What NAV 2016 users need to know before the April 14 deadline
Organizations still running Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 have less than three weeks to take stock of their situation. According to Microsoft’s official product lifecycle documentation, NAV 2016 exits extended support on April 14, 2026 — the date on which Microsoft will permanently cease all security updates, patches, and technical support for the product.
After April 14, NAV 2016 joins a growing list of Dynamics legacy products that have crossed into fully unsupported territory, with no further remediation available from Microsoft regardless of the severity of a vulnerability or compliance issue.
Understanding what end of extended support means
Dynamics NAV follows Microsoft’s Fixed Lifecycle Policy, which provides a total of ten years of support from a product’s general availability date — five years of mainstream support followed by five years of extended support. NAV 2016 launched in January 2016, with mainstream support ending in April 2021.
Since April 2021, NAV 2016 has been in extended support — meaning the product has continued to receive security-related patches only, with no new features, bug fixes, regulatory updates, or design changes from Microsoft. On April 14, even that limited lifeline ends.
What end of extended support means in practice: no further security patches will be issued by Microsoft for NAV 2016, no regulatory or tax updates will be released, no bug fixes or technical incident support will be provided, and any vulnerabilities discovered in NAV 2016 after April 14 will remain permanently unaddressed. Organizations that continue operating NAV 2016 beyond this date do so at their own risk, with no Microsoft backstop.
The full Dynamics NAV end-of-life timeline
NAV 2016 is not the last version of NAV to reach end of life — it is simply the next in a sequential phase-out that will extend through 2028. The extended support end dates across all remaining NAV versions are:
- NAV 2015 — January 14, 2025 (expired)
- NAV 2016 — April 14, 2026 (imminent)
- NAV 2017 — January 11, 2027
- NAV 2018 — January 11, 2028
All versions of Dynamics NAV have already exited mainstream support. NAV 2018 lost mainstream support in January 2023, meaning no version of NAV has received new features or regulatory updates for over three years. Extended support is the last remaining phase for all NAV versions, and it ends without a successor support tier within the NAV product line. The only supported forward path is migration to Dynamics 365 Business Central.
What running unsupported NAV 2016 exposes your organization to
Continuing to operate NAV 2016 beyond April 14 is not simply a technical inconvenience — it carries real business, security, and compliance risk.
- Security vulnerability: An ERP system like NAV 2016 sits at the heart of financial operations, often holding vendor records, payroll data, customer accounts, and banking integrations. Without ongoing security patches, any vulnerability discovered in the underlying platform goes unaddressed. Threat actors increasingly target legacy ERP systems precisely because they are known to be unpatched and difficult to monitor.
- Regulatory and compliance exposure: Many industries — finance, healthcare, food production, and others — operate under data governance or financial compliance frameworks that require the use of supported, up-to-date software. Running an ERP system past its vendor-supported end date can create direct exposure in audits, certifications, or regulatory reviews. Tax and regulatory updates will also no longer be released for NAV 2016, meaning organizations may face increasing manual overhead to stay compliant with changing rules.
- Integration erosion: NAV 2016 was built to integrate with the technology stack of its era. As Microsoft 365, Azure, Power Platform, and third-party business systems continue to evolve, older API standards and authentication protocols used by NAV 2016 will increasingly fall out of compatibility. Integrations that work today may degrade or break over time without the ability to update NAV 2016 to keep pace.
- Partner support availability: Microsoft partners who support legacy NAV environments are progressively shifting their expertise and certifications toward Business Central. While third-party support for NAV 2016 may remain available from some partners for a period after the deadline, the pool of qualified resources will shrink and costs are likely to rise as demand concentrates among fewer specialists.
Options for organizations still on NAV 2016
Organizations running NAV 2016 have a choice between two general paths, depending on their urgency and the complexity of their environment.
Upgrade to a still-supported NAV version
For organizations not yet ready for a full migration to Business Central, upgrading to NAV 2017 or NAV 2018 extends the extended support window — to January 2027 and January 2028, respectively. This buys time but does not resolve the underlying trajectory: all NAV versions are on a fixed countdown to end of life, and NAV 2018 will be the last to cross that threshold in early 2028.
This approach may be worth considering for organizations with heavily customized NAV environments that need additional runway to plan a well-managed migration to Business Central, but it is not a permanent solution.
Migrate to Dynamics 365 Business Central
Microsoft’s recommended and only long-term path from Dynamics NAV is migration to Dynamics 365 Business Central. Business Central is the direct successor to NAV — it evolved from the same codebase, and many in the Dynamics community treat it as the current generation of the platform rather than a separate product.
For NAV customers, Business Central offers several practical advantages in the migration context:
- Many NAV customizations can be rebuilt using Business Central’s extensions model, reducing the need for bespoke development
- Cloud-deployed Business Central operates under the Modern Lifecycle Policy, which carries no fixed end date as long as the subscription remains active
- The platform ships two major release waves per year, with continuous AI and Copilot enhancements that NAV users can no longer access
For organizations still running NAV 2016, the migration window is manageable — but planning needs to start now. A typical NAV to Business Central migration can take anywhere from a few months to over a year, depending on customization depth and data complexity. The April 14 deadline does not prevent the system from continuing to run, but it removes the last layer of security protection while the organization is still in transition.
Next steps
April 14, 2026 is a firm and final date for Dynamics NAV 2016. After that point, Microsoft will not issue any further security updates, patches, or technical support for the product. Organizations still running NAV 2016 will not be forced off the system, but they will be fully on their own from a security and compliance standpoint, with no Microsoft safety net.
The immediate priority for any organization still on NAV 2016 should be a clear-eyed assessment of risk and a defined plan for moving forward — whether that means a near-term upgrade to NAV 2018 to extend the runway or beginning a Business Central migration in earnest. Either path is preferable to remaining on a fully unsupported system indefinitely.
An experienced Dynamics NAV/Business Central consulting partner can help assess your current environment and chart the most practical path forward based on your customizations, integrations, and business requirements.
