Customer overview
Established over 110 years ago, this client is the UK’s leading trade body in its sector. Representing the interests of thousands of businesses across England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Man, the organisation is committed to raising standards across the industry. It supports its members through advice, training, and the promotion of best practices. The client engaged the 848 Group to lead a major transformation of its ERP environment – migrating away from Sage and adopting a more integrated, cloud-based solution using Microsoft technologies.
The challenge
Legacy systems were limiting growth and efficiency.
The organisation, a leading UK trade association, was using Sage to manage core financial operations. Over time, this legacy system became a barrier to integration, accuracy, and scale – especially as the business adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales as its CRM. Key issues included:
- Manual processes slowing down daily operations and month-end closures
- No reliable link between finance and sales platforms, increasing the risk of errors
- Inability to support multi-company reporting and accurate revenue recognition
- High overheads and supplier complexity due to fragmented systems
To future-proof the organisation’s infrastructure, Sage needed to be replaced with a modern, cloud-native ERP platform – one that could integrate smoothly with existing Microsoft systems and support evolving operational needs.
The solution
848 Group, in collaboration with FormusPro, designed and delivered a complete ERP migration to Dynamics 365 Business Central, with seamless integration into Dynamics 365 Sales using Power Automate. Here's how:
Discovery & planning
We assessed the current financial system and gathered requirements across finance, operations, and IT to ensure Business Central would meet business goals.
ERP migration
The team eplaced Sage with Business Central to manage accounts payable, receivable, ledgers, and multi-company financial operations, and configured ledgers to reflect revenue accurately and align with the timing of service delivery.
Power Automate integration
We developed robust Power Automate flows to synchronise sales and finance data, using scheduled, manual, and event-driven triggers, and built custom logic for data validation, error handling, and rollback – ensuring smooth, reliable syncing between platforms.
Multi-company support
Our consultants set up Business Central to handle accounting for multiple legal entities, enabling clear revenue separation and simplified reporting.
Standards-based delivery
All automation followed Microsoft development best practices to ensure performance, maintainability, and scalability. We also delivered support materials such as:
- Structured Power Automate documentation
- System configuration guide
- Financial reporting templates and data validation process
The outcome
The client now operates on a single, integrated Microsoft platform that brings sales and finance together – unlocking better performance, visibility, and control.
Simplified financial operations › Daily processing and month-end tasks are faster and more accurate, thanks to automation and real-time syncing.
Fully integrated platform › With Business Central and Dynamics 365 Sales connected via Power Automate, there are no more data gaps or duplicated efforts.
Improved reporting and insight › The finance team now has access to reliable, up-to-date data across business units, improving confidence in decision-making.
Lower total cost of ownership › Removing legacy platforms reduced system complexity and support overheads, streamlining IT management.
Why it matters
In a large membership organisation, accurate data, smooth operations, and integrated systems aren’t nice to have – they’re essential. This transformation delivered a powerful platform for financial control, operational efficiency, and future growth.
