Microsoft's business system for small and mid-sized companies is Dynamics 365 Business Central, the successor to Dynamics NAV. Microsoft has also announced the end of Dynamics GP, so many companies on NAV or GP are deciding where to go next: Business Central, or another system. ERPNext is a common alternative.
At a glance
- Licence
- ERPNext: no licence fee per user. Business Central: a subscription per user, per month, by plan.
- Hosting
- ERPNext: Frappe Cloud, our cloud or your own server. Business Central: Microsoft's cloud, or on your own server under separate licensing.
- Changes
- ERPNext: fields, forms, workflows and reports set up from the screen. Business Central: personalisation from the screen, with extensions written in Microsoft's AL language for larger changes.
- Modules
- ERPNext: accounting, stock, sales, purchasing, manufacturing, projects, HR, payroll, CRM and support in one system. Business Central: finance, supply chain and operations, with HR, payroll and CRM from other Microsoft products or partner apps.
- Local taxes
- Both need setting up for your country. We set ERPNext up for eTIMS in Kenya, EFRIS in Uganda, EBM in Rwanda, TRA's fiscal receipts in Tanzania and Smart Invoice in Zambia.
When Microsoft is the better choice
If your company is deeply tied to Microsoft, with Teams, Outlook, Power BI and a Microsoft partner you rely on, and the subscription cost per user is comfortable for your size, Business Central fits that world well.
When ERPNext is the better choice
- You are on NAV or GP and want to move once, not twice.
- Subscription fees per user are a growing share of your costs.
- You want HR, payroll and CRM in the same system as your accounts.
- You want to choose where your data is hosted.
Moving from Dynamics to ERPNext
- We look at how you use Dynamics today: companies, branches, the reports you rely on and the work done outside it in spreadsheets.
- We agree a written scope and a go-live date, and set up ERPNext for your processes, your taxes and your documents.
- We move your data from Dynamics and you check it in a test copy before anything is final: balances, stock and open documents must match to the cent.
- Your team is trained on its own data, and we run a short parallel period where your closing figures are compared side by side.
- You go live on ERPNext. Dynamics stays available read-only for as long as you need it for history and audits.
What moves across
- Chart of accounts, dimensions as cost centres, and opening balances
- Customers, vendors and contacts
- Items, locations and stock balances
- Open sales and purchase documents and payments
- Bills of materials and routings, if you manufacture
- Fixed assets with their book values
Full transaction history can be moved too, but most businesses choose opening balances and open documents, with Dynamics kept for the years before. It is faster, cheaper and avoids carrying old mistakes into the new system. Read what to clean before you migrate.
How long it takes and what it costs
A single company with simple stock usually moves in a few weeks; groups with branches, manufacturing or integrations take longer. The cost depends on your users, locations and modules, not on the system you leave. Get a price estimate in two minutes, or book a demo to see your own processes in ERPNext.