The Community Says Goodbye to the Heart of Dynamics GP
In celebration of Terry Heley — Retired from Microsoft, July 1, 2026
On July 1, 2026, Terry Heley retired from Microsoft. The Dynamics GP community will go on — but it will not feel the same, and everyone in it knows it.
Some people hold a community together with code. Some hold it together with knowledge. Terry held it together with something rarer and harder to replace: love. For more than a quarter of a century, she has been the warmth at the center of the Dynamics GP world, and as she steps away, the people who have walked alongside her are reaching for words that feel too small for what she has meant.
So let’s start with the simplest true one: she will be missed beyond words.
Fargo Roots, Before It Was Even “Microsoft”
Terry’s story doesn’t start with Microsoft. It starts in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1999 — back when Great Plains Software was still a homegrown North Dakota company under Doug Burgum, years before Microsoft acquired it. As Terry tells it, the support team was bulking up “like squirrels hoarding nuts for winter,” and she was one of those “shiny, limited-edition year-end hires” brought on for her specialty: payroll magic.
That origin says everything about her. She didn’t arrive as a polished corporate spokesperson. She came up through the trenches of support, in the hardest season of the year, solving the problems that hit people right when payroll absolutely had to run. She has been doing that, with the same heart, ever since.
She’s Sat in Every Single Seat
Here’s what makes Terry’s customer- and partner-first instincts so authentic: she has genuinely been the customer, been the partner, and been the support engineer all at once.
She’s been the customer. Her parents owned a bank that chose Dynamics GP for its financials and payroll — so in her “spare time” (because, as she jokes, who needs hobbies?), Terry became their unofficial GP guru. She set up the system, ran payroll, trained the new hire, and was effectively the IT department, HR, and trainer rolled into one — “all for the price of family dinner.”
She’s been the partner — unofficially, for decades. She never wore the official Dynamics GP Partner badge, but as she puts it, for 24 years she was their “unofficial sidekick,” fighting bugs in the trenches, surviving upgrades “like a tech commando,” and yes, even catching some sleep on a server room floor. From running payroll setups for a national baseball team to late-night troubleshooting marathons, she earned honorary partner status many times over “minus the fancy title and the swag.”
Because she has lived every role, Terry never talked down to anyone. She talked with them as someone who knew exactly what it felt like to be on the other end of a broken process at the worst possible moment.
The Voice That Made a Whole Community Feel Seen
If you’ve spent any time in Dynamics GP, you know her voice. Her blog posts didn’t open like corporate announcements — they opened with “Hello my favorite Dynamics GP users!” And the remarkable thing is, every single person reading believed it. Because she meant it.
For years she authored the blog series the whole community plans its calendar around — the year-end series, the upgrade series, the new-feature series for each release. She published the year-end schedule early, on purpose, so customers and partners had enough runway to install before the deadline. She framed new features as things “requested by YOU, the user,” and explained her motivation in the plainest possible terms: “I love making your life easier.”
Ask her to name her favorite parts of the product, and the answer is pure Terry: Payroll, SmartList, and VAT Making Tax Digital — the unglamorous, mission-critical things that keep real businesses running. Ask her for one word to describe GP, and she’ll give you a single, fitting answer: Robust.
Standing Up for GP — and for Us
Maybe her most important act of love wasn’t a feature or a fix at all. It was standing up for the community when it was scared.
For years, GP customers and partners lived under recurring rumors that the product was dead or dying — much of it noise from people with something to sell. Terry pushed back, not with spin but with facts. She did the unglamorous work of getting the lifecycle and roadmap information updated and published, giving the community something solid to stand on. Her message was direct and unmistakable: GP isn’t going anywhere, and Microsoft is committed to you. Partners cited her. Bloggers quoted her. Customers exhaled because of her.
In Her Own Words
When Terry reflects on what the Dynamics community has meant to her, she doesn’t talk about software at all:
“Being part of Dynamics Communities transformed my professional and personal life by fostering lifelong friendships, building trust through honest collaboration, and creating lasting relationships rooted in solving challenges together — things no technology could ever replicate.“
That’s the whole secret, right there. For Terry it was never really about the ERP. It was about the people. And that’s exactly why the people love her back.
What the Community Is Saying
The stories tell the same story over and over, in a hundred different ways: she was generous, she was real, she was funny, she made me feel like I mattered — and I don’t know what we do without her.
“Though I have worked in and around the Microsoft ecosystem for most of my career, six years ago I got immersed into the Dynamics world when I started working at Dynamic Communities. Within the first 6–12 months, I got exposed to the people, product, and passion behind Dynamics GP — and no one represented that more holistically than Terry. She really helped me understand the GP community because she LIVED it; she did not just talk about it. THANK YOU, Terry, for accepting me and guiding me, directly and indirectly, over these last 6 years — you are a true gem. I wish you the absolute best!”
— John Siefert, CEO, Dynamics Communities
“Terry Heley has been an incredible ambassador for Dynamics for more than 29 years. She has always approached her work with a deep commitment to doing what’s right for the product, our partners, and our customers. I am grateful for Terry’s dedication, passion, and lasting impact, and I know my appreciation is shared by so many across the GP community.”
— Mike Morton, Vice-President, Dynamics 365, Microsoft
“Terry came along during the Doug Burgum days of Great Plains Software, so it should be no surprise that she is a Caring and Courageous human who follows through on her Commitments. She has also been a cornerstone of the Dynamics GP community for years. And I have never doubted her intentions towards improving the lives of her customers and partners. All of which is why I know that whatever she does next, and wherever she does it, she will make the people around her better and kinder than they were before. And selfishly, I hope that I get to continue to be a beneficiary of her presence for many years to come.”
— Chris Dobkins, President / CEO, Njevity
“When I first heard of Terry Heley, she was a Microsoft guru who knew all things related to GP payroll — and then some. Over the years I’ve gotten to know Terry personally, and she’s a sweet, funny person who truly cares about GP and everyone related to the product. We’ve shared some time on various stages, rolled our eyes at a few things, and had some good laughs. I am very happy that I can call Terry a friend, and she will be very, very, very missed. Have fun on whatever you endeavor, Terry! And don’t ever grow up.”
— Windi Epperson, Customer Growth Manager, Integrity Data
“I’ll wish Terry the best on her retirement, and I hope she knows that I will be just one of many who will miss her endearing presence in our tightly-knit channel. Best wishes, Terry — and enjoy your well-deserved retirement!”
— Bob McAdam, Head of Strategic Partnerships, TaskJet
“Terry, as you retire from Great Plains and Microsoft, I want to thank you for the incredible mark you have made on Dynamics GP and its community. I first knew you as the Payroll Queen, and today we celebrate you as the Dynamics GP Goddess. You have always been willing to help, whether speaking at GPUG on a webinar or in front of 2,000 people. Your passion for customers, your persistence in finding answers, and your willingness to push for what was right helped keep GP moving forward. We all believe GP is stronger because of you. Terry, you are a friend and a rock star. Thank you for your leadership, your heart, and your lasting impact. Thank you!”
— Kim Peterson
The Person Behind the Legend
It’s fitting that the community honored Terry as a GPUG All-Star and a Community Summit Legend — but the titles only capture part of her. Away from the keyboard, she’s happiest outdoors: out on the water at the lake, lost in a good book, listening to music, exploring somewhere new, soaking up the simple joys of life with her kids.
That’s the person who showed up for all of us for nearly three decades — grounded, generous, quick to laugh, and endlessly devoted to the people around her.
A Legacy Measured in People
You can measure most careers in releases shipped or tickets closed. Terry Heley’s is better measured in people — the businesses that kept their doors open, the partners who finally had a real advocate inside Microsoft, the users who felt, through a blog post or a session or a fix delivered just in time, that someone on the other side genuinely cared.
She has said that while her career has taken her in new directions, GP “will always be near and dear to my heart.” The community feels precisely the same way about her — and that feeling doesn’t retire on July 1. It stays.
So as she steps into this next chapter, the Dynamics GP community sends her off the only way that fits a person who gave it so much: with overflowing gratitude, with deep love, and with the certainty that she has earned every bit of rest and joy ahead.
Thank you, Terry. For the expertise, yes. But mostly for the love. We will miss you beyond words.
