Two ERP proposals land on your desk: one for Odoo, one for Dynamics 365 Business Central. The prices differ, and one offer details its extensions while the other lists features. In that situation the useful question is whether both offers measure the same thing. At ToDoOps, we write for Saudi decision makers who want a fair comparison before they sign. If you would like to understand what Odoo offers your company first, start with ToDoOps.
Why the quality of the comparison matters now
Deloitte’s 2025 digital-transformation research reports ERP investment among respondents at 43% in 2025, compared with 35% in 2024, a rise of 8 percentage points. It covered 548 director-level and more senior respondents across five industries, in companies with annual revenue of at least US$500 million 1.
Interest in ERP is growing, and the value of your decision comes from how well you compare. Write one scenario from your business, such as a sale with installation and service, and ask each provider to run it on synthetic data operated by your own team. Tell us which process must work, and we will help you define a scope both offers can be measured against.
Odoo vs Business Central: define the product first
“Dynamics” is a product family. This guide covers Business Central only, not Dynamics 365 Finance, Supply Chain Management or Microsoft 365 as a suite. If your proposal does not name the product clearly, read our Dynamics product-scope guide first.
What Business Central covers
Microsoft Learn documents Business Central for finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, projects and more, with documented connections to Excel, Outlook, Teams and the Power Platform 2. Availability and usage rights for applications, integrations and Copilot features depend on the licence and applicable terms, and the documentation mostly describes the current cloud service. If your team lives in Microsoft tools, that is a fair reason to evaluate it. Then test the specific connection you need on your own workflow.
Essentials and Premium
Microsoft’s experience documentation describes Essentials for the core scope and Premium as adding manufacturing and Service Management. Selecting the Premium experience does not assign licences, and permissions are separate. Essentials users cannot sign in to a company using the Premium experience, so be careful when mixing plans in one company.
Ask each provider the practical question: in our company, on cloud deployment, which user needs which licence for which role? Get the answer in writing with current usage rights. We do not quote licence prices here, so request dated terms that suit your country.
Manufacturing in Odoo and Business Central: assembly or production?
Assembly Management combines components and links sales, inventory, consumption and output; it is distinct from the full Manufacturing scope. Test your specific process: some assembly work may be covered by assembly tools, while complex production belongs to the appropriate plan. In Odoo 19, the Bills of materials documentation covers the components and operations required for production 3, so use it to review the manufacturing scope in the Odoo proposal against the same process.
Saudi requirements: ask about every item
Business Central localization combines Microsoft-led and partner-led functionality and apps. Seeing Saudi Arabia or Arabic in a list is not enough to know that the extension you need exists, is current and is supported. Ask each provider: which capability, extension and version, and who reviews and updates it? Then run invoices, returns and corrections with your finance representative across the scope of your entity. Ask Odoo the same questions.
The decision table
Ask each provider to complete the cells with evidence and record every gap that stays open. On a small screen, scroll the table horizontally.
| Decision | Evidence in the Odoo proposal | Evidence in the Business Central proposal |
|---|---|---|
| Sales, installation and service cycle | The process run on your synthetic data | The process run on your synthetic data |
| Team usage | Different roles performing their tasks | Different roles performing their tasks |
| Integration | What connects and how errors are handled | What connects and how errors are handled |
| Saudi requirements | Capability, extension, version and update owner | Capability, extension, version and update owner |
| Data ownership | Who owns it and how it is extracted | Who owns it and how it is extracted |
| Extension upkeep | Who tests after each update | Who tests after each update |
| Cost | Itemised price, with or without tax | Itemised price, with or without tax |
Compare Odoo and Business Central total cost on one basis
The structure: one-time implementation, plus recurring charges across the chosen period, plus separately identified approved work. Use the same period for both offers, and if the first year is already inside the recurring total, do not count it twice. Separate licences from implementation, data, extensions, integrations and support, and ask who handles updates and how easily the service could move to another provider.
For the Odoo side, you can build a first estimate in the ToDoOps calculators. They are an optional tool that estimates the cost of implementing Odoo and potential savings, not a price quote for a specific service, and they do not replace a written offer from any provider.
One business story for both demonstrations
A hypothetical Saudi company sells 10 devices: 8 are delivered now and 2 later. Installation takes place once the customer agrees a date. A service case is later opened for one device, and a replacement part is tested against the device reference.
Let a finance user, a warehouse user and a customer-service user perform their own tasks on synthetic data, instead of watching a presenter. The warehouse confirms the two outstanding devices do not appear delivered. Service follows the affected device and the replacement policy. Finance explains when the invoice or credit note is issued and how the payment is matched. A good proposal states how these steps connect, under what conditions and who owns each one.
Then change one thing: a short quantity, an extra installation hour or a user without approval rights. What needs approval, what is blocked and what can be corrected is what shows whether the system fits your business. Note too that an installation project is not the same as service order management, and that invoice, payment, return and credit note are separate operations to test.
To picture how an order moves between sales and stock in Odoo, try Odoo interactively. It is a guided simulation with hypothetical data for a sales and inventory path. It helps you understand how departments connect. You can also browse Odoo apps and the industries page for what fits your activity.
When does one offer lead?
If Microsoft tools are central to your team’s daily work, integration fit may be a strong reason to trial Business Central. If your priority is bringing one operating cycle together when it is split today across applications and spreadsheets, test how the defined Odoo scope covers it. If you are moving from an existing system, ask both providers for a clear data-migration plan. The value lies in the task the user completes and the evidence management receives, not in the number of application names.
On customisation, ask what is standard configuration, what is an extension and what is bespoke development. Who owns the code and documentation, and how is an extension tested after an update? Those answers shape your continuity after go-live, so get them in the proposal.
Questions when choosing between the two
Is Business Central only for large enterprises?
No. Microsoft presents it for small and mid-sized organisations, so rejecting it on size alone is unfair. Judge your scope: processes, users, licences and extensions.
Does using Microsoft 365 make Business Central the automatic choice?
It is a fair reason to evaluate it. Demonstrate the benefit for a specific job, include any conditions or costs, then compare the ERP cycle itself.
Does Odoo always cost less?
Compare the same users, period, scope, data, additions and support before concluding anything. Ask for explicit exclusions and renewal assumptions.
Is country availability enough to prove Saudi compliance?
Establish the required functions and who supplies and updates each one. Test representative transactions with finance, for both products.
What if both demonstrations look good?
Move beyond the normal case with a partial delivery, a correction and a permission boundary. Then compare remaining gaps, data reconciliation and update testing, and choose the system your team can operate and your provider can maintain.
Sources and references
[1] Deloitte. Original source. Digital-transformation research, 16 October 2025: 548 director-level and more senior respondents across five industries, in companies with revenue of at least US$500 million. Fieldwork: May–June 2025.
[2] Microsoft Learn — official documentation. Business Central overview and Essentials/Premium experiences. Business Central overview, Essentials/Premium experiences and permissions, Assembly Management and local functionality. These sections document the configuration and workflows discussed here.
[3] Odoo — official documentation, version 19.0. Bills of materials, Work centres and Manufacturing order costs.
Evaluate Odoo against the work you actually need
If you are comparing ERP proposals, tell us which process has to work and where the offers are hard to compare. You do not need to prepare an export or send a confidential competing quotation before talking. Discuss your Odoo requirements with ToDoOps so you can evaluate a clear scope, its conditions and the evidence needed to accept it. Before that, you can explore the ToDoOps approach to Odoo and put a first estimate together in the calculators.