GP vs Business Central Migration Cost Comparison Calculator
Finance leaders need a number before they approve a move off GP. This calculator compares the ongoing cost of GP with Business Central over a horizon you choose, including the one-time migration spend.
Your numbers
From your latest invoice.
Share of salaries spent on GP.
Use your quote, not list price.
Partner services, data migration, training, testing.
Your results
A simple cost model from your own inputs. It ignores benefits such as productivity, risk reduction, support lifecycle and upgrade effort, and does not include prices from any vendor. Confirm numbers with your own quotes.
Cumulative cost by horizon
Sweeps Comparison horizon from 1 to 10, holding your other inputs fixed.
Migration business case review
Share your inputs and get an outside check on assumptions. Optional.
Optional. The tool and every export work without this. No spam.
How to use the calculator
Fill GP costs from real invoices and payroll allocations, including hosting and a fair share of the people who keep GP running. Enter Business Central costs from a partner quote: users, price per user and add-ons. Add the one-time cost for migration, data work, testing and training. Move the horizon slider to see how the break-even changes. The chart plots cumulative cost for both options.
- Use real invoices for GP
- Use a quote for Business Central
- Include internal labour fairly on both sides
- Test several horizons, not only five years
The model
Each platform has an annual run cost. GP is support, hosting, admin labour and add-ons. Business Central is users times price times twelve, plus add-ons and admin or partner support. Total cost over the horizon multiplies annual cost by years, with the one-time cost added to Business Central. Payback is the one-time cost divided by the annual run cost saving, shown only when Business Central runs cheaper per year.
Reading the result
A positive net difference favours Business Central over your horizon. If the payback is longer than your horizon, the move is justified by other factors such as support lifecycle, security patching or capabilities, not cost. A negative result is not a reason to stay if GP will lose support, because the cost of an unsupported system is risk that this model does not price. Run a conservative case with higher migration cost and lower savings.
Common mistakes
Leaving internal labour out of GP costs makes GP look cheaper than it is. Using list prices instead of a quote, or forgetting add-on subscriptions in the cloud, distorts Business Central. Another error is ignoring the cost of running both systems in parallel for a close or two. Add that to the one-time cost. Finally, remember cloud subscription pricing is recurring, so compare over a long enough horizon.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this include Microsoft list prices?
No. You enter your own quoted price per user because prices and licence types vary by plan, region, agreement and over time. Always use a current partner quote.
Why compare over several years?
Migration is front-loaded and Business Central is a subscription, so the answer changes with the horizon. Five years is a common view for a business case, with a longer view as a sensitivity check.
What is not in this model?
Productivity gains, risk reduction, compliance, upgrades, extra modules and the cost of delay. These matter, so add them in your business case alongside this cost view.
What if GP is cheaper to run?
That can happen for small user counts or heavy subscriptions. If GP support is ending, weigh the risk and effort of staying unsupported, and compare other targets besides Business Central.
If you want help estimating migration cost from your actual GP data volumes and add-ons, we can review your inputs. Optional.
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