Picture this: Monday morning. Your new D365 contractor walks in, all confidence and firm handshakes. By Wednesday afternoon, they’ve created a custom solution for something that exists out-of-the-box, corrupted your UAT environment, and asked if “Dynamics 365” is the cloud version of “Dynamics 360”.
True stories? OK, OK- maybe not the last one.
We’ve seen D365 F&O contractors who could rescue a burning project with one hand tied behind their back. I’ve also seen F&O “experts” who made me wonder if they’d ever actually opened the application or just watched YouTube tutorials on 2x speed.
The difference between these two isn’t always obvious in an interview. Especially if you don’t have an expert on your side to ask the right questions. The bad ones have gotten really good at talking the talk. They’ve weaponized LinkedIn buzzwords. They’ve turned vague answers into an art form.
But they all share similar red flags. And once you know what to look for, they’re as obvious as a NASCAR sponsorship jacket at a black-tie dinner.
Why Bad D365 Contractors Are Worse Than No Contractors
Let me be clear: having nobody is better than having the wrong somebody.
An empty chair doesn’t corrupt your production database. A vacant desk doesn’t build elaborate workarounds for standard functionality. And a missing contractor definitely doesn’t convince your CFO that the only solution is a $500k custom development project when a simple configuration change would do.
Bad contractors don’t just fail to solve problems – they create new ones. Sometimes very subtlely.
The worst bit? By the time you realize they’re in over their head, they’ve usually done some damage. Or burnt a LOT of precious time.
So let’s talk about the red flags to spot that’ll save you from this special circle of ERP hell.
Red Flag #1: The “We Did Everything” D365 F&O Expert
Here’s a fun game: Ask a contractor about their last project and count the pronouns.
Good contractors might sound like this: “I configured the allocation rules for their multi-entity structure. I designed the month-end close process. Sarah handled the technical integration while I focused on the functional design.”
Bad contractors sound like this: “We implemented the entire Finance module. We did a full end-to-end D365 F&SCM implementation. Our team delivered everything.”
See the difference?
When someone can’t articulate their specific contribution, it’s usually because they didn’t have one. They were either the coffee-fetcher on a large project or they’re straight-up lying about their involvement.
I once interviewed a contractor who claimed “we transformed the client’s entire financial operations.” Twenty minutes of probing revealed their actual role: updating Excel templates for data migration. Important? Sure. Transformation leader? Not quite.
The Test: Ask them to walk you through ONE specific thing THEY personally built or configured. If they start with “Well, the team…” or “We all worked on…” – run. Real experts can point to their work like a proud parent showing off kindergarten art.
HUMBLE NOTE: there are some very humble contractors out there that use the “royal we” in the spirit of being a team player: when in actual fact it was them (not the team). Get clarity by asking the simple question: “when you say ‘we’, do you mean ‘I’?”
Red Flag #2: The Universal D365 Genius
Meet Bob. Bob is amazing. Bob is a functional finance consultant AND a technical architect AND a project manager AND a data migration specialist AND an integration expert AND an Advanced Warehouse pro. Bob has never met a D365 module he couldn’t master. Bob is also full of… it.
Real D365 expertise is deep, not wide. The best D365 Finance consultant won’t go near a line of X++ code. The best technical architect I work with wouldn’t dream of designing a credit management process. They know their lanes and they stay in them.
Why? Because D365 F&O is massive. It’s complex. It changes constantly. Nobody – and I mean NOBODY – is an expert in absolutely everything. Maybe in D365 Business Central, but not D365 Finance & Supply Chain Management / Finance & Operations / whatever it’s latest name!
The contractors claiming universal expertise are usually mediocre at everything and expert at nothing. They’re the ones who’ll confidently say “yes” to any requirement, then frantically Google how to do it after the call.
The Test: Ask about something highly specific outside their claimed expertise area. A real expert will say, “That’s not my area, but I can recommend someone great” or “I’d need to research that.” A faker will bluff their way through it.
Red Flag #3: The Reference Dodger
This one’s my favorite because it’s so predictable.
The conversation goes like this:
- You: “Can you provide a reference of one of those CIOs you helped in the past 5 years?”
- Them: “Oh, they’re all under NDA.”
- You: “All 4 of them?”
- Them: “Yes, very sensitive industries.”
- You: “Can they at least confirm you worked there?”
- Them: [Sound of crickets and tumbleweeds]
Look, NDAs are real. But they don’t prevent someone from confirming a contractor did good work. Unless the work was performed through a Microsoft Partner organization (check with the contractor). If someone has supposedly worked on dozens of projects but can’t produce a single human who’ll vouch for them…
Good contractors? They’ve got references lined up like ducks in a row. They’ll volunteer them. They’ll say things like, “Call Jennifer at Contoso Manufacturing – she’ll tell you about the time I saved their year-end close.”
The Test: Push for just ONE reference. Even with NDAs, there’s always someone who can speak in general terms about their performance. If they can’t produce anyone, they’re either impossible to work with or lying about their experience. Either way, next!
Red Flag #4: The Vague F&O Storyteller
Ask a weak contractor about challenges they’ve solved, and you’ll get a masterclass in saying nothing with maximum words.
“We followed best practices to optimize their processes using industry standards and proven methodologies to achieve synergies and drive value.”
What does that even mean? It’s the contractor equivalent of a horoscope – vague enough that it could apply to anyone, specific enough to sound meaningful.
Compare that to a real expert’s response:
“They were doing manual journal entries for 200 intercompany transactions every month because their entity structure was set up wrong. I redesigned their legal entity hierarchy, set up automatic intercompany accounting, and eliminated 40 hours of manual work per month. The accounting team literally sent me cookies.”
One is specific, measurable, and includes enough detail that you can picture the problem and solution. The other is word salad with buzzword dressing.
The Test: Ask for specifics. What was the exact problem? What specifically did you do? What was the measurable outcome? If they can’t get specific, they weren’t there or didn’t do the work.
Your Gut Check Questions
Before you hire any D365 F&O contractor, ask yourself:
- Can they clearly explain what THEY specifically did on past projects?
- Do they admit to having limits and specialties?
- Can they provide at least one reference who’ll talk to you?
- Do their stories include specific problems, solutions, and outcomes?
The Bottom Line: Trust Your Instincts
Here’s what thirteen years of vetting contractors has taught me: your gut usually knows before your brain does.
If something feels off – the stories don’t quite add up, the expertise seems too broad, the references are always unavailable – trust that instinct. It’s your subconscious picking up on patterns that your conscious mind hasn’t processed yet.
Good contractors make you feel confident. They ask smart questions. They admit what they don’t know. They can point to specific wins. They have people willing to sing their praises.
Bad contractors make you feel like you’re being sold something. Because you are.
The difference between a project-saving contractor and a project-destroying one isn’t just technical skill – it’s integrity, experience, and the ability to be honest about both their capabilities and limitations.
Choose wisely. Your D365 project, your sanity, and quite possibly your job depend on it.
Still need to work on that gut instinct? (you are not alone) We’ve already vetted hundreds of D365 contractors so you don’t have to.
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