Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Edition
Insights, updates, and practical guides for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
What Is Navision? The Ultimate Guide (and Your Path to Business Central)
- June 8, 2026
- 5:39 am
Table Of Contents
- Quick Answer:
- What Is Navision?
- A Short History: Navision → Microsoft Navision → Dynamics NAV → Business Central
- Is Navision Still Used in 2026?
- Navision Software Vs Microsoft Navision vs. Dynamics NAV vs. Business Central (The Naming Mess Explained)
- Core Navision Capabilities (Financials, Distribution, Manufacturing, Project)
- Why Every NAV User Must Eventually Move To Business Central
- NAV → BC Migration: What Stays, What Breaks, What Improves
- Migration Cost & Timeline Benchmarks (Canada)
- Key Takeaways
- FAQs
Quick answer:
Navision is the original name of the ERP system now sold as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Microsoft acquired it from Danish firm Navision A/S in 2002, renamed it Microsoft Dynamics NAV in 2008, and rebranded it Business Central in 2018. No new NAV versions have shipped since NAV 2018, and none ever will—Business Central is the single forward path.
The reality in 2026
Here’s a question worth sitting with: If your ERP stopped receiving security patches tomorrow, how long before someone outside your finance team—your auditor, your insurer, or your privacy regulator—made it your problem?
For a large share of Canadian businesses still running this software, that’s not hypothetical. It’s a date already on the Microsoft lifecycle calendar. The software still works, the screens still load, and month-end still closes, and that’s exactly why the risk hides in plain sight. Nothing visibly breaks until the day it does, and by then “we were planning to upgrade” stops being an explanation and starts being a liability.
This guide cuts through the confusion that keeps people stuck: what Navision actually is in 2026, why the same product has had four different names, when each version goes dark, and what moving to Business Central genuinely costs and takes in the Canadian mid-market. No jargon for its own sake — just the answers a CFO, controller, or IT lead needs to make the call.
What is Navision?
Navision is a mid-market enterprise resource planning (ERP) system originally developed in Denmark in 1987, acquired by Microsoft in 2002, and rebranded multiple times before becoming Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in 2018. It handles financials, supply chain, manufacturing, project accounting, and distribution for businesses generally between CAD $5M and CAD $500M in revenue.
When a Canadian business owner says “we run Navision,” they almost always mean one of three things:Â
NAV 2009 (classic client, SQL Server 2008);Â
NAV 2013 or 2016 (role-tailored client—the most common installed base in Canada); or NAV 2018 (the final version before the Business Central rebrand).Â
The underlying object model, C/AL code, and database structure are similar enough across these versions that the migration paths are comparable, but the business case for moving gets sharper every year.
A short history: Navision → Microsoft Navision → Dynamics NAV → Business Central
The naming history matters because it explains why your Google searches return contradictory information.
1987Â – Navision A/S releases PC Plus in Denmark.
1995 –Â Navision Financials 1.0 launches on Windows, written in the C/AL language with its own proprietary database.
2002 – Microsoft acquires Navision A/S for USD $1.45 billion. The product is renamed Microsoft Business Solutions Navision.
2005 – 2008 – Microsoft consolidates its ERP portfolio (Great Plains, Solomon, Axapta, and Navision) under the Dynamics brand. The product becomes Microsoft Dynamics NAV in 2008.
2013 – 2018 — Annual releases ship as Dynamics NAV 2013, 2013 R2, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. The role-tailored client replaces the classic client; SQL Server becomes the only supported database.
April 2018 — Microsoft launches Dynamics 365 Business Central, a cloud-first reimagining of NAV with a web client, AL extensions replacing C/AL customizations, and monthly cloud updates. NAV 2018 is the final NAV-branded release.
2019 – 2026 — Business Central ships two major updates per year (Wave 1 and Wave 2). Copilot, Power Platform integration, and Planning Worksheet enhancements are now BC-only.
If the NAV-to-cloud journey is what you’re really here for, our Dynamics NAV to Business Central Migration (2026): The Ultimate MasterGuide walks through the entire path from C/AL to the cloud step-by-step.
Is Navision still used in 2026?
Yes, and that is the problem. Across the Canadian NAV environments we audited in 2025 and 2026, the installed base breaks down roughly as follows:
NAV 2009 / 2013 – about 15%Â of the bases we see, almost all on unsupported SQL Server and Windows Server versions.
NAV 2016 –Â roughly 25%, the single most common legacy version in the Canadian mid-market.
NAV 2018 –Â about 35%, the final release and the one most actively planning a move.
Already on Business Central, the remaining ~25% typically migrated in the last three years.
The Canadian businesses still running NAV tend to share three traits: heavy customization done a decade ago by a partner who no longer exists, an internal IT lead who built those customizations and is now near retirement, and a finance team that has built years of Excel workarounds around the system’s limits. None of those are technical problems. They are organizational problems that get worse the longer you wait.
Navision software vs Microsoft Navision vs Dynamics NAV vs Business Central (the naming mess explained)
All four terms refer to the same product line at different points in its life. Here is the clean version:
Navision / Navision software — the pre-2002 Danish product and the colloquial name most long-time users still use.
Microsoft Navision — the 2002–2008 branding immediately after Microsoft’s acquisition.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV (also MS NAV, Dynamics NAV)— the 2008–2018 branding, covering versions NAV 2009 through NAV 2018.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central — the current product, 2018 to present.
If a vendor pitches you “Microsoft Dynamics Navision software” in 2026, they are either careless with terminology or trying to sell you an outdated on-premises license. There is no such SKU in Microsoft’s current price list.
Versioning timeline (NAV 2013 R2 → BC)
| Version | Released | Client | Customization language |
|---|---|---|---|
| NAV 2013 R2 | 2013 | Role-tailored | C/AL |
| NAV 2015 | 2014 | Role-tailored | C/AL |
| NAV 2016 | 2015 | Role-tailored | C/AL |
| NAV 2017 | 2016 | Role-tailored | C/AL |
| NAV 2018 | 2017 | Role-tailored + web | C/AL (+ early AL) |
| Business Central | 2018→present | Web (SaaS-first) | AL extensions |
When each version goes out of support
| Version | Mainstream support ended | Extended support ends |
|---|---|---|
| NAV 2013 / 2013 R2 | Ended | Ended |
| NAV 2015 | Ended | Ended |
| NAV 2016 | January 2021 | January 2026 |
| NAV 2017 | January 2022 | January 2027 |
| NAV 2018 | January 14, 2025 | January 11, 2028 |
Once extended support ends, Microsoft issues no security patches. Your cyber-insurance carrier—and we have seen this with three Canadian clients in 2025—will treat the server as a material risk and either raise premiums or refuse renewal. PIPEDA breach-notification obligations do not disappear because your ERP is old. If a NAV 2016 server gets ransomwared in 2026 because of an unpatched SQL Server vulnerability, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner will not accept “we were planning to upgrade” as a defense.
Core Navision capabilities (financials, distribution, manufacturing, project)
NAV’s strength has always been depth across four functional pillars. Across our Canadian wholesale-distribution, light-manufacturing, and professional-services clients, this is where NAV earned its keep:
Financials — Full multi-currency GL, AP, AR, fixed assets, bank reconciliation, and intercompany. Canadian sales tax handling (GST, HST, PST, and QST) has been native since the late 1990s, though Quebec QST jurisdiction reporting often required customization in NAV 2013 and earlier.
Distribution—Sales and purchase orders, item tracking with lot and serial numbers, warehouse management with bin-level control (Advanced Warehousing), and the Planning Worksheet for replenishment. The Planning Worksheet—carried forward into Business Central—remains one of the most capable MRP-light tools in the mid-market.
Manufacturing — Production BOMs, routings, capacity planning, and shop-floor reporting. Generally sufficient for discrete and light-process manufacturers up to about CAD $150M in revenue; beyond that, most of our clients add a third-party MES.
Project — Job costing, resource scheduling, WIP recognition, and time-and-expense capture. Adequate for project-based services firms but not deep enough for heavy construction or EPC contractors.
Why every NAV user must eventually move to Business Central
There is no NAV 2024, NAV 2025, or NAV 2030 coming. Microsoft has been explicit since 2018 that Business Central is the single forward roadmap for the SMB and mid-market ERP segment. Specifically:
All new functionality—Copilot in Business Central, Copilot Studio agents, Power Platform integration, embedded Power BI, and the modernized Planning Worksheet—ships only to BC. NAV 2018 will never receive AI capabilities. If you’re curious what an AI-first ERP actually looks like once you’re on the modern platform, our deep dive into Business Central Agents: Turning Dynamics 365 BC Into an AI First ERP shows exactly where this is heading.
AL extensions replaced C/AL code. Every customization in your NAV environment—a custom report, a posting routine modification, or a third-party add-on—has to be reassessed and rebuilt as a BC extension. The good news: in our deployments, roughly 40–60% of legacy C/AL customizations are no longer needed because BC’s standard functionality has caught up.
The Canadian partner channel is consolidating around BC. Finding a NAV 2013 developer in Canada in 2026 is genuinely difficult. Hourly rates for the few remaining specialists run CAD $225–$300 per hour, roughly double standard BC consulting rates.
Quebec Law 25 and federal PIPEDA modernization (Bill C-27, as of 2025) require demonstrable data residency, access controls, and breach-response capability. BC SaaS hosted in the Microsoft Canada Central and Canada East regions gives you that out of the box. NAV 2016 on a server in your basement does not.
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NAV → BC migration: what stays, what breaks, what improves
This is the table most NAV customers cannot get a straight answer on.
| What stays | What breaks | What improves |
|---|---|---|
| Core financial logic, chart of accounts, posting groups | C/AL customizations (must be rebuilt as AL extensions) | Month-end close speed (we routinely see 9-day closes drop to 4–5 days) |
| Master data — customers, vendors, items | On-prem integrations using old endpoints | Automatic two-per-year updates, no manual upgrades |
| Canadian tax setup lineage (GST/HST/PST/QST) | Classic/role-tailored client (replaced by web client) | Native Power BI, Copilot, Power Platform |
| Historical transactions (via Cloud Migration Tool, NAV 2015+) | Windows-account logins (move to Entra ID) | Canadian data residency (Canada Central / Canada East) |
| Planning Worksheet logic | Third-party add-ons without a cloud version | Audit trail, security patching handled by Microsoft |
In our experience, the single biggest source of project overruns is underestimating customization rebuild scope. A NAV environment with 60–100 modified objects routinely needs 480–720 hours of AL development to reach functional parity in BC. Clients who skip a proper code review during discovery learn this in week 9 instead of week 2. If you want the full phase-by-phase breakdown of how that project actually unfolds, it’s all laid out in our Dynamics NAV to Business Central Migration MasterGuide.
Migration cost & timeline benchmarks (Canada)
These are the ranges we quote and deliver against for Canadian mid-market clients in 2025–2026, in CAD, excluding Microsoft license costs.
| Scenario | Implementation cost (CAD) | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Single entity, 25–75 users, light customization | $85,000 – $160,000 | 12–16 weeks |
| Single entity, moderate customization | $160,000 – $240,000 | 14–22 weeks |
| Multi-entity or heavy customization | $240,000 – $385,000 | 22–30 weeks |
Microsoft licensing for Business Central is separate: Premium at CAD $135.20 per user/month list, Essentials at CAD $94.60, and Team Members at CAD $10.80 (Microsoft Canada price list, Q1 2026). Most Canadian NAV customers transitioning under the Bridge to the Cloud promotion (still available through select partners in 2026) receive a 40% discount on BC SaaS subscriptions for the first three years—a material number when modeling five-year TCO against staying on NAV.
In our deployments, the ROI inflection point is typically month 14–18 post-go-live, driven by month-end close compression (9-day closes dropping to 4–5 days), elimination of third-party hosting costs (CAD $1,800–$4,000/month for a typical NAV hosting arrangement), and retiring one or two legacy bolt-on systems whose functionality is now native in BC.
According to Statistics Canada’s 2024 Survey of Digital Technology and Internet Use, 67.4% of Canadian medium-sized enterprises (100–499 employees) had adopted cloud computing services—up from 56.1% in 2021. The mid-market is past the early-adopter phase; staying on on-premises NAV is now the outlier position.
If you’re still weighing Business Central against the broader field before you commit, our Top 10 ERP Systems for Canadian Businesses in 2026—Honest Comparison puts it in full context, and for the specific SMB accounting crowd, our QuickBooks vs. Business Central: Ultimate Comparison Guide (2026) tackles the question we hear most often.
Key takeaways
- Navision, Microsoft Navision, Dynamics NAV, and Business Central are the same product line at four naming stages. There is no separate product called Navision being sold in 2026.
- NAV 2016 extended support ends January 2026; NAV 2018 extended support ends January 11, 2028. Every earlier version is already out of support.
- A realistic Canadian NAV → BC migration runs CAD $85,000–$385,000 and 12–30 weeks, depending on customization complexity and entity count.
- Plan on 480–720 hours of AL development to rebuild moderate-to-heavy C/AL customizations. Skipping the code-review phase is the single largest source of overruns.
- Cyber insurance, PIPEDA, and Quebec Law 25 now drive migration timelines as much as functionality does.
- Bridge to the Cloud licensing discounts make 2026 a financially favorable year to commit, particularly for organizations with 30+ NAV users.
Don’t Wait for Support to End—Plan Your Move to the Cloud Today.
Schedule a 30-minute scoping conversation to discuss your specific user count, required AL development, and how to leverage the Bridge to the Cloud licensing discount
FAQs
Is Navision the same as Business Central?
Yes — functionally and historically. Business Central is the current name of the product that began life as Navision in 1987. The codebase has been substantially modernized—AL extensions replaced C/AL, the web client replaced the role-tailored client, and the architecture is now SaaS-first—but the underlying business logic, table structure, and Canadian localization lineage are direct descendants of NAV.
When does Dynamics NAV support end?
NAV 2018, the final release, reached end of mainstream support on January 14, 2025, with extended support ending January 11, 2028. NAV 2017 extended support ends in January 2027, and NAV 2016 and earlier are already at or past the end of extended support. After extended support ends, Microsoft issues no security patches, and your environment becomes a material risk for cyber insurance, PIPEDA compliance, and auditor sign-off.
How much does NAV to BC migration cost in Canada?
For a typical Canadian mid-market deployment, implementation runs CAD $85,000–$385,000, depending on user count, customization complexity, and number of entities. Microsoft licensing is separate, with Business Central Premium at CAD $135.20 per user/month list. Most NAV customers qualify for Bridge to the Cloud promotional pricing, which discounts BC subscriptions by 40% for the first three years.
Can I upgrade directly from NAV 2013 or 2016 to Business Central?
There is no in-place upgrade. Microsoft’s Cloud Migration Tool supports NAV 2015 and later, but it is a data-migration utility, not an upgrade. All customizations must be rebuilt as AL extensions, integrations reassessed against the modern API surface, and users reauthorized through Microsoft Entra ID. Treat it as an implementation project, not a patch.
Should I move to Business Central SaaS or on-premises?
For roughly 85% of Canadian mid-market NAV customers, BC SaaS hosted in Canada Central or Canada East is the correct answer. On-premises BC makes sense only when you have specific data-residency requirements not met by the Canadian Azure regions, hard offline operational requirements, or ISV dependencies without cloud-compatible versions. Hybrid is rarely the right answer in 2026.
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