Skip to main content
BlogDigital Transformation

What is Microsoft Project Madeira?

By April 17, 2016February 23rd, 2026No Comments

Project Madeira was the preview name that Microsoft chose for what is called today Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business – with few more perks. Project Madeira is a full-fledged financial management solution under the big spectrum of accounting software and in the cloud. As a product that definitely means a lot to Microsoft, Project Madeira is not a replacement of Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Project Madeira is built on NAV code but altogether is a separate product that Microsoft will consistently develop and release with the span of time.

Let’s have a look at some quick facts about Project Madeira: 

 

Official Date of Release:

 

 ·      Public availability from April 12, 2016 through the official website

·      The official release of Project Madeira was stated for the second half of the year.
 Quick Facts

 

 ·      Project Madeira is a codename. Interestingly, Microsoft has kept the real name a secret until the official release of the product.

·      Microsoft chose the name ‘Madeira’ because it couldn’t trademark geographic locations.

·      Enables seamless integration of all financial processes within Microsoft Outlook in Office 365.

·      It is much more than just simple accounting (GL, AP, and AR)! With Project Madeira, Microsoft will have a comprehensive list of accounting features that they will be announcing soon.

·      It means there is absolutely no need to access a separate ERP simultaneously.

·      Without leaving the Outlook interface, a user can create customers, vendors, quotes, and invoices

·      A comprehensive product in the Cloud for web-based clients

·      Being based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV platform and other Microsoft services, it will also bring features from Dynamics GP. 

·      The data migration tool is Madeira will help a user to migrate data from Excel and QuickBooks.

·      Here a single database will provide support to multiple companies.

·      The user can set up financials using wizards.

·      It has an inbuilt financial reporting system.

·      The system enables Workflow configuration coupled with the ability to leverage extensions made by the Microsoft partners.

·      ISV’s will be one among the most significant part of Project Madeira and a proactive Marketplace Strategy will support it.

·      The data will reside in the multitenant public cloud service of Microsoft Azure SQL database.

·      Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

·      Application available for Windows Phone.
Who can be the ideal user?

 

 ·      A company having 10-100 employees can optimize Project Madeira as a financial solution. Even large companies can use it. 

·      Being an underserved market that has zero stability concerns, the 10-100 employee companies are the best fit for Project Madeira.

·      Companies that are looking to have their first accounting and financial system can ideally use the product.
 

How is Microsoft planning to sell it?

 ·      Project Madeira will be sold through CSP program of Microsoft Partners.

 

·      By now, Microsoft has no plans to directly sell the solution to the end customers.

For now, Project Madeira is only available for the US, even though Microsoft has declared it as a global product. Owing to the success of NAV in European countries, it seems Microsoft will soon plan a strong presence for Project Madeira in other nations. The project will offer an extension model that would allow the users to add options for making the solution more usable to a particular industry. It is learned that Microsoft gave the option of experimenting with this model to NAV partners through a preview part of Dynamics NAV 2016.

How Dynamics 365 launch impacts you and your business?