Getting Ready for a Successful Move to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dec 18
3 min read

Moving to a new ERP or financial system is never just a technical upgrade—it’s a business transformation. A significant amount of time during an ERP migration is spent defining requirements, cleaning up data, and preparing migration templates. The quality of that preparation often determines whether the new system delivers value quickly—or becomes a source of frustration.

When migrating to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the structure and quality of your existing data plays a major role in the success of the project. Legacy systems often contain inconsistencies, outdated master data, or structures that don’t align with how Business Central is designed to work. Addressing these issues early can dramatically reduce migration risk and rework.

At The BC Team, we help clients prepare for Business Central migrations by focusing on the areas that matter most before data ever moves.

Start with the Foundation: Your Chart of Accounts

Your chart of accounts (COA) is the backbone of your financial system. A well-designed COA doesn’t just support posting—it enables meaningful reporting, scalability, and clarity across the organization.

Business Central allows you to analyze financial data without relying on overly complex reports by combining multiple elements, including:

Natural G/L accounts
Dimensions
Account types
Categories and subcategories
Income statement vs. balance sheet classification
Totaling structures

When these elements are designed correctly, you can easily answer questions like:

What is our total cash position?
How much are we spending by department?
What are our payroll or operating expenses across entities?

Eye-level view of a business meeting with a laptop showing charts — Planning the Business Central setup process

Rethinking Segmented Charts of Accounts

Many systems use highly segmented charts of accounts to drive reporting. During a Business Central migration, it’s important to decide which segments truly matter and how they should be represented going forward.

In most cases, segments are better handled as dimensions rather than embedded in the G/L account number itself.

Key questions to ask:

Which segments are critical for financial and management reporting?
Are certain segments used across most accounts (such as entity or cost center)?
Do any segments exist only to support specific reports?

Answering these questions helps simplify your COA while improving reporting flexibility.

Dimensions: Global vs. Shortcut

Business Central supports up to eight dimensions that can be applied to journals, invoices, and other transactions.

Global Dimensions represent your most important reporting views (for example, Entity and Department).
Shortcut Dimensions provide additional flexibility without cluttering the core financial structure.

Choosing the right Global Dimensions early is critical, as they directly impact how users enter data and how reports are generated.

Structuring the Chart for Clarity

Business Central allows you to create a structured yet flat chart of accounts using account types such as:

Heading
Begin-Total
End-Total

These accounts are not used for posting but instead create logical groupings and totals within the chart. This makes it easier to:

View balances by section (e.g., Total Fixed Assets or Total Revenue)
Navigate the chart efficiently
Validate totals without running reports

A well-structured chart improves usability for both accountants and everyday users.

Close-up view of a computer screen showing Business Central dashboard — Testing Business Central setup before going live

Using Account Categories and Subcategories

Account categories and subcategories provide another layer of organization that supports reporting and filtering.

For example:

Assets → Current Assets → Inventory, Equipment
Liabilities → Current Liabilities → Payroll, Trade Payables
Expenses → Operating Expenses → Marketing, Utilities

These groupings reduce manual report maintenance and make it easier to filter and analyze specific sections of the ledger—especially as new accounts are added over time.

Master Data Numbering: Plan Before You Migrate

Business Central supports auto-numbering for customers, vendors, and fixed assets, which can significantly improve data consistency. However, switching to auto-numbering may require renumbering existing records.

This can affect:

User workflows
External integrations
Reporting references

In many cases, the transition can be managed by introducing mapping fields or reference tables so users and integrations can continue working smoothly. These options should be discussed during design workshops—not after go-live.

Prepare for Automated Communications

Business Central can automatically send:

Sales invoices
Statements
Reminders
Vendor remittance advices

Migration is an ideal time to:

Validate customer and vendor email addresses
Standardize communication preferences
Reduce manual emailing and follow-ups

Clean contact data enables immediate efficiency gains once the system goes live.

Preparation Reduces Risk—and Delivers Value Faster

There’s no single checklist that guarantees a perfect migration, but thoughtful preparation goes a long way. Reviewing your chart of accounts, dimensions, master data, and communication setup before migration helps: