One of the most confusing topics in the Dynamics GP world right now is when it comes to the decision to do a system upgrade. It used to be a simple topic as there was one option for the latest version that clients upgrade to at any point in time. If someone is looking to upgrade Dynamic GP currently, they have the option to upgrade to GP 2018R2 or move on to the “Modern Life Cycle” (the name of the new GP upgrade path).
Prior to the Modern Life Cycle coming out, Microsoft released a new version of GP about every year and a half to two years on average. Once the new release came out, it would be under Microsoft’s mainstream support for 5 years. Therefore, right now, companies that are on version GP 2015 are officially not on a supported version and should move forward with an upgrade soon if they have not already. In general, we see most companies upgrade every 4-5 years to stay on a supported version.
Choosing a Dynamics GP Upgrade
The question for many companies that use GP is now, “which version do I upgrade to?” The Modern Life Cycle version is simply called “Dynamics GP.” Hence, the option is to upgrade to either Dynamics GP 2018 R2 or to Dynamics GP. Dynamics GP 2018R2 will be supported until 2023, whereas Dynamics GP will only have support for 1 year per release. A new release of the Modern Life Cycle will come out every October, and when that new release comes out, the prior one loses all support.
We have not been through an upgrade of the Modern Life Cycle yet, so we cannot say for sure what that upgrade entails. With that being said, Sikich currently suggests that only GP Payroll clients upgrade to the Modern Life Cycle version. It is a requirement to be on this new version if you are a payroll client.
The way we look at it now, if you upgrade to 2018R2, you are on a supported version until 2023. If you upgrade to the new GP, you are only on a supported version for a year. We have not found any other compelling reasons to go through this new upgrade at this time. After we get through the first round of these Modern Life Cycle upgrades this fall, we will have more information on what these annual upgrades entail.
Have any questions about upgrading GP? Please contact us at any time.
