From Great Plains to the Cloud:

Outgrowing a System Built in 1999

Carson Landscape had been running on Microsoft Great Plains since 1999. The system worked, and the team knew it inside and out, but when Microsoft announced it would end support for the platform, staying put was no longer an option.

Beyond end-of-life pressure, the operational complexity of Carson's business placed significant demands on its accounting infrastructure. Property managers overseeing dozens of sites, each billed to different ownership entities, generated 800 to 1,000 invoices per month. Those invoices lived in a custom Access database and needed to flow into accounting accurately, without the team keying each one manually. Any new system would need to handle that integration seamlessly, or the billing operation would grind to a halt.

The Only Call Worth Making

By the time Carson was ready to move, Aaron at Northbank had already been managing their Great Plains environment for years. The relationship was built on responsiveness, accurate billing, and a genuine investment in understanding how Carson's business worked.

When competing vendors came calling, as they inevitably do, Kathleen's answer was simple. If she was being treated exceptionally well and was happy with the service, there was no reason to leave.

When it came time to migrate, the decision took about as long as it took to pick up the phone.

Methodical. Accurate. No Shortcuts.

Northbank approached the Great Plains to Business Central migration methodically, module by module, with accuracy treated as non-negotiable. There was no pressure to go live before the data was clean and the team was ready.

Aaron started by mapping out the full scope of what needed to move among customer records, vendor lists, AR, AP, GL, payment terms, and the full chart of accounts. Before training began on each module, he provided targeted learning resources so Kathleen and her IT manager could familiarize themselves with what was coming, making the hands-on sessions more productive. Data was transferred, scrubbed, and verified before anything was signed off. Financial statements were fully rebuilt to fit Business Central's reporting structure.

The crown jewel of the engagement was the billing integration. Aaron built a custom connection between Carson's Access database and Business Central so that invoices could flow over automatically. With a few commands, 800 to 1,000 invoices per month populate the accounting system, get assigned invoice numbers, and are ready to print or email. No manual keying. No room for error.

After go-live, on-site support gave way to remote sessions, allowing dial-in and real-time troubleshooting whenever needed.

A Better System AND Stronger Operations

The move to Business Central delivered tangible improvements across Carson's accounting operation and an integration that transformed their highest-volume workflow.

• Invoice automation at scale: 800–1,000 invoices per month now flow from Carson's billing database into Business Central automatically. What once could have required hours of manual data entry is now a few commands.
• Faster AP and check-cutting: Accounts payable entry and check processing are notably more streamlined in Business Central than in Great Plains, a direct operational improvement for the accounting team.
• Billing efficiency gains: Carson's billing staff noted meaningful shortcuts in Business Central compared to the legacy system, a welcome improvement for a team managing high invoice volume.
• Cleaner financial reporting: Rebuilding financial statements in Business Central replaced the legacy FRX reporting process with a more flexible, easier-to-manage solution at month-end.
• A migration done right: By prioritizing accuracy over speed, Carson went live with clean data, a trained team, and no scramble to fix problems after the fact.
• Self-sufficiency: Northbank's approach includes both embedded custom workflow documentation directly inside Business Central and training the internal team to handle routine tasks. This frees their time for higher-value work and reduces the accounting team's dependency on external support for day-to-day operations.