standardized vendor and customer lifecycle
• Cash and Bank Management – rule-based reconciliation, real-time bank data
• Budgeting & Forecasting – scenario modeling across departments
• Fixed Assets – automated depreciation and lifecycle management
• Financial Reporting – real-time dashboards via embedded Power BI

Technical Highlights

• Hosted securely in Microsoft Azure, enabling global scalability
• Integrated with Power Platform for automation and custom workflows
• Used Dataverse to extend and normalize financial entities
• Deployed role-based security to support audit and segregation of duties

Implementation Roadmap: From Discovery to Go-Live

Norham’s rollout followed a structured, agile methodology over 14 weeks:

Phase 1: Discovery & Design (3 Weeks)

• Conducted finance and IT stakeholder workshops
• Mapped legacy systems and documented current pain points
• Designed a harmonized chart of accounts and dimensional structure

Phase 2: Build & Configuration (6 Weeks)

• Set up intercompany rules and multi-currency workflows
• Developed Power Automate flows for invoice approvals and alerts
• Integrated banking APIs for daily statement imports

Phase 3: Migration & Testing (3 Weeks)

• Migrated GL balances, open invoices, vendors/customers
• Validated data via ETL and sandbox testing in Azure Data Lake
• Performed User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with real-world scenarios

Phase 4: Training & Go-Live (2 Weeks)

• Delivered role-specific training for finance users
• Went live with parallel close support in the first month
• Established post-launch governance model for continuous improvement

Real-World Case: Month-End Close, Reinvented

Before Dynamics 365 Finance:

• Norham needed 14 business days to complete a month-end close
• Reconciliations were handled via Excel
• Multi-entity consolidation caused delays and mismatches
• Bank reconciliations took 5+ days per region

After Dynamics 365 Finance:

• Close time reduced to 4 days
• Bank feeds automated, with over 90% match rate
• Intercompany billing automated with predefined rules
• Dashboards refreshed in real-time, tracking KPIs by region and business unit

Results in Numbers

Strategic Benefits & ROI

Adopting Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance gave Norham Industries measurable and strategic improvements.

Quantitative ROI

• 71% reduction in month-end close time
• 85% fewer reconciliation issues across bank and intercompany processes
• 30% increase in forecast accuracy
• Significant reduction in audit findings related to manual entries

Strategic Gains

• Unified global view of financial health across all business units
• Real-time decision-making through Power BI dashboards
• Improved compliance posture, with full audit trails and SoD enforcement
• Scalability to support mergers, acquisitions, and geographic expansion

Lessons Learned & Best Practices

1. Start with clean data – cleansing vendor/customer records early avoided downstream issues
2. Limit COA complexity – don’t over-engineer dimensions or segmentations
3. Automate low-hanging fruit – such as bank reconciliation and AP approvals
4. Invest in change management – involve finance users in testing and rollout
5. Define roles clearly – role-based security helped with SoD and faster approvals
6. Roll out in phases – begin with one region or legal entity before expanding globally

Automation Spotlight: Bank & Intercompany Workflows

Two areas of standout transformation:

Bank Reconciliation

• Daily bank feeds integrated via Bank Data Management
• Reconciliation rules set by amount, date, and transaction type
• Exceptions routed via Power Automate for finance review
• Match rate reached 92% on average within three weeks

Intercompany Transactions

• Predefined rules created automated invoice generation
• Journal entries and eliminations handled via batch jobs
• Consolidated reporting available immediately post-close

These two automations alone saved 40+ hours per month of manual work and drastically improved accuracy.

Final Takeaways

Norham Industries’ journey showcases how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance can act as a catalyst for digital transformation in finance. Key takeaways:

• Unify fragmented systems into a centralized, real-time finance platform
• Automate critical workflows to reduce errors and manual work
• Enhance compliance with auditable, role-based workflows
• Enable scale with global capabilities and cloud-native architecture

For finance leaders dealing with long close cycles, siloed data, and audit challenges, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance offers a scalable, intelligent, and future-ready solution.

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