Migrating Document Capture from Business Central On-Premises to Cloud

  • 11/04/2024
  • 10 minutes to read

If your organization currently uses Continia Document Capture in Microsoft Dynamics NAV/Business Central on-premises but would like to move to the cloud, you can easily migrate to Business Central online using the guide below.

The migration of Document Capture to Business Central online is based on Microsoft's standard cloud migration tool. For more details, see Migrate On-Premises Data to Business Central Online (Microsoft article).

Note that there are a few things that you should consider before migrating to Business Central online. These are listed below under Considerations when migrating to the cloud.

To prepare your on-premises environment for cloud migration

Note

Previously, you had to upgrade to the latest available versions of both Business Central and Document Capture to be able to migrate to the cloud. This is no longer necessary if you use version 12.1.0 or later of Document Capture in your Business Central online environment (target).

Important

This guide currently doesn't apply to Continia Expense Management. When migrating on-premises environments of Expense Management to the cloud, you must still upgrade to the latest versions of both Business Central and Expense Management.

Before migrating any data to Business Central online, you must carry out the following steps in your on-premises environment:

  1. Upgrade to Business Central April 2019 (BC v14) or later, unless you've already done so at an earlier point. To do this, see Upgrading NAV/Business Central with Document Capture Installed.

  2. As you complete step 1 above, be sure to also upgrade to Document Capture 2021 R2 (8.00) or later, unless you've already done so earlier.

  3. When you've upgraded both Business Central and Document Capture, run the assisted premigration guide: Choose the Search icon, enter Pre-Cloud Migration Wizard, and then choose the related link.

  4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the guide. This will execute the following actions for all companies in the database:

    • If Document Storage Type is set to File System, it will be changed to Database, and all files will be moved from the file share drive to the database.
    • For every Document Capture document, a PNG file will be created from the existing TIFF file, and all created PNG files will be stored in the database.
    • Continia Cloud OCR will be enabled for all companies.

    Important

    In order for documents to be moved to the database, they must be available on the file share drive at the time of transfer.

To migrate data to the cloud

Once you've prepared your on-premises environment for migration as described above, you're ready to migrate data to Business Central online. To do this, carry out the following steps in your new online environment:

  1. Run the Microsoft cloud migration tool: Choose the Search icon, enter Cloud Migration Setup, and then choose the related link to open the Cloud Migration Setup guide. For more information, see Run the assisted setup guide (Microsoft article).

  2. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the guide.

    Important

    Note that you can't use your demo credentials in a production environment. If you want to perform a test migration, please use a sandbox environment instead.

    To avoid interrupting the migration process, you can't use Document Capture when the cloud migration tool is running.

  3. Once the migration process is complete, go through the steps of the Post Migration Checklist to make sure that all necessary actions have been carried out.

  4. Disable cloud migration, and define user mappings between on-premises and cloud. For more information, see "Disable Cloud Migration" and "Define User Mappings" in the table under Manage the migration (Microsoft article).

  5. In the Role Center, the following notification is now displayed: "Continia Document Capture has been migrated from On-premises to Cloud. Would you like to activate it?" Select Yes to open the activation guide.

  6. Complete the guide to activate Document Capture as a cloud solution. As you complete the guide, be sure to check that your client credentials are correct.

    Note

    If the Continia Web Approval Portal was enabled in the old on-premises environment, you must set it up again. For more information, see Setting up Web Approval.

All Document Capture data has now been migrated, and the app is ready for use in Business Central online.

Important

When you migrate to Business Central online as described above, client credentials (client ID and password) are copied from your on-premises environment to the online one, no matter what type of environment you're migrating from (production or test) and to (production or sandbox).

However, when you disable cloud migration (step 4 above), the type of online environment is important:

  • If you're migrating to a sandbox environment, your original client credentials are automatically deleted. When you then activate Document Capture as a cloud solution (steps 5-6 above), new client credentials are created.
  • If you're migrating to a production environment, your existing client credentials are reused for the online environment.

Notifying Continia about the migration

When you migrate a Continia solution like Document Capture from an on-premises environment to the cloud, it's important that you take the necessary steps described below, to ensure that the invoicing process remains smooth and trouble-free:

As a partner or customer, it’s your responsibility to terminate your on-premises agreement with Continia once you've migrated the entire solution and it's fully operational in the cloud. Most customers migrate their solutions gradually during a period of transition that can last up to several months, but the process varies from organization to organization. In any case, once the migration process is complete, you must inform Continia about the termination by sending an email to accounting@continia.com. You'll then be credited for the remainder of your on-premises billing period.

Important

For administrative purposes, please let us know about the termination before you're invoiced for a 12-month renewal of your on-premises agreement.

Considerations when migrating to the cloud

The following are some of the most important considerations to make and things to note before migrating:

  • The File System storage type isn't available in Business Central online, so you'll have to select a different storage type (Database or Azure Blob Storage) before you migrate.
  • If you choose Database, all documents are saved in the database, thereby taking up database storage space and making the transfer of data to Business Central online more time-consuming. In case you have a lot of data to transfer, you may want to consider selecting Azure Blob Storage instead, as you have limited space available (80 GB plus additional storage capacity based on your number of Business Central licenses) – unless you purchase additional space, which can be costly. For more information, see this Microsoft article.
  • If you do select Azure Blob Storage, we recommend that you change to this storage type before initiating the migration. This makes it much faster for you to transfer your database to Business Central online, as there are no documents stored in the database.
  • Once you've migrated to Business Central online, you can no longer use on-premises OCR.
  • You must convert all documents to PNG format before migrating them to Business Central online, in order to be able to view them in the user interface.

For more information on storage types and how to set them up, see Setting up Document Storage.

See also

How to migrate DC and EM to Business Central 2021 release wave 1 (BC18) in BC cloud
Setting up Document Storage