AMCS vs. Microsoft’s New Multi-Company Journal Capabilities in Dynamics 365 Finance

Microsoft is making journals faster. AMCS gets your data there. Here’s how the two fit together, and why multi-company finance teams will want both.

Microsoft has just announced a rebuilt journal framework for Dynamics 365 Finance to make it faster, simpler underneath, and capable of handling journals for several legal entities from one place. If you run a multi-company finance operation on D365, that’s very good news. It also raises an obvious question for anyone using AMCS (Avantiico Multi-Company Solution): if Microsoft does multi-company journals now, do I still need AMCS? The answer is a resounding yes. Microsoft improves the engine. AMCS automates everything around it. Microsoft’s new framework is about creating, validating and posting journals inside D365. AMCS Super Journals handle what happens before that: importing data from anywhere, checking every line, and automating approvals and scheduling. Then AMCS hands the journals to Microsoft’s standard process. When Microsoft’s engine gets faster, AMCS customers get that speed too.

The key takeaway is this: AMCS and this new multi-company journal capability serve two distinct but equally essential functions. When used in conjunction, it results in end-to-end optimization. So, in other words, AMCS does not compete with Microsoft’s newly announced capabilities, and it aligns with the future roadmap Microsoft has revealed. Here’s a more in-depth breakdown of what distinguishes these two complementary functionalities and how, when packaged together, they can serve as a transformative automation layer for your multi-entity organization.

Microsoft built a faster engine. AMCS gets your data there.

See how AMCS Lite imports, checks and splits multi-company journal data into D365 automatically. It supports classic journals now and Microsoft's new framework when you're ready.

Get the Free Guide

 

What Microsoft Announced (In Plain Terms)

Microsoft is rebuilding how financial journals work in Dynamics 365 Finance, with three big changes:

1. Simpler Data Structure. 
2. Much Faster Posting.
3. Multi-company journals in standard D365. 

Related Article: How to Manage Multi-Entity Data Access Governance in Dynamics 365 with AMCS

1. A Simpler Data Structure. 

Since AX 2012, D365 has stored each combination of financial dimensions (main account, department, cost center, business unit and so on) as a single record ID rather than as readable values. That kept the system fast when the number of combinations exploded. But it made reporting hard: rebuilding one accounting string for a report can mean joining about 10 tables.

The new model stores the dimension values directly, up to 20 dimensions, which is plenty for most companies.

2. Much Faster Posting. 

The main driver is performance. Long-time D365 customers with high transaction volumes, such as retailers, have seen their systems slow down over the years. Microsoft says the new framework will post journals 5 to 300 times faster. For scale: a 1,000-line journal posts at roughly 6 lines per second today, or close to 3 minutes. (It’s worth noting that this is Microsoft’s figure. At Avantiico, we haven’t tested it yet.)

3. Multi-company journals in standard D365. 

The new framework includes multi-entity capabilities:

• Multi-company entry: vouchers for different legal entities in a single journal
• Global journals, where the legal entity works like another dimension
• Posting profiles managed for different companies
• Global rules that simplify financial setup and processing
• Voucher-level processing: one problem voucher no longer holds up the rest

It’s rolling out in phases, starting with ledger account journals, with more journal types to follow.

Why it’s good news for customers: faster posting, simpler reporting and a standard multi-company journal built into the core product. Microsoft has also said the existing journals are not being changed or deprecated, so nobody is forced to switch overnight (Microsoft Learn).

Related Article: Template-Based Imports in Dynamics 365 Finance

AMCS vs. Microsoft’s New Journals: Same Goal, Different Jobs

Both aim to make multi-company accounting in D365 easier. They overlap in one place: both let you work with journals for many legal entities at once. However, the is where the comparisons stop and their distinct purposes begin.

Microsoft built a faster engine. AMCS gets your data there.

See how AMCS Lite imports, checks and splits multi-company journal data into D365 automatically. It supports classic journals now and Microsoft's new framework when you're ready.

Get the Free Guide

 

Related Article: The Best Multi-Entity Accounting Software Platforms in 2025 

How is Microsoft’s Multi-Company Journal Different from AMCS Super Journals? 

Microsoft’s version lets you enter or import vouchers for several companies in one journal inside D365. AMCS Super Journals start earlier. One file can hold unlimited legal entities, with intercompany and intracompany lines together and no switching companies. That file can come from Excel, CSV, payroll, point of sale, expense or other systems, mapped to separate fields for each financial dimension, and checked before anything reaches the journal.

	Microsoft’s new financial journals	AMCS Super Journals
Main job	Create, validate and post journals inside D365, faster	Get journal data into D365: import, map, check, approve, automate
Where it works	Inside D365 Finance, the core engine	In front of D365, using standard Microsoft APIs
Multi-company entry	Vouchers for different legal entities in one journal	One file, unlimited legal entities, intercompany and intracompany lines together
Data sources	Journal entry and import inside D365; Dan: “I don’t know that they have solved the import problem yet”	Excel, CSV, payroll, point of sale, expense and other systems, with mapping
Validation	Voucher-level processing, so one bad voucher doesn’t hold up the rest	Check Lines validation before anything reaches the journal
Approvals and automation	Approvals inside D365	Approvals in Teams and Outlook, scheduled hands-off processing
Posting speed	5 to 300 times faster, per Microsoft	Uses Microsoft’s posting, so gets the same speed
Scope today	Ledger account journals first, more journal types to follow	Ledger, free text invoice and other Super Journals
Classic journals	Existing journals stay as they are	Fully supported today, and alongside the new journals

How they work together: AMCS stays the front door for your journal data. Microsoft’s new framework speeds up processing behind it. As Dan puts it: “AMCS is the front end of the process to get the data into D365FO. Now Microsoft is just making it faster and easier to process that into journals.”

Related Article: AMCS Lite vs. Premium

Where Microsoft’s work stops and AMCS’s starts

Every journal that comes in through AMCS goes through five steps. The first two belong to AMCS. The last three run on Microsoft’s standard code, which AMCS triggers through standard APIs.

The left side (i.e., what AMCS automates), Open and Check lines, isn’t changing. The right side (what the new multi-company journal capabilities are automating), Transfer, Validate and Post, is exactly what Microsoft is speeding up. We’re making it easy for you to import and do global workflow and validations. Once it’s ready to go into the journals and into standard Microsoft, now this is going to be 5 to 300 times faster.

Related Article: Automated Microsoft D365 Finance Integrations with AMCS

Example: One Payroll File, 50+ Legal Entities

Say your payroll provider sends one file each pay cycle covering all 50 of your legal entities. With Microsoft’s new journals alone, your team can enter or import that data into a global journal, where each line carries its company. Posting will be much faster than today. But someone still has to get the file into the right shape, load it, and find and fix the bad lines (a closed department, a wrong cost center, an entity that doesn’t exist) inside D365.

With AMCS in front:

1. Open. The file is picked up automatically from where payroll drops it. Nobody has to upload it, and it can run on a schedule.
2. Check lines. AMCS maps the payroll fields to your financial dimensions and validates every line before anything touches D365. Errors show up here, not halfway through posting. An optional global workflow can route it for approval in Teams or Outlook.
3. Transfer. AMCS splits the one file into 50 journals, one in each legal entity, using Microsoft’s standard APIs.
4. Validate. Microsoft’s standard validation runs, with an optional local workflow per entity.
5. Post. Microsoft’s standard posting runs, including the faster posting from the new framework once you’re on it.

Same file, same 50 entities. Microsoft makes posting faster. AMCS takes the manual handling out of everything that comes before it.

Related Article: Automate Multi-Entity Reporting & Inquiries in Dynamics 365 Finance with AMCS

AMCS is Built on Microsoft’s Roadmap, Not Against It

AMCS has never had its own way of creating or posting journals. It has always called standard D365 code to do that. So when Microsoft improves the engine, AMCS customers benefit straight away. We’re working toward the same goal. We’re trying to make multi-entity processing better and smoother and easier. If Microsoft has on the roadmap a better way to do that, we’re going to key into that and take advantage of that as quickly as possible.

A concrete example: posting speed. AMCS’s Transfer, Validate and Post steps already run on Microsoft’s standard code. When customers move to the new framework, AMCS will send journals through it, so the faster posting Microsoft promises applies to journals that come in through AMCS too. If Microsoft’s new processing ends up taking over more of those steps, AMCS will connect to it the same way. What Avantiico has committed to:

• Updating AMCS to support Microsoft’s new multi-entity journals
• Supporting classic and new journals side by side, chosen with a setting in AMCS
• Keeping that dual support through the transition, which “could be years”

When: once Microsoft’s new financial journal features are in public preview, AMCS will support them. Customers who move get Microsoft’s faster processing with no change to how they import, validate and automate in AMCS. That’s why we think of it as AMCS working with Microsoft to optimize the multi-company experience.

Microsoft built a faster engine. AMCS gets your data there.

See how AMCS Lite imports, checks and splits multi-company journal data into D365 automatically. It supports classic journals now and Microsoft's new framework when you're ready.

Get the Free Guide

 

Related Article: D365 & AMCS: Elevating Financials with Ledger Allocation Groups

Classic or New Journals? AMCS Supports Both

For companies already live on Dynamics 365 Finance, moving to the new framework won’t be a flip of a switch. The table structure underneath changes completely. Some big questions don’t have answers yet:

• Does historical data get converted to the new format?
• Or do you end up with data split across old and new tables?
• If so, what happens to your existing reports?

The reality is we expect the switch to be disruptive for live customers, and we suspect many companies may never adopt the new framework. That’s why AMCS will support both. You set which framework you’re on in AMCS, and it works the same way from your side. If you’re staying on classic journals: nothing changes. AMCS keeps filling the gap in full, with the same imports, validation, approvals and automation you rely on today. Still, it’s worth getting ready:

1. Watch for Avantiico updates on how AMCS uses Microsoft’s new multi-entity framework.
2. Follow Microsoft’s release updates, and test the framework once it’s available.
3. Work with your IT team to move a test environment to the new framework and see how it works for your organization.

If you’re moving to the new financial journals, you’ll enjoy the same AMCS automation with faster processing, so you get the best of both worlds. Here’s how you keep the AMCS experience your team knows and add the speed of Microsoft’s new journal engine:

1. Keep AMCS as your way of getting data in. Your imports, file pickup and line checks carry on as before.
2. Switch the AMCS setting to the new framework once your environment is ready.
3. Check your reports and any global workflow after the move. How global workflow fits Microsoft’s new model is still being worked out.

Related Article: Streamlined Multi-Entity Accounting: A Guide to Avantiico’s AMCS for D365 Finance

The Combined Package Multi-Company Customers Will Need

Microsoft’s new journals plus AMCS are the combined package multi-company customers will need. In practice, that package has three layers, and each one stays in its lane. Here is a layer-by-layer breakdown of this multi-entity suite of capabilities:

Layer	Who	What it handles
Core engine	Dynamics 365 Finance	Journals, validation, posting, financial dimensions, the new multi-entity framework
Multi-company automation	AMCS	Getting data in (imports, file pickup, line checks, splitting by entity), accounting automation, reporting visibility, integration (iPaaS), month-end close
Procure-to-pay	Banking, AP automation and payment partners	POs, invoice capture, vendor payments, bank reconciliation

It’s also important to understand what AMCS is not. AMCS is not an AP automation, payments or banking tool, and it doesn’t try to be. We have partners who specialize in those things that we recommend. We’re not trying to compete with them.

Which AMCS Products this Affects

The change is narrow. Only ledger Super Journals change, and they gain support for Microsoft’s new framework. Everything else in AMCS stays the same.

AMCS area	What changes
Ledger Super Journals	Adds new-framework support
Free text invoice and other Super Journals	No change
Data imports and migration	No change
Embedded iPaaS and integrations	No change
Global reports and inquiries	No change
Workflows and approvals	No change
Legal entity creation	No change
Budgeting and allocations	No change

Ledger Super Journals are the core of AMCS Lite, which is also built into AMCS Premium and AMCS iPaaS, so customers on all three benefit. Lite is the part Microsoft is helping to make even better.

• AMCS Lite is for teams whose main need is getting multi-company journal data into D365 quickly and cleanly.
• AMCS Premium and AMCS iPaaS build on Lite for teams that also want global reports, budgeting and allocations, legal entity creation and integrations. [Confirm which features sit in each product before publishing.]

What Each Layer Does at 2,000 Legal Entities

Picture a group running around 2,000 legal entities on D365. Every month, files arrive from payroll, subsidiaries, banks and other systems, many of them covering hundreds of entities at once.

• D365 Finance holds the books. With the new framework, it posts those journals far faster and stores dimensions in a way that’s easier to report on.
• AMCS turns the incoming files into clean journals. It picks them up automatically, checks every line, splits each file into the right entities’ journals and hands them to Microsoft to post. It also supports reporting, integration and month-end close across the group.
• Partners run procure-to-pay: invoice capture, payments and bank reconciliation, feeding results back into D365.

At that scale, nobody wants to hand-load files or chase errors one entity at a time. That’s the gap AMCS fills.

When Microsoft Alone is Enough, and When it Isn’t

Every customer is different, so there’s no fixed entity count. As a rule of thumb, Microsoft’s new journals may be enough if you have a handful of entities, enter most journals by hand, and are ready to adopt the new framework. You’ll want AMCS as well if:

• Journal data arrives as files from other systems, often covering many entities in one file
• You want files picked up and checked automatically, before anything reaches D365
• You need approval steps across the group, not just per entity
• You’re staying on classic journals for now, or moving gradually
• Month-end close across many entities is a bottleneck

“If Microsoft does multi-company journals now, why do I still need AMCS?”

Here’s how we’d answer a CFO who asks that:

Microsoft has made the engine better, and that’s good for you. Posting gets faster, reporting gets simpler, and multi-company journals are now standard in D365. But the engine is only part of the job. Your data still has to get there. It comes in as files from payroll, subsidiaries and other systems, and someone has to collect them, check them and split them into the right companies’ journals. That’s what AMCS does, automatically, before anything touches your ledger. AMCS then hands those journals to Microsoft’s own posting process, so you get Microsoft’s speed with less manual work in front of it. And because moving a live system to the new journals will take time, possibly years, AMCS supports both the classic and new journals. You can move when you’re ready, without changing how your team gets data in. Microsoft improved the engine. AMCS is still how the data gets there.

Microsoft built a faster engine. AMCS gets your data there.

See how AMCS Lite imports, checks and splits multi-company journal data into D365 automatically. It supports classic journals now and Microsoft's new framework when you're ready.

Get the Free Guide

 

Future Proof Your Multi-Entity Finance. Try AMCS Lite for FREE.  

The bottom line is that AMCS isn’t competing with Microsoft, but rather, it aligns with Microsoft’s roadmap: when Microsoft improves how journals are processed, AMCS adopts it as quickly as possible. Microsoft’s new journals make the engine faster, but they don’t solve the import and automation problems AMCS was built for. Together, they’re the combined package multi-company customers will need. Try AMCS Lite for FREE today.

FAQs About AMCS vs. Microsoft’s New Multi-Company Journal Capabilities in Dynamics 365 Finance

What did Microsoft announce?

A rebuilt journal framework for Dynamics 365 Finance. It stores financial dimensions in a simpler way, puts vouchers for several legal entities in one journal, and processes each voucher on its own, so one problem voucher doesn’t hold up the rest. 

Microsoft says posting will be 5 to 300 times faster. It’s worth noting that this is Microsoft’s figure; Avantiico hasn’t tested it yet. Ledger account journals come first, with more journal types to follow.

Isn’t that what AMCS does?

They overlap in one place: both work with journals for many legal entities. But Microsoft’s version is about entering and posting inside D365. AMCS Super Journals start earlier. 

One file can cover unlimited legal entities, with intercompany and intracompany lines together, and it can come from Excel, CSV, payroll, point of sale, expense or other systems. AMCS maps that file, checks it and routes it for approval before anything reaches the journal.

Where does Microsoft’s work stop and AMCS’s start?

An AMCS import has five steps: Open, Check lines, Transfer, Validate and Post. AMCS runs Open and Check lines. Transfer, Validate and Post already use Microsoft’s standard code, which AMCS triggers through standard APIs. That’s the part Microsoft is making faster.

So AMCS gets faster too?

Yes. AMCS doesn’t use custom code to create or post journals, so improvements to Microsoft’s engine flow through to journals imported with AMCS.

Is AMCS competing with Microsoft?

No. AMCS follows Microsoft’s roadmap. What’s important to take away from this is that, ultimately, we’re working toward the same goal. If Microsoft has on the roadmap a better way to do that, we’re going to key into that and take advantage of that as quickly as possible.

When will AMCS support the new journals?

Once Microsoft’s new financial journal features are in public preview. Customers who move get Microsoft’s faster processing with no change to how they import, validate, and automate in AMCS.

I’m on classic journals. What changes for me?

Nothing. AMCS keeps supporting classic journals in full. Switching a live system will be disruptive because the table structure changes, and Avantiico expects many companies to take their time. In the meantime, watch for Avantiico and Microsoft updates, and work with your IT team to try the new framework in a test environment.

Which AMCS products are affected?

Only ledger Super Journals change, by adding support for the new framework. They’re part of AMCS Lite, which is also included in AMCS Premium and AMCS iPaaS. Other Super Journals, data imports, integrations, global reports, workflows, legal entity creation, and budgeting and allocations are unchanged.

When is Microsoft alone enough?

It may be if you have a handful of entities, enter most journals by hand, and are ready to move to the new framework. You’ll want AMCS too if journal data arrives as files from other systems, often covering many entities at once, or if you want automatic checks, group-wide approvals and scheduled processing.

Does AMCS handle AP, payments or banking?

No. AMCS focuses on accounting automation, reporting, integration and month-end close. For procure-to-pay (invoice capture, vendor payments, bank reconciliation), Avantiico recommends specialist partners.