Migrating from Microsoft Dynamics GP to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Microsoft Dynamics GP users migrate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, when they want to:

  • move to the next generation cloud solution;
  • use much easier data import tools than those offered for GP;
  • have the luxury of adding or moving fields without hiring a developer;
  • experience the convenience of having their work saved automatically; and
  • never have to troubleshoot a batch stuck in posting.

What organization does not want to move to an ERP application that contains Warehouse and Supply Chain technology, Job Costing, and Relationship Management without paying more money?

Within Business Central, the end user can easily import data by using Configuration Packages and Microsoft’s Edit in Excel feature.

“Personalize” is in place, to allow for a no-code means of adding and moving fields.

“Save” does not have to be almost constantly pressed.  Thanks to Business Central’s automatic saving of transactions, no such button exists.

Finally, the phrase “batch stuck in posting” will never be heard in the workplace again!

Reviewing the Migration Tool

If you are making no changes to master record structure or overall design, then use Microsoft’s Migration Tool instead of re-implementing.  As a litmus test, determine whether any changes are to be made to your chart of accounts.

Even though transactions can be imported into Business Central history tables by the Migration Tool, no G/L or Inventory Item tables will be hit.

Also, importing G/L history is limited to summarized historical transactions.

More information on the Migration Tool can be found here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/migrate-data

Data Migrated by the Tool

The following data will be migrated by the Tool:

  • Main G/L Account Segment and Other Account Segments*
  • Summary G/L Transaction History
  • Fiscal Periods
  • Open Years
  • Checkbook Master
  • Customers and Addresses
  • Open A/R (remaining amounts only)
  • Vendors and Addresses
  • Open A/P (remaining amounts only)
  • Open Purchase Orders (remaining quantities only)
  • Item Master
  • Quantity on Hand (blank location)
  • Locations
  • Serial/Lot Information
  • Salespeople ID
  • Payment Terms
  • Shipping Method ID
  • Additional Customer and Vendor Ship To and Order Addresses
  • Vendor EFTs and
  • “Vendor Remit” as Main Address.

*Although all account segments will be imported the main segment will be imported directly into Business Central’s Chart of Accounts, while the other account segments will be imported as Dimensions.

Recently Released “Features”

The Tool, now, offers the following selections:

  • Exclude Inactive Checkbooks
  • Unreconciled Bank Transactions
  • Additional Columns in A/R and A/P Transaction Lists
  • Vendor, Customer, and Item Classes Mapping to Business Central Posting Groups and
  • Limiting the Number of Historical G/L years.

Upcoming Features in 2022 Wave 2

When Wave 2 is released for Business Central, you will have the following selections:

  • Enable Module Selection in Migration
  • Migrate Master Data Only
  • Increment Migrated G/L Summary Document Numbers and
  • Exclude Discontinued or Inactive Items.

What Doesn’t Migrate

This data won’t migrate:

  • Inventory Bill of Materials
  • Project Accounting Data
  • Manufacturing Data
  • Field Service Data and
  • Payroll Data.

Assisted Setup

Microsoft provides an assisted setup guide, such as a diagnostics tool, as detailed in the link below:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/migrate-dynamics-gp

How to Find the Migration Tool

Type “cloud migration” within Business Central’s Tell Me button (i.e., the search button) to find the Migration Tool:

Upon clicking “Cloud Migration Setup”, the beginning of the wizard appears:

Viewing Migrated Data within Business Central

The following list contains historical data that is migrated and imported into separate tables called “Extension Tables”:

  • Receivables Transactions
  • Sales Transactions (Quotes, Orders, Invoices, Returns)
  • Sales Line Items
  • Payables Transactions
  • Purchasing Transactions
  • Receiving Line Items and
  • Inventory Transactions.

This all means that this data is contained within separate tables from the live data.  For example, Payables Transactions are accessed from Business Central’s Vendors list as shown here:

And, this list of Payables Transactions contains raw data only.  The window provides no drilldown to details and no ability to reprint:

Optional Azure Data Lake

The Microsoft Azure Data Lake is optionally used to maintain a copy of the end user’s GP databases.

To utilize this service, the following summarized steps are conducted:

  • Create a storage account in Azure
  • Copy your GP data and
  • View and build reports on your historical data.

Best Practices

Take advantage of the “best practices”, discussed in this section, to ensure a smooth migration.

Perform a full system design, to make sure that you are taking advantage of all of Business Central’s functionality.

Use GP’s Professional Services Tools Library (PSTL) or Corporate Renaissance’s Changer to make all master record changes, including account segments.  All changes will be rolled into historical transactions.

Export historical sales and purchase transactions and import them into Business Central, without hitting the subledgers or the G/L.  (Translation will not be necessary, because the transactions are already mapped to the correct historical records.)

Rename your Account Segment descriptions to alphanumeric Dimensions to assist with data entry.  For example, rename Segment 1 to “Division”.

Within Business Central, there are two Global Dimensions and six Shortcut Dimensions.  So, determine which two segments of the chart of accounts best represents your business processes and make those to be the two Global Dimensions.

Run all applicable Check Links and reconciles, prior to migration.

Run a query against customer telephone number fields, to verify that there are no non-numeric characters in the telephone number.  Correct any errors that are found.

Even if Multicurrency is not being used in your GP installation, configure multicurrency access for each currency by navigating in GP to Administration…System…Multicurrency Access.

Also, configure Functional Currency in Financial…Setup…Multicurrency Setup.

Run Check Links against the Multicurrency Setup and Period Setup series of tables.

Advise end users that the Business Central interface, though considered preferable to GP’s, is different and will take some getting used to.  For instance, Business Central contains batches but they do not disappear upon posting.

Even if you do not use the optional Data Lake previously mentioned, maintain access to your on-premise GP server for a reasonable amount of time in case you ever need to refer to anything.

Prerequisites

Remember the following prerequisites, for using the Migration Tool:

  • GP 2015 and later versions
  • SQL Server 2016 and later versions
  • Individual database size less than 80 GB and
  • Must be going to Business Central Online.

Microsoft Promotion!

Microsoft is very excited to keep existing clients within the family, and is providing a significant promotional discount that is available through the end of December 31 2022. Please reach out to us at Sales@BondConsultingServices.com for more information on how you can claim the promotion!