How to Migrate Data to Business Central During Your Upgrade Transition

By Natalie Lemke | May 8, 2019

SMB companies are steadily embracing the digital transformation and are looking to Dynamics 365 Business Central to serve as the core of their business management technology solution. During the 2019 Directions conference, Brian Meier and Jennifer Ranz from Microsoft presented on data migration options to get businesses up and running on Business Central.

No matter which ERP system you’re currently using – whether that be Dynamics GP, Dynamics NAV, Quickbooks, or a different system – there’s a migration path to move your current data into Business Central.

There are several different options for migrating data:

Use RapidStart Services

A company can be easily set up in Business Central leveraging Configuration Packages which connect Microsoft Excel files to tables in Business Central through RapidStart Services. RapidStart in Business Central has been improved to get businesses up and running faster with higher quality implementations, through Microsoft investments in speed, multi-table concurrent processing and improvements to error handling. RapidStart Configuration packages can be created by you or your partner to migrate data for Customers, Vendors, Items and more, as well as beginning & historical financial transactions.  With training from our team members, and our support through the process, information from many different ERP applications can seamlessly be pulled into Business Central.

This solution is recommended for most of our clients transitioning master records, historical data and financial data.

Importing Data from Excel

Information about Customers, Vendors, Inventory, and Bank Accounts can be transferred into Business Central leveraging the Edit in Excel. The type of files that are compatible with Business Central depends on available extensions. Learning the mandatory fields and the information that is available to be imported on each master record is available through the application, or with help from our experts.

This solution is ideal for companies with a lower number of accounts and fewer historical data.

Data Migration Extension from Dynamics GP

Intelligent Edge, a tool that replicates data from GP 2018 to Dynamics 365 Business Central, makes it easy to duplicate the information from your on-premise GP database to the cloud.  Tables replicated include: customers, vendors, inventory items, general ledger accounts, open payables and open receivables transactions from Dynamics GP.

For all other versions of GP there is a data migration tool which has been expanded since the initial release of Business Central. It now allows for more information to be imported into Business Central from GP.  Additionally, the migration wizard allows users to choose how to migrate the Dynamics GP chart of accounts.  The existing chart of accounts can be imported into the system or a new chart of accounts can be created based on the existing chart of accounts.

If the existing chart of accounts is migrated, the accounts will be set up as the main account segment from Dynamics GP and the additional segments will be setup as dimensions within Business Central.

If a new chart of accounts is created, an additional account information page in the wizard is shown that allows users to download the workbook, make the relevant changes, and then import the workbook again to change accounts.

These solutions are ideal for any current Dynamics GP user.  Our trusted experts are happy to answer questions or provide guidance on the best solution for your organization.

Upgrade from Dynamics NAV to Business Central online

Current Dynamics NAV on-premise users that have customizations handled by extensions can easily upgrade to Business Central. However, Dynamics NAV clients with C-Side or C/AL code customizations first need to transition these customizations to extensions.  Data from tables with code customizations cannot be migrated from Dynamics NAV at this time.

The first step that current Dynamics NAV 2018 R2 users can do to transition to the cloud is utilize the Intelligent Cloud. The on-premises deployment remains the primary application, and the cloud tenant is read-only, but offers advanced insights into data through Machine Learning, Power BI and Flow.

The Intelligent Cloud can be set up through the assisted setup guide that leads users through product selection, SQL Connection, Self-Hosting Integration Runtime, Company Selection, and Replication.

Once on-premise data has been replicated in the Intelligent Cloud, the process to fully transition to Business Central cloud is streamlined.  This solution is ideal for any current Dynamics NAV 2018 R2 or Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premise user.

For Dynamics NAV clients that are on versions 2017 and prior, solutions are available leveraging RapidStart Services and other tools available via your partner.  Let our experts recommend the best path forward based on your current environment configuration and business goals.

To learn more about transitioning your data to Dynamics 365 Business Central, reach out to our team.

Learn more about transitioning from Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 Business Central.


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