During the planning of a Dynamics GP implementation, decisions should be made about what type of data needs to be populated into the system prior to, or possibly after, Go Live. Data can be grouped into three categories: master data, historical data, and open transactions. Each should be discussed in detail and planned for separately.
Master data includes customers, vendors, inventory items, fixed assets, and General Ledger accounts. There is no question that you need to populate this data as part of the implementation. However, there are a few considerations you must plan for, such as where to get the data, how much of it has to be cleaned up or changed, and how to accomplish actually getting it into Dynamics GP.
Implementing a new ERP system is a great opportunity to re-examine the existing master data and do some renumbering or general cleanup. At this stage of the planning, you should put together a list of what master data needs to be populated into Dynamics...