Migrate from Circle Commerce to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Circle Customer records map to Dynamics 365 Customer records. In Business Central, B2B customers use the Customer table with a primary contact; B2C may use the Contact table for individuals. We preserve the Circle customer type (business/individual) as a custom field cust_type__c for segmentation. The Circle customer ID becomes an external reference number for dedupe during re-import. Address records from Circle map to Dynamics 365 Customer Address table entries, with the primary flag set from Circle's default address designation.

Circle Company records map to Dynamics 365 Account records when the migration includes the Sales or CRM module. Domain from Circle becomes the Account Website field. Account is created before any related Contact import so that the Account ID (No.) lookup is satisfied at the moment of Contact insert. Multi-entity Dynamics 365 configurations may require an Account-to-Contact assignment scoped by Business Unit or legal entity.

Circle Orders map to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Header records with line items as Sales Line records. Circle's order status (pending, processing, shipped, delivered, cancelled) maps to the Dynamics 365 Document Status and Shipping Status fields. Circle's fulfillment channel (online, BOPIS, warehouse pickup, delivery) is preserved as a custom field so the customer's admin can configure warehouse selection rules in Dynamics 365 post-migration. Order totals, discounts, and tax amounts are computed from Circle's line-level data and written to the corresponding Dynamics 365 financial fields.

Circle Products map to Dynamics 365 Item records. The Circle product SKU (hs_sku equivalent) becomes the Item No. or an external item number field. Product variants in Circle (size, color) map to Dynamics 365 Item Variants if the variant model is enabled, or to separate Item records with variant codes if not. Pricing from Circle migrates to Item Price records in the relevant Price List. Bundle and kit relationships from Circle are captured as sales BOM or production BOM structures in Dynamics 365, with the customer approving the BOM mapping during scoping.

Circle's per-channel inventory quantities (online, BOPIS, warehouse, delivery) are stored as separate records in CircleHub. Dynamics 365 Business Central consolidates inventory at the warehouse level rather than per-channel. We aggregate Circle's channel-level quantities into a single warehouse-level quantity during migration, and preserve the channel attribution in a custom field inv_channel__c for the customer to configure allocation rules post-migration. If the customer requires Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management with location-level tracking, we map each Circle channel to a separate Warehouse Code and preserve the per-location quantity.

Circle Shipment records map to Dynamics 365 Posted Sales Shipment records. Carrier name, tracking number, and shipment status from Circle become shipment header fields and line-level tracking codes in Dynamics 365. Partial shipments from Circle (backorder split) are written as separate shipment records linked to the same sales order. If Circle tracks multiple packages per shipment, each package becomes a separate shipment line in Dynamics 365.

Circle Purchase Orders map to Dynamics 365 Purchase Header records with vendor line items as Purchase Lines. Circle allows free-text vendors (vendor name stored as text without a vendor record). We flag every free-text vendor during discovery and hold those Purchase Orders in a reconciliation queue until the customer creates the corresponding Vendor records in Dynamics 365. Once the vendor is resolved, the Purchase Order import proceeds. Vendor name, PO number, expected delivery date, and line items migrate once the vendor linkage is confirmed.

Circle's custom fields on any entity (Customer, Order, Product, Shipment) are part of the migration field map. Each custom field is introspected during discovery to determine its Circle data type (text, number, date, boolean, picklist), then mapped to the nearest Dynamics 365 field type. In Business Central, custom fields require an AL extension (published via the extension management page or deployment). We document each custom field mapping in the migration field map and advise whether the destination field should be a standard extension field, a custom field, or a related table entry. The customer approves the AL extension scope before we deploy.

Circle engagement notes and internal notes map to Dynamics 365 Record Link entries attached to the relevant entity (Customer, Order, Item). Plain-text notes from Circle become Record Link records with a link URL pointing to the content. If Circle stores structured notes (with author, timestamp, and category), we map them to the Dynamics 365 Comment field or a custom journal table. The note attachment type (internal vs. external) is preserved in a link type field. Notes from other Circle engagement types (call, email, meeting logged as notes) are treated separately under the Engagement mapping.

Circle Users (Owners) map to Dynamics 365 User records by email match. We extract every distinct Owner ID referenced on Order, Customer, and Shipment records and resolve against the destination Dynamics 365 User table. Owners without a matching User go to a reconciliation queue. The customer's Dynamics 365 admin provisions missing Users (active or inactive status matching the Circle source) before record import resumes. Role and permission mapping from Circle to Dynamics 365 Security Role assignments is documented separately as a configuration task.

Circle user roles (admin, order manager, warehouse user, viewer) map to Dynamics 365 Security Roles (SUPER, ORDER-USER, WAREHOUSE-TEAM, READONLY). We capture the Circle role-to-user assignments during discovery and produce a written role mapping document that the customer's Dynamics 365 admin applies in User Setup. Role-based record-level security (such as location or entity restrictions) requires separate configuration in Dynamics 365 and is documented as a post-migration admin task.

Circle's custom KPIs and report definitions have no documented export API. We capture report names, underlying field references, calculated metric logic, and layout during discovery and document them in a Report Rebuild Reference Sheet. Each Circle report is mapped to a Dynamics 365 reporting option: RDLC for transactional reports, Power BI for analytical KPIs. The customer or a Dynamics 365 functional consultant uses the reference sheet to rebuild reports in the new environment. This is explicitly out of scope for migration data delivery.

Circle engagement records (calls logged, email summaries, internal notes, meeting records) attach to the parent entity by reference. We map each engagement type to the closest Dynamics 365 Activity equivalent: tasks for to-do items, record links for attached content, and journal lines for financial annotation. Timestamp, owner, and content from Circle are preserved. For email summaries stored as plain-text in Circle, we create a Record Link pointing to the Dynamics 365 Customer or Order record with the email body as linked content.

Circle Purchase Orders with free-text vendor names (no vendor record) require Vendor record creation in Dynamics 365 before PO import. We extract all distinct free-text vendor names, deduplicate, and present the list to the customer's admin with a vendor creation template. Vendors with an existing Circle contact record (email, phone, address) are pre-populated. Vendors without any source data are flagged as incomplete. PO import resumes once Vendor records are created and validated.