How holistic Business Central knowledge helped resolve a tricky migration error that had delayed a project for weeks.
The Background
Migrating from Dynamics GP (Great Plains) to Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) is a multi-step process with official tooling and documentation (see Microsoft’s guidance).
But in real-world projects, unexpected roadblocks can surface – especially when working with large financial datasets.
The Problem
In this case, the migration failed during Check Ledger Entries. After weeks of investigation, even with a support ticket raised, the root cause wasn’t clear.
Three factors made this issue especially challenging:
- Line Number Handling Differences
- GP and BC treat line numbering differently. What GP accepts can cause conflicts in BC when thousands of transactions are imported.
- Scale Sensitivity
- The error only appeared with large volumes of ledger entries, making it invisible during smaller test migrations.
- Unclear Error Messages
- The migration tool’s error messages gave little direction, making troubleshooting frustrating and time-consuming.
The outcome? The migration stalled for weeks, delaying the project and adding stress for the implementation team.
The Resolution
When the partner reached out, we joined a quick Teams call to review the process together. Within that session, our team identified the issue: the way line numbers were handled during migration.
Instead of reengineering the process, we introduced a small but critical adjustment. The migration completed successfully, turning weeks of delay into just a few hours of progress.
Why Our Approach Worked
This wasn’t just about fixing one bug – it was about having a holistic understanding of Business Central:
- Knowing how BC expects data structures to behave.
- Recognizing where GP and BC differ at scale.
- Drawing on experience across many migrations and implementations.
That combination allowed us to resolve the issue where standard processes and even official guidance had come up short.
Key Takeaways
- Complex migrations need practical expertise – real-world scale surfaces issues that documentation can’t always predict.
- Holistic BC knowledge saves time – connecting the dots across modules and extensions leads to faster fixes.
- Collaboration accelerates solutions – sometimes, just one focused call is all it takes to unblock weeks of effort.
- Flexible solutions – adjustments like this can be extended and customized further to handle your organization’s unique migration challenges.
Having Trouble with GP to BC Migration?
Are you facing errors or delays with your GP → BC data migration? Don’t let hidden roadblocks or unclear error messages stall your project.
✅ Having trouble with your GP to BC data migration? Let’s connect.