Dynamics GP to Business Central Migration Guide - Everything You Need to Know

• Leverage data capabilities in Business Central to gain valuable insights into your operations. Optimize processes, analyze insights, make informed decisions & get better outcomes.
• Integrate accounting and finance with sales, purchasing, and inventory for a unified view of business operations, eliminating data silos and improving efficiency.
• Avoid the complexities and risks associated with fragmented systems. Business Central offers a centralized platform for managing your entire business operations.
• Reduce costs associated with managing multiple third-party solutions by consolidating your operations within Business Central.
• Sync data seamlessly across business modules and apps to streamline workflows and enhance operational efficiency.
• Centralize daily tasks in one system to minimize errors, reduce compliance risks, and improve task management.
• Free up your team’s time by automating repetitive tasks, enabling them to focus on strategic priorities and in-depth data analysis.
• Generate interactive reports and dashboards using Power BI for better decision-making with customizable insights and visual data representation.
• Leverage built-in BI tools to improve forecasting accuracy for sales, cash flow, and inventory management, driving better planning.
• Achieve a holistic view of business performance with end-to-end visibility, enabling informed decisions across all operational areas.

• Data Migration Complexity: Migrating large and complex datasets can be challenging, especially when dealing with historical data and customizations.
• Process Mapping and Reengineering: Identifying and mapping processes from GP to Business Central can be complex and may require process reengineering to optimize workflows.
• User Adoption and Training: Training users on a new system can be time-consuming and requires effective change management strategies.
• Customization and Integration: Migrating customizations and integrations from GP to Business Central may require significant effort and technical expertise.
• System Stability and Performance: Ensuring the stability and performance of the new Business Central system, especially during the migration and post-migration phases, is crucial.
• Moving Away from Customizations: While Business Central offers simple customization, you must address existing GP customizations and integrations before migration. Some core GP features, like HR and payroll, might require additional solutions or 3rd-party apps.
• Adapting to New Features: Business Central simplifies financial analysis with dimensional accounting and built-in intelligence. However, the transition might be challenging for long-time GP users. A phased migration approach guided by a certified partner can ease the learning curve.
• Complex Data Migration: Migrating data from GP to Business Central is a multi-step process. The data migration wizard only transfers open transactions and master records. Critical information may need additional migration methods. While tools like Azure Data Lake and Data Factory can help, careful planning is essential for a smooth transition.

We assess your existing system before migrating to Business Central. We identify potential issues, choose the right migration path, and analyze critical information such as the modules, features, add-ons, product version, data consumption, and other industry-specific requirements to be addressed during migration. Upon assessment completion, you get valuable insights into the overall readiness, customized solutions based on your needs, and how to address potential obstacles before migration.

We create a detailed migration plan outlining timelines, resource needs, and our chosen approach to minimize downtime and disruption. We carefully determine which data to migrate, balancing the need for comprehensive data with cloud storage limitations (additional storage is available if needed).

Our migration approach involves moving the Dynamics GP database to Azure Data Lake for reference (optional). Then, we create a full backup of the on-premises production database (partial backups are not supported). Then, we prepare a backup, resolve issues, and set up the cloud migration for the selected companies. Following this, we run data replication, address issues, and stop on-premises usage before backing up the production database. Finally, we perform the data upgrade in the cloud, complete the final migration, and go live on the new cloud environment.

We prioritize scheduling the migration to avoid conflicts with Business Central online updates, ensuring the target environment is either updated beforehand or the migration is fully completed before any updates are applied to prevent potential data corruption.

In this phase, we do not migrate data but prepare the environment by establishing the connection and pipeline between the on-premises and online tenant databases, allowing you to specify which companies to migrate. First, we start the Set up Cloud Migration guide, provide SQL database connection details for on-premises migrations, and select an integration runtime. Then, we prepare the environment by checking compatibility between the source and destination databases, creating stored procedures on both sides. Then, we identify companies and extensions to migrate and set up a data replication pipeline. Finally, we start the data replication process to copy data to the cloud and perform a data upgrade.

Business Central configuration packages help you simplify importing GP data from Excel spreadsheets. We can help you map GP tables to BC tables, configure your GP company migration, decide what data to migrate, and review default settings. We configure global settings or customize settings for each company, paying attention to dimensions, segments, and historical data. To configure the migration globally, we set the dimensions, select the modules to migrate, and decide whether to migrate only master data for the modules. We also determine if auto-posting for migrated transactions should be disabled. We specify inactive records or discontinued items to migrate, map classes to posting groups, and choose the historical transactions to migrate.

To begin the data migration, we navigate to the cloud migration management and start "Run data migration" process. It runs the data replication pipeline, transferring data from your on-premises system to Business Central online. The process prioritizes larger tables for faster migration, and once completed, you can review the results in the Migration log.

Before upgrading, we ensure all users are signed out of Business Central to avoid interruptions, and for on-premises setups, we consider skipping the API upgrade temporarily for quick processing. To run the data upgrade, navigate to the Cloud Migration Management page and select Run data upgrade. During the process, the system updates the environment status, disconnects users, and allows us to track progress in the Business Central admin center. Upon successful completion, the environment becomes active, and users can reconnect. In case of failure, the system restores the environment to its previous state, and we review the error details, fix the issue, and retry the upgrade, potentially rerunning migration setup or data replication if necessary.

To ensure a seamless transition, we optimize the new Business Central online environment to suit your needs, set up user access for all relevant team members, and switch to the new system while decommissioning the old on-premises deployment.

• Fiscal Periods: Migrate your fiscal year and period definitions to ensure accurate financial reporting in Business Central.
• Chart of Accounts Master Records: Transfer your chart of accounts structure, including account numbers, names, and types.
• Customer and Vendor Master Data: Migrate customer and vendor information, such as addresses, contact details, and payment terms.
• Sales Data: Migrate Salesperson information, payment terms, shipping methods, and customer segments.
• Purchase and Inventory Data: Purchase orders, inventory items, quantities, serial numbers, and lot numbers.
• Inventory Items: Migrate your inventory items, including item numbers, descriptions, costs, and quantities.
• GP Historical Snapshot: Transfer historical financial data in Microsoft Azure Data Lake to provide a complete picture.