Great Plains Accounting for DOS versions 9.5 and 9.2 was very popular in mid 1990th prior to the time when Great Plains Dynamics proved itself as modern replacement to GPA.
Accounting is still in use at some small and even medium size businesses but it is in phasing out cycle. Probably good idea is to consider checking with Dynamics GP resellers what would it cost for you to transfer GPA software licenses into GP licenses as well as migration and upgrade quote in consulting hours. If you do want to try something different SAP B1 for example then be sure to budget data export from Great Plains with its following migration to SB1. Let’s take a look at data conversion steps:
1. Data conversion scope. It is always good idea to limit the scope of data extraction, cleansing and import. Especially try to avoid so-called historical data import as here you may face the magnitude of hundred of thousand historical sales invoices and their inventory item lines. Speculate about the following approach. Why don’t you just keep GPA on one of the user workstations deployed over Pervasive SQL 2000 DB platform and Windows 7 32 bit edition? In this case if historical document is requested then operator opens GPA on that stand-alone computer and answers the request. This work around should save you a lot of data cleansing and migration budget and keep new system migration error proof
2. Exporting tables from Great Plains Accounting. Through various iterations we found that our favorite tool is Pervasive SQL Control Center where you can issue SQL Select statement against GPA Btrieve table. In order to mount GPA company database you need to produce DDF files (Btrieve Data Definition Files for tables, fields and optionally indexes). The procedure is described in GPA ODBC manual which could be read from original Great Plains Accounting CD. Then when produced DDF files (Field.ddf, File.ddf and Index.ddf) should be copied on the top of company folder. This folder could be found on your server and it typically its just below GPS super folder. If you have only one company since the inception time then the name of the company folder is probably GPData. So far it is probably fairly simple and you are optimistic. Here however we would like to tell you that when you issues Select statement against GPA table you might be surprised that large percentage of rows is not looking as valid and contains non-readable characters. What is the reason and are these lines really valid one and maybe encrypted? No, the reason why you see these rows is the method of hosting several relative tables in single Btrieve file with DAT extension. The work around is select statement with where clause to weed out alien table lines in Pervasive SQL Control Center Query
3. Data Transfer Workbench as migration tool to SAP BO. In the descried migration path there is no need to purchase expensive third party ISV data import tool. Use DTW which is included in software package purchased from SAP reseller. Data Transfer Workbench is straightforward and here you prepare CVF files filled with the data from your legacy accounting. As the model to follow you open so-called CSV template often referred as Excel template. As you may expect the structure of exported GPA tables is different from CSV template and this is why exported data transformation should be expected. If could be done in Excel or in custom table in SQL Server loaded with legacy accounting table
4. Properly set expectations. Human nature likes the idea of the project to be done right the first time. In data massage, cleansing and migration projects the key concept is iteration with data quality check and reported improvement. The project comes through multiple iteration cycles until the quality meets satisfaction criterion. This is by the way one of the reasons that we do not recommend historical data conversion or the idea to fulfill the order: “go ahead and import everything from our old accounting to the new Small Business ERP.”
5. Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904 (for international customers, where our representative pick up the phone in St. Joseph, MI call center). help@efaru.com. We have local presence in Chicagoland, Southern California, South West Michigan and Houston and Dallas areas of Texas. We serve customers USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil nationwide and internationally via web sessions and phone conferences (Skype is welcomed). Our consultants speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese. We feature our expertise is in International Business. We provide second opinion in SB1 data migration, customization and reporting
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