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  • Modernise ERP · SMB · NAV or GP to Business Central

NAV doesn't need replacing. It needs continuing.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the next version of NAV, not a rebuild. Braintree carries your system forward and modernises only what the assessment says to.
Book a migration assessment
Run the 8-minute readiness check
  • One lineage, one codebase

Navision

Where the codebase began

Dynamics NAV

The ERP your team knows

NAV 2018

The last full NAV release

Business Central

The next version. You land here.

January 2028

NAV support ends

Forrester TEI over three years
0 %+
Payback period on Business Central
0 mo
Scope sprint before any build
1 days
Managed Business Central takes over
1 days
  • The point the rip-and-replace pitch leaves out

Business Central is the next version of NAV.

Microsoft built Dynamics 365 Business Central on the Dynamics NAV codebase. Navision to Dynamics NAV to Business Central, one lineage. The same data model, the same posting logic, the financial core your team already knows. The C/AL customisations you wrote into NAV have a documented path to AL extensions in Business Central. This is a continuation, not a rebuild from zero. A vendor moving you onto a different ERP platform cannot say that.
  • The platform you land on

The Microsoft stack behind Business Central. Five products, one platform.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

The direct successor to NAV. Finance, operations, sales, service and projects on one platform.

Same data model and posting logic as NAV

C/AL to AL extensions, documented path

Continuous monthly updates, no upgrade projects

Copilot in Business Central

Bank reconciliation, document drafting and data analysis. AI inside the ERP.

PBI LogoCreated with Sketch.

Power BI and Microsoft Fabric

Near real-time reporting on Business Central data. The analytics layer NAV never had.

Power Platform

Low-code apps and workflow that extend Business Central without touching core code.

Microsoft Teams

Business Central documents, approvals and records inside Teams, where work already happens.

  • The support runway, plainly

Where NAV sits in its lifecycle. And why the calm move is the early one.

NAV 2018 was the last full Dynamics NAV release. Here is the support runway, plainly, and the one date that decides your timeline.
NAV 2018

The last full NAV release

  • NAV 2018 is the last full Dynamics NAV version. It is the platform most South African NAV sites still run today. Everything after this is Business Central. No NAV 2019, no NAV 2020.
Mainstream ends

The platform stops gaining

  • NAV 2018 moves to extended support. No new features. No Copilot. No Microsoft Fabric. The monthly update cadence stops.
Wednesday

Validate

  • Finance and operations leads run real transactions, not synthetic data.
  • Anything found is triaged and resolved before Thursday. No carry-over.
Extended support

Security fixes only

  • NAV still runs, but the platform has stopped moving. Each year on it widens the gap to Business Central, and the work to close it. A holding cost, not yet a crisis.
January 2028

Support ends. The deadline.

  • After this date NAV 2018 receives no security updates at all. Running it past here becomes a POPIA and audit exposure. A migration run under deadline pressure costs more and keeps less.

You have until January 2028. You do not need that long.

A clean NAV to Business Central migration runs four to six months. Start now and you choose the go-live window, scope the work without pressure, and cut over on a quiet weekend. Start in 2027 and the calendar makes those choices for you.

Book a migration assessment
  • How we migrate

Assess, Map, Migrate, Extend.

Four stages. The assessment fixes the scope and the price before anything moves.
01

Assess

We audit your NAV environment: version, customisations, ISV add-ons, integration surface, data quality. You leave with a fixed-scope migration plan and a real number.

$ Fixed scope, real number

02

Map

Every NAV extension, report and workflow is mapped to its Business Central equivalent. C/AL code is reviewed for the AL rebuild. Nothing is assumed.

03

Migrate

Design, build, test, user acceptance. A weekend cut-over with a documented rollback plan. You trade on Business Central on Monday.

04

Extend

Copilot, Microsoft Fabric and Power Platform go in after go-live. This is where the return compounds.

  • Continuation, not rebuild

Braintree doesn't start your ERP from zero. We carry NAV forward, and rebuild only what the assessment says to.

  • The fork the assessment decides

Upgrade or reimplement. Both land on Business Central.

Most buyers assume NAV to Business Central means starting over. Most of the time it does not. Both paths land on the same Business Central. The assessment decides which one fits your environment, not a first sales call.

Upgrade. Carry your NAV forward.

Best for most NAV sites, where the core processes still fit how the business runs.
  • Chart of accounts, data and posting logic carried forward into Business Central.
  • C/AL customisations rebuilt as supported AL extensions, isolated from platform upgrades.
  • Historical data and reporting continuity preserved. The shortest credible path to go-live.
  • Timeline: 4 to 6 months. Single weekend cut-over.

Reimplement. A fresh Business Central build.

Best when NAV has drifted far from how the business now operates.
  • Processes redesigned on standard Business Central from day one.
  • Data mapped in selectively. The NAV system is the source, not the structure.
  • The right call when customisations are undocumented, or you are merging entities anyway.
  • Timeline: 6 to 9 months. Phased cut-over common.
  • One Microsoft partner. The commercial case

One Microsoft Partner. One Intelligent Agreement. One Unified, Secure Solution.

NAV on-premise spreads your cost and your accountability across hardware, licensing, backup and a support contract. Each renews on its own clock. Business Central with Braintree replaces all of it with one Microsoft agreement and one accountable partner, across the migration and the years after it.
Separate hardware, licensing, support.

Before. Costs on four clocks.

  • On-premise server hardware, plus its refresh cycle
  • NAV BREP licensing renewals, billed on their own clock
  • Separate backup, disaster recovery and patch windows
  • A NAV partner who may not still be doing Business Central cut-overs
  • An upgrade project every few years, scoped and priced from scratch
One agreement. One partner. One clock.

After. One Intelligent Agreement.

  • One Microsoft Customer Agreement. Per-user, forecastable
  • One Braintree team across the migration and the run-state
  • Continuous monthly update cadence. No upgrade projects
  • Data on Microsoft Azure, POPIA-aligned by default
  • One accountable partner, still here three years in
merp panel | Braintree
The businesses that run NAV. Manufacturing, distribution and services, kept trading through the move.
  • Proof, not promises

200%+

Return over three years on Business Central, with payback inside six months.
Forrester’s Total Economic Impact study, March 2026, modelled composite organisations across mid-market manufacturing, distribution and services. The composite return was more than 200% over three years, and the investment was recouped inside the first six months.
Controlgear Instramac ran 38 years on the old system before moving off Great Plains. Braintree did that migration over a single weekend. NAV to Business Central is the cleaner version of the same playbook: the codebase lineage is closer, so the path is shorter.
Controlgear Instramac, Great Plains to Business Central with Braintree
  • The honest comparison

Staying on NAV, and moving to Business Central.

What matters Staying on NAV
Support Extended support only. Ends January 2028. No new features.
✓ Fully supported. Continuous monthly update cadence.
Customisations Tightly coupled to core code. Upgrades break things.
✓ AL extension model. Customisations isolated from platform upgrades.
Access On-premise. VPN, RDP and workarounds for remote access.
✓ Azure-hosted. Browser, iOS and Android, built in.
AI None. NAV 2018 stopped gaining features.
✓ Copilot for reconciliation, drafting and data analysis.
Reporting Exports to Excel. Batch reports.
✓ Power BI and Microsoft Fabric. Near real-time dashboards.
Cost shape CapEx hardware, fixed licences, an upgrade project every few years.
✓ Per-user subscription, forecastable. No upgrade projects.
Every row moves the same direction. Staying on NAV is a holding cost, not yet a crisis. The point of the assessment is to choose the move before the calendar makes it for you.
  • Talk to a migration specialist

Three specialists. One direct line. Plus the 8-minute readiness check.

We match you to the right specialist when you book the migration assessment. Names land in your calendar invite, not on a page you scrolled past.
BC

Business Central Practice Lead

Migration strategy & delivery

Microsoft Certified ·
Dynamics 365 Business Central

AL

Migration Architect, AL and Extensions

C/AL review & extension rebuild

Microsoft Certified ·
Business Central Developer

CL

Commercial Lead, One Intelligent Agreement

TCO model & the one agreement

Microsoft Customer Agreement · CSP
  • 8-minute readiness check

How ready is your NAV environment to move to Business Central?

8 questions, scored against the readiness pattern from 220+ SA clients. You get a tier, Migration-ready, Assessment-ready, Nearly ready or Early, plus the actions that close the gap before you scope.
Run the readiness check
  • How it works

From assessment to live on Business Central, in three steps.

01

Tell us how you run today

NAV version, customisations, ISV add-ons, integrations, data quality. Five to ten minutes on your side.

02

Get the migration plan

Braintree returns a fixed-scope migration plan, the upgrade or reimplement recommendation and a real number. Inside five business days.

03

Review with the architect

Review the scope with the migration architect. Confirm the fork. Lock the go-live window. Walk the TCO model. No sales pitch.

Book the 30-minute migration assessment
  • FAQ

What NAV owners ask before they book.

How does Braintree decide which AI agents to deploy?
Business case first. We model ROI and TCO before a single agent is deployed. Management signs off, then we deploy, and only the agents where the value is proven. The AI Value Framework is the gate. Braintree doesn’t deploy AI agents by default. We deploy them where the ROI is proven.
Yes. The Evaluate stage produces a management-ready 3-year ROI and TCO model before any deployment decision. It compares Microsoft’s named agents against a custom build for the same outcome. The decision sits with your board, not our sales team.
No. The AI Value Framework evaluates each agent against your operations and your business case. You deploy only the agents that earn their case. Payflow may ship in your first wave. Time Entry may not make the cut. That is the point of the gate.
Yes. That is the Build stage of the AI Value Framework. Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI and the Dynamics 365 ERP MCP Server are the stack. Brian is the reference pattern. The business case must prove the build cost, the same as every other deployment under the Framework.
Not for new projects. As of February 2026, new finance and operations project creation moved to the Power Platform admin center. Existing Lifecycle Services projects continue to run. Braintree deploys new enterprise migrations in the Power Platform admin center.
SARS e-invoicing is voluntary in 2026 and mandatory from 2028 for large VAT taxpayers. The Dynamics 365 Finance localisation roadmap covers the continuous transaction controls model. Braintree tracks the SARS technical specification and will have you ready ahead of the mandate.
Role-based Copilot for Finance, Sales and Service was bundled into Microsoft 365 Copilot at no extra cost from October 2025. The in-product Copilot running inside the finance and operations apps is included in the app licence. No surprise line item.
The 2026 draft amendments to the Codes of Good Practice (Government Gazette 54032, January 2026) affect vendor scoring. Implementation is pending and public comment closed in March 2026. Braintree is South African and B-BBEE-certified. Your procurement team should have current B-BBEE paperwork on file from us.
  • From the practice

Insights on the move from NAV to Business Central.

merp ins1 | Braintree

Planning

The NAV inventory every CFO should have before asking for a migration quote.

Customisations, integrations, ISV add-ons, report debt. The list the assessment is actually scored on, and the one you can build before you call anyone.
Read the article
  • In production
merp ins2 | Braintree

Controlgear Instramac: 38 years of legacy Microsoft ERP, live on Business Central in six months.

Case

How a specialist engineering business cut over from Great Plains in a single weekend, and what it means for a NAV environment where the codebase lineage is the same.
Read the article
  • In production
merp ins3 | Braintree

Method

Keep, kill or rebuild: the framework we run on every NAV customisation.

The four-question test that decides whether a NAV customisation moves to Business Central as an AL extension, gets replaced by standard Business Central, or gets retired.
Read the article
  • In production
  • Where this connects

Where NAV to Business Central sits in the stack.

ERP New Implementation

Not coming from NAV? The new-implementation route to Business Central, designed for a business going onto Dynamics 365 for the first time.

Visit ERP New Implementation

CRM

Sales and Customer Engagement. Dynamics 365 for sales and service, on the same Microsoft estate as Business Central. One agreement, one team.

Visit CRM
PBI LogoCreated with Sketch.

Data & Analytics

The reporting layer NAV never had. Power BI and Microsoft Fabric on Business Central data. The natural next step once you are live.

Visit Data & Analytics
  • Give your CFO a fixed-scope number, not a 2028 scramble

Let's grow.

Book the 30-minute migration assessment. We audit your NAV environment, recommend upgrade or reimplement, and hand you a fixed-scope plan and a three-year TCO model. No pitch deck.
Book a migration assessment
Run the 8-minute readiness check
Specialists in Business Applications, Modern Workplace and Azure.