Arka Inventory vs Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

If you run Salesforce and stock is the gap, Arka Inventory, a Salesforce-native inventory app, fits.

Many buyers who search for Dynamics alternatives do not want another suite. They want tighter control of stock. Dynamics 365 is a family of Microsoft products, not one system. Business Central is Microsoft's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for small and mid-sized firms, with finance, sales, purchasing, inventory and manufacturing under one licence.

Stock held in a separate system has to be copied back onto the quote or order screen, and every copy is a place where the number can drift from the shelf. An inventory app built natively on Salesforce keeps stock on the records your team already uses.

This page compares Business Central with Arka Inventory, our Salesforce-native inventory app, for mid-market buyers in India choosing between a full Microsoft ERP and an inventory-focused app native to Salesforce. Finance modules are out of scope. You get a decision table and a 10-user licence calculation from both vendors' price pages (as of November 2026).

• If you run Salesforce and your gap is stock rather than accounts, choose Arka Inventory.
• For 10 users, Business Central Premium costs ₹10,98,000 a year before GST and Arka Inventory's Advance plan costs $10,980 a year. These are our calculations from published prices, shown below.
• Four yes-or-no tests in the decision table settle the choice.
• You can test Arka Inventory before committing. The 15-day trial gives full access with no credit card, and onboarding typically takes a minimum of two weeks.

Arka Inventory is built natively on Salesforce, so stock sits beside your quotes and orders.

Our plans are priced in US dollars and Microsoft's in rupees. Neither is converted here.

Four yes-or-no tests tell you whether you need a full Microsoft ERP or an inventory app inside Salesforce. Answer each one for your business as it will run in three years, not as it runs today.

Our recommendation: if tests 1, 2 and 4 land on Arka Inventory, run the trial before you request a Business Central quote. Settle test 3 before you decide. An e-way bill is the electronic document that travels with goods in transit.

Choose Arka Inventory when stock is the problem and Salesforce is already where your team works. Five facts support that.

1. Stock sits on the records your sales team uses. Arka Inventory is 100% native on Salesforce. It shows inventory at product level while your team creates opportunities, quotes or orders. For the number to quote before you promise stock, see our guide to inventory visibility.
2. Overselling is controlled where the order is taken. Commit Inventory reserves stock against orders and reallocates it by delivery date.
3. The warehouse floor is covered. We handle barcode receiving, palletising with pallet labels, putaway into bins, pick tickets, first-in-first-out (FIFO) picking, and picking of lots that expire first. The Basic plan includes multiple warehouses, purchase orders, barcoding and inventory alerts. The Enterprise plan adds lot, batch, expiry and serial tracking, landed cost (freight, duty and handling added to what a purchase really cost) and bin tracking.
4. Your books stay where they are. We integrate with Tally and QuickBooks Online. If Tally is your ledger, read how to run a stock health check in Tally first.
5. Starting is low-risk. The trial runs 15 days with full access and no credit card, and access ends automatically afterwards. Onboarding typically takes a minimum of two weeks, depending on data readiness and integration needs, with setup guidance and configuration help included. Support is available by email, chat and phone, Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 6 PM IST, with a 24-hour response target.

For 10 users, Business Central Essentials costs ₹7,98,600 a year and Premium ₹10,98,000, before GST. Arka Inventory's Basic plan costs $6,924 a year and Advance $10,980. This is our model, calculated as monthly price × 12 from each vendor's plan prices, as of November 2026.

Compare like with like. Essentials pairs with Basic, since both cover inventory, purchasing and warehouse work. Premium pairs with Advance for manufacturing only: Advance has no sales orders, lot tracking or serial tracking. Those are on our Enterprise plan, which is quoted individually, so ask us for a quote.

To run the calculation for your own team:

1. Count full users and light users separately. Business Central's Team Members plan is ₹665 per user a month (₹7,980 a year) for reading data, approving workflows and updating selected information.
2. Convert our dollar total at the Reserve Bank of India reference rate on the day you compare.
3. Add your Salesforce licences to the Arka Inventory side and partner fees to the Business Central side.
4. Ask each vendor for a total including GST. Microsoft's prices exclude it.

Our inference: if the converted totals land close together, licence price will not settle this. What each bill includes will, and the four tests above decide that.

Both cover the core: reserving stock, tracing lots and serial numbers, and moving stock between locations. Microsoft Learn documents reservations, serial, lot and package tracking, traceability and transfers in Business Central. The difference is where those run and how far the workflow reaches.

• Reservation. Commit Inventory works at the point of sale inside Salesforce, so the rep sees what is committed before promising a date.
• Lots and expiry. On our Enterprise plan, lot, batch, expiry and serial tracking feeds picking, which suggests lots expiring first. Business Central can trace a lot or serial number through its supply chain for recalls.
• Manufacturing. On our Advance plan, standard and order-based BOMs check material availability, track consumption and support production planning. A BOM is the list of parts needed to make one unit. Business Central offers manufacturing on Premium.
• Forecasting and purchasing. Arka Inventory includes forecasting and purchase automation.
• Landed cost and bins. Importers can cost freight and duty into stock on our Enterprise plan.

In Business Central, changes to data and screens are written as AL extensions, which are code objects such as tables, pages and reports, with an in-client Designer for rearranging page layout (Microsoft Learn). With Arka Inventory, you build custom reports and dashboards inside Salesforce around the metrics your business tracks.

Our recommendation: before choosing, name who will make your third change after go-live. If the answer is "a developer we pay by the day", price that into the Business Central side. If it is "whoever already looks after our Salesforce reports", the Arka Inventory side is the smoother path.

Ready to test it on your own data? Book a demo or ask about the 15-day trial. For questions first, email support@arkainventory.com or call +91 93902 73833, Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 6 PM IST.