What are the key dates?
- Tax and payroll updates. Microsoft moved the end date from September 30, 2029 to December 31, 2029 so customers could meet payroll and tax obligations for the full year. After that, there are no more tax updates.
- Older versions are already off support. Microsoft’s lifecycle page shows extended support for GP 2016 and 2016 R2 ending July 14, 2026, and for GP 2018 and 2018 R2 ending January 11, 2028. (Installing a current GP update moves a 2018 system onto the modern policy, with the 2029 end date.)
Why are GP moves harder than they look?
- GP data was shaped by years of workarounds: inactive customers never marked inactive, items set up twice, unit-of-measure schedules nobody remembers creating.
- The tool moves data, not your way of working. Microsoft’s migration page for Business Central, the system Microsoft encourages GP customers to move to, lists the data that moves: accounts, customers, vendors, items, open transactions, checkbooks and, optionally, history. Your SmartList favorites, report layouts, add-ons from other vendors and custom changes aren’t on that list.
- Structures change shape. Microsoft’s page explains that the main account segment becomes the account number in Business Central, and the other segments become dimensions. GP’s unit-of-measure schedules have “no direct equivalent.”
- History is a choice. You decide how many years of summary balances to bring, and whether to bring transaction detail at all.
How do you prepare the move yourself?
1. Take inventory. List:
- each GP company you run, and the modules each one uses;
- every add-on and integration (EDI, shipping, sales tax, pick tickets, the web store);
- every report people actually use: SmartLists, Excel reports, financial statements, the warehouse’s daily lists;
- any custom changes, and who made them.
2. Clean the master records. Microsoft’s tool lets you migrate only active customers, vendors and items, and skip discontinued items. That only helps if the flags are true. So, in GP:
- mark customers and vendors you no longer deal with as inactive;
- mark items you no longer stock as inactive or discontinued;
- find and merge duplicates;
- review item classes and customer and vendor classes, because their posting accounts can migrate as posting groups.
3. Clear the transactions that shouldn’t travel. Microsoft’s page notes:
- open receivables and payables come across at their remaining amounts;
- open purchase orders come across for the quantities not yet received;
- unreconciled bank transactions come across so you can reconcile afterward;
- “undeposited receipts aren’t migrated,” so deposit posted cash receipts in GP before the move.
Close dead purchase orders, and post or delete unposted batches.
4. Decide on the account structure. You’ll be asked which two segments become the main (global) dimensions in Business Central; any further segments become shortcut dimensions. Your reports depend on this choice.
5. Decide on history with your accountant. Microsoft’s tool lets you pick the oldest historical year for summary balances, and separately whether to bring a “historical snapshot” of detail (general ledger, receivables, payables, sales orders, purchase receipts and inventory transactions), and from which year. Historical years arrive as open and must be closed in Business Central.
6. Map units of measure. Write out each GP schedule and the units in it, then decide each item’s base unit and its purchase and sales units in the new system.
7. Rebuild the reports before go-live. Build the new version of each report on test data and compare it with GP for the same period. Start with the trial balance, the receivables and payables aging and the inventory valuation.
8. Agree the cutover date with your accountant and partner, with payroll and tax deadlines in view.
What are your options?
| Option | Good for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Do the preparation yourself, with your GP partner running the migration | Single-company setups with few add-ons | Reports left until after go-live |
| Buy a tool: Microsoft’s migration tools or a partner’s conversion and archive tools | Moving the data and keeping history accessible | Tools move data; they don’t rebuild reports |
| Hire a freelancer with GP experience | The inventory and data cleanup | Their availability through your cutover date |
| Bring in an outside team (Cleanups & bulk changes), alongside your ERP partner | The inventory, cleanup, history decisions and report rebuilds | Time with the people who use each report |
FAQ
When does Dynamics GP support end? Microsoft says product enhancements, tax updates and technical support end on December 31, 2029. Security patches, if needed, continue until April 30, 2031.
Will GP stop working on January 1, 2030? Microsoft’s pages describe the end of updates and support, not the software switching off. Running without tax updates and, after April 2031, without security patches carries real risk.
Does Microsoft’s migration tool move my transaction history? It moves summary balances for the years you choose, and it can bring a historical snapshot of transaction detail into separate tables in Business Central. You choose the oldest year for each.
Do my SmartLists and add-ons come across? Microsoft’s migration page covers data: accounts, customers, vendors, items, open transactions, checkbooks and history. Reports, add-ons and custom changes have to be replaced or rebuilt.
What should we do first? Take inventory: companies, modules, add-ons, integrations and the reports people use.
Sources
- Understand the Lifecycle Policies - Dynamics GP, Microsoft Learn,
- Dynamics GP lifecycle, Microsoft Learn,
- Announcing End of Support for Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog,
- Migrate Dynamics GP data to the cloud - Business Central, Microsoft Learn,