The Ultimate Guide to Transitioning from Dynamics GP to Business Central
(A.K.A. How to Avoid an ERP Nightmare and Come Out Stronger Than Ever)
The Hard Truth: GP’s Time is Up
If you’re still running Dynamics GP, you’ve probably heard the news—and if not, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but here it is: Microsoft has announced the end of life for our beloved Microsoft Dynamics GP.
That means:
No more major updates.
No long-term roadmap.
No cloud-first innovation.
While support lingers until 2028-2031, staying on GP is like hanging onto a fax machine in the age of instant messaging. It technically works, but it’s not where Microsoft is putting its energy (or budget). Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the future—fully cloud-based, regularly updated, and packed with integrations that make your life easier.
I get it—ERP transitions can be absolutely terrifying. Your GP system is comfortable, predictable, and built around your business. It has worked for years. The thought of disrupting everything can send even the most seasoned CFO reaching for a bottle of Advil. But the truth is, waiting too long will cost you more than just a headache.
In this guide, we will walk you through:
✅ Why GP is being left behind (and what that means for you)
✅ The biggest hurdles companies face in the migration process
✅ A step-by-step roadmap for a smooth transition
✅ How to avoid common (and costly) mistakes
And because I know seeing is believing, here’s a link to a Microsoft video walkthrough of the migration process:
OK, let's get started.
Why Moving Off GP is a Business Decision, Not Just an IT Upgrade
Your business isn’t just an accounting system. It’s a complex, living, breathing operation, and your ERP is at the heart of it. GP has been reliable for decades, but there are a few things that should raise red flags for anyone still holding onto it:
1. No More Major Updates = No More Competitive Edge
Microsoft isn’t adding new features to GP. That means no AI-powered automation (you need Copilot), no enhanced reporting (Power BI), no modern integrations. Your competitors who move to Business Central are getting smarter, faster, and more efficient every year—while you’re stuck in 2015.
If you’re running GP today, you’re already operating at a disadvantage. How much longer before you're losing business and left behind?
2. The Cost of Staying On-Prem: It’s Higher Than You Think
Sticking with GP isn’t free—and I’m not just talking about the licensing fees. Running GP on-premise means:
💰 Server Costs – A decent on-premise server starts at $15,000-$30,000 and needs to be replaced every 5-7 years. (And that’s before factoring in redundant backup systems for disaster recovery.)
👨💻 IT Maintenance & Support – Keeping GP running means paying IT staff or a managed service provider (MSP) to patch, update, and troubleshoot issues. So maybe you moved your on Prem GP solution to someone's hosted environment. You have just outsourced IT and hardware - you're still paying for it.
📉 Downtime & Performance Issues – Older GP servers get slower over time, and when (not if) your system goes down, the cost of lost productivity can be tens of thousands per hour.
⚠️ Scalability Issues – Growing businesses need more storage, computing power, and new integrations. With GP, that means more servers, more IT costs, and more headaches - even if you're hosted. With Business Central? Scalability is built in.
One of our clients—an industrial manufacturer—thought they were saving money by staying on GP. Then their server crashed unexpectedly. Their IT team spent two days scrambling to restore backups, and production completely halted.
Total cost of downtime? Over $120,000.
That’s before they even factored in the cost of the emergency hardware replacement.
Their next move? They switched to Business Central within four months.
3. Security & Compliance: Are You Sure You’re Safe?
Hackers love old systems.
Cyberattacks are up 300% in the last five years, and legacy on-premise systems like GP are prime targets.
Here’s why:
🔓 Lack of Modern Security Features – GP doesn’t have built-in multi-factor authentication (MFA), real-time threat detection, or automatic security patches.
⚠️ Human Error & Internal Risks – Most on-prem systems rely on manual security updates, and when someone forgets to apply a patch, you’re left vulnerable.
💀 Ransomware & Data Breaches – Just last year, a GP customer in the finance sector suffered a ransomware attack. Their IT team was locked out for days, customer data was compromised, and they had to pay a six-figure ransom to regain access.
Microsoft invests billions into cloud security every year. Business Central runs on Azure, which is one of the most secure platforms in the world.
If you’re staying on GP, ask yourself: Can your internal IT team (or hosting partner) protect your system better than Microsoft’s global security teams?
If the answer is no, then it’s time to move to the cloud.
4. The Hidden Costs of Stagnation
If you’re still on GP, you’re losing time and money every single day—even if you don’t realize it yet.
Take one of our clients, a mid-sized distributor. They stayed on GP for years because they didn’t want to deal with migration. GP was working well for them. Then they realized:
🚫 Their warehouse team was wasting hours manually entering data because GP didn’t integrate with their e-commerce system.
🚫 Their reporting was outdated, forcing leadership to rely on Excel exports instead of real-time dashboards.
🚫 They lost deals because their competitors could respond faster, ship faster, and offer better pricing insights—all thanks to their modern cloud ERP.
By the time they switched to Business Central, they were years behind. Catching up cost them far more than if they had transitioned earlier.
The Biggest Challenges (and How to Overcome Them)
We've heard all of the arguments and objections. It might take a minute to get comfortable but there's just no valid reason to stay on Dynamics GP.
🚧 "We have a ton of customizations—how will we rebuild them in BC?"
✅ Many GP customizations are no longer needed because Business Central includes many of these features natively. For what you do need, Power Automate and custom extensions make customization easier than ever.
🚧 "We can’t afford business downtime."
✅ Good news: Business Central supports a phased migration. You can start small—moving certain departments or processes first—without shutting everything down.
🚧 "What happens to all our historical GP data?"
✅ You have options: migrate everything, only key data, or start fresh and keep historical data in a read-only GP instance. Microsoft has built-in migration tools to handle this efficiently.
🚧 "Our employees know GP inside and out. Training them on BC will be painful."
✅ Change is hard, but Business Central is far more intuitive than GP. Plus, Microsoft Learn, webinars, and hands-on workshops can flatten the learning curve.
🚧"If I need to move ERP systems, I'll have to look at what else is out there."
✅Do you? You may have had GP before the Microsoft acquisition, but you've still been loyal to Microsoft for a very long time. Consider this, Microsoft is offering amazing opportunities to transition from GP with your old licensing model in a way that makes Business Central highly affordable. They respect that loyalty. There have been efforts to get functionality as close as possible so your team will feel more comfortable. Going to another ERP will likely cost you double and will be a harder transition on your team.
The Step-by-Step Roadmap to Moving from GP to Business Central
Step 1: Audit Your Current System
What modules, reports, and features are you using?
What customizations, third-party integrations, and workflows exist?
Which data needs to move over (and what can be archived)?
This step is crucial because you don’t want to migrate inefficiencies. If you have manual processes, now’s the time to automate and optimize instead of dragging them into Business Central.
Step 2: Choose Your Migration Path
You have two primary options when moving to Business Central:
A. Lift and Shift (Direct Data Migration)
Best for: Companies that use GP in a fairly standard way.
Uses Microsoft’s GP to BC migration tool to transfer customers, vendors, chart of accounts, and open transactions.
B. Reimplementation (Starting Fresh)
Best for: Companies with heavily customized GP systems or outdated data.
Instead of copying old processes, you build new workflows that align with Business Central’s capabilities.
Step 3: Build a Transition Plan
Decide on a Go-Live Timeline
Train Key Employees Early
Plan for Parallel Running (if needed)
Test Before You Flip the Switch
ERP migrations aren’t a "one-weekend-and-done" project. Give yourself time to do it right.
Step 4: Go Live and Optimize
You’ve migrated, trained your team, and tested the system. Now, it’s time to go live.
But your work doesn’t stop there:
✅ Monitor adoption and address user concerns
✅ Continuous optimization of workflows is important regardless of business solution
✅ Leverage Business Central’s AI-driven insights and all the new features available to you
What’s Next? Let’s Talk Migration Options
Moving off GP is a big decision, but you don’t have to do it alone. At Elliott Clark Consulting, we offer different services to give you what you need.
Business Impact Workshops: You're not just switching ERPs. You're redefining how your business operates. Find hidden inefficiencies, understand your risks and opportunities, and align for a shared vision for the future.
Migration Packages: Whether you need a quick migration or a complete reimplmentation, we've got a package that fits your needs and your budget.
Data Migration Options: Our variable migration options give you control over the data that moves - whether thats a clean slate or a full history transfer.
Final Thoughts: The Cost of Waiting is Higher Than the Cost of Moving
Let’s be real—waiting until 2029 to migrate from GP is not a strategy. The sooner you move, the more control you have over timing, costs, and training.
And hey, you’re not in this alone. We’ve helped dozens of businesses successfully migrate from GP to Business Central—with minimal disruption and maximum efficiency.
📌 Want a roadmap specific to your business? Let’s chat.
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