Clean your purchase data before your Dynamics NAV migration
Microsoft's extended support for Dynamics NAV 2017 ends on 12 January 2027, and for NAV 2018 on 12 January 2028. After that, Microsoft stops releasing security updates for those versions.
Where the data breaks
- Many teams move only master data and open balances, so years of purchase history stay behind in the old system, unclassified and hard to reach.
- Item categories and vendor records were never kept consistent, so what looks like one category is really several, spelled differently.
- Old customisations stored data in non-standard places that the standard migration path doesn't know to look at.
What it costs to leave it
Bad data doesn't stay behind when you migrate. It gets carried into the new system, where it causes extra test runs, a delayed go-live, and spend reports nobody trusts once the dust settles.
Where this fits in your migration
Plan and choose a partner
The business case is agreed and an implementation partner is chosen.
Assess the data
What exists, what to move, and what state it is in. Pearstop starts here, by checking and classifying your purchase and supplier data.
Design the new system
Processes, fields and how old data maps to new. Pearstop maps the cleaned data to the new system's fields.
Test the move
Before go-live, your partner tests the move by loading the data into a trial version of the new system, often several times. We hand over the cleaned data in the format the new system imports, so those tests don't fail on bad records.
Go live
The new system goes live for your teams.
Run
New invoices stay classified, so reporting doesn't slip back.
A mid-sized migration often takes six to twelve months; larger SAP and Oracle programmes often run a year or more. Data problems usually show up during the test runs, when there is least time to fix them.
Your teams, who own the data.
Keeps systems, access and integrations running through the move.
Sets up the new system.
Cleans and classifies the data.
The data that matters in a Business Central migration
- Vendors and items, which carry most of the inconsistency built up over years of manual entry.
- Item categories, which need mapping to one standard before they can be compared across years.
- Which history to keep for reporting, given the standard tools move master data and open balances rather than everything.
- Data held in customisations, which needs identifying before anyone can decide what to do with it.
What good data looks like
- One record per supplier, with no duplicates across entities.
- Every spend line labelled to one standard (UNSPSC or your own).
- Item and material descriptions written the same way.
- Units of measure consistent.
- Inactive suppliers and items flagged, not migrated.
- Every field mapped to the new system and documented.
- Item categories consistent and mapped to one standard.
- Purchase history classified and kept reportable even where it isn't migrated into Business Central itself.
How Pearstop handles it
The data doesn't need to be clean first. AI classification handles the clear cases, and a person reviews anything uncertain. UNSPSC labels are mapped to Business Central's fields, in the format your migration needs. New invoices stay classified after go-live, so reporting doesn't slip back into the same mess.
Work with your partner
Most migrations run through an implementation partner. We work alongside them, or directly with you. Your partner sets up the new system; we give them clean, classified data in the format their import tools need. Nobody's scope changes, and your partner's team can spend their time on the new system instead of fixing records.
Why start early
Bring us in when you assess the data, not after the first test run fails. You find duplicates, free-text lines and missing categories while there is still time to fix them, nothing has to be cleaned twice, and the test runs go faster because the data goes in cleanly. Some problems only show up once you look closely at how the data behaves, which is why it pays to work with someone who handles this data every day.
Frequently asked questions
Can we keep our NAV purchase history when we move to Business Central?
The standard migration path moves master data and open balances, not full purchase history, so if you want that history to stay usable it needs classifying and archiving separately rather than assuming it will simply come along.
What should we clean before migrating from NAV?
Vendor records and item categories first, since those are what determine whether spend reporting in Business Central lines up with what NAV used to show.
Related reading
Send us 200 lines
We'll classify a sample of your purchase data and send it back so you can see what good data looks like before you commit to cleaning the rest.
