Dynamics GP’s SOP-to-POP link ties a sales order to the purchase order that fulfills it, and it has no direct equivalent in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Business Central tracks the same relationship through different fields entirely, so a standard data migration leaves linked orders as two disconnected documents unless someone maps the connection by hand.
Why GP's SOP-to-POP Link Doesn't Carry Over
GP builds the link two ways, and neither one lives in a single, portable field. From the sales side, a user completes a sales order in Sales Transaction Entry, then uses Actions > Purchase to generate a matching purchase order. GP marks the connected lines with a chain-link icon so anyone looking at either document can see the pair. From the purchase side, the same link gets built by enabling Allow Sales Documents Commitments on a purchase order, then attaching an eligible sales order line through the Sales Commitments for Purchase Order window.
Either way, GP validates the match behind the scenes. It checks item number (or vendor item number), unit of measure, and site ID as a baseline, and a drop-ship purchase order adds its own checks on customer ID and ship-to address, as Microsoft’s requirements for linking GP orders lay out. None of that lives in a field a standard export can simply carry across. It’s a live commitment tracked jointly across two documents, which is exactly the kind of relationship a table-by-table migration tends to lose.
How Business Central Represents the Same Relationship
Business Central splits the same idea into two related features, special orders and drop shipments, and represents each with its own fields on the Sales Line and Purchase Line tables rather than a single link object.
A special order starts with a Purchasing Code on the sales line that has the Special Order option set. Running the sales order through the Requisition Worksheet’s Get Sales Orders action, then carrying out the resulting action message, creates a purchase order. That step populates Special Order Purchase No. and Special Order Purch. Line No. on the Sales Line, with the mirror fields, Special Order Sales No. and Special Order Sales Line No., populated on the Purchase Line.
A drop shipment works differently. The sales line carries a Drop Shipment flag instead, the purchase order’s Ship-to is set to the customer’s address, and the Get Sales Order action under Drop Shipments on the purchase order pulls in the sales line. Posting the sales shipment then automatically posts the linked purchase receipt, which is the mechanism that actually keeps the two documents in sync.
| Dynamics GP | Business Central | |
| What creates the link | Actions > Purchase from the sales order, or Allow Sales Documents Commitments on the purchase order | A Purchasing Code with Special Order or Drop Shipment set, on the sales line |
| Where the link lives | A commitment tracked jointly across both documents, shown with a chain-link icon | Special Order Purchase No. / Special Order Purch. Line No. on Sales Line; mirrored on Purchase Line |
| Matching keys | Item number, unit of measure, and site ID, plus customer ID and ship-to for drop-ship | Item, quantity, and the order and line numbers written directly into the link fields |
| Drop-ship handling | Requires a matching customer ID and ship-to address on the linked PO | A separate Drop Shipment flag with its own Purchase Order No. / Purch. Order Line No. fields |
That table is also why RapidStart configuration packages won’t close this gap on their own. RapidStart moves one table’s records at a time. It has no step for reaching back into an already-created sales order and writing a purchase order’s line number into it once both records already exist in Business Central, which is exactly what this migration needs.
Migrating the Link with Import Export PowerTool
Import Export PowerTool is a completely free app from Insight Works for Business Central. Because it can write to any table, including fields that have no page of their own, it can populate the special order and drop shipment fields directly, as a second pass after the sales and purchase orders themselves have already been imported.
The practical sequence looks like this:
- Export the still-open GP sales and purchase orders, keeping item number, unit of measure, and site ID alongside each line, since those are the same fields GP itself uses to validate the match.
- Import the sales and purchase orders into Business Central first, so each one has a real BC document number and line number to work with.
- Run a second Import Export PowerTool update against Sales Line and Purchase Line, writing the new Business Central order and line numbers into the correct pair of fields: the Special Order fields for a special order, or Drop Shipment and Purchase Order No. for a drop shipment.
- Set the Purchasing Code and the matching boolean, Special Order or Drop Shipment, on each sales line so Business Central’s planning and posting logic treats the pair as linked, not just as two orders that happen to share a number somewhere in a text field.
Test the update pass in a sandbox first. It writes directly to document lines outside the normal user interface, on a table where field types matter: Special Order Purchase No. and Special Order Sales No. are both Code[20], and the paired line numbers are integers. A mismatched type or a line number that points at the wrong order leaves a sales order that looks linked but doesn’t behave like one.
For more on the general approach, see our guide to faster Business Central data migration.
FAQ
Does Business Central have one feature that matches GP’s SOP-to-POP link?
No. It’s split across two related features, special orders and drop shipments, each with its own fields on the Sales Line and Purchase Line tables.
Will RapidStart configuration packages carry the link over on their own?
No. RapidStart moves whole records table by table. It has no step for writing one order’s line data into a different order’s field after both already exist in Business Central.
Does this only apply to open orders?
Yes. A closed or fully invoiced order has no reason to carry the link forward, so this only matters for GP sales and purchase orders still open at cutover.
Do special orders and drop shipments need different field mappings?
Yes. A special order uses the Special Order boolean with Special Order Purchase No. and Special Order Sales No. A drop shipment uses the Drop Shipment boolean with Purchase Order No. and Sales Order No. instead. Confirm which kind of order you’re looking at in GP before mapping it to Business Central’s fields.