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Inventory the enhancements before anything else
Sage 100 has a large ecosystem of third-party enhancements, and many systems run several. Some add fields, some change how sales orders or purchasing behave, and some are whole modules for EDI, freight or shop floor tracking. They are also the part of a Sage 100 system with the thinnest documentation.
Before mapping data, we list every enhancement, every Custom Office user-defined field and every custom report. For each one we ask the same question. Does standard Business Central already do this, does an AppSource app do it, or does it need an AL extension? Some enhancements exist to fill gaps that Business Central covers as standard, such as multiple ship-to addresses, analysis by dimension or approval workflows.
That answer shapes a Sage 100 to Business Central migration more than data volume does, which is why it comes first.
Sage 100 modules and their destinations
General Ledger
Account segments become a main G/L account plus dimensions. You can load Sage 100 budgets as G/L budgets by account and dimension.
Accounts Receivable
Customers, including those grouped under AR divisions, become customers. The division stays as a dimension or a posting group, so division-level aging still works.
Accounts Payable
Vendors, terms and 1099 settings move across. Business Central handles US 1099 reporting as standard, so we map vendor 1099 codes rather than rebuild them.
Sales Order and Purchase Order
We recreate open orders as documents. Back-ordered quantities become the outstanding quantity on the Business Central order line.
Inventory Management
Items, warehouses and quantities map to items, locations and item journal entries. Lot and serial numbers become item tracking.
Bill of Materials and Work Order
Bills become production BOMs or assembly BOMs, depending on how you build. Open work orders become released production orders.
Payroll
Business Central has no US payroll module, so Sage 100 Payroll users move to a payroll provider and post its summarized journal each pay period.
Bank Reconciliation
Bank accounts and uncleared checks come across as opening items, and statement import with automatic matching replaces manual clearing.
Valuation methods compared
Getting data out: Visual Integrator, ODBC and SQL
- 1
Visual Integrator jobs
Sage 100's Visual Integrator exports module tables to delimited files. We save export jobs and rerun them on cutover day, so the rehearsal and the final extract use identical definitions.
- 2
ODBC for Standard and Advanced
Sage 100 Standard and Advanced keep data in Sage's own file format, readable through the ODBC driver Sage supplies. We use it for record counts and reconciliation queries.
- 3
SQL Server for Premium
Sage 100 Premium runs on Microsoft SQL Server. For that edition, we write the Sage 100 to Business Central migration extracts and checks as SQL queries against a copy of the database.
- 4
Rehearse, then cut over
A full rehearsal loads everything into a Business Central sandbox and reconciles it. Cutover repeats the same jobs against the final data, with the same checks.
Open work and in-flight documents at cutover
Distribution and manufacturing companies rarely have a quiet day. On any cutover date there will be orders picked but not invoiced, goods received but not billed, and work orders half complete. Each needs a written rule.
We invoice picked orders in Sage 100 before cutover wherever possible. Goods received but not yet billed become an accrual in the opening balances. We recreate the matching purchase lines, so you can enter the vendor invoice in Business Central when it arrives. Partly complete work orders are either finished in Sage 100 or brought over with the components already issued valued as work in progress.
Agree these rules with the warehouse and the controller before cutover day. That keeps shipping on schedule the morning after a Sage 100 to Business Central migration.
Sage 100 migration questions
We have a lot of customizations. Is Business Central realistic?
Usually, but only once we sort the list of customizations. Often some turn out to cover things Business Central does as standard, and some are no longer used at all. We rebuild what remains as AL extensions, which stay intact through Microsoft's updates. The customization list is the first document we ask to see.
Can we keep our AR divisions?
Yes, in effect. Business Central has no division prefix on the customer number, but a dimension or a customer posting group per division gives the same aging and reporting split. If divisions post to different receivables accounts, posting groups are the natural fit; if they only matter for reporting, a dimension is lighter.
Do we need Business Central Premium?
Only if you run Sage 100 Work Order today or plan to use production orders and capacity planning. Assembly BOMs, which cover kitting and simple builds, are available in Essentials. We look at how you actually use work orders before recommending a license.
How is Sage 100 history handled?
Detailed history stays in Sage 100, which you can keep on one machine for lookups. Business Central receives open documents, balances and, if you want trend reports, monthly net change by account and dimension for prior years. You can also load sales history by customer and item into Power BI if your sales team relies on it.
What does the scoping call cover?
Your modules, enhancements, user-defined fields, integrations and entities, plus the reports your management team reads every month. From that we write a Sage 100 to Business Central migration scope for you to approve. We do not quote figures before that written scope exists.
Talk to us about your project.
Tell us what you run today and what has to change. A senior consultant replies with a written next step.