If your organization has Microsoft Small Business Financials 7.5, 8.0 or 9.0, you should think about the future of your Corporate ERP application. Small Business Financials has been finalized on version 9.0 and recommended migration path is to an upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 Business Ready with Business Essentials license model. If you are current in Microsoft Business Solutions annual enhancement program you should expect refund for the price of your current Small Business Financials, when you purchase Dynamics GP licenses. In this article we will give you technical highlights on migration, and what to expect:

Upgrade Path: You should first upgrade Small Business Financials to version 9.0. Second Step is Migration from SBF 9.0 to GP 9.0. Next step is preparation of Dynamics GP 9.0 for upgrade (SQL Scripts). Next step is applying Service Pack 3 or 4 for Dynamics GP 9.0. And then final migration to Dynamics GP 10.0 SP3 or 4.

Additional steps in Dynamics GP 10.0: As Business Ready comes with multicurrency, you may decide to enable or disable it (by default it is enabled). To setup Multicurrency, you can simply choose Tools->Setup->System->Currency, and add at least one currency, such as Z-US$ and make if functional and reporting. Grant access to the currency for your company in Multicurrency Access Setup, pick currency for your checkbooks (may need to do it in SQL Scripts) and run Check Links for your Financial Series.

Sales Order Processing Setup: In our experience we had to reset next number for SOP Transactions (Invoice, Quote, Sales Order, etc.).

Test Migration: This step is recommended, especially when you cannot stop operations for several days to test and fix on the fly production upgrade.

Customization Upgrade: If you have Dexterity or Extender customizations for Small Business Manager/Financials, you should consider Extender or Dexterity programmers to review these add-ons and make them compatible with Dynamics GP 10.0

User Training for Dynamics GP 10.0 Interface: Codebase for Small Business Financials and Dynamics GP are very similar and table structures are near identical. However User interface in Small Business Financials is simplified. This is why you may expect some learning curve from your users, as they are discovering Dynamics GP. User training may be recommended.

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Author: Andrew Karasev, Partner, Alba Spectrum [help@albaspectrum.com | 1-866-528-0577]
Serving ERP and MRP community since 1994, local service in Chicago, Houston, San Diego, Atlanta, Los Angeles.