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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Small and medium business | Business Central, N... / Data Migration
Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
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Data Migration

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Posted on by Anjana Gambhir 37

Hello all,

Could you please confirm if we can migrate partial data from NAV to Business Central during a version upgrade.

For example , if customer has 10 years of data , can we only migrate 2 years of data in Business Central from NAV using upgrade toolkit or any other tool.

Thanks.

Anjana

  • Suggested answer
    YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    YUN ZHU 86,253 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at
    RE: Data Migration

    Hi, As far as I know, the standard doesn't have this functionality.

    I also recommend that you sync all data first. 
    More details: https://yzhums.com/6646/

    And, Data cleanup tasks page (Data Administration page)
    https://yzhums.com/15246/

    Hope this helps as well.

    Thanks.

    ZHU

  • Suggested answer
    Inge M. Bruvik Profile Picture
    Inge M. Bruvik 1,029 Moderator on at
    RE: Data Migration

    I think my approach would be to migrate all data and then start to delete / compress data once they are all migrated.

    Then it is easier to get a clear view of what data you want to keep to get a good use of your new Business Central implementation.

    With that approach you will also see how much storage is needed to keep all your data and you can compare the cost of that to the cost of an alternative archive storage.

  • Venko Gligorov Profile Picture
    Venko Gligorov 5 on at
    RE: Data Migration

    Hi Anjana,

    In general, this is not a technical issue but rather business/finance issue. Some data needs to be kept requested by authorities. 

    • Ledger entries should be transferred all together or only balances. You cannot select only 2 years only because all balances are calculated from those ledger entries. Most specifically, General Ledger Entries, Item Ledger Entries, Value Entries, Customer/Vendor Ledger Entries and Bank Account Ledger Entries. There are few more ledger entries that you need to migrate/transfer. 
    • Posting documents like sales invoices and purchase invoices can be removed from BC completely or you may keep them in a 2 year time window.
    • You may decide to not transfer Change Log Entries which in some cases could be very large.
    • Obviously, master data like Customers, Vendors, Bank Account and Items can be transferred selectively - you may transfer only those that are having balances and those that the company intend to work in future. 

    If you want to transfer the data selectively, then I guess the best and most flexible tool is SQL Server Management Studio. But it should be programed to make all these selections.

    Hope it helps.

    Venko

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