If your company still runs on Microsoft Dynamics NAV — what many of us still call Navision — there's a question worth answering sooner rather than later: how much longer does your version have support? This isn't a minor technical detail you can keep putting off, because your security, your regulatory compliance and, in practice, your peace of mind all depend on the answer.
In this article we cover which versions are still supported, what losing support actually means, and what options you have going forward. No alarmism, but no downplaying it either.
Dynamics NAV end-of-support dates
Microsoft supports each version for a set period. Here's where the most widely used versions stand:
| Version | End of support | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Navision 4.0 and 5.0 | Over a decade ago | Unsupported |
| Dynamics NAV 2009 / 2009 R2 | January 2020 | Unsupported |
| Dynamics NAV 2013 / 2013 R2 | January 2023 | Unsupported |
| Dynamics NAV 2015 | January 2025 | Unsupported |
| Dynamics NAV 2016 | January 2026 | Unsupported |
| Dynamics NAV 2017 | 2027 | Countdown running |
| Dynamics NAV 2018 | 2028 | Countdown running |
If your version shows as «unsupported», it doesn't mean the software will stop launching tomorrow. It means something subtler, and more uncomfortable in the medium term.
What losing support actually means
Once a version leaves its lifecycle, Microsoft stops publishing:
- Security patches. Any vulnerability discovered from that point on stays unfixed. This is the most serious point of all.
- Legal and tax updates. If regulations change — and in Spain they do — your ERP won't adapt on its own.
- Bug fixes. Any issues that appear are yours to keep.
- Official support. If something serious goes wrong, there's no one to escalate it to.
On top of that there's a quiet effect: every year that passes, it gets harder to find professionals who know those versions, and the modern systems you'd want to integrate with — an online store, a POS, online banking — stop supporting them.
«But my Navision works perfectly fine»
It's the phrase we hear most often, and it's usually true. Navision is a solid product, and some installations have been running smoothly for fifteen years. The problem isn't that it works — it's what happens the day it doesn't.
The risk of running an unsupported ERP doesn't show up day to day. It shows up all at once, the day something goes wrong and there's no safety net underneath.
And there's a second reason, less about defence: while your ERP stays frozen in place, the rest of the ecosystem moves on. Real-time dashboards, automation of repetitive tasks, electronic invoicing, access from anywhere… all of that comes standard today.
What options you have
1. Stay as you are
This is a legitimate option if your version still has support ahead of it. If it doesn't, it's worth at least putting some safeguards in place: verified backups, an isolated server and a written plan for what to do if something goes wrong.
2. Migrate to Business Central
Business Central is the natural evolution of Navision: the same business logic, but in the cloud, up to date and connected to Microsoft 365. You keep your data, your history and most of your customisations. We cover this in detail on our Navision to Business Central migration page.
3. Switch to a different ERP
This is always on the table, but it means starting from zero: retraining your team, rebuilding integrations and giving up years of accumulated know-how. If Navision has served you well, it makes sense to stay within the same family.
How to find out where you stand
To find your exact version, open Navision and go to Help → About Microsoft Dynamics NAV. That's where you'll see the version and build number.
With that in hand, the next step is to take stock of three things: what customisations you have, what integrations are running, and how much historical data you want to keep. These are the three factors that determine the real effort of a migration, far more than the version you're starting from.
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose my data when migrating?
No, and this is one of the most common fears we hear that turns out to be unfounded once the project is properly scoped. The migration carries across your master data, account balances and historical records, with backups taken and validation checks run at every step of the process, precisely so nothing gets lost or corrupted along the way. What we do work out together with you, case by case, is how much of that history is actually worth bringing into the new system: sometimes it makes sense to migrate everything in full, and sometimes it's more practical to leave older, already-closed fiscal years parked in a read-only environment you can still consult whenever you need to, without carrying that full weight into daily use of Business Central.
Will I have to stop the business?
No, and avoiding that disruption is one of the explicit goals of how we plan every migration. The change is broken down into phases rather than attempted as a single overnight switch, and the actual go-live is scheduled for the quietest point in your business calendar, usually around a closing period when transaction volume is naturally lower. Your team keeps working normally on the current system right up until the day of the switch itself, and the transition is designed so that the gap between «before» and «after» is as short and as uneventful as possible, rather than a stretch of days where operations are effectively on hold.
What about my custom developments?
They're reviewed one by one during the initial assessment, never assumed to transfer automatically or discarded as a block. Many pieces of custom development turn out to already be covered out of the box by Business Central's standard functionality, which means you simply stop needing them. The ones that are genuinely specific to your business are rebuilt as extensions, which is the modern, supported way to customise the system — we go into this in detail in our dedicated article on what happens to your NAV customisations when you migrate, including why extensions don't break every time Microsoft rolls out an update, unlike classic Navision customisations.
How long does it take?
It depends mainly on how much customisation and how many integrations your current system has, more than on any fixed rule tied to company size. A well-scoped project with limited custom development and few external connections can realistically be completed in a few weeks. One with a lot of accumulated customisation, several integrations with other systems, or a large volume of historical data to decide on needs correspondingly more time to do properly. The sensible way to get a real answer for your specific case, rather than a generic estimate, is to start with a diagnostic assessment and come out of it with a fixed scope and a concrete timeline you can actually plan around — the same logic we apply when estimating how much a migration from NAV to Business Central costs.
In summary
If your version is already unsupported, there's no reason to panic, but there is reason to put a date on the decision. And if you still have a year or two left, that's exactly the best time: you can plan calmly, choose when to make the change, and avoid migrating in a rush.
At AXPA365 we support companies through that transition. If you want to know where you stand, tell us about your case and we'll give you a no-obligation assessment: what version you have, what migrating would involve, and how much real work is behind it.