Bramvia — Business Central Experts
Most mid-sized Business Central projects run 3 to 6 months. Here is what drives the timeline and how to keep yours on track.
Short answer: a Business Central implementation usually takes 2 to 4 months when you come from spreadsheets or a simple accounting package, 3 to 6 months from Sage, Odoo or a similar ERP, and 3 to 9 months from Dynamics NAV, depending on how much custom code it carries. Multi-entity manufacturing with many integrations can take longer. The ranges are predictable once you know your starting point, the number of companies and how much history you bring.
Typical duration by starting point
| Where you start | Typical duration | What usually decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets or a simple accounting package | 2–4 months | Cleaning the data that lives in several files |
| Sage 50 or a small-business ERP | 3–5 months | Stock, approvals and multi-company needs |
| Sage 200, Odoo or SAP Business One | 3–6 months | Integrations and reports people rely on |
| Dynamics NAV | 3–9 months | How much C/AL code has to become extensions |
| Sage X3 or multi-entity manufacturing | 5–9 months or more | Scope, entities and production data |
These are the ranges we see in real projects with written acceptance criteria per phase. They assume the old system keeps running until go-live, which is what makes the date safe rather than heroic.
Phase by phase
- Analysis (about 12% of the time). Processes, data, integrations and what stays standard. The output is a scope split into parts, each with acceptance criteria.
- Setup (about 18%). Chart of accounts, posting groups, dimensions, approvals, document layouts and users.
- Data migration (about 20%). Customers, vendors, items and open balances first; history only if it earns its place. Each load is reconciled against the old system.
- Customisations and integrations (about 18%). Only what the standard really cannot do, built as extensions that survive the two yearly updates.
- Parallel testing (about 17%, overlapping the previous phase). Real documents from last month run through the new system, and key users sign off.
- Go-live and support (about 15%). Cut-over on a quiet date, close of the first month together, then a short stabilisation period.
A realistic example
A distributor with 25 users on Dynamics NAV 2013, two companies, three years of history and quite a few customisations: about 21 weeks, roughly five months. The same company coming from spreadsheets with almost no custom work would need about nine weeks. You can try your own case in the planner above.
What makes it take longer
- Custom code nobody has documented. Each modification has to be understood before it can be rebuilt or retired.
- Dirty master data. Duplicate customers, items without units or costs, vendors with three spellings.
- Too much history. Bringing ten years of transactions adds weeks; most companies need open balances plus two or three years.
- Integrations discovered late. The label printer, the EDI feed, the bank file nobody mentioned.
- Slow decisions. Projects stall when sign-offs wait two weeks, not when developers are slow.
- Key users without time. If the people who know the process are fully busy, testing slips.
How to shorten it without adding risk
- Adopt the standard first. Customise only after users have tried the standard process.
- Clean data in parallel from week one, not in the final month.
- Go live in phases: finance, sales and purchasing first; warehouse, manufacturing and AI agents after.
- Name one internal owner who can decide within days.
- Use real documents for testing, not invented examples.
FAQ
Can a Business Central implementation be done in one month? Only for a very small company with standard processes and clean data. Most projects need at least two months to set up, migrate, test and train properly.
Does the old system have to stop during the project? No. It keeps running until go-live and stays available read-only afterwards, which is what makes the cut-over a controlled event.
How much history should we migrate? Open balances always; two or three years of transactions if people use them. Older history can stay searchable in the old system.
What is the biggest predictor of finishing on time? Written acceptance criteria per phase and one internal owner who decides quickly.
Planning a migration from Dynamics NAV? See the NAV end-of-support options and what Business Central costs.
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