If your business is still running on Microsoft Dynamics GP — or as the old-timers call it, Great Plains — the writing is on the wall. Microsoft is pulling the plug, and the countdown has already started.

New perpetual license sales ended in April 2025. New subscription sales end this April. Technical support, tax updates, and enhancements end in December 2029. And on April 30, 2031, security updates stop entirely. That’s the official death date.

Microsoft isn’t being subtle about it. They want everyone on Dynamics 365 Business Central. They’ve even rolled out a “Bridge to the Cloud” incentive program to sweeten the deal. But here’s the thing a lot of GP users are discovering: if you’re going to rip out your ERP and go through the pain of a migration anyway, why would you just move to another Microsoft product with its own limitations?

That’s why a growing number of mid-market companies are skipping Business Central entirely and graduating to Oracle NetSuite.

The Real Problem With Staying on GP

Let’s be honest about what’s happening on the ground. Most companies still on GP are dealing with a version of the same story: the software technically works, but it’s being held together by customizations, bolt-on tools, and institutional knowledge that lives in one person’s head.

GP was never a true cloud platform. It’s on-premise software that requires servers, IT maintenance, and manual upgrades. It has no native CRM, no built-in ecommerce, and no real-time dashboards. If you want those things, you’re licensing separate products and paying someone to integrate them — and hoping the integrations don’t break every time something updates.

After 2029, you won’t even get tax table updates or regulatory patches. For any company with payroll, multi-state operations, or audit requirements, that’s not a minor inconvenience — it’s a compliance risk.

Why Not Just Move to Business Central?

It’s the obvious question, and Microsoft is banking on it. Business Central is their cloud-based successor to GP, and for smaller companies with straightforward needs, it can work.

But for mid-market companies — especially those with multi-entity structures, complex manufacturing, advanced inventory, or subscription billing — Business Central has real limitations. It was built for small business first and scaled up, not the other way around. Companies that have outgrown GP often find themselves outgrowing Business Central within a few years too.

If you’re going to invest six figures and six months into an ERP migration, you want to land on a platform you won’t outgrow again.

Why GP Companies Are Choosing NetSuite

NetSuite was built for exactly the kind of company that’s been on GP for the last decade: mid-market, multi-entity, growing, and tired of stitching together disconnected systems.

Here’s what makes the switch compelling.

One system, not ten. NetSuite is a unified cloud platform — financials, CRM, inventory, ecommerce, HR, and analytics all live in one place. No bolt-ons, no middleware, no integration headaches. GP users are used to running Dynamics plus a separate CRM plus a separate reporting tool plus a separate ecommerce platform. NetSuite eliminates that entire stack.

True cloud from day one. NetSuite is a native SaaS application. There are no servers to maintain, no manual upgrades, no IT infrastructure costs. Updates happen automatically, twice a year, without breaking your customizations. For companies that have spent years managing GP’s on-premise infrastructure, this alone is transformative.

Multi-entity and global-ready. NetSuite OneWorld handles multi-subsidiary consolidation, multi-currency, and multi-language natively. If you’re a GP user managing multiple entities through separate databases and manually consolidating in Excel, you already know how painful that is. NetSuite does it in real time, in one instance.

Built for growth. NetSuite scales from $10 million to $500 million in revenue without re-platforming. Companies that started on NetSuite as 50-person operations are running billion-dollar businesses on the same system today. You migrate once and you’re done.

Revenue recognition and compliance. For companies with complex billing — subscriptions, milestones, T&M, multi-element arrangements — NetSuite handles ASC 606 and IFRS 15 natively. GP’s rev rec capabilities are basic at best, and they’re not getting better.

What a Smart Migration Looks Like

The companies that do this well share a few things in common. They start planning while GP is still supported — not after it’s too late. They take the time to map their current processes, identify what’s actually working versus what’s a workaround, and define what they need from a modern platform.

They also choose a migration partner who’s done this before. GP-to-NetSuite isn’t a simple data migration — it’s a business transformation. Chart of accounts structures are different. Workflow logic is different. The way you think about reporting, approvals, and automation changes fundamentally.

That’s what we do at Aminian Business Services. We’ve been an Oracle NetSuite partner since 2001 — one of the first in the country — and we’ve guided over 500 companies through ERP implementations and migrations. We know where the landmines are, and we know how to get you live without disrupting your business.

The Window Is Now

Here’s the timeline that matters: new GP sales end in April 2026. Support and enhancements end in 2029. Security updates end in 2031. But the real deadline is earlier than any of those dates — it’s the point where your team’s time is worth more than the cost of migrating.

Every month you stay on GP, you’re paying for server maintenance on a platform that’s going away. You’re paying for integrations that won’t be supported. You’re paying your best people to do manual work that a modern system automates.

The companies that move now get to plan on their own timeline, negotiate the best terms, and go live without the panic of a forced deadline. The companies that wait will be competing with every other GP customer for implementation resources when the rush hits.

Ready to explore what’s next? Talk to our team — we’ll give you an honest assessment of where you are and what the right path forward looks like.