MB-300 Exam Preparation and How to become a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Core Finance and Operations Consultant

  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 Core Finance and Operations Consultant
  • MB-300 Exam
  • Microsoft
  • Published by: ANDRÉ HAMMER on Sep 13, 2022
Blog Alt EN

Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) is a management software to manage the business processes by integrating various departments such as the company’s financial, supply chain, operations, reporting, manufacturing, and human resources. You can think of ERPs as the machine running the whole process of a business by integrating with the database and making the data available in a useful format to all the stakeholders in the organization.

In the last many years, however - the ERPs have gone through a radical evolution from being fragmented, isolated and non-standardized software solutions to now being standardized, modular, and identical.This natural progression in the ERPs stems from the realization that all the organizations across different industries across the world follow very similar practices, for finance, accounting, manufacturing, supply chain, HR, sales process, procurement, processes, etc.

The best ERP systems out there allow you to analyze transactional data which gives you a more streamlined process and greater efficiency. And with this article - we dig our teeth into an exam and certification for such an ERP system – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Core Finance and Operations Consultant(MB-300).

Decades ago when Microsoft entered the ERP market, it started by acquiring the key players at that time in the ERP software space such as Navision, Great Plains, and Axapta. Initially, Microsoft used them as standalone ERPs with the same names.

Microsoft is one of the early adopters of the cloud, combining the best of these legacy solutions on the cloud while gearing them toward companies who wanted to run their infrastructure on the cloud.

And today Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the most dynamic and widely used ERP solutions in the marketplace.

Here are Microsoft’s key offerings with Dynamics 365 business applications:

  • Dynamics 365 Business Central - Built for smaller and mid-market cap organizations, business Central is a vanilla solution for no-frills organizations. The companies who go for Dynamics 365 Business Central are generally the ones who are operating on limited budgets and are looking for a relatively lightweight ERP implementation.
  • D365 Finance and Operations - Microsoft built Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations to compete with SAP, and Oracle in meeting the complex requirements of larger organizations with bigger budgets and high-level customization requirements.

Why is Dynamics 365 so popular?

Dynamics 365 connects with Power Platform and Microsoft Dataverse for intelligence, innovation, and linkage between your business data and operations. It consists of transactional applications such as Microsoft Dynamics Business Central and Finance & operations applications that enables organizations to automate processes and multiply their productivity.

It revolutionized CRM and ERP space by using analytics for all forms of business data. It enables companies who use D365 to grow from a reactive to proactive way to run their business by enabling them to use insights for rapid business growth.Companies that upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations do it for many benefits such as:

  • Cost reduction:Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations helps to identify the redundant resources in businesses and helps minimize the running costs through automation and optimization.

  • Simple integrations:These integrations allow companies to move from Dynamics 365 to Outlook for communication, to Power BI for data analytics to SharePoint for documentation. Fully integrates with other Microsoft products, such as D365 easily integrates with widely used Microsoft tools, including the full Office 365 suite.

  • Predictive AI:With Dynamics 365, companies get access to a state of the art machine learning, helping its users to close books faste,simplify global financial management, and thus improve overall cash flow with centralized control.

  • More profits:With predictive recommendations and proactive guidance for the finance team, companies are able to grow their profit margin and engage in product innovation.

  • Customer Relationship Management:Dynamics 365 provides organizations with data-driven insights into customer needs and behavior to digitally transform marketing processes and support while enabling the teams to build meaningful relationships with the users.

  • Customizable:Dynamics 365 features different modules and built-in workflows that organizations can use for business automation.

  • User Interface:With a personalized activity-based workspace, it’s easy for users to manage processes and assets on the fly.

  • It’s cloud-based:Using Dynamics 365 means, that your IT infrastructure is hosted on extremely reliable Microsoft servers. So, companies don’t have to spend extra on managing their own servers and hardware.

  • It’s safer:Leveraging the capabilities of Microsoft Azure, the built-in disaster recovery and 24/7 technical support ensure that organizations using it are protected against cyber security threats.

The biggest advantage Dynamics 365 has over its competitor's flexibility and ease of integration, as organizations are able to customize it in many different ways to meet their business requirements. It was originally built on .NET making it reliably integrate with different 3rd party systems. So, Dynamics 365 is a great fit for a company using multiple legacy systems and you’re looking for flexibility and ease of use.

Making a career in Microsoft Dynamics 365

There are multiple ways how you can make a career with Dynamics 365 ERP. You could either work as a Functional consultant in roles such as:

  • Finance consultant
  • Supply chain management consultant
  • Manufacturing and production consultant
  • HR & Payroll consultant

Alternatively, you can take on technical roles such as:

  • Developer / Reporting consultant (requires programming skills)
  • Environment Administrator (requires server management and administration skills)

Applications of Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations

There are different apps in Microsoft Finance and Operations for example there is an out-of-the-box application called Excel data connector to view, update and edit data with an excel workbook. The Export to Excel feature exports all the grid data to an excel workbook.

And using an excel data connector to view and edit data on the fly is just one of the ways to access data and pull insights. Dynamics 365 has an inbuilt tool to build really rich and interactive reports that can also be integrated into your application workspace. And all these data can come from different sources such as sales force, Mail Chimp, explorer, Microsoft access, and so on and so forth.

When you use an ERP, you get the advantage of using pre-built processes that is customizable as per your own business needs. It means you are using a proven process that’s working for others, instead one from scratch. These processes in your organization show up as modules in your ERP and you can use one module without using the other.

MB-300 exam Pre-Requisites

Functional and Technical Consultants gather and dissect the requirements of a business and convert those requirements into refined business processes and solutions that use best industry practices for more efficiency and profitability. They play a key role in setting-up Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications to fulfill the requirements of the businesses using it.

To take on a role of a Core Finance and Operations consultant, you need to pass the MB-300 certification exam. And to clear this exam, you have to be able to recognize and utilize commonly used Finance and Operations apps features and functionality as well as gather a solid understanding of the application for Power Platform apps and services.

You need to have basic knowledge of accounting principles and financial operations in enterprises, customer support, product support, production, commerce, and supply chain management ideas are required for candidates to take this exam. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations exam candidates often specialize in multiple feature sets, such as finance, manufacturing, and supply chain management.

As part of your Core Finance and Operations consultant role, you are expected to have the ability to execute security, design and create workflows, configure organization administration-related features, and set up administration features.

Furthermore, you’re also expected to have the ability to handle migration, including management of data, planning, and preparation, and migration itself. A good Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations consultant is able to test solutions and implement Lifecycle Services tools (LCS).

Besides accounting principles, you must also possess a basic understanding of ERP and CRM concepts to be able to pass this certification exam. He or she should be also able to use Lifecycle Services (LCS), Azure DevOps, and other Microsoft business applications to enable the application lifecycle management (ALM) process.

The MB-300 exam

The objective of the MB-300 certification exam is to prepare consultants to take on key ERP roles by enabling them to implement core modules and features of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations apps. They must have an understanding of how Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations apps integrate with 3rd party software and tools, especially Power Platform.

The MB-300 exam costs $165 USD and you need to get a score of 700 out of 1000 to pass the exam. At the time of writing this article is available in both English and Japanese.

MB-300 exam weightage

MB-300 certification attests your ability to perform the following tasks:

  • Explain finance and operations apps, and extend applications by using Microsoft Power Platform (20–25%)
  • Set up administrative workflows (30–35%)
  • Handle Finance and Operation data, while validating and supporting the proposed solution. (25-30%)
  • Validate and support solutions (20-25%)

Question types

The exam can take as many as 220 minutes, wherein you have to attempt 40-60 questions. The questions in the exam spread across roughly 11 objectives and 4 functional groups questions, such as:

  • Multiple-choice questions
  • Yes or No questions
  • Problem-solving questions
  • Ordering and sorting questions to check your process knowledge
  • Match with the following questions (meanings & relations)
  • Case studies & scenario based questions

Please note that the MB-300 exam is designed to test your ability to implement and configure Microsoft apps to meet the requirements of the business using it. Thus, to clear this exam - it’s crucial that you have a solid understanding of various features & applications as well as to be able to determine how, why, and when you should implement and use those apps. So, to check your practical knowledge, there will be many scenario-based questions. You will be given complex scenarios with multiple outcomes as might happen when you take the job of a Finance and Operations consultant. Your knowledge might also be tested in a live virtual environment.

Need assistance preparing for the MB-300 exam?

Join instructor-led training offered by Readynez instructors.We tell you about the exam requirements and give you a feel by offering you many sample exams to attempt. Our learning process is strategically designed to help those who join clear the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Finance & Operations Consultant (MB-300) exam with ease.

During this course, you will learn about the core components, how to configure core components and data migration, and go-live preparation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.

Besides self-learning and instructor-led training, another way to ensure you go fully prepared for the exam is to read the product release notes, and review product roadmaps. Plus, participating in local conferences can give you the much need context and updated information to fill your knowledge gaps.

If you have any queries related to this article or Mb-300 exam preparation, please feel free to get in touch with us here.

A group of people discussing the latest Microsoft Azure news

Unlimited Microsoft Training

Get Unlimited access to ALL the LIVE Instructor-led Microsoft courses you want - all for the price of less than one course. 

  • 60+ LIVE Instructor-led courses
  • Money-back Guarantee
  • Access to 50+ seasoned instructors
  • Trained 50,000+ IT Pro's

Basket

{{item.CourseTitle}}

Price: {{item.ItemPriceExVatFormatted}} {{item.Currency}}