If you are planning to upgrade Dynamics NAV to Business Central or move from an old Navision or Business Central build to the latest version the same questions come up every time.
The questions this guide answers
Business Central Upgrade Path Calculator
Skip the version tables and get your answer instantly. Pick your current Dynamics NAV or Business Central version and your target below, and the calculator maps your exact upgrade route — every stage, both stepping stones, and what to watch for. The full technical matrix and version-by-version detail follow further down the page.
Dynamics NAV & Business Central Upgrade Path Calculator
Pick your current version and where you want to land. Get the exact staged route, stepping stones, and what to watch for.
Why upgrade Dynamics NAV to Business Central now
Microsoft has discontinued Dynamics NAV. New NAV licenses are no longer sold, and NAV is no longer part of Microsoft’s active ERP roadmap. Organizations still on NAV are running on borrowed time the system keeps working, but it no longer receives new features, innovation, or long-term investment.
The support lifecycle makes the timing concrete. All NAV versions are now out of mainstream support. The most recent versions receive only critical security updates during extended support, and that window is meant to give you time to plan a move not to run indefinitely. Once extended support ends, you get no security patches at all, which becomes a compliance and cybersecurity risk.
When you upgrade Dynamics NAV to Business Central, you move from a legacy, mostly on-premises system to a modern, cloud-based ERP:
Business Central keeps the core NAV functionality your team already knows financials, supply chain, manufacturing, projects so it’s an evolution of NAV, not a different product to learn from scratch.
Upgrade vs. reimplementation: which route is right for you
There are two ways to move from Dynamics NAV to Business Central, and choosing correctly saves you real time and money.
| Technical Upgrade | Reimplementation (Clean Start) | |
|---|---|---|
| What moves | Your full historical data is migrated directly | Masters, opening balances, and open AR/AP re-entered; history kept separately |
| Customizations | Must be rebuilt as extensions (C/AL → AL) | Rethink from scratch; keep only what adds value |
| Best for | Recent versions with clean, valued data | Very old versions, or heavily customized systems |
| Effort | Higher on data conversion, lower on redesign | Higher up-front process work, cleaner result |
| Result | Same system, modern platform | Optimized fresh start on modern platform |
If you’re on a very old NAV version, seriously consider a reimplementation. Staged upgrades through multiple intermediate versions are time-consuming, because the table structure itself changed between versions and data has to be recompiled at each stage. A clean start — loading masters, opening balances, and going live — is often faster and cleaner. If you specifically need the historical records inside the live database, take the staged upgrade. Otherwise, a direct implementation of the latest version is usually the better call.
How long it takes and what it costs
There’s no single price it depends on your NAV version, data volume, and the number and complexity of customizations and integrations. But a few realities shape every project:
- The older your version, the more stages and each stage adds time and cost.
- Customizations drive most of the cost. Converting C/AL to AL and rebuilding as extensions is where effort concentrates. Many old customizations can be dropped, because Business Central now covers them out of the box.
- Delaying gets more expensive. Microsoft ships updates twice a year, so the gap between your version and the target keeps widening — the longer you wait, the more ground the upgrade has to cover.
A short discovery and audit up front documenting processes, customizations, and integrations is the single best way to get an accurate timeline and budget for your situation.
Common challenges to plan for
- C/AL to AL conversion. Legacy customizations must become extensions and per-tenant apps to fit Business Central’s architecture.
- Data structure changes. Table structures changed across versions. Upgrading from NAV 4.0, for example, involves changes in the dimension architecture mishandling it throws front-end errors after go-live.
- Customizations that don’t carry over. Plan to rebuild or retire them; don’t assume a like-for-like port.
- The v14 stepping stone is being phased out. Coming from v13 or earlier historically required Business Central v14 as a mandatory step. From 2025 release wave 1 (v26), the direct upgrade from Business Central 2019 (v14) to the latest release is no longer supported plan your target version accordingly.
The upgrade path at a glance
Direct upgrades from NAV aren’t possible you move in stages, using Business Central v14 as the pivot from which you can reach any modern version. Here’s the longest route, from the oldest supported NAV:
Staged journey · NAV 4.0 to Business Central v28
Each older starting point simply joins this track further along. Purple marks the two mandatory stepping stones.
Technical upgrade paths: the master matrix
Find your current version on the left; the right column shows the route to a modern Business Central.
| Source version | Path to reach Business Central v28 (latest) |
|---|---|
| NAV 4.0 / 5.0 / 2009 SP1 / 2009 R2 | NAV 2013→ NAV 2018→ BC v14→ BC v25→ BC v28 |
| NAV 2013 / 2013 R2 | NAV 2018→ BC v14→ BC v25→ BC v28 |
| NAV 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 | BC v14→ BC v25→ BC v28 |
| Business Central v14 | BC v25→ BC v28 |
| Business Central v15–v24 | BC v25→ BC v28 |
| Business Central v25 / v26 / v27 | Direct upgrade to BC v28 |
Microsoft introduces a stepping-stone release every 5th version to clean up obsolete schema. v14 and v25 are both mandatory pivots — from 2025 release wave 1 (v26) onward, the old v14 → latest direct hop is gone, so you must route through v25. The next stepping-stone will be v30. For very old versions, weigh a reimplementation against this multi-stage path before committing.
Upgrade paths by release wave
The routes above hold across release waves — what changes is whether the v25 stepping stone is required. From v26 onward, older sources must pass through both v14 and v25. Expand the wave you’re targeting.
You can download any version of Business Central from Microsoft’s official download page or our Business Central Download any version.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about your specific version or path? Drop it in the comments below and I’ll reply as soon as I can.
