Retiring Dynamics SL means preserving agreed historical records and usable access before removing the source application dependency. For this scenario, prioritise project costs, billing relationships and time records. Compare required reports and documents with source evidence, test permissions and obtain business acceptance before scheduling shutdown.

This guide covers the retirement questions, a mock-data ArchiveHub demonstration and the validation work needed to define a project scope.

What keeping Dynamics SL "read-only" really costs

Cost categories are a discovery checklist, not a guaranteed savings calculation. Verify support status, deployment, shared infrastructure and contract terms for the actual installation.

  • An ageing Windows and SQL Server stack. SL runs on Microsoft SQL Server with Windows clients. Keeping it means patching and backing up servers and database versions that are past, or close to, the end of support.
  • Licences and partner support for a product nobody posts to any more.
  • Client installs and screen knowledge. Every look-up needs a working SL client and someone who remembers which screen to open, Project Maintenance, AP Document Maintenance or Timecard Entry. That knowledge shrinks every year.
  • Security exposure. An old database holding employee pay history, labour rates and client billing details is a risk that grows as patches stop.
  • Audit-access workarounds. Clients, auditors and agencies get exported spreadsheets with no audit trail of what was shared.

Retiring SL removes these costs. The saving depends on your environment, so we describe it rather than put a number on it.

Scope, versions and evidence

This is an illustrative workflow, not a customer case study. Confirm the source release, deployment, modules, customisations and extraction permissions before using the mappings below. Tables and report labels describe the demonstration catalogue; native-report equivalence has not been independently certified. Use agreed source reports and representative records for acceptance testing.

An archive is not a replacement for every operational feature of the retired ERP. Document required historical tasks, excluded functions and any archive-derived calculations.

Historical data to scope for Dynamics SL

ArchiveHub keeps the Dynamics SL data model with its native table and field names, and adds a description to every field so newer staff can follow along:

  • General Ledger: GLTran with released journal lines from every module, Batch as the posting audit trail, AcctHist with beginning balances and period-to-date and year-to-date balances per company, account, subaccount, ledger and fiscal year, plus Account, SubAcct and Ledger (ACTUAL and BUDGET).
  • Accounts Payable: Vendor, APDoc for vouchers (VO) and checks (CK), APTran with project and task on subconsultant costs, and APAdjust showing which check paid which voucher.
  • Accounts Receivable: Customer, ARDoc for invoices (IN) and payments (PA), ARTran and ARAdjust.
  • Project Controller: PJPROJ, PJPENT for tasks, PJTran for project transactions, PJACCT account categories (LABOR, SUBCON, REIMB EXP, EXPENSE, REVENUE, REIMB REV), PJPTDSUM for budget, actual, commitments and estimate at completion, PJACTSUM, and PJCODE.
  • Flexible Billing and Contract Management: PJBILL, PJINVHDR and PJINVDET with bill status (unbilled U, billed B), and PJCONT for contracts.
  • Time & Expense: PJLABHDR and PJLABDET for timecards, PJEXPHDR and PJEXPDET for expense reports, and PJUTLROL for utilisation.
  • Payroll and resources: Employee, PRDoc, PRTran, PJEMPLOY and PJEMPPJT for labour rates by effective date.
  • Cash Manager and tax: CashAcct and CATran with reconciliation status, and SalesTax for tax IDs.

Account history keeps SL's own sign convention, and the year-end close sits in beginning balances as it does in SL. The quarter-end AP and AR aging snapshots and the GST/VAT return summary are rebuilt by ArchiveHub and labelled as archive-derived, not native SL tables.

Explore the demonstration

GL Transactions list in ArchiveHub GL Transactions: released Dynamics SL journal lines by account, subaccount, period and module. ArchiveHub demonstration using mock data; not a native ERP screen or customer implementation.

GL Transactions detail page in ArchiveHub GL Transactions detail: a single GLTran line with its batch, module and reference. ArchiveHub demonstration using mock data; not a native ERP screen or customer implementation.

AP Aging list in ArchiveHub AP Aging: open vendor balances by aging bucket at a quarter end. ArchiveHub demonstration using mock data; not a native ERP screen or customer implementation.

Explore the report reference catalogue

These mappings identify intended business workflows, not certified one-for-one equivalents. Confirm availability, source coverage, filters, currencies, dates and calculations for the selected release and implementation.

General Ledger

  • GL Transactions: reference workflow: the General Ledger Transactions report and Account History detail (GLTran)
  • Trial Balance: reference workflow: the Trial Balance report and Account History inquiry by period (AcctHist), with the year-end close in BegBal
  • Chart of Accounts: reference workflow: Chart of Accounts Maintenance and the Account List report (Account, SubAcct, AcctHist year-end balances)
  • Batch Register: reference workflow: the Batch Register report and the Journal Transactions batch inquiry (Batch, GLTran): the posting audit trail
  • Budget vs Actual: reference workflow: the Budget Comparison (actual vs budget ledger) report from Account History (AcctHist ledgers ACTUAL and BUDGET)
  • Subledger to GL Reconciliation: reference workflow: the AR/AP to GL reconciliation and the Project Controller to GL and Payroll to GL integrity checks: subledger activity against the control accounts by period

Accounts Payable

  • Vendors: reference workflow: Vendor Maintenance and the Vendor List report, with Vendor History (Vendor, APDoc)
  • AP Vouchers: reference workflow: Voucher and Adjustment Entry / AP Document Maintenance and the Vendor Trial Balance detail (APDoc, APTran, APAdjust)
  • Check Register: reference workflow: the Check Register report and payment inquiry (APDoc check, APAdjust, CATran clearing)
  • AP Aging: reference workflow: the AP Aging (Aged Payables) report, with quarter-end snapshots rebuilt from APDoc / APAdjust

Accounts Receivable

  • Customers: reference workflow: Customer Maintenance and the Customer List, with Customer History and projects (Customer, ARDoc, PJPROJ)
  • AR Invoices: reference workflow: AR Document Maintenance and the Customer Trial Balance detail for invoices from Flexible Billing (ARDoc, ARTran, ARAdjust)
  • Customer Payments: reference workflow: Payment Application and the deposit inquiry (ARDoc payments, ARAdjust)
  • AR Aging: reference workflow: Aged AR / Customer Trial Balance aging, with quarter-end snapshots rebuilt from ARDoc / ARAdjust

Project Controller

  • Projects: reference workflow: Project Maintenance and Project Inquiry (PJPROJ, PJPENT, PJPTDSUM, PJINVHDR)
  • Project Transactions: reference workflow: the Project Transaction Detail inquiry and Transaction report (PJTran)
  • Project Budget vs Actual: reference workflow: the Project Status / Budget vs Actual report by task and account category, with estimate at completion (PJPTDSUM)

Flexible Billing

  • Project Invoices: reference workflow: Flexible Billing Invoice Maintenance / Invoice History and the Invoice Register (PJINVHDR, PJINVDET)
  • Unbilled Analysis: reference workflow: the Flexible Billing Unbilled Analysis / Unbilled Work in Process report at the archive cutoff (PJINVDET bill status U)

Contract Management

  • Contracts: reference workflow: Contract Maintenance and the Contract Summary (PJCONT, with its projects and billings)

Time & Expense

  • Timecards: reference workflow: Timecard Entry / the Labor History inquiry and the Timecard Detail report (PJLABHDR, PJLABDET)
  • Expense Reports: reference workflow: Expense Report Entry and Expense Report History (PJEXPHDR, PJEXPDET)
  • Employee Utilization: reference workflow: the Employee Utilization report by period (PJUTLROL rollup: billable, non-billable and PTO hours)

Payroll

  • Employees: reference workflow: Payroll Employee Maintenance and Project Employee Maintenance, with labour rates and pay history (Employee, PJEMPLOY, PJEMPPJT, PRDoc)
  • Payroll Checks: reference workflow: the Payroll Check Register / Employee Check History (PRDoc, PRTran)
  • Payroll by Department: reference workflow: the Payroll Earnings / Deductions Register summarised by department and period, tied to GL salaries and burden (PRTran vs GLTran)

Cash Manager

  • Bank Transactions: reference workflow: the Cash Manager bank transaction inquiry and reconciliation status (CATran)
  • Cash Account Summary: reference workflow: the Cash Manager Account Summary (daily/period cash balance), compared with the GL cash account (CATran vs AcctHist)

Fixed Assets

  • Fixed Assets: reference workflow: Fixed Assets Asset Maintenance and the Asset Register report (source tables require version-specific verification)
  • Depreciation History: reference workflow: the Fixed Assets Depreciation Expense report by period (source tables require version-specific verification)

Tax

  • GST/VAT Returns: reference workflow: the Tax Report / Tax History by tax ID per quarter, with the documents behind each return (SalesTax, ARDoc and APDoc tax totals)

Source documents stay attached

Document types below illustrate the intended scope. Include source attachments and external repositories explicitly, and test retrieval and record linkage before decommissioning.

ArchiveHub keeps archived documents attached to their records: AP vouchers (the subconsultant or supplier invoice behind them), client invoices, expense reports and their receipts, projects, contracts, employees and fixed assets. When a client questions a billing from four years ago, the invoice, the timecards behind it and the contract terms are all in one place.

Beyond the reports

Confirm these capabilities, configuration requirements and limits during the demonstration and scope review; the report catalogue alone does not validate them.

  • Ad-hoc query builder over the configured archived SL table, with native field descriptions and suggested joins (for example PJLABDET to PJTran to PJINVDET).
  • Retention rules with approved purge, so timecards, payroll and billing history leave the archive on schedule and only with sign-off.
  • Legal hold on projects, clients or contracts under dispute or audit.
  • Personal-data governance: agree the lawful retention, access and deletion requirements with the responsible privacy and records teams. Product features alone do not establish regulatory compliance.
  • Access controls: define and test permissions for the required companies, records and sensitive fields. Do not assume that system-level roles reproduce the original ERP permissions, particularly for payroll and HR data.
  • OData feeds for Excel, Power BI and SAP Analytics Cloud.

How the decommissioning project runs

  1. Extract. Every SL company is extracted from SQL Server table by table, keeping native keys and names.
  2. Validate. Row counts are compared per table. The trial balance from AcctHist must match SL's. AR and AP must tie to their control accounts, Project Controller actuals to the GL, and payroll to salaries and burden.
  3. Parallel read access. Project managers, billing and finance use ArchiveHub while SL is still available, and sign off the agreed report test cases, including documented differences.
  4. Retire after acceptance. Obtain documented sign-off for data reconciliation, document retrieval, user access, retention and legal holds, recovery and remaining integrations. Retire only the approved components; shared infrastructure may still be needed. End or reduce subscriptions, licences and support only where the contract permits. Budget for archive operation and any residual costs.

Close the last Solomon screen

Your project history keeps its value long after the projects close. Keep it in ArchiveHub, with its timecards, invoices and source documents, and let the SL servers go.

Questions about Dynamics SL retirement

How should SL add-ons be handled?

Identify the installed modules, partner extensions and custom tables. Verify fixed-asset and other add-on mappings against that implementation rather than treating demonstration identifiers as standard.

What makes a historical billing inquiry complete?

Define the required connection between invoice, project, time, expenses and available contract documents. Test representative adjustments and exceptions before users accept the replacement workflow.

What does this ArchiveHub demonstration prove?

The screenshots illustrate how selected records can be presented using mock data. They do not prove production completeness, customer outcomes or parity with every Dynamics SL report. Request a demonstration against your own approved scope and acceptance cases.

Related retirement resources

For the broader project approach, see Legacy application retirement planning. To evaluate how users will find transactions, follow relationships and retrieve documents, explore archived data reporting. These resources complement this Dynamics SL-specific scope rather than replace source-system validation.

Evidence and further reading

The report catalogue and screenshots originate from an internal mock-data demonstration. They are not vendor certification or customer implementation evidence.

Use Microsoft Dynamics documentation to locate the documentation for the installed release. This is a documentation entry point, not verification of every table or report mapping in this article.

Fixed-price Dynamics SL retirement engagement

ArchiveHub offers a fixed-price engagement for Dynamics SL retirement and historical data access, based on an agreed scope, deliverables and acceptance criteria. Request a scoped proposal covering your source systems, data, documents, reporting and validation requirements. The proposal should specify included services, exclusions, ongoing platform or hosting charges, and how scope changes will be handled.

Discuss your Dynamics SL retirement requirements with ArchiveHub

Microsoft Dynamics SL is a trademark of its respective owner. ArchiveHub is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft Corporation.