Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Navision to QuickBooks
11 January 2028 is the last date on the NAV calendar. Everything before it has already gone.
Extended support for Dynamics NAV 2018, the final release, ends on 11 January 2028. Every earlier version has already passed its date: NAV 2017 on 11 January 2027, NAV 2016 on 14 April 2026, NAV 2015 on 14 January 2025. Mainstream support ended for every NAV release years ago. If you are on NAV in Canada, you have a countdown and a decision, and the decision is not the one Microsoft is offering you.
15,000+ migrations completed. 90+ source platforms. Client data processed in Canada.
The dates
Where your version actually sits
Navision became Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and NAV was succeeded by Business Central. There will not be another NAV release. These are the published lifecycle dates.
| Version | Mainstream support ended | Extended support ends |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamics NAV 2018 (final release) | 10 January 2023 | 11 January 2028 |
| Dynamics NAV 2017 | 11 January 2022 | 11 January 2027 |
| Dynamics NAV 2016 | 13 April 2021 | 14 April 2026, passed |
| Dynamics NAV 2015 | 14 January 2020 | 14 January 2025, passed |
| NAV 2013 and earlier, and Navision | Passed | Passed |
Mainstream support ending means no new features and no non-security hotfixes. Extended support ending means no security updates at all. A finance system with no security updates is a question your auditor, insurer or enterprise customers are entitled to ask about.
The choice you are being offered
Business Central is not the only answer, and it is rarely the cheapest
Every NAV partner in Canada will tell you to move to Business Central. For some organizations that is right. For a large number it is a bigger, longer, more expensive project than the one they actually need, and nobody selling it has an incentive to say so.
What a Business Central move actually is
It is a re-implementation, not an upgrade. Your customisations do not carry across in their current form. Objects written in C/AL have to be rebuilt as extensions in AL. Reports get rebuilt. Integrations get rebuilt. The data migration is the smallest part of the bill.
That is worth paying when you genuinely need what Business Central does: manufacturing, warehouse management, deep dimension reporting, multi-company consolidation. If those describe your operation, go, and go with your eyes open on cost and timeline.
The case nobody makes to you
NAV was sold into a great many Canadian mid-market organizations that never used more than the general ledger, receivables, payables, a dimension or two and a reporting pack. The implementation was scoped for growth that either arrived differently or did not arrive, and the annual cost has been carried out of inertia.
If that describes you, the honest comparison is not NAV against Business Central. It is NAV against QuickBooks Online Advanced or QuickBooks Enterprise, at a fraction of the licence, a fraction of the implementation and none of the partner dependency.
We are a multi-award-winning Intuit QuickBooks Service Provider and we still tell people to stay on an ERP when that is the right answer. Ask us on the call.
Scope
What moves out of a NAV environment
NAV stores financial data across a relational schema with global and shortcut dimensions, posting groups and dimension value combinations. Mapping that model into the destination is the project. Extracting the rows is the straightforward part.
| Item | Outcome | How we handle it |
|---|---|---|
| Chart of accounts | Moves | Rebuilt with correct account and detail types against your actual reporting rather than mirroring the NAV structure |
| Global and shortcut dimensions | Remodelled | Mapped to classes, locations, projects or custom fields based on which dimensions your live reports actually use |
| General ledger entries | Moves | Full history at transaction level with original posting dates, document numbers and dimension values preserved |
| Customers, vendors and contacts | Moves | Including addresses parsed into proper fields, payment terms and outstanding balances |
| Customer and vendor ledger entries | Moves | Open and applied entries, with application history preserved as transaction links so aged detail reconciles |
| Posting groups | Redesigned | General, customer, vendor, inventory and VAT posting groups have no direct equivalent. Destination posting behaviour is configured deliberately |
| VAT and sales tax setup | Rebuilt | NAV VAT posting setup rebuilt as GST, HST, PST and QST codes against the correct Canadian agencies, with historical rates preserved per transaction |
| Items and inventory | Moves, with a decision | Costing method in the destination is fixed the first time inventory is enabled and cannot be changed after, so it is agreed in writing before build work starts |
| Item ledger and value entries | Moves | Quantity and value history reconciled against the NAV inventory valuation report before sign off |
| Jobs and job ledger entries | Remodelled | NAV job costing has no direct destination equivalent. Mapped to customers, sub-customers and classes, then reconciled on job profitability |
| Assembly and production BOMs | No equivalent | If manufacturing is load bearing this is where the conversation turns to whether you should leave an ERP at all |
| Fixed assets | Partially | Asset register and net book values move. Depreciation books and future schedules are rebuilt in the destination or in a connected application |
| C/AL and AL customisations | Does not move | Inventoried, and each is replaced with native functionality, replaced with a connected application, or explicitly dropped with your sign-off |
| Account Schedules and custom reports | Does not move | The reports that leave the building are rebuilt and tested against the NAV source. The rest are archived rather than recreated |
| Document attachments | Does not move | Extracted into a structured archive keyed to the original records |
| Payroll | Basic only | Basic payroll data migrated, detailed pay type and year to date history archived from the source |
Discovery
What we look for before quoting a NAV environment
NAV estates are usually older than the people running them and rarely documented accurately. The gap between what was implemented and what is used is where the timeline lives.
Which granules and modules carry live transactions
Almost every NAV site is licensed for more than it runs. We check which areas carry transactions in the last two fiscal years rather than which are switched on. That check frequently halves the perceived scope and answers the ERP question by itself.
The dimension model, measured not described
How many dimensions exist, how many appear on posted entries, and how many appear in reports anybody reads. Those are three different numbers on most NAV sites, and only the third has to be modelled in the destination.
The customisation inventory
C/AL objects, AL extensions, custom tables and fields, and any third party ISV modules still installed. Each is a decision. We would rather have that argument in week one than discover it in week nine.
Version, upgrade history and technical debt
Which NAV version, how many upgrades it has been through, and whether any were partial. Sites that stopped upgrading mid-path carry structural inconsistencies that shape the extraction sequence.
Integrations and what depends on them
Warehouse, e-commerce, CRM, payroll, EDI and bank connections. Some have a QuickBooks connector and need re-authorising. Some do not and need a replacement chosen, implemented and costed inside the same project.
The reporting pack that leaves the building
Account Schedules, the board pack, the lender schedule, the file the external accountant asks for annually. Those get rebuilt and tested against NAV before go live. The rest of the report library gets archived.
Canada
The Canadian details a global NAV plan misses
NAV models tax as VAT, and Canada is not a VAT country
NAV’s VAT posting setup crosses business posting groups with product posting groups to derive a rate. Canadian implementations bend that structure to represent GST, HST, PST and QST, and every site bends it slightly differently. Translating it correctly requires reading how yours was actually configured, not assuming a standard.
HST at 13 percent in Ontario. 14 percent in Nova Scotia. 15 percent in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. GST plus PST in British Columbia at 7 percent, Saskatchewan at 6 percent and Manitoba at 7 percent. GST plus QST in Quebec at 9.975 percent. GST only in Alberta and the territories.
Input tax credits have to be reproducible
A NAV environment usually sits on several years of filed returns. Move summary balances and you can file going forward but cannot substantiate what was already filed. We migrate at transaction level specifically so the ITC position for every filed period can be rebuilt from the new system, and we reconcile a sales tax summary from both systems before go live.
Six years, at a Canadian place of business
The CRA requires records to be kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, and to be kept at your place of business in Canada unless you have written permission otherwise. Retiring a NAV environment without a readable archive creates a compliance gap. The archive is part of the project, not an afterthought.
Your data is processed in Canada
Extraction, staging, transformation and validation all happen in Canada. We do not move a Canadian client file offshore to be worked on, and it goes in the statement of work rather than being asserted on a web page.
Process
How a NAV migration runs
Assessment
We profile the NAV environment: version and upgrade history, modules genuinely in use, dimension structure, transaction volumes by year, customisations, integrations and the reports that leave the building. Output is a written scope with the exclusions named and signed.
Destination design
Chart of accounts, the dimension to class and location model, tax codes and agencies, custom fields, user roles and approval flow. Designed against your reporting rather than mirroring NAV.
Extraction and remediation
Data extracted and audited. Long-lived NAV environments carry retired dimension values, repurposed accounts and partial upgrade artefacts, and those are resolved inside the migration where they can be reconciled.
Test migration
Full conversion into a sandbox. Trial balance, balance sheet, profit and loss, customer and vendor ageing, sales tax summary, job profitability and inventory valuation reconciled line by line against NAV. You receive the comparison, not a summary of it.
Cutover
Final delta migration in a quiet window. Your team keeps working in NAV until we switch. Reconciliation repeats against the final numbers before anyone is asked to use the new system.
Hypercare and archive
Thirty days of support after go live, role training, and your first month end with us on the line. The NAV environment is archived in a structured, readable form to meet the six year requirement.
Timeline
How long it takes
Timelines reflect the dimension model and the customisation inventory rather than transaction volume.
| Profile | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Single company, two or three dimensions, little customisation, standard modules | 1 to 3 weeks |
| Multiple companies, active dimension model, jobs in use, several integrations | 3 to 5 weeks |
| Heavy C/AL customisation, manufacturing or warehouse granules in use, consolidation across companies | 5 to 8 weeks |
Those windows run from kickoff to go live and include the test migration and the reconciliation cycle. They exclude the thirty days of hypercare that follow every project. Software subscriptions are paid to Intuit directly and are never marked up by us.
Proof
A national organization, off an on-premise ERP in four weeks
Dairy Farmers of Canada
A national organization representing more than 9,000 dairy farms moved off an on-premise Sage 300 ERP onto QuickBooks Online Advanced. Zero days of downtime, full data integrity, four weeks to go live. The source environment carried data corruption across General Ledger, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable, and we supplied a production file so the organization kept operating while it was resolved.
Different source platform, same shape of problem. An on-premise ERP that had become a maintenance burden, a distributed team that needed access, and no tolerance for a reconciliation gap.
Questions Canadian finance teams ask
Before you book
When does support for my NAV version actually end?
NAV 2018 extended support ends 11 January 2028. NAV 2017 ends 11 January 2027. NAV 2016 ended 14 April 2026 and NAV 2015 ended 14 January 2025. Mainstream support ended for every NAV release years ago, so no version receives new features or non-security fixes today.
Is Navision the same thing as NAV?
Yes. Navision was renamed Microsoft Dynamics NAV after Microsoft acquired it, and NAV was succeeded by Business Central. Same product lineage, same data structures, and everything on this page applies to a Navision file.
Should we move to Business Central instead?
Sometimes. If you genuinely use manufacturing, warehouse management, deep dimension reporting or multi-company consolidation, an ERP is still the right category and we will say so. Just price it correctly: moving NAV to Business Central is a re-implementation, and your C/AL customisations have to be rebuilt as AL extensions.
What happens to our dimensions?
They are remodelled rather than mapped one to one. Most NAV sites use two or three dimensions meaningfully and carry several more nobody reports on. We identify which is which from your live reports, then model the real ones as classes, locations, projects or custom fields.
We have years of C/AL customisation. Does that block the project?
No, but it defines the scope. Every object is inventoried and then either replaced with native functionality, replaced with a connected application, or explicitly dropped with your sign-off. Nothing gets discovered missing after cutover.
Will our GST and HST history survive?
Yes, when the conversion runs at transaction level. NAV VAT posting setup is translated into Canadian tax codes against the correct agencies, and we reconcile a sales tax summary from both systems before go live so the position is visible rather than assumed.
Can we bring all of our history?
In most cases yes. The practical question is whether you want to. Many teams bring two to three years live and keep the rest as a structured archive, which also satisfies the six year record requirement.
What happens to the NAV environment afterwards?
It is archived in a structured, readable form and handed to you, built to meet the CRA requirement to keep records for six years at a place of business in Canada unless you have written permission otherwise.
Accounting firm with a client on this platform?
Refer, white-label, or co-deliver the migration with our team while you keep the client relationship.
Playbooks
Before you decide, read the mechanics
Short, checkable pieces on the contract clauses and system limits that usually decide this. Each one names a document or a report you already own.
The uplift clause costs more than the discount you win
A 6 percent discount erased by a 7 percent annual escalator. All three years priced out, and the four documents to pull before you respond to a renewal.
Your renewal did not go up, your discount ran out
Why a 20 percent introductory discount unwinds as a 25 percent increase, and where in the original order form that condition is written.
Discovery Call
Book a Dynamics NAV migration assessment
Ninety minutes on your NAV version, your dimension model and your customisation inventory. A fixed-scope quote after, or an honest recommendation to move to Business Central instead.
