Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft's official language is end of support — not end of life. What they've announced is a date at which they will stop making new investments in GP features and support infrastructure. That is different from GP "dying" or your system stopping.

Much of the alarming language circulating in the market — "sunsetting," "end of life," "dying platform" — is not what Microsoft's official documentation says. Those are colloquialisms that have taken on a life of their own. There is no end of life for Dynamics GP. There is simply a date at which Microsoft will no longer support it directly.

Your GP system will not stop working on April 30, 2031. The platform you have built your business on will continue to function.

No. Dynamics GP will not stop working when Microsoft's support window closes. The ecosystem of ISVs, consultants, and hosting providers who support GP every day will continue to do so.

It's worth noting that for most GP customers, Microsoft hasn't been the primary source of day-to-day support for years. The community — partners, ISVs, and knowledge bases — is already where most real support happens. That's not going to change in 2031.

The Knights of GP community is building the framework to step into the gap Microsoft will leave, covering payroll tax updates, new features, ongoing support, and knowledge preservation. That work is underway now, well ahead of when it's needed.

Those dates were set, but they are not guaranteed to hold. The GP community is large — current estimates put it at 30,000–40,000 companies — and there simply isn't enough capacity in the ecosystem to migrate everyone off GP before those dates arrive. History suggests Microsoft will be pragmatic about this.

Microsoft walked a similar path with Dynamics SL (Solomon), extending support timelines multiple times over roughly 20 years. Similar patterns are reasonable to expect here. The Knights of GP is building to serve the community regardless of how those timelines evolve — the goal is preparedness, not prediction.

This is a question the community is actively tracking. Our current understanding is that nothing will suddenly stop working in 2031 for subscription license holders, but we are monitoring Microsoft's communication closely and will share clarity as it becomes available.

We have relationships inside the ecosystem who have committed to providing early warning if anything material changes regarding subscription access. If there were a situation where access could be disrupted, you would hear about it from this community first.

Microsoft's current plan allows customers to continue adding users through 2031. What happens after that is still an open question — but we don't believe Microsoft will simply cut off licensing for the tens of thousands of companies still running GP. That would be an unusual and disruptive move with no clear business reason behind it.

The GP ecosystem has also developed creative, compliant approaches to license management over the years. Tools exist to help companies optimize and manage their GP user licenses effectively. The Knights of GP community will continue to develop solutions in this space if and as needed.

This is an important and legitimate concern, and we want to be transparent: a concrete compliance plan for subscription licensing post-2031 is still being developed. We are working to understand exactly what Microsoft's licensing terms require and what options will be available.

What we can say is that this is a priority for the cooperative, and we will not ask customers to operate in a position of uncertainty. As clarity develops — through our conversations with Microsoft and with legal and licensing experts — we will communicate it directly to the community. This is precisely why joining the Knights of GP now matters: you'll have this information before you need to act on it.

If GP payroll is working well for your organization, there is no urgent reason to leave. The Knights of GP has committed to continuing payroll tax updates and keeping the GP payroll system compliant with federal and state laws — picking up exactly where Microsoft leaves off.

This isn't a new problem. Payroll tax updates have been maintained for GP for 30 years by a well-understood process with documentation and established expertise. The community has the knowledge and the people to carry this forward. If GP payroll works for you, we'll be there for you.

Canadian payroll support is something we want to provide, but the scope of what the Knights of GP delivers will ultimately follow its members. The more Canadian GP customers who join the community, the stronger the case for prioritizing Canadian payroll compliance.

If this matters to your organization, the most effective thing you can do is join the Knights of GP and encourage others in the Canadian GP ecosystem to do the same. Community size shapes community direction.

Yes, that is the intention. The Knights of GP is committed to keeping GP compliant with applicable federal and state laws — not just payroll, but the kinds of ongoing compliance updates that Microsoft has been maintaining and will eventually stop providing. 1099 updates in the AP module are part of that picture.

VAT support depends on membership. If the Knights of GP community includes enough members with VAT requirements, addressing that becomes a priority. As with Canadian payroll, the cooperative structure means the community's needs shape the roadmap. This is another reason that growing the community matters — the more diverse the membership, the more comprehensive the support.

Pricing for membership and services is still being developed. The Knights of GP is being built as a nonprofit cooperative — structured to be sustainable, not profitable. The intent is to deliver value at a cost that is accessible to the GP customer base.

Paid membership options are expected to become available as the cooperative matures and services like payroll tax updates and new features are formally launched. We'll be transparent about what's included and what it costs as those plans are finalized.

This is a fair technical concern, and there are a few layers to the answer.

First, SQL Server is used by massive enterprises running critical systems far beyond GP. Microsoft making radical breaking changes to on-premise SQL Server would impact the entire industry — it's not something they're likely to do casually. The evolution of SQL toward Azure is real, but the on-premise version is not being abandoned.

Second, several ISVs in the GP ecosystem — including Rockton Software — have source code access to GP through formal software partner relationships. The codebase is understood, and the communication protocols between GP and SQL can be adapted by developers with that access. Connectivity challenges, should they arise, are solvable problems for this community.

Third, GP is not the only platform this would affect. A change that breaks GP's SQL connectivity would break countless other enterprise applications — which is a strong natural deterrent.

This is one of the more nuanced technical questions the community is working through.

The Knights of GP cooperative structure is specifically designed to involve ISVs and technical partners in this kind of ongoing work. ISV members who have expertise in these components will have a seat at the table and an opportunity to contribute solutions. The framework exists to coordinate this kind of cross-ISV technical collaboration in a way that hasn't existed before.

For specific escalation paths, compatibility testing ownership, and patching commitments post-2031, these are details we're continuing to develop and will communicate as the cooperative's technical framework matures. If you have deep expertise in workflow or web services and want to be part of building the answer to this question, we'd welcome that involvement.

Compatibility issues caused by third-party updates — whether from Microsoft or anyone else — are a real and ongoing challenge for GP customers today, not just a post-2031 concern. The GP ecosystem has always handled these collaboratively. When one ISV or partner identifies a workaround, it circulates quickly across the community.

The Knights of GP community infrastructure being built — including knowledge base preservation and community forums — is designed to make that kind of information sharing faster and more organized. The goal is that a problem identified by one customer can be resolved for all customers more efficiently than it is today.

Separate additional dictionaries are the more technically sound approach, and that is the direction the community is leaning. Modifying the core GP dictionary would be more complex and carries more risk, especially given that Microsoft retains intellectual property rights to the core codebase. Building alongside the core — as ISVs have done successfully for decades — is both safer and more sustainable.

Yes. GP is already deployed in cloud environments, including Azure and AWS. You do not need to move to a different ERP to get a modern cloud experience. PowerGP Online, for example, is a purpose-built hosting platform that keeps you on GP while giving you a secure, fully managed cloud environment — in addition to modern features, including AI capabilities.

Cloud deployment is available today.

Ask them directly. Ask what their stance is on GP, what their long-term plan is, and ask them to demonstrate it — not just say it.

A few things to watch for:

• If your partner has let go of their GP support staff or significantly reduced their GP consulting team, that's a signal.
• If every conversation with your partner ends with some form of pressure to leave GP, that's a signal.
• If your partner is only offering one ERP alternative and says it works for everyone, be skeptical. No single platform is the right fit for every GP customer.

Also worth understanding: many partners who sell cloud-based ERP platforms are heavily incentivized by those publishers to add new customers — not to ensure successful implementations. Their interests and yours may not be aligned.

The Knights of GP vets the ISVs and partners on our preferred lists, asking exactly these questions. If you're looking for a partner who has made a documented commitment to GP, that's a good place to start.

This is happening, and it's worth being direct about: some ISVs are applying financial pressure as a way to encourage customers to move off GP. This is a business decision on their part, and it is not how the ISVs committed to the Knights of GP are operating.

Preferred ISVs and partners in the Knights of GP community have made public, documented long-term commitments to supporting GP customers — not penalizing them for staying. If an ISV you rely on is taking this approach, it may be worth evaluating whether alternatives exist within the committed ecosystem. The Knights of GP preferred ISV list is a resource for exactly this situation.

A note on language first: what gets called a "migration" from GP to Business Central is actually a full system reimplementation. There is no true migration path — data can be moved, but integrations, reports, customizations, and workflows all need to be rebuilt from scratch. Microsoft has attempted to build migration tools multiple times, and they haven't worked as advertised.

If your organization has evaluated the full picture — business case, cost, timelines, change management requirements, and fit — and an ERP transition makes strategic sense, then the right approach is a thorough selection process. That means evaluating multiple platforms, not just the one your current partner recommends. GP's breadth of functionality means Business Central is not the right fit for every organization, and there are non-Microsoft options worth considering.

The Knights of GP is not opposed to organizations making thoughtful ERP decisions. We are opposed to fear-driven decisions made without complete information.

The Knights of GP is a nonprofit cooperative being formed by and for the Dynamics GP community — customers, ISVs, consultants, and support partners. It is not a product, not a migration alternative pitch, and not a marketing campaign for any single company.

Like REI or other consumer cooperatives, the Knights of GP is structured to serve its members. Members have agency over what the cooperative prioritizes and how it operates. It's being built as a community-first organization because the problems it's solving are community-wide problems.

Several founding voices are involved, including leaders from Rockton Software, Njevity/PowerGP Online, and Cavallo — but the cooperative is intentionally broader than any one company. The goal is an organization that belongs to the GP community.

Here's an honest picture of where things stand:

Happening now: Quarterly community rallies, a newsletter, a growing preferred ISV and partner network, knowledge base preservation work, and community platform development. The message is being carried to as many GP customers as possible so they have the information they need to make informed decisions.

Being built: The formal membership framework, community forums, and the technical infrastructure for delivering payroll tax updates and new features. Paid membership options will roll out as the cooperative matures, likely as Microsoft's support dates approach.

We're building this in real time, and we're committed to transparency about what exists today and what's still evolving. You're watching a cooperative being formed — and that's by design. The earlier you're part of it, the more you shape it.

Conversations about acquiring GP's source code have occurred, and the honest answer is that it doesn't appear likely under current Microsoft leadership. Microsoft has historically not been in the business of creating potential competitors by selling off platform code, and what happened with Dynamics SL (Solomon) — where code was eventually transferred — was a different era and a different set of circumstances.

Importantly, the Knights of GP's approach does not depend on owning the source code. Rockton Software and other ISVs with source code access through formal software partner agreements have the ability to address compatibility and technical challenges as they arise. The cooperative's strategy works within the existing framework, not around it.

If you have an ISV and want to see them participate in the Knights of GP, the most effective path is to let that ISV know directly — demand from their own customers carries significant weight in these conversations.

This is a real question that the community takes seriously. The pool of Dexterity developers has shrunk as some have moved to other platforms. That said, the GP ecosystem has always adapted — and AI tools are making it faster and more accessible to work within established codebases, including legacy technologies like Dexterity.

The Knights of GP cooperative structure is specifically designed to pool and coordinate this kind of technical expertise across ISVs and partners, rather than leaving each organization to solve it independently. A community-coordinated approach to technical talent is more resilient than any single company's developer bench.

Joining the Knights of GP engagement list is free. It brings you into the community conversation — access to rally recordings, newsletter updates, community resources, and early visibility into how the cooperative is developing. No commitment, no cost.

Paid membership tiers will be introduced as the cooperative launches formal services like payroll tax updates and new features. Members will have a voice in how those tiers are structured. Visit knightsofgp.com to add your name today.