Today is a sad day for those of us in the Microsoft Dynamics GP ecosystem, though we all knew it would come eventually. Microsoft has announced a "Support End Date" for the product, 31 years after its 1.0 release in 1993. RIP, buddy, it's been a great run...

Here are some key dates and milestones to be aware of, the most important of which is 5 years from now: end of support.

Date Milestone
April 1, 2025 No new customer sales of GP Perpetual licenses
April 1, 2026 No new customer sales of GP Subscription licenses
September 30, 2029 End of support
April 30, 2031 End of security updates

What does "End of Support" mean?

The end of support means there will be no more product enhancements, regulatory (tax) updates or technical support by Microsoft personnel after the end of support date. At that point, customers are 100% reliant on the remaining partners, ISVs (independent software vendors) and independent consultants still working with Dynamics GP customers.

💡
For Canadian Payroll module customers, this means the last year-end tax update will be issued for December 2028/January 2029 and the last mid-year tax update will be issued for June/July 2029.

The end of security updates means no more security updates or hotfixes to address security vulnerabilities in Dynamics GP after the end of security updates date. The line between a security and non-security update is thin, and it is to be determined how or what this additional brief timeframe would specifically cover.

What does this mean for customers?

Customers have a 5-year window to plan their next steps. That's a lot of time, but it will move quickly, no doubt about it. There is no fire though, don't panic and start frantically planning for a 2025 ERP implementation. Take a deep breath, assess your situation, and start to put ERP planning and ERP implementation into your 5-year plans and budgets now.

In the next 5 years, there will continue to be new releases of Dynamics GP. Release 18.7 is set for October 1st and each October 1st up to 2028 there will be yet another new release and then continued tax updates right up to the end of support date, as there always has been. The Dynamics GP engineering group is still reviewing the Ideas site for suggestions to this day and continues to invest in what value they can continue to provide to their customers up to the end of support.

Do you have to stop using Dynamics GP in 2029?

No. Dynamics GP will continue to work on October 1, 2029, just as it did on September 30, 2029. End of support means "risk of something happening that cannot be fixed", not "the software stops working".

Many customers out there are not current with their Dynamics GP version and they are already running releases where the support date has ended, but at least for most of them there is a reasonably obvious path to getting to a supported version if it comes to that.

Do I recommend you keep using Dynamics GP after 2029?

No, if you are using the payroll modules since tax updates and compliance with regulatory changes are pivotal to running payroll.

I would also say no for non-payroll sites, unless you're actively planning an ERP implementation to something else for everyone else. (But that is just my opinion)

Some organizations may keep using GP through and past the end of support date, but also be actively working on the next ERP, and that's reasonable. Those pushing it right to the bitter end still need to be aware of the potential risk, however minimal, that a Windows, SQL or Office update breaks some pivotal functionality in GP. Realistically, odds are that the kind of functionality that would cause an issue with Dynamics GP would be something email-functionality related where there is often some kind of workaround that could be used. Would I bank on that? No.

In nearly every company I can think of, the ERP system is the backbone of the organization. The risk of something happening that cannot be resolved is far too great to rely on for a long time beyond the "end of support" date. Some organizations are using functionality that extends far beyond the finance or accounting departments. Some are not.

Think to yourself "For how long after the end of support will I comfortably be continuing to keep using my servers, workstations, SQL and Office at the versions they were at in October 2029?". That's the key. After support ends, if a patch breaks some functionality that GP relies on, your choices are limited: roll back the patch until you can find a solution or stop using that broken functionality in GP (and hopefully GP itself operates fine otherwise). Realistically you could likely survive with GP through to the end of security updates, but that is still less than 7 years away.

What should I be doing now?

Start evaluating your organization's needs. For many, it will have been several years since implementing Dynamics GP and the "pain" of implementing a new ERP is well in the rearview window. If you're lucky, you have something from that quest to rely on as a starting point that could be updated to today's requirements, assuming all businesses' needs ebb and flow over time.

Start budgeting for an ERP implementation. Make sure your leadership knows this is happening and the time frame. Stick a pin in 2027 or 2028 (or whatever your comfort level is) as a planned changeover date would be, and work backwards. The more complex your environment, and the more ISV products you use, the longer it will take to find and implement your next ERP solution. Do not underestimate the amount of time planning and implementation will take!

Ask others in your area or in your industry what they are using for their ERP solutions to see if others are happy with what they have to start a short list of products to evaluate.

If you are NOT current on your annual enhancement and plan to stay on GP as long as you can, I strongly encourage you to look at the options for getting current with that. Depending on how long ago that lapsed, buying new licenses may be cheaper than "renewing" and paying the catch-up fees but you can only buy up to April 1, 2025 (as you would be considered a "new" customer again). That will give you the product updates through end of support.

What are the key obvious alternatives to Dynamics GP?

To be clear, I have no experience with any of these pieces of software but the biggest competitors in the GP environment have been the following (to my knowledge):

  • Microsoft Dynamics Business Central (BC)
  • Acumatica
  • Oracle NetSuite

Reach out to your Dynamics GP partner or to your ISV product contacts to find out what other products those ISV solutions work with. That will be a great way to identify other applications that may allow you to leverage some of your existing products to have some familiarity in your transition.

What will the next 5 years look like?

I am taking off my Microsoft MVP hat and my "I've spent the last 25 years working with Dynamics GP" hat for a minute. I'm not a psychic, and I do not know what the future will bring so this is all just my opinion, but let's be realistic:

  • Every customer will start to get calls from partners, from software companies, from a lot of places all scaring them into rushing into an ERP decision they don't need to rush into.
  • Microsoft & many of those same partners will be telling you all the great things about Microsoft Dynamics Business Central aka "BC" and try to convince you that moving to BC is just a migration. IT IS NOT A MIGRATION. I will die on this hill. It is not a migration, it is an implementation of a completely different software even though it is owned by the same corporation.
  • More partners and consultants will leave the Dynamics GP space for 'greener' (to them) pastures. Many excellent former GP consultants have already left for BC or other applications in the last several years. As this "end of support date" comes closer, getting good support will be more difficult and possibly more expensive as a result.

What is next for me?

I'm not going anywhere. The last 25 years of my career have been focused primarily on Dynamics GP and that is not going to change. I will continue to be branching out "horizontally" as I have in the last few years working with Power BI.

I know at some point I will be one of a handful of independent consultants still working with the Dynamics GP product, but also at some point, I will cease to support those who have decided not to migrate to another ERP.

Why? If a client is not invested enough in their own ERP to get current (to a recent-ish version of GP) or to move to a new ERP, our respective risk tolerances do not align. After the end of support and end of security updates, when there is no "Microsoft" to fall back on for a difficult support case, that means the assumption of risk is on me to resolve a problem that may not be resolvable and there will be a point at which I am not willing to take that risk on. This falls under the old maxim "lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.". 😀

I may still be consulting through 2030 or 2031, but I can't guarantee that I won't decide to change focus to purely work on Power BI or or decide to move to full-time employment instead of being independent as I approach retirement. The decisions I need to make in the next few years are the same decisions others will be making too, which ties back to "make a plan and don't assume everyone will be there in the end when you need them".

In the meantime, don't freak out, take a deep breath, and start to think about what your path looks like to another ERP solution.