NAV to Business Central Upgrade Services with a plan you can budget.
Qixas upgrades Dynamics NAV to Business Central and gives you a fixed-price quote with milestone billing after a scoping call. A focused upgrade with light customization runs 8 to 12 weeks, most take 3 to 6 months, and a heavily customized environment with several integrations can take 6 to 9 months.
Microsoft
Solutions Partner
20+ yrs
of NAV & Business Central experience
Hundreds
of migrations completed
Zero
data loss guarantee
Sound familiar?
What to Confirm Before You Choose a NAV Upgrade Partner
The questions finance and IT teams ask a partner before they hire one, answered up front.
How long will the project take?
A focused upgrade with light customization usually runs 8 to 12 weeks. Most take 3 to 6 months. A heavily customized environment with multiple integrations can run 6 to 9 months. Find your tier in the planning section below; we confirm it in a scoping call.
What will it cost, and is the price fixed?
After a scoping call we give you a fixed-price quote, billed by milestone. The price follows the customizations to convert, integrations to rebuild, data history that moves and ISV add-ons.
What does Qixas handle?
Each customization is kept as an AL extension, replaced by standard Business Central, or retired. We also handle your data and history, ISV add-ons, testing and cutover.
Which upgrade path applies to my version?
It depends on your NAV version, and we map it in the assessment. The version path finder in the NAV Upgrade Guide, linked at the top of this page, shows Microsoft's route for each version.
Cloud or on-premises?
Either. We lay out both options, with the effort for each, during the assessment.
Is there a deadline?
Microsoft's NAV support dates differ by version. They are listed in the NAV Upgrade Guide linked at the top of this page.
The platform
Business Central Is NAV's Successor — Modernized, Not Replaced
Business Central isn't a rip-and-replace to a foreign platform. It's the same product lineage as Navision and Dynamics NAV, re-engineered for the cloud with a modern extension model. Your team keeps the concepts and workflows they already know and gains continuous updates, real-time reporting, and a system that stops getting harder to upgrade. The move preserves what works and retires what doesn't.
The Same Product DNA
General ledger, dimensions, posting logic, and the roles your team already knows carry forward. This is an upgrade of a familiar system, not a leap to something unrecognizable.
Cloud With Continuous Updates
No more version freezes. Business Central updates itself twice a year with no server to patch, so you never fall this far behind again.
Modern Extensions, Not Bolted-On Code
AL extensions and AppSource apps replace fragile C/AL modifications, so future upgrades stay clean and low-risk instead of getting harder every year.
Real-Time Reporting
Power BI reads your ERP data directly for live, drillable dashboards — one trusted set of numbers instead of a dozen conflicting month-end spreadsheets.
Lower Cost, Lower Risk
Cloud SaaS retires the servers, patching, backups, and aging customizations NAV demands — and puts you back inside Microsoft's supported lifecycle.
Future-Proof, AI-Ready
Copilot is built into Business Central and grounded in your own data, so AI assistance is there to adopt on your schedule — upside you grow into, not another project to buy.
Core capabilities
What a NAV → Business Central Upgrade Involves
An upgrade is more than a version bump. It's an honest readiness check, a clean data move, a plan for every customization and add-on, and a cutover your business barely feels.
Assessment & Readiness
The first job is understanding exactly what you're upgrading from — every object, modification, and integration point, documented before anyone touches anything.
Plan your move
Plan Your NAV Upgrade
Find your timeline tier, see the order of the work, know what gets decided in scoping, and estimate Business Central license costs.
Timeline tiers
Which description fits your NAV system?
Pick the one closest to your setup to see the typical range for that kind of upgrade.
Typical: a NAV upgrade like this typically runs 3 to 6 months.
What moves a project between tiers: how deep the customization goes, how many systems connect to NAV, and how much data history comes across. Your scoping call sets the real timeline, and you get a fixed-price quote with milestone billing.
Book a scoping callProcess
How a NAV to Business Central upgrade runs
Phase order only, not to scale. Phases overlap in practice.
Assessment and scoping
Inventory your NAV version, C/AL objects, integrations, ISV add-ons and data history, and agree what moves. You get a fixed-price quote with milestone billing.
Upgrade to Business Central on-premises
Upgrade through Business Central 14 to version 25 or later, converting the C/AL customizations you keep to AL extensions. Older NAV versions take extra steps first.
Cloud migration setup and replication
For a move online, connect the on-premises database to the online tenant, pick companies and replicate the data. Trial runs find problems early.
Data upgrade and testing
Run the data upgrade, reconcile balances, subledgers and dimensions, and test real processes with your team.
Cutover and follow-up
Switch users over in a planned window, reconnect integrations and watch the first period closely.
Whole-project ranges
- Focused
- 8 to 12 weeks
- Typical
- 3 to 6 months
- Heavily customized
- 6 to 9 months
Phase names follow Microsoft’s migration roadmap in Migrate Dynamics NAV to Business Central online. Ranges are Qixas timelines by project size.
Scoping
Decisions to settle in scoping
These are the choices that set your timeline and your fixed-price quote. Knowing your answers before the call makes scoping faster.
| Area | What gets decided | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Custom code | Which C/AL modifications become AL extensions, which standard Business Central now covers, and which are retired. | Converting customizations is often the largest piece of the work. |
| ISV add-ons | Whether each add-on has a Business Central version or needs a replacement. | A critical add-on with no version for your target release can decide the route. |
| Integrations | Which connected systems are rebuilt, repointed or retired. | Each one has to be built and tested before cutover. |
| Data history | A full migration with your history, or a fresh start with balances and essential data. | More history means more trial migrations and more reconciliation. |
| Cloud or on-premises | Business Central online, or a current on-premises version. | Going online adds cloud migration setup and data replication. |
| Cutover window | When to switch, away from year-end and audits. | It fixes the end date and how long old and new run side by side. |
| Licenses | Which users need full licenses and which need Team Members. | It sets your subscription cost. Use the calculator below for list prices. |
License price calculator
What will Business Central licenses cost?
Microsoft’s list prices for Business Central online. This is the subscription only, not the upgrade project.
Monthly equivalent
$840
Annual: $10,080
- Team Members licenses cover lighter use, such as viewing data, approvals and limited data entry. Check what your people need against Microsoft’s Business Central licensing guide.
- Mixed-plan or multi-environment licensing needs a separate assessment.
- Excludes taxes, add-on apps, partner discounts and the upgrade project itself.
| Users | Monthly equivalent | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Essentials + 5 Team Members | $840 | $10,080 |
| 25 Premium + 10 Team Members | $2,830 | $33,960 |
Source: Microsoft Business Central pricing (USD, per user per month, paid yearly) and Microsoft’s announcement of the prices effective November 1, 2025. Checked October 2026. Prices in other currencies and regions can differ.
Why Qixas
Why Qixas for Your NAV Upgrade
A lot of firms will happily 'move you to the cloud.' Very few still genuinely understand the system you're leaving. Qixas has spent 20+ years inside Navision and Dynamics NAV — from the 3.x days through NAV 2018 — with hundreds of migrations completed. That depth is what turns a risky, drawn-out NAV upgrade into a predictable one.
Deep, current NAV expertise — Navision 3.x through NAV 2018 and C/AL, so nothing about your source system is guesswork
Customization rationalization, not lift-and-shift — most clients eliminate 40–60% of legacy modifications instead of carrying debt forward
Finance-led migration with reconciliation gates — balances, subledgers, and dimensions provably tie out before cutover
Parallel running with a real rollback path — we cut over around your quiet periods with a documented safety net
ISV add-ons mapped, not migrated blindly — legacy bolt-ons replaced with native BC features or modern AppSource apps
Set up to modernize — we configure the foundation so reporting, automation, and Copilot deliver real value after go-live
Client stories
NAV Upgrades, Completed With Zero Data Loss
Mid-market companies that moved off legacy Dynamics NAV onto Business Central with Qixas — history intact, business uninterrupted.
“The migration from NAV was seamless. Zero downtime, zero data loss — and the team was productive on Business Central almost immediately.”
COO
National Distributor
“We'd been stuck on an old NAV version for years because every upgrade looked terrifying. Qixas mapped every customization and got us onto Business Central without the drama.”
Finance Director
Health Food Retailer
“Half the add-ons we'd stacked on NAV over the years simply weren't needed anymore — Business Central does it natively. Fewer vendors, one platform, a lower monthly bill.”
Operations Director
Pet Food Distributor
NAV support is running out. Your options aren't.
Keep reading
From the Dynamics Toolbox
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions, Answered
How long does a Qixas NAV to Business Central upgrade take?
What does a NAV to Business Central upgrade cost, and is the price fixed?
How do we get started?
What does Qixas handle in a NAV upgrade?
What happens to our data and history?
Should we move to the cloud or stay on-premises?
Can we keep running NAV during the project, and how much downtime should we expect?
Does Qixas support us after go-live?
Which upgrade path applies to my NAV version?
When does Dynamics NAV reach end of support?
Sources: Microsoft Business Central pricing (US, annual billing), Microsoft Business Central pricing effective November 1, 2025, Microsoft NAV migration guidance, Microsoft NAV 2016 lifecycle, Microsoft NAV 2017 lifecycle, Microsoft NAV 2018 lifecycle, Microsoft Fixed Lifecycle Policy, Microsoft BC14 reimplementation status, Microsoft Business Central Windows-client and AL guidance
Get a Clear, Week-by-Week Path Off Legacy NAV
Start with a free NAV upgrade readiness assessment. We'll inventory your system, map every customization and add-on, and give you a realistic timeline and budget range — with zero data loss and no commitment.