Dynamics 365 Business Central partner: implementation and NAV/GP migration

Microsoft describes Business Central as a business management solution for small and mid-sized organisations. It covers finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, projects and fixed assets, with features aimed mainly at wholesale and professional services, and it also supports more complex processes such as assembly, manufacturing, service management and directed warehousing. It connects to Outlook, Excel and Microsoft Teams, and to Power BI, Power Apps and Power Automate.

Business Central online is a Microsoft service with two major updates a year, in April and October, and a minor update in each of the other months, so there is no large upgrade every few years. The discipline moves elsewhere: extensions and Marketplace apps must stay compatible and be tested before each update. An on-premises version also exists for organisations that need one.

We implement Business Central around how your company buys, sells, manages stock and reports, starting from your priorities rather than a module list. We favour configuration over customisation, so Microsoft’s monthly updates stay routine. SyncroStocks, our Power Apps mobile app for warehouse work, is made for SMBs and connects to an ERP or CRM through Microsoft Dataverse and Azure.

For Business Central, our work covers:

• Workshops that map your processes to the standard product and record the gaps
• Set-up of finance, sales, purchasing, inventory and the other areas in scope, with master data and opening balances migrated
• Integration with your other systems, and extensions where the standard product stops
• Power BI reports and Power Automate workflows on Business Central data
• Training, go-live support and managed services with 24/7 support

Both are Microsoft ERP systems in Dynamics 365, and the choice is about fit. Microsoft positions Business Central for small and mid-sized organisations and designs it to be fast to implement; it is bought through Cloud Solution Providers and updated every month. Finance and operations apps, often called D365 F&O, are bought through an Enterprise Agreement or a Cloud Solution Provider, receive four service updates a year and, for new customers since February 2026, are managed in the Power Platform admin center rather than Lifecycle Services.

If you run many legal entities, deep supply chain processes or very high volumes, compare the two before deciding. We assess fit against your processes before recommending either.

• Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations implementation

Dynamics NAV can’t move straight to Business Central online. Microsoft’s route runs through Business Central on-premises, and C/AL customisations must be rebuilt as AL extensions if their data is to come across. The alternative is a reimplementation that moves only essential data, such as master data, opening balances and set-up. For NAV 2018, Microsoft’s extended support runs to January 2028.

Microsoft will end Dynamics GP support on 31 December 2029, with security updates until 30 April 2031, and encourages GP customers to move to Business Central. Its assisted GP cloud migration currently covers only the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, so for companies in the Gulf and Jordan we plan the move as a data migration of master data, open balances and the history you need to keep.

Either way, we rehearse the migration in a sandbox, reconcile balances with your finance team and plan the cutover around a period end.

Microsoft lists Business Central online as available in all six countries on its international (W1) version, with localisation provided by partners through apps on Microsoft Marketplace. VAT and e-invoicing requirements, including ZATCA integration in Saudi Arabia, are therefore handled through partner localisation apps where they are available, together with configuration and extensions, and we confirm which apps cover your country before the design is fixed. Environments for these countries are currently hosted in Microsoft’s UAE Azure geography, and Microsoft moves environments automatically when a geography closer to their country becomes available. Because an environment’s country is set when it is created, can’t be changed and decides where its data is stored, we choose it with you before anything else.

Arabic needs the same early attention. Microsoft doesn’t list Arabic among the languages it supports for Business Central, for either platform or application captions, though it says partners can provide application translations for languages it doesn’t support. We agree at the start how Arabic will be handled in documents, reports and daily use, and we train and support your teams in Arabic and English.

• E-invoicing in Dynamics 365
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner in the UAE
• Dynamics 365 partner in Saudi Arabia
• ERP and Dynamics 365 in Jordan

Business Central licences are sold through Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider programme: Essentials or Premium for full users, Team Member licences for limited access and External Accountant licences, all assigned per user, plus device licences for shared devices such as warehouse or shop-floor terminals. Microsoft 365 users can also read Business Central data in Teams with their Microsoft 365 licence. As a Microsoft reseller, we help you choose the right mix.

Copilot in Business Central helps analyse lists, reconcile bank accounts, suggest sales lines and match e-documents to purchase orders, and Microsoft lists a Sales Order Agent and a Payables Agent. Arabic isn’t yet among the languages Microsoft lists for these features, and in UAE-hosted environments they send prompts to Azure OpenAI in the United States. The data-movement setting that allows this is on by default; an administrator can turn it off, which makes these features unavailable. We switch them on where they serve a process, within roles and approvals.

Monthly minor updates and two major updates a year make testing part of running Business Central. Our managed services keep your Microsoft platform running and improving after go-live: we test critical scenarios in a sandbox before updates reach production, keep extensions compatible, and provide proactive monitoring, optimisation, security and 24/7 support. We also review licences and permissions as roles change, since a user’s licence limits what they can reach whatever their permissions. When the business grows into new companies or countries, we extend the existing set-up rather than start again, and Power BI and Microsoft Fabric bring Business Central data together with the rest of your data.

• Managed services for Dynamics 365
• Power BI and Microsoft Fabric
• Power Platform apps and automation