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Project Controller sits at the center
In SL, the project is the organizing record. Projects break down into tasks, and costs and revenue land in account categories. Budgets sit at the project, task and account category level. Labor from timecards, vendor invoices, expense reports and inventory issues all post to the project. The Project Allocator then applies burden, overhead and revenue calculations on top. Invoices come out of Flexible Billing, using rate tables and invoice formats that teams often tune finely to each contract.
Business Central projects, which Microsoft renamed from jobs in 2024, cover the same ground with a different shape. A project has tasks. Each task has planning lines for resources, items and G/L accounts that act as both budget and billable schedule. Usage posts from time sheets, purchase invoices and project journals. Business Central calculates work in progress with a WIP method per project and creates invoices from planning lines. The mapping works, but account categories have no direct twin. So they become part of the task and planning line design.
Dynamics SL to Business Central: where Solomon structures land
Decisions a project accountant should make early
- ✓Which subaccount segments become dimensions and which disappear because the project already carries them
- ✓Whether closed projects move at all or stay in the SL archive for lookup
- ✓Which WIP method each class of contract uses, and who approves WIP postings each month
- ✓How billing rules held in Flexible Billing rate tables translate into project price lists
- ✓Whether burden and overhead rates stay as simple percentages or need a custom calculation
- ✓Which Quick Query views and FRx or Management Reporter statements the business still relies on
Dynamics SL to Business Central tooling, customizations and reports
Check whether Microsoft's cloud migration tooling covers your SL version. If it does not, we move data with configuration packages or scripts. In practice, we extract from the SL SQL Server database directly. That gives full control over how we split subaccounts and summarize project budgets and costs to date. We keep every script. That lets us rehearse the Dynamics SL to Business Central migration in a sandbox, then repeat it exactly at cutover.
Screens changed with Customization Manager and logic written in VBA or VBTools do not carry over. We list each one and record the rule it enforces. Then we either use the standard Business Central feature or write a small AL extension. We rebuild integrations that write to SL tables directly against the Business Central APIs.
Financial statements built in FRx or Management Reporter become Business Central financial reports with dimension filters. Project reporting that SL users pulled through Quick Query moves to project list views and the standard project reports. Power BI adds portfolio views of budget against actual, billed against earned, and margin by project manager.
Cutting over from Dynamics SL to Business Central with projects in flight
- 1
Freeze the SL period
Post all timecards, vendor invoices and billing. Then run the Project Allocator and close the period so project and ledger figures agree.
- 2
Load open projects
Projects, tasks and budgets come across as planning lines. Cost to date, revenue to date and billed to date load as summarized opening entries per task.
- 3
Carry WIP and unbilled balances
We post unbilled revenue and deferred revenue, so the first Business Central WIP calculation starts from the SL position.
- 4
Bring the ledger and open items
The trial balance posts by account and dimension, and open receivables and payables come across as individual documents.
- 5
Reconcile project by project
Compare budget, cost, revenue and billed amounts per project to SL before anyone enters the first timesheet in Business Central.
Dynamics SL to Business Central: what customers want to know
Can Business Central replace Dynamics SL Project Controller?
For most project-based firms, yes, with some design work around account categories. Business Central projects handle tasks, budgets, time sheets, costs, billing and WIP as standard. What changes is the structure. Planning line types and G/L accounts carry SL account categories, rather than a separate dimension. Firms with very complex multi-tier indirect rate structures should plan for an extension or an AppSource add-on.
Is Business Central suitable for government contractors coming from SL?
It can be, but check the specific compliance reporting you need before committing. Standard Business Central does not ship with incurred cost submission formats or indirect rate pools built for government contract accounting. Some AppSource apps add those capabilities, and we assess them against your contract types during scoping. If your SL setup is mainly about those reports, that assessment comes first.
Do we have to move every closed SL project?
No, most companies leave closed projects in a read-only SL database. Only open projects, and any closed projects still under warranty or retention, come across. That keeps the new system clean and the migration shorter to rehearse. We can load summarized project history into Power BI if managers need to compare against past jobs.
More Dynamics SL to Business Central migration questions
What happens to our subaccounts?
Each meaningful subaccount segment becomes a dimension, and the natural account stays as the G/L account. You can often drop segments that only repeated information the project already carries. Business Central posts dimension values on every entry, so reports by department or cost center keep working. We keep a cross-reference from old account and subaccount pairs to new values for auditors.
How are timecards handled after go-live?
Employees enter time on Business Central time sheets against project tasks, and managers approve them there. Approved time posts to the project as resource usage. Cost comes from the resource card and price from the project price list. Time entry is available in the browser and the mobile app. If you use a separate time system, it can post through the APIs instead.
Talk to us about your project.
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