Pros and Cons of SAP Business One

Pros:
# The user-defined fields very suitable for a lot of companies. Most packages in this price range do not allow you to create additional fields, but SBO allows you to do so very easily within two minutes or so. I usually use these fields for analytical management reports like SalesByCustomerGroup, SalesByItemGroup. SBO already has a group that can be attached to individual item or customer but it is only one level so if a client wants a sub-grouping within a main group, you can create a user defined fields which allows you to further select which subgroups an item belongs to.Also, user defined fields are very good if there is additional information to be printed on documents like Invoices, Credit Notes and etc. which are not available by default from the software

# Great import feature in the form of Data Transfer Workbench. I actually use the Data Transfer Workbench to import Goods Receipt Note into a Material Issue document as well as from a Material Issues document sorted by projects into a Bill Of Material. But to do the exporting, I actually created a miniature program to export the information outside of SAP Business One.

# Great drill-down feature. You can actually determine if a Purchase Order is actually satisfied with which GoodReceiptNote.

# To clarify, Version 6.5 now has multiple vendors to an Item Code. It also allows multiple shipping addresses to one customer but it still has only one Billing address.

# SBO also allows you to copy all the items on an Invoice to a new Invoice and then just select the customer code. This is a great time saving feature.

# Their pricing feature should be more than satisfactory allowing for price breaks as well as different pricing for different range of calendar dates. It also allows you to create Price List books to be attached to individual customer.

# The DragAndRelate feature useful for salesman. Their data entry also serves as an inquiry screen as well. When it serves as an inquiry screen, whatever you fill in those fields will act as criteria for a search process. Initially, I had a little problem coming to terms with it but now I admit it is pretty cool because it does not just restrict you to searching by customer code or invoice number only.



Cons:

# The reports are quite terrible in my opinion. It is more of an on screen inquiry as it allows you to drill down basing on the report generated. I tend to design management reports outside of SBO using Borland Delphi with a royalty free component FastReport. I am not even using Crystal Report because I usually like to give end-users a menu to select which report they intend to run

# It is not an MRP solution because it does not do any scheduling. As far as job costing is concerned, check with your consultant. In my present company, I set up several warehouses to designate as WIP stores and so whatever is left in those warehouses are considered to be WIP.

# Two main weakness in my opinion is their Banking module and Document Editing feature. The Banking module can do the data entry job but the client has to do it in different areas depending on the situation whether in the GL as a journal or the Banking module.
Their Report Designer (known as Document Editing) is only good for designing Invoices, Purchase Orders (SBO terms these as a marketing document). But I would not use it for Management Reports - I still like to use Delphi/FastReport for that purpose.