Dynamics 365 for an Irish company: 10 questions finance and IT teams ask before choosing a partner

Irish companies choosing a Dynamics 365 partner usually ask about five things before anything else: whether the system will meet Revenue's VAT obligations and the eInvoicing mandate that starts in November 2028, how it handles euro and sterling for trade with Northern Ireland and Great Britain, whether the partner needs an office in Dublin, where the data is held, and who supports the system once the project team leaves. The short answer is that Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations can carry all of this, but the outcome depends far more on the partner's discipline than on the software.

The ten questions below are the ones that come up most often when a CFO, a financial controller and a head of IT sit down to compare proposals. They are grouped into four themes: compliance, delivery, cost and contract, and data and support. Each answer explains what a good response from a partner sounds like and where the weak answers tend to hide. The guide is written for midsize Irish companies and Irish subsidiaries of international groups, the two profiles that most often run Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, and it draws on ANEGIS projects in the UK and for international companies whose markets include Ireland.

Key facts at a glance:

• eInvoicing deadline. From November 2028 large corporates must issue structured eInvoices for domestic B2B sales, and every business must be able to receive them; businesses trading within the EU follow in November 2029 and EU wide ViDA rules apply from July 2030.
• Format. Invoices must follow the European standard EN 16931; PDFs and scanned documents will not qualify.
• Currencies. Irish companies trading across the border routinely book in euro and sterling, which needs to be designed in from the start.
• Time zone. Ireland is one hour behind Poland and central Europe all year, so a nearshore team overlaps almost the whole Irish working day.
• ANEGIS on the Irish market. ANEGIS implemented its AXAD system for Exterion Media, whose markets included Ireland and the UK, and has supported BUUK Infrastructure in the UK for more than ten years.
• First step. A fixed price analysis and fit gap workshop gives a scope, schedule and cost before any licence is bought.

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Finance, tax and compliance

Compliance questions come first because they carry dates that do not move.

Will Dynamics 365 cover our Irish VAT returns and Revenue reporting?

It can, but ask the partner to prove it on your data rather than on a slide. Irish VAT reporting in Dynamics 365 Finance is built from tax codes, settlement periods and electronic reporting formats, and the quality of the setup decides whether the VAT return is a five minute review or a two day reconciliation. A good partner will map your current VAT treatment, including reverse charge, intra EU acquisitions and any partially exempt activity, during the fit gap phase and show which reports run from standard configuration and which need adjustment. A weak answer is a general assurance that "Ireland is supported" without a walk through of your own transactions. The finance team should leave the analysis knowing exactly how every line of the return will be produced.

Will the system be ready for eInvoicing and transaction reporting in 2028?

Revenue's VAT modernisation timeline is now fixed: large corporates must issue structured eInvoices and report domestic B2B transactions to Revenue as they happen from November 2028, businesses trading within the EU follow in November 2029, and the EU wide ViDA rules start in July 2030. Every business, whatever its size, must be able to receive and process structured invoices from mandated suppliers from 2028, a point ThinkBusiness stresses for smaller firms that are not yet required to issue them. Revenue has not yet published every technical detail, so the right answer from a partner is a plan, not a promise: how outgoing invoices will be produced in the EN 16931 format, how incoming ones will be matched and approved, and how the solution will be updated as the rules are finalised. A project that goes live in 2027 without this in scope will need a second project a year later.

How does it handle euro, sterling and trade with Northern Ireland and Great Britain?

Many Irish companies buy or sell in sterling, run a UK subsidiary or ship goods to Northern Ireland, which follows different VAT rules for goods than Great Britain. Dynamics 365 manages several currencies and legal entities in one system, with intercompany postings and consolidation, but the design choices matter. Decide early whether the UK business is a separate legal entity, how exchange rates are loaded and revalued, and how VAT codes distinguish sales to Northern Ireland from sales to Great Britain. A partner with work on both sides of the Irish Sea will raise these points in the first workshop. One that treats sterling as a simple currency field will leave the finance team to fix the gaps after go live, usually at the first month end close.

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Delivery, location and team

The second group of questions decides who will be in the room when difficult decisions are made.

Does the partner need an office in Ireland?

Not necessarily. What matters is that the people doing the work understand Irish compliance, speak your business language, work in your hours and can be on site for the workshops that need it. The Irish Dynamics market is small and the most experienced consultants are often fully booked, which pushes rates up and stretches timelines. Many Irish companies therefore combine a local presence for steering and key workshops with a delivery team based elsewhere in Europe. Ask any partner, local or not, to name the consultants who will run your project and to show where they have worked before. A Dublin address with a delivery team you never meet is a weaker proposition than a named team that travels when it matters and is available every working day.

Can a nearshore team in Poland work in Irish business hours?

Yes, more easily than most people expect. Poland is one hour ahead of Ireland throughout the year, so a team starting at nine in Warsaw is online at eight in Dublin and overlaps almost the whole Irish working day. Communication in English is standard for consultants who work with clients in the UK and Ireland, and travel for workshops is a short flight. The practical questions are about the operating model: who is the single project manager, how often the team is on site during design and testing, and how support requests outside office hours are handled. A partner should answer these in the proposal, with a named project manager and a clear calendar of on site sessions rather than a vague "as needed".

What references should we expect from a partner?

Ask for references from companies of similar size, in a similar industry and in English speaking markets, and ask to speak to at least one of them. A credible partner can show projects with a clear scope, a go live date and what happened afterwards, including who supports the system today. Pay attention to how long the client relationship has lasted, because a partner that kept a client for a decade has proved more than one that delivered a single project. Be cautious with references that only describe licences sold or with logos that cannot be discussed. If the partner has worked mainly in other countries, ask how it handled local compliance there, because the method transfers even when the tax rules differ.

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Cost and contract

The third group is where proposals that look similar on the surface start to differ.

How should we compare the cost of different proposals?

Compare the scope first and the price second. Proposals from different partners often look far apart only because they assume different things about data migration, integrations, testing effort, training and post go live support. Ask every bidder to split the price into analysis, build, data migration, testing, training, go live and hypercare, and to state the number of days behind each line. Ask separately for the expected cost of licences by user role and for the yearly cost of support. A proposal that is much cheaper usually leaves something out, and the missing item tends to reappear as a change request during testing. Spending a few weeks on a paid analysis is often the cheapest way to obtain proposals that can be compared at all.

Fixed price or time and materials?

A fixed price protects the budget only when the scope is well defined, which is why it should follow an analysis phase rather than replace it. Time and materials gives flexibility but moves the risk of overruns to the client. Many Irish companies settle on a combination: a fixed price analysis and fit gap workshop, then a fixed price implementation for the agreed scope, with a formal change process and a capped budget for anything new. Ask how the partner handles change requests, who approves them and how they are priced. A contract that says nothing about change is not a fixed price; it is an opening offer. The table below lists the answers that separate a strong proposal from a weak one.

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Data, integration and support

The last two questions are about what happens after the project, which is where most of the value is won or lost.

Where will our data be stored, and does it stay in the EU?

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations runs in Microsoft's cloud, and environments for Irish companies are normally deployed in European data centres, including the region located in Ireland. Ask the partner to confirm the region for production and test environments in writing, and to explain how data reaches your reporting tools, integrations and backups, because those flows can leave the region if nobody checks. For companies subject to sector rules, such as financial services or healthcare, involve the data protection officer during design rather than at go live. The same applies to integrations with banks, payroll and logistics providers: list them early, decide how each one will connect, and agree who monitors them once the system is live.

Who supports the system after go live, and in which hours?

This is the question most often left to the end and the one that decides whether the investment pays back. Agree before signing who will provide support, under which SLA, in which hours and in which language, and how Microsoft's mandatory updates will be tested and applied. Irish companies typically need cover across their own business day, with an escalation route for month end and year end. Ask whether the same team that built the system will support it, how knowledge is documented, and how you could move support to another provider if needed. Before signing, make sure the proposal covers:

• Named team. The consultants and project manager who will do the work.
• Compliance plan. VAT returns, eInvoicing for 2028 and any sector reporting.
• Price breakdown. Days per phase, licences by role and yearly support.
• Change control. How new requirements are approved and priced.
• Support model. SLA, hours, update testing and an exit route.

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How ANEGIS works with companies in Ireland and the UK

ANEGIS is a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications with delivery teams in Poland and the UK, and a registered company in London, ANEGIS UK LTD. Its closest market to Ireland is the UK, where it has worked with BUUK Infrastructure, the independent provider of last mile utility networks serving more than one million homes, for more than ten years: first implementing Dynamics AX, then maintaining it, and finally moving it to Dynamics 365 in the cloud. That project started with analysis in November 2021, went live on 3 July 2023 after a 14 month implementation, and passed to the ANEGIS support team after two months of post implementation care. It is a useful reference for Irish companies because it covers the full cycle, from design to long term support, in an English speaking market.

ANEGIS also implemented AXAD, its own media sales system built on Dynamics AX, for Exterion Media, one of the largest privately owned out of home advertising companies in Europe, whose markets included Ireland as well as the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and China. Every Dynamics 365 implementation starts with a fixed price analysis and fit gap workshop, follows Microsoft's Success by Design method with decision gates at each phase, and can continue into managed services with an SLA after go live. For Irish clients the team works in English and overlaps almost the whole Irish working day.

Talk to a qualified partner

Planning a Dynamics 365 project in Ireland, or preparing for eInvoicing in 2028? Contact ANEGIS to book a free consultation or a fixed price analysis and fit gap workshop.

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