I attended the Summit North America - GP to Business Central Pre-Conference last October, and months later, the sessions still stand out.
The GP to Business Central pre-conference wasn’t about selling the cloud. It was about reality. What breaks. What surprises teams. And what actually works once GP users move to Business Central. Across multiple sessions, a consistent message came through: this is not an upgrade—it’s a business redesign enabled by a modern platform.
If you missed it, here's a practical summary:
The Real Pain Points GP Customers Are Living With
1. Too much manual work for skilled people
In many GP environments, highly skilled finance staff still spend hours entering invoices, fixing OCR errors, keying sales orders from emails, and managing exceptions.
Example:
An AP clerk receives invoices as PDFs, photos, handwritten notes, or emails. In GP, every variation becomes a manual problem—reading it, figuring out the vendor, guessing the account, and correcting mistakes later.
At the conference, this was called out clearly:
GP still works—but it forces people to do work systems should already be doing.
2. Workflows break on exceptions
Traditional GP workflows fail when descriptions vary, vendors change naming formats, or invoices don’t follow a template. These “edge cases” are no longer edge cases—they’re daily reality.
Example:
A receipt says “Gateworld” instead of “Hotel.”
A vendor name changes from “Delta Airlines” to “Delta Inc.”
A foreign invoice shows a dollar sign but is actually Canadian currency.
Traditional workflows stop. People step in. Errors slip through.
This is where Business Central’s AI-driven agents showed real value—not by posting automatically, but by recognizing patterns, suggesting intent, and flagging uncertainty for human review.
3. Reporting shows data, not decisions
GP reports often answer what happened but not what to do next. GP users love SmartLists and Management Reporter. But many still export to Excel to answer basic questions.
Example:
Sales are up in one region and flat in another.
GP shows the numbers—but someone still has to decide:
Do we double down where sales are strong?
Or fix what’s lagging?
The conference emphasized that Business Central changes this by combining data with guidance—surfacing trends, comparisons, and next-step suggestions instead of static reports.
The Biggest Gap: Expecting Business Central to “Be GP”
One of the strongest themes was this:
Most migration pain comes from trying to recreate GP instead of redesigning for BC.
Chart of Accounts vs. Dimensions
GP users are used to encoding meaning into account numbers.
Example:
Account = Department + Fund + Purpose
In Business Central, that logic belongs in dimensions, not the chart of accounts. Teams that bring over massive COAs struggle. Teams that simplify the COA and use dimensions gain flexibility immediately.
Customizations vs. ISVs create fragility
Many GP systems are heavily customized because GP had to be bent to fit the business.
Years of GP customizations and integrations make environments hard to maintain and risky to change. Many customers know their setup works—but only because they’re afraid to touch it.
The key lesson:
Don’t assume every customization should survive the move.
How Business Central Resolves These Problems (When Used Right)
AI that assists, not replaces
A recurring reassurance: AI in Business Central does not take control away from users.
Example:
The Payables Agent:
- Reads invoices
- Suggests vendors, accounts, dimensions, and deferrals
- Flags low-confidence items
- Requires human approval before posting
This changes the job from typing to reviewing and deciding.
Sales and AP automation that saves real time
Email-based sales orders were a standout example.
Example:
A customer emails: “I need 10 desks and 25 chairs by November 3.”
Business Central can:
- Read the email
- Check inventory
- Suggest alternatives if items are unavailable
- Confirm delivery dates
- Draft the response
- Create the sales document
Sales teams stay focused on customers—not item numbers.
Reporting for different audiences
Another strong point: not every question belongs in Power BI.
- Controllers want Excel-style trial balances
- Managers want quick list analysis
- Executives want consistent KPIs
Business Central supports all three without forcing everything into one reporting tool.
Decision-Making Advice That Came Up Repeatedly
- Start with outcomes, not features
Successful projects align the migration to a business goal:
- Faster close
- Audit readiness
- Scalability
- Growth
Not just “GP is ending.”
2. Be realistic about historical data
Bringing all GP history into BC is expensive and often unnecessary.
Many successful clients:
- Move open transactions and key balances
- Keep GP read-only or use tools to surface history when needed
The question isn’t can we move it—it’s do we need it operationally?
3. Choose partners based on proof
The strongest advice from solution architects:
- Ask how many GP-to-BC migrations they’ve completed
- Look for platform skills (Azure, security, Power Platform, AI)
- Ask what tools, accelerators, and training assets they’ve built
This is no longer new territory. Experience matters.
Final Thought
The pre-conference made one thing very clear:
Moving from GP to Business Central is not about surviving GP end-of-life.
It’s about changing how the business operates.
Organizations that treat the move as a strategic redesign—simplifying data, rethinking processes, and using the platform fully—are the ones seeing faster closes, fewer errors, and better decisions.
If you’re still on GP, this insight matters now more than ever.
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