Hire Microsoft Dynamics 365 experts
Hire Dynamics GP migration experts
In short
MS Dynamics Guys provides Dynamics GP migration experts for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central migrations that your partner or your own team already runs. The expert proposes how much GP history to bring and which account segments become global dimensions. Then the expert reconciles each trial migration in a sandbox environment against GP reports. Your migration lead directs the migration, and your controller signs off the balances.
When a GP migration expert from MS Dynamics Guys fits
The expert knows how GP stores your accounts, classes and history, and brings that knowledge to a Business Central migration that someone else leads. The role works when your side already has a plan, a migration lead and a person who makes the finance decisions.
Microsoft encourages GP customers to move to Business Central. It ends GP product enhancements, tax updates and technical support on December 31, 2029, and provides security updates, if needed, until April 30, 2031.
Situations where the role fits
- Your partner knows Business Central, not GP. Nobody on the project can explain your account segments, your customer, vendor and item classes, or how GP stores historical years.
- The history decision is stuck. Finance wants every year in Business Central, others want a lean system, and nobody has asked the auditors.
- Trial runs fail, and nobody traces why. Tables fail or validation reports mismatches, while the cutover, the day you switch from GP to Business Central, comes closer.
- Your companies use different account formats. One company has three account segments and another has two, so one dimension setting cannot cover both.
- Add-ons and customizations hold data. Nobody has decided what happens to data that Microsoft's migration does not move.
When another role or service fits better
- You have no partner yet, and Business Central must be set up as well as your GP data moved. That is a Business Central implementation project, not a hire.
- You want one provider to own the GP migration result. Ask for a GP to Business Central migration project or an outsourced work package instead.
- Most of the gap is Business Central setup, posting groups or user acceptance testing. A Business Central consultant fits better.
- GP customizations must be rebuilt as code in Business Central. That is work for an AL developer, who writes AL, the Business Central programming language.
- Your source system is not GP. A data migration engineer covers other sources.
- You are leaving Dynamics NAV. NAV follows another path, an upgrade to Business Central on-premises first: see Dynamics NAV developers.
- You need payroll moved. Payroll is not in Microsoft's list of GP data that the migration moves, so plan it with your payroll provider.
What the GP expert delivers, and what your people decide
Each deliverable is a written record in your workspace. The expert prepares it. Your controller, your GP users and your partner decide or act on it.
| Work | What the expert delivers | Decided or done by your people |
|---|---|---|
| GP inventory | A record for each company: GP and SQL Server versions, modules in use, the account format and its segments, unit accounts for non-financial figures, classes, fiscal years, add-on products, and customizations made with Dexterity or with Modifier with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) | Your GP administrator confirms the record and grants read-only access to the GP databases |
| History memo | Options for the Oldest GL Year (the first general ledger year to migrate), the Historical Snapshot years and the archive, with the records and closing work each option adds | Your controller decides, after asking your auditors |
| Settings for each company | A settings record: the segments that become the two global dimensions, the classes that become posting groups, the modules and inactive records that migrate, and whether migrated transactions post automatically | Your controller approves dimensions and classes. Your partner confirms they fit its Business Central design. |
| Pre-run cleanup | A checklist of fixes in GP before each run, such as depositing posted cash receipts, which do not migrate while undeposited, and completing posting accounts on classes | Your GP users make the fixes in GP |
| Run calendar | Dates for each trial run and the final run, placed between Business Central updates and GP updates, with the date by which your partner installs its extensions | Your administrator reschedules Business Central updates, and your sponsor sets the cutover window |
| Reconciliation workpapers | For each run: GP and Business Central figures side by side by year and area (general ledger, receivables, payables and bank), the validation results, and a cause and owner for each difference | Your controller signs off each set. Your data owners fix GP records, and your partner fixes Business Central setup. |
| Closing migrated years | The closing order for the migrated years, the closing entries for each year and a retained earnings check after each close | Your controller approves each closing entry before it is posted |
Decide dimensions early. Microsoft's migration makes the main GP account segment the Business Central account number. The other segments become dimensions: two global dimensions, and shortcut dimensions for the rest. Changing a global dimension after go-live means updating every entry posted with it.
Migrated historical years arrive open, and someone must close them in Business Central. The Close Year action closes the earliest open year first, and a closed year cannot be reopened. The Close Income Statement batch job then creates journal lines that move each year's result to retained earnings, and your team posts them. Microsoft notes that you can still adjust a historical year after the migration, before you close it.
The run calendar protects the trial results. Business Central online receives major updates in April and October and minor updates in the other months. Once cloud migration is set up, that environment cannot take updates until cloud migration is disabled. GP is usually updated in June, October and December, and Microsoft asks you to keep GP on the same version during the migration. Microsoft also says to disable cloud migration before anyone installs or removes extensions.
The GP exercise each candidate completes before you meet them
Candidates work on invented data for two GP companies, not on client data. A reviewer scores seven skills against written criteria. You receive the written result before your interview, and we introduce only candidates who pass.
| Skill | Exercise | Artifact |
|---|---|---|
| Account segments | The two companies use different account formats. The candidate decides which segments become global dimensions in each company. | A dimension map with a reason for each choice |
| History | Auditors need transaction detail for some years, and managers want trends. The candidate sets the Oldest GL Year and the snapshot years, and decides what stays in an archive. | A history memo with each option sized |
| Open items | GP holds a partly paid invoice and a posted cash receipt that is not yet deposited. The candidate predicts what arrives in Business Central. | A pre-run checklist of fixes in GP |
| Classes | Some customer and item classes have incomplete posting accounts. The candidate finds them before a run. | A map from classes to posting groups |
| Errors | A trial run reports a failed table and validation mismatches. The candidate traces each one to its cause. | A cause list with an owner for each fix |
| Reconciled slice | The candidate reconciles a migrated demonstration company: the trial balance by year, receivables and payables aging, and the checkbook. | Reconciliation workpapers |
| Year close | The migrated historical years arrive open. The candidate plans the closing order and proves retained earnings after each close. | A closing plan with a check for each year |
How we assess specialists describes the walkthrough that follows each exercise.
Example first work package
Ways to add a GP migration expert
Choose by who should lead the GP work day to day, and who should answer for the reconciled result.
| Option | Who directs the work | Who answers for the result | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| One expert in your migration team: staff augmentation | Your migration lead, or your partner's if your agreement says so | You. The expert answers for the quality of their own records and workpapers. | Your partner runs the migration, and GP knowledge is the missing piece |
Hours, support during the final run, notice, minimum term and replacement are agreed in writing per engagement. If you cannot choose between buying the expert's hours and buying a reconciled result, use the worksheet in our comparison of engagement models.
MS Dynamics Guys can also add a Business Central consultant for setup and user acceptance testing next to the GP expert.
When add-on data needs new tables in Business Central, MS Dynamics Guys can add an AL developer to build them.
From role brief to the first accepted deliverable
The order protects your GP data: nobody gets access before the agreement, and nothing runs in production before the trials reconcile.
Your role brief
Name your GP and SQL Server versions, and the companies, modules and add-on products in use. Give the country of your Business Central environment and the planned cutover window. Say who directs the migration and who signs off balances and history.
Fit review
We read your brief next to your partner's plan. If the real gap is Business Central setup or the whole migration, we point you to that service instead. Before anyone is introduced, we tell you whether we can staff the role.
Assessed profiles and your interview
Profiles come only for candidates who passed the GP exercise, each with the reviewer's summary. Interview them with your own account format, as the questions below suggest, and decide who joins.
Written agreement
Before any access, the agreement names who directs the expert, who approves the history memo and who signs each set of workpapers. It also covers hours, support during the final run, notice, replacement, confidentiality and ownership of the workpapers.
Read-only access to GP
Your database administrator creates a read-only login. The expert profiles the GP databases and builds the inventory without changing GP.
Migration setup under your control
Your database administrator enters the migration login, which Microsoft requires to hold the sysadmin and db_owner roles. A licensed administrator with the SUPER permission set runs the setup, or approves a partner's delegated administrator to run it. Trial runs use a sandbox and a named Business Central user that your administrator sets up for the expert.
First acceptance
Your controller and your partner accept the GP inventory before anyone drafts the history memo or the settings.
On the last day, your administrator disables the expert's Business Central user, and your database administrator removes the expert's SQL Server logins. We then confirm in writing that the expert keeps no copies of GP or Business Central data.
Before the start date, prepare accounts and exit steps with our checklist for onboarding an external specialist.
What you can check before choosing a GP expert
This page names no clients and shows no reviews or case studies.
You can test the method yourself. Read the reviewer's summary of the GP exercise, interview the candidate with your own account format, then accept or reject the GP inventory. How we assess specialists explains who reviews the exercise and what it cannot show.
MS Dynamics Guys wrote the two tables below for this page as original demonstrations, with invented companies and figures. They show the standard the exercise expects. Neither is a client migration or a candidate's work.
| Company and GP segment | Sample value | Result in Business Central | Reason in the settings record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company A, segment 1: division | 20 | Global dimension 1: Division | Managers filter most reports by division |
| Company A, segment 2: main account | 4100 | General ledger account 4100 | The migration maps the main segment to the account number |
| Company A, segment 3: cost center | 310 | Global dimension 2: Cost Center | Budgets are set per cost center |
| Company B, segment 1: main account | 4100 | General ledger account 4100 | Company B uses the same main accounts as company A |
| Company B, segment 2: region | 03 | Global dimension 1: Region, set in company B's own settings | Company B's format differs, so the setting for all companies does not apply to it |
| Check | Dynamics GP | Business Central | Difference | Cause and owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net income, fiscal year 2025 | 386,940.00 | 386,940.00 | 0.00 | None |
| Retained earnings after the 2025 close | 2,031,415.20 | 2,031,415.20 | 0.00 | None. The closing entry is dated on the 2025 closing date |
| Open receivables on the run date | 748,210.55 | 748,210.55 | 0.00 | None. Partly paid invoices arrived at their remaining amounts |
| Open payables on the run date | 301,904.10 | 301,904.10 | 0.00 | None |
| Unreconciled transactions, checkbook OPERATING | 41 | 41 | 0 | None. The pre-run checklist found no posted receipts waiting for deposit |
| Customers | 1,904 | 1,861 | 43 | Inactive customers, left out by the default setting. The controller approved the exclusion |
| General ledger, fiscal year 2021 | Period summaries | Not migrated | Out of scope | Older than the Oldest GL Year in the history memo, so kept in the archive |
A real workpaper also lists every validation test set to Ignore, with the controller's written approval, so a later reader knows which checks were skipped.
Can a GP migration expert from MS Dynamics Guys support our partner's migration workstream?
Yes. The expert joins the partner's migration plan as the person who knows GP, and the partner keeps the Business Central design. Settle three points in writing before the first trial run:
- Reporting line. One person directs the expert, usually your migration lead. If the partner's lead directs instead, your agreement names that person. The expert takes questions about GP data to your controller and GP users, and questions about setup to the partner.
- Access. The expert reads GP through a read-only login and runs trials only in a sandbox, a Business Central environment for testing. If the partner sets up the migration as a delegated administrator, a licensed user in your company with the SUPER permission set approves it.
- Sign-off. Your controller approves the history memo and each set of workpapers. The partner accepts the settings that touch its Business Central design. Your sponsor makes the go or no-go call for the final run.
| Task | GP migration expert | Your controller and data owners | Your implementation partner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory, history memo and settings | Prepares them and records each decision | Decide how much history moves; approve dimensions and classes | Confirms the settings fit its Business Central design |
| Trial runs and errors | Traces each failed table and validation mismatch to a cause, and sends each setup cause to the partner with the evidence | Correct GP records, such as classes without posting accounts | Changes its Business Central setup; the expert does not |
| Testing migrated data | Prepares test cases from the workpapers and explains differences | Test in the sandbox and accept the data | Fixes setup defects that testing finds |
| Reconciliation and year close | Prepares the workpapers and the closing plan | Sign off the workpapers and approve each closing entry | Corrects setup that causes a difference before the next run |
| Final run | Runs or guides the agreed steps, then reconciles the result against GP reports | Decide go or no-go after the last workpapers | Leads the cutover, if its contract assigns it |
This split is our proposal, and the signed agreement holds the final version. It keeps every finance decision with your controller. Microsoft's implementation guidance also warns against making a technical role accountable for business outcomes.
Questions about hiring a GP migration expert
How much GP history should we bring into Business Central?
Your controller decides, after asking your auditors and the managers who use the reports. The expert sizes three layers. General ledger summaries by fiscal period arrive from the Oldest GL Year you set, and an empty setting brings every year. The optional Historical Snapshot adds transaction detail from the Oldest Snapshot Year, in extension tables that users open in Business Central. Older data can stay in an archive, or in a copy of the full GP database in your own Azure Data Lake storage. Every migrated historical year arrives open and must be closed in Business Central, so each extra year adds closing work.
What happens to GP data that Microsoft's migration does not move?
It stays in GP unless someone plans a route for it. Microsoft lists what the migration moves: setup, master data for accounts, customers, vendors and items, transactions, classes, vendor 1099 data and history. The list does not name customizations made with Dexterity or VBA, data in add-on products, payroll or other modules. Each of them needs its own route.
Some listed data stays behind too. By default, inactive records and discontinued items do not migrate, and undeposited cash receipts do not migrate at all. The expert lists each item in the inventory with a proposed route. The route can be the data lake copy, an archive, or a rebuild in Business Central with a Marketplace app or an AL extension. Your controller and your partner choose the route.
How can our own interview test a candidate's GP knowledge?
Bring your own GP data, with sensitive values removed. Show the candidate your account format and ask which segments they would make global dimensions, and why. Ask how a partly paid invoice and an undeposited receipt would arrive in Business Central. Then ask in which order they would close your migrated years, and how they would prove retained earnings. Our exercise covers the same ground on invented data, and the reviewer's summary lists the gaps to probe. Your interview decides who joins.
Microsoft's GP migration does not support our country. What then?
Then the Cloud Migration Setup guide is not an option. It currently supports GP migrations in four markets only: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Your partner or developer chooses another load method. One method sets up a new Business Central company and loads master data with configuration packages. Opening balances then go in as journal lines, and GP history stays in an archive. The expert's core work stays the same: the inventory, the segment map, the history decision and the reconciliation against GP reports.
Which parts of a GP migration drive the expert's hours and cost?
The rate basis is agreed in writing per engagement, and this site publishes no rates. Hours grow with the number of GP companies and account formats, and with the years of history and snapshot detail. Add-ons and customizations add inventory work. Each trial run adds a set of workpapers, because the expert reconciles every run. If the final run falls on a weekend or outside working hours, name those dates in your role brief. The agreement can then cover that support.
After the expert leaves, how can our auditors trace a GP balance into Business Central?
Through records that stay in your workspace: the history memo, each company's settings record, the run log and the signed workpapers for every run. Together they show which years and records moved, what was left out and why, and how each difference was settled. Detail from the Historical Snapshot stays readable in Business Central. If you made a data lake copy, it keeps the full GP database. In the final week, the expert explains the workpapers to the person on your team who will keep them.
Scope GP migration capacity for your Business Central move
Tell us your GP version and the companies and modules in use. Add the country of your Business Central environment, your cutover window and who signs off the balances. Our reply asks what we still need to know, or proposes the role, before anyone is introduced.
Product documentation referenced on this page
- Cloud migration prerequisites for Dynamics GP Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Migrate Dynamics GP data to the cloud Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Configure Dynamics GP company migration Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Migrate on-premises GP data to Business Central online: overview Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Prepare and plan for cloud migration from Dynamics GP Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Migration validation overview (Dynamics GP) Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Run Cloud Migration Setup: about delegated administrators Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Troubleshooting cloud migration Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Move Dynamics GP database to Azure Data Lake Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Understand the lifecycle policies for Dynamics GP Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Questions about licensing certain modules (Dynamics GP) Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Close accounting periods for a fiscal year Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Close income statement accounts Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Work with dimensions to track and analyze data Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Posting group setup Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Business Central update cycles Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Migrate on-premises data to Business Central online Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Delegated admin access to Business Central online Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Apply company configuration packages Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Create users according to licenses Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Programming in AL Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Extension types and scope Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026
- Organize your Microsoft Dynamics 365 project team Microsoft Learn, checked October 5, 2026