Dynamics NAV to Business Central Data Migration
Upgrading from Dynamics NAV to Business Central? Settle automates the mapping between NAV's C/AL table structures and BC's AL-based data model — preserving G/L history, customer ledger entries, item tracking, and custom table extensions.
Working with enterprise teams on active migration programs
Days
to production-ready mappings
Roughly half
the cost of consulting-led delivery
Every row
validated before go-live
Enterprise migrations routinely run months behind schedule. Yours doesn't have to.
This guide is for VPs of IT, data architects, and migration leads at companies moving data from Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central — whether you're scoping, planning, or mid-program.
Dynamics NAV stores data in C/AL tables — Table 18 (Customer), Table 23 (Vendor), Table 27 (Item), Table 17 (G/L Entry) — with custom fields added through C/AL extensions and industry-specific ISV add-ons. Business Central uses the same core table numbers but runs on AL extensions with a different data type system, dimension handling, and API layer. Settle maps NAV's C/AL schema to BC's AL model automatically, including custom table extensions and ISV data.
Based on the founding team's enterprise migration experience
Last updated July 2026
How Settle automates your Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central migration
Settle profiles your entire NAV database — base tables, custom tables in the 50000–99999 range, and ISV add-on tables — and maps each to the corresponding Business Central structure with field-level type translation.
Custom C/AL fields on base tables are identified and mapped to BC AL extension fields, generating a complete extension inventory for the development team.
Dimension set entries are validated across all ledger tables (G/L, Customer, Vendor, Item) to catch dimension inconsistencies before they become post-migration reconciliation issues.
Settle generates the transformation logic for number series alignment, document cross-references, and ledger entry date filtering — so the migration team starts with working SQL, not a blank spreadsheet.
Get your Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central mapping analysis — see results in under an hour
Migration timeline: manual vs. Settle
Traditional approach
Timeline
4–12 months
Estimated cost
$250K–$600K
Team size
3–8 NAV/BC consultants
Typically requires
×Manual field mapping in spreadsheets
×Custom ABAP/SQL extraction scripts
×3–5 mock migration cycles
×Dedicated source system consultants
×Manual reconciliation testing
With Settle
Enterprise benchmarksTimeline
Days
Estimated cost
A fraction of consulting cost
Team size
1–3 internal resources
Included
✓Schema profiling & analysis
✓AI-generated field mappings
✓Transformation SQL
✓Validation & readiness reports
✓Production-ready load files
Common challenges migrating from Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
C/AL custom objects to AL extensions
NAV implementations contain custom tables (50000–99999 range), custom fields on base tables, and modified code units written in C/AL. Business Central requires these as AL extensions. Settle profiles every custom table and field in the NAV database, maps them to BC's extension model, and flags objects that have no BC equivalent — giving the implementation team a complete inventory before a single line of AL is written.
Explore related migrations →ISV add-on data migration
Most NAV instances include ISV solutions — Jet Reports, Insight Works warehouse modules, Lanham Associates EDI, Continia Document Capture — each with their own tables and data. Some ISVs offer BC versions; others don't. Settle identifies all ISV tables in the NAV database and maps them to their BC equivalents or flags them as requiring manual migration or replacement.
Explore related migrations →G/L entry and ledger history volume
NAV databases that have been in production for 10–20 years contain millions of G/L entries (Table 17), customer ledger entries (Table 21), vendor ledger entries (Table 25), and item ledger entries (Table 32). Migrating this full history into BC requires careful scoping — most companies migrate detailed entries for 3–7 years and opening balances for older periods.
Explore related migrations →Dimension handling differences
NAV uses Global Dimensions 1–2 on transaction tables and a Dimension Set Entry table (Table 480) for additional dimensions. BC uses the same structure but enforces dimension consistency differently. Misaligned dimension set IDs between NAV and BC are one of the most common causes of post-migration G/L discrepancies. Settle validates dimension set integrity across all ledger entry tables before migration.
Explore related migrations →Number series and document references
NAV uses number series for document numbering — sales invoices, purchase orders, journal batches. BC requires these number series to be configured and synchronized to avoid gaps or duplicates. Cross-references between posted documents and their original orders must also be preserved to maintain the audit trail.
Explore related migrations →Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central field mapping — what data moves
12 data objects typically migrated
| Source Object | → | Target Object |
|---|---|---|
| Table 18 (Customer) | → | Customer (Table 18) |
| Table 23 (Vendor) | → | Vendor (Table 23) |
| Table 27 (Item) | → | Item (Table 27) |
| Table 17 (G/L Entry) | → | G/L Entry (Table 17) |
| Table 21 (Cust. Ledger Entry) | → | Cust. Ledger Entry (Table 21) |
| Table 25 (Vendor Ledger Entry) | → | Vendor Ledger Entry (Table 25) |
| Table 32 (Item Ledger Entry) | → | Item Ledger Entry (Table 32) |
| Table 36/37 (Sales Header/Line) | → | Sales Header/Line |
| Table 38/39 (Purchase Header/Line) | → | Purchase Header/Line |
| Table 480 (Dimension Set Entry) | → | Dimension Set Entry (Table 480) |
| Table 5050 (Contact) | → | Contact (Table 5050) |
| Custom Tables (50000–99999) | → | AL Extension Tables |
Typical enterprise migrations include 500K–10M+ records across these objects. Settle handles profiling and mapping at enterprise scale.
The cost of manual Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central migration
Dynamics NAV to Business Central is the single largest migration corridor in the Microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Dynamics NAV 2018 and has been actively pushing the installed base — estimated at over 160,000 companies globally — to Business Central. While BC is technically the successor to NAV, the migration is not a simple upgrade. Companies on NAV 2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, or 2017 face significant data model differences, C/AL to AL extension conversion, and cloud architecture changes.
The core challenge is that NAV databases are heavily customized. Most NAV implementations include ISV add-ons (Jet Reports, Lanham Associates, Insight Works), custom C/AL code objects, and modified base tables that don't exist in standard Business Central. These customizations must be identified, their data extracted, and either migrated into BC extensions or restructured. The standard Microsoft migration tooling handles vanilla NAV — it does not handle the customizations that define most real-world implementations.
These migrations are typically run by NAV/BC partners (VARs) over 4–12 months. The data migration workstream — mapping NAV tables to BC, handling custom fields, converting dimensions, and preserving ledger entry history — consumes 30–40% of the total project effort.
Consulting-led delivery for migrations in this class typically runs $250K–$600K. Settle prices it fixed and scoped — read the full cost breakdown.
Frequently asked questions
Related migration paths
Exceptions surface before the first load, not after the third.
Built by the team that ran Fortune 500 migrations by hand. Currently onboarding enterprise design partners on active migration programs.
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