NAV 2016 to Business Central On-Cloud Migration – What Data/Functions Don’t Migrate?

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Posted on by Sumit Singh

11,757 Super User 2026 Season 1

Hello Community,

We are in the process of migrating NAV 2016 to Business Central on-cloud, including historical data.

From what I understand, certain elements like permission sets and workflows do not migrate properly and need to be recreated manually.

Is there an official or community-verified list of features, configurations, or data that cannot be migrated during this process? For example, items like Change Log entries or other system-related data.

Any guidance, documentation links, or best practices would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

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Dynamics 365 Business Central migration

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Sagar Dangar, MCP 807 Moderator on at

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Hi Sumit,

During On-premise to Cloud migration, you will able to find list of tables being included in migration. Please check "Cloud migration Management" page of business central cloud .

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YUN ZHU 99,086 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi, hope the following can give you some hints.

Define migration table mappings

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/migration-table-mapping?wt.mc_id=DX-MVP-5004336

Business Central on-premises to online migration: End-to-end overview

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/migrate-business-central-on-premises?wt.mc_id=DX-MVP-5004336

Thanks.

ZHU

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Chavda Dharmendra 1,000 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hello,

Check below link.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/migrate-business-central-on-premises

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Kamal Khakhkhar 2,915 on at

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Hii There , as per requirement , NAV 16 to BC 25 you need to migrate and through that you need to migrate to cloud.

also some of custom functions updated which has no event to handle is need to check .

for some of TAX Related and structure related tables and functionility is not available in Business central.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2-PuYsxlF1dbjgfnT1df4OLsSMLTwrd9&si=QVhm0-U9S6pO3aUE

you can check the play list for reference,

If You found answer mark it answered.

Thank you

Kamal Khakhkhar

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Pallavi Phade 5,420 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Namaste Sumit ,

There is no end-to-end documentation but below processes can surely help you forward . We also did it the same way .

The process consists of three parts:

Upgrade from Dynamics NAV to Business Central version 14. Learn more in Upgrading to Business Central on-premises (version 14).

Convert non-standard functionality and customizations to apps and per-tenant extensions. Learn more in Deploying a Tenant Customization.

Upgrade to at least Business Central version 25.0.

Migrate to Business Central online and then switch to use it going forward. Learn more in Migrate On-Premises Data to Business Central Online.

Healthy Tips

1) You also need to take care of Taxations if its Indian Localisation as Use-cases are key important change in upgrade.

2) Ensure you do proper migration in on-prem ( Migration to Onprem- 14 is major step) as it involves major step.

3) Below List of Tables getting deprecated

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/upgrade/india-data-migration-list-of-deprecated-tables

4) If The Database size is huge and over years would recommend application migration and cut-off on opening balances .

5) You need to take care of Integrations , third party solutions as well .

If you feel this helpful , please mark answer as Verified

Regards

Pallavi Phade

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Gerardo Rentería Ga... 25,555 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi, good day
I hope this can help you, and give you some hints.

Data Upgrade from NAV 2016 to Business Central 14 C/AL.

Best Regards
Gerardo

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Sahan Hasitha 2,683 on at

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hi

try this https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/migrate-business-central-on-premises

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Rishabh Kanaskar 6,219 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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When migrating from NAV 2016 to Business Central (Cloud), most master data and transactions migrate, but certain elements do not and must be recreated manually.

Key items that don’t migrate properly:

C/AL customizations and V1 extensions (must be converted to AL extensions)

Permission sets and workflows (recreate in BC)

Change Log entries and other system tables (not migrated)

Custom reports or code relying on obsolete fields/features

Third-party add-ons not compatible with BC cloud

Best practice: inventory and clean data, convert customizations to extensions, plan for re-creating permissions/workflows, and test migration in a sandbox.

Microsoft’s official guide: Migrate Dynamics NAV to Business Central online.

Thanks

Rishabh

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Nimsara Jayathilaka. 4,950 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi Sumit

When migrating from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 to Business Central on-cloud, certain features and configurations do not migrate automatically and require manual recreation. Official guidance and community experience agree that permission sets, workflows, and system-related data like Change Log entries are among those that do not transfer during migration. This is primarily because the architecture and security models have been significantly modernized in Business Central, and workflows have evolved into extensions that must be redeveloped or reapplied in the new environment.

Additionally, the migration process generally follows a staged approach where data and application code are upgraded first to an intermediate Business Central version before moving to the latest cloud version. Customizations, certain extensions, and some system-level data such as transaction logs and audit trails typically need to be manually handled or reconfigured after migration. Microsoft's official documentation and upgrade toolkit stress the importance of assessing and cleaning data, identifying necessary customizations, and preparing for manual recreation of unsupported features to ensure a smooth upgrade experience.

Thus, it is best practice to plan for manual re-creation of permission sets, workflows, and other system configurations while leveraging Microsoft’s Data Migration Toolkit for core transactional and master data migration.

Refer Given Blogs for additional help : https://msdynamicsworld.com/blog-post/nav-2016-business-central-upgrade-step-step

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/migrate-data

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/migrate-nav

If you feel the answer is helpfull verify the answer

Thanks

Nimsara

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