Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

Archival Strategy in Business Central with Full Ledger Traceability Post-NAV Migration

Hi everyone,

We’re working with a client who recently migrated from NAV to Business Central and is looking to archive several years of historical data to improve performance. However, they have a critical requirement: even after archival, users must be able to access complete ledger details for any historical document—this includes:

General Ledger Entries
Value Entries
Item Ledger Entries
Vendor/Customer Ledger Entries
Tax Entries
We’re exploring options beyond the standard Data Administration tool, which compresses data but may limit traceability. The client wants to save on storage costs while maintaining secure and seamless access to archived data from within Business Central.

Has anyone implemented a solution where:

Historical data is stored outside Business Central (e.g., Azure SQL, Blob Storage, SharePoint, etc.)
Users can navigate from a document to all related entries via Business Central UI
Security and compliance (e.g., Azure AD, audit logs) are maintained
Performance is optimized without compromising user experience
Would love to hear your thoughts, best practices, or architectural suggestions. Bonus points if you’ve used Power Automate, Azure Functions, or custom extensions to achieve this!

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Business Central migration

Hi,

This is a great use case, and it's becoming increasingly common post-NAV to Business Central migrations. To meet your client's need for full ledger traceability while optimizing performance and storage, here’s a hybrid strategy you might consider:

1. External Archival Storage

Store historical data in Azure SQL, Blob Storage, or Data Lake.
Use Azure Data Factory or Power Automate to extract and archive data periodically.

2. Custom Lookup Extension in BC

Develop a custom extension in Business Central that allows users to query archived data via web services or OData endpoints.
Use factboxes or action buttons to open related entries from archived sources.

3. Maintain Navigation Links

Store document metadata (e.g., document number, posting date, entry IDs) in BC to maintain clickable references to archived records.
Use deep links or embedded Power BI reports for seamless navigation.

4. Security & Compliance

Secure external storage with Azure AD, RBAC, and audit logs.
Ensure data access is logged and compliant with your client’s governance policies.