For many businesses, manual data entry has simply become “part of the job.” Someone enters invoices. Someone copies numbers into spreadsheets. Someone double-checks reports. Someone fixes the typo that accidentally added an extra zero to a payment amount. And then someone else spends half the afternoon figuring out where that extra zero came from.

Not all accounting software is built to grow with your business—and that becomes painfully obvious the moment things start scaling.

What once worked just fine can quickly turn into a bottleneck. Reports take longer, data gets messy, and your team ends up relying on manual workarounds just to keep things moving.

If you’re evaluating modern accounting software or wondering if you’ve outgrown your current system, here’s what actually matters.

Spreadsheets are powerful.

No question about it—tools like Microsoft Excel have been the backbone of business operations for decades. They’re flexible, familiar, and can do just about anything… in the right hands.

But here’s the problem:
When spreadsheets stop being a tool and start becoming your accounting system, things begin to break—quietly, slowly, and often without you realizing it until it’s too late.

For many growing businesses—especially those relying on outdated accounting software—this creates serious inefficiencies, reporting issues, and compliance risks.

“It still works.”

It’s one of the most common reasons businesses hold onto outdated accounting systems.

But just because your system works doesn’t mean it’s working efficiently.

If your company is still running on Solomon — now known as Microsoft Dynamics SL — you may be wondering:

Is Microsoft phasing this out?

The short answer: Not immediately.
The long answer: Microsoft’s innovation focus has shifted.

For years, Solomon (now known as Microsoft Dynamics SL) has been a reliable accounting and project accounting solution for many businesses.

It’s stable. It’s familiar. It’s worked.

But today’s business environment looks very different than it did when Solomon was first implemented.

Microsoft Copilot is an innovative AI-powered productivity tool designed to revolutionize the way you work within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Launched in February 2023, Copilot leverages large language models (LLMs) to understand your needs and seamlessly integrate with your workflow.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a powerful tool that can help small businesses level the playing field and achieve their growth goals.  Microsoft is committed to making AI accessible and affordable for small businesses.  Here are a variety of Microsoft AI-powered tools and resources to help small businesses get started with AI and boost their productivity.