From e-conomic to Business Central

When a company outgrows e-conomic, it is typically because inventory, projects, several companies or integrations need more. The move is not a single button press, though. You have to decide what is moved, how the chart of accounts is used and how open entries come across correctly. This article goes through the main choices and points out what you should check with Microsoft yourself. You also get a short list of questions for your own project.

Tools and what should be moved

Business Central has a data migration guide that can import master data from Excel and from some source systems. Microsoft Learn mentions, among others, extensions for QuickBooks and for the Danish C5. I could not confirm on Microsoft Learn that an official extension for e-conomic exists. Check the data migration guide in Business Central and AppSource yourself, and ask your supplier before you count on a ready-made tool.

Without a tool, the usual route is an export from e-conomic to Excel or CSV, which is then loaded into Business Central.

Think in three layers. Master data is customers, vendors, items and the chart of accounts. Opening figures are balances on G/L accounts, open customer and vendor entries and inventory quantities. History is earlier years' entries.

Master data is always moved, after cleaning up.
Opening figures are moved as of a cut-off date.
History can often stay in e-conomic as a read-only archive, provided you keep access in line with your local bookkeeping rules on record retention. Check the current rules with your local authority.

The chart of accounts

The e-conomic chart of accounts cannot always be taken over unchanged. Business Central is built on G/L accounts and dimensions, so department, project and similar can be dimensions instead of many almost identical accounts. Use the move to make the chart of accounts shorter.

Make a mapping table between old and new account numbers. You will need it for the opening balance, for budgets and for comparison with last year in reports.

Open entries, cut-off date and bank

Choose a cut-off date, preferably at a month-end. On that date the sum of the open customer entries you load must match the customer balance in the general ledger, and the same goes for vendors. Reconcile before and after loading.

Remember currency, due date and any payment agreements on each entry, so that reminders and payment proposals work from day one.

Set up VAT posting groups and general posting groups before you load entries. Review bank connections, payment formats and any integrations to a webshop or payroll system. Each integration is a small project of its own.

Train the users in a sandbox before you go live.

Export and import in practice

Export customers, vendors, items and the chart of accounts from e-conomic to Excel. Correct the data in the spreadsheet, and add the columns Business Central requires, for example posting groups and payment terms. Then import through the guide or a configuration package, starting in a sandbox company.

Always check a sample manually. Open ten customers and ten items and compare them field by field with e-conomic before you load the rest.

Differences, and questions for your project

In e-conomic many post straight to accounts and journals with few fields. In Business Central there are more mandatory groups and setups that make sure postings go to the right accounts. That gives more control, but also more to learn.

Set aside time to train the accountant in journals, applying entries and bank reconciliation, as these are the areas where the workflow changes most.

Use these questions as a starting point for an internal kickoff.

Which years should be in Business Central, and which can stay in e-conomic?
Which integrations and external services depend on e-conomic today?
Who reconciles the figures on the day, and who approves?
What is the cut-off date, and when is the last posting in e-conomic?

Next steps

Addverk is a new Business Central partner and offers implementation at open, fixed prices. See our implementation service if you want help planning the move.