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                                                                    Exhibit 99.1

                             GREAT PLAINS SOFTWARE, INC.
                            Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q
                                  November 30, 1998


CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS FOR PURPOSES OF THE "SAFE HARBOR" PROVISIONS OF THE
PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides public 
companies with a "safe harbor" from liability for forward-looking statements 
if those statements are accompanied by meaningful cautionary statements 
identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ 
materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.  The 
Company hereby identifies the following important factors which could cause 
the Company's actual results to differ materially from those contained in any 
forward-looking statement made by the Company from time to time in any 
report, proxy statement, registration statement or other written 
communication or in oral forward-looking statements made from time to time by 
the Company's offices or agents.

RELIANCE ON PARTNER DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL
 
    We do not maintain a direct sales force; rather, we rely exclusively on our
Partner network to sell our solutions. We cannot assure you that our Partners
will aggressively market our products and services or will maintain their
relationship with us. Our failure to maintain these relationships and to develop
new Partner relationships in the future could have a material adverse effect on
our business.
 
    Our ability to achieve significant future revenue growth will depend in
large part on adding new Partners, leveraging our relationships with existing
Partners and our Partners' ability to implement their growth plans. We cannot
assure you that either we or our Partners will be able to achieve these goals.
Our inability or our Partners' inability to do so could have a material adverse
effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
 
RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
 
    Our markets are characterized by rapidly changing technologies, evolving
industry standards, frequent new product and service introductions, and changing
customer and Partner demands. Our future success will depend on our ability to
adapt to these rapidly changing technologies, to enhance our existing solutions,
and to introduce new solutions to address our customers' and Partners' changing
demands. We may experience difficulties that could delay or prevent the
successful design, development, introduction or marketing of new solutions. In
addition, these new solutions and enhancements must meet the requirements of our
current and prospective customers and must achieve significant market
acceptance.
 
RELIANCE ON MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY
 
    Our software products are designed for Microsoft technologies, including
Windows NT and SQL Server. In addition, our products utilize other Microsoft
technologies, including Visual Basic for Applications and Site Server. Although
we believe that Microsoft technologies will continue to be widely utilized by
Midmarket businesses, we cannot assure you that Midmarket businesses will adopt
such technologies as anticipated or will not in the future migrate to other
computing platforms or technologies that we do not currently support. Moreover,
our strategy requires that our products and technologies continue to be
compatible with new developments in Microsoft's technologies.
 
THE NEED TO MANAGE GROWTH
 
    Our growth has resulted in increased responsibilities placed upon our
management and has placed added pressures on our internal systems. Continued
growth will require us to implement additional systems and controls and to
expand, train and manage a larger workforce. We cannot assure you that the
systems and management skills currently in place will be adequate if we continue
to grow. In addition, from time to time we may acquire businesses, products,
services and technologies that are
 

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complementary to ours, or that allow us to enter into new markets. Such
acquisitions would place additional demands upon our management. See "Business
-- Employees" and "Management -- Executive Officers and Directors."
 
COMPETITION
 
    The market for business management solution software is highly competitive.
We expect this competition to intensify, particularly in the Midmarket.
 
    In the United States, Dynamics C/S+ (our product for larger Midmarket
businesses) competes with products from Platinum Software and other companies,
and Dynamics (our product for smaller Midmarket businesses) competes with
products from Solomon Software, Sage (State of the Art), Macola and other
companies. In Canada, we face competition in the Midmarket from these companies
and from others including Computer Associates International. Outside North
America, we face a number of competitors, several of which have significant
market share in their home markets. We also face competition from providers of
industry-specific applications as well as indirect competition from in-house,
customer-developed financial management applications.
 
    In the manufacturing market, we face a number of North American competitors,
including Symix, Fourth Shift, Platinum/Dataworks, QAD and J. D. Edwards.
Outside North America, we face these and other competitors, several of which
have extensive market share in their home markets.
 
    In the human resources/payroll market, we face competition in North America
from Best Software, Opus Software, Ultimate Software, Spectrum Software and from
outsourced service providers such as ADP, Ceridian, PayChex and Powerpay.
 
    In the field service and depot repair market, we face competition in North
America from Astea, Clarify and Vantive.
 
    In addition, SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan, Oracle and J.D. Edwards, which generally
focus on companies with revenue above our target market, have announced
Midmarket strategies. Competition from these businesses will likely intensify in
the future.
 
    Many of our competitors have greater financial, marketing and technical
resources than we do. We cannot assure you that we will continue to compete
successfully against these companies.
 
RELIANCE ON THIRD-PARTY SUPPLIERS
 
    Some of our products utilize software licensed to us by independent,
third-party software developers. For example, we rely on third parties for our
primary reporting tool, for our Integration Manager, and for our Service
Management Series. Although we believe that there are alternatives for most of
these products, any significant interruption in the supply of such third-party
software could have a material adverse impact on our sales unless and until we
can replace the functionality provided by key third-party products. In addition,
we depend on these third parties to enhance their current products, to develop
new products on a timely and cost-effective basis, and to respond to emerging
industry standards and rapid technological change. We cannot assure you that we
would be able to replace the functionality provided by third-party software if
that software becomes obsolete or incompatible with future versions of our
products, or otherwise is not adequately maintained or updated. Any failure of
key third-party solutions could have a material adverse effect on our business,
results of operations and financial condition.
 
RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH POTENTIAL ACQUISITIONS OR INVESTMENTS
 
    We may acquire or make investments in complementary businesses, products,
services or technologies. We cannot assure you that we will be able to identify
suitable acquisitions or investment
 

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candidates. Even if we identify suitable candidates, we cannot assure you that
we will be able to make such acquisitions or investments on commercially
acceptable terms. If we acquire a company, we may have difficulty assimilating
its personnel and operations into our operations. In addition, its key personnel
may decide not to work for us. We may also have difficulty in assimilating
acquired businesses, products, services and technologies into our operations.
These difficulties could disrupt our ongoing business, distract our management
and workforce, increase our expenses and adversely affect our results of
operations. Furthermore, we may incur significant debt or be required to issue
equity securities to pay for future acquisitions or investments. The issuance of
equity securities could be dilutive to our shareholders.
 
QUARTERLY OPERATING RESULTS ARE SUBJECT TO FLUCTUATION
 
    Our quarterly revenue and operating results have varied in the past and can
be expected to vary in the future. Most of our quarterly revenue results from
orders booked in that quarter. We establish expenditure levels based on our
expectation for future revenue. If revenue levels are below expectation,
expenses could be disproportionately high. As a result, a drop in near term
demand could significantly affect both revenue and profits in any quarter. In
the future, our operating results may fluctuate for this reason or as a result
of a number of other factors, including:
 
    - increased expenses
 
    - timing of product releases
 
    - increased competition
 
    - variations in the mix of sales
 
    - announcements of new products by us or by our competitors
 
    - capital spending patterns of our Partners and customers
 
As a result, we cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain profitability
on an annual or quarterly basis.
 
    Our business has experienced and may continue to experience seasonality.
Specifically, we have traditionally recognized a greater percentage of our
revenue and operating income in the fourth fiscal quarter than in any of the
first three fiscal quarters and historically, to a lesser extent, reduced
license revenue in the first fiscal quarter. Although we have taken significant
steps to reduce revenue fluctuations, we expect some seasonality to continue.
 
    We believe that period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations
are not necessarily meaningful and should not be relied upon as significant
indicators of future performance. It is possible that in some future quarters
our operating results will fall below our expectations or those of market
analysts and investors. In such event, the price of our Common Stock would
likely decrease.
 
DEPENDENCE ON KEY PERSONNEL
 
    Our future success depends to a significant extent on our executive officers
and certain technical, managerial, sales, service and marketing personnel. The
loss of the services of any of these individuals or group of individuals could
have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and
financial condition.
 
    Competition for qualified personnel in the software industry remains
intense. Our future success will depend in large part on our ability to attract
and retain qualified employees. We cannot assure you that we will be able to do
so.
 

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CONTINUING DECLINE IN SALES OF DOS- AND MACINTOSH-BASED PRODUCTS
 
    We have shifted our product focus from a DOS, Macintosh and local area
network (LAN) product, Great Plains Accounting, to our Dynamics C/S+ and
Dynamics products which are based on Windows NT and client/server technologies.
As a result of this shift and the decrease in general market demand for DOS- and
Macintosh-based solutions, our revenues from our Great Plains Accounting product
have declined and are expected to decline in the future. We cannot assure you
that the decline in revenues from sales of Great Plains Accounting will not have
a material adverse effect on the results of our operations and our financial
condition. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations."
 
DEPENDENCE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND RISK OF INFRINGEMENT
 
    We rely on a combination of trade secret, copyright and trademark laws,
nondisclosure agreements and other contractual provisions to protect our
intellectual property rights. We cannot assure you that these protections will
be adequate to prevent our competitors from copying or reverse-engineering our
products, or that our competitors will not independently develop technologies
that are substantially equivalent or superior to ours.
 
    We have no patents. Existing copyright and trademark laws afford only
limited protection for our intellectual property rights and will not protect
such rights if competitors independently develop similar products. While we
license the Dynamics C/S+ product under signed license agreements, Dynamics and
Great Plains Accounting are licensed under "shrink wrap" licenses not signed by
the licensees. These shrink wrap licenses may be unenforceable under the laws of
certain jurisdictions. In addition, the laws of certain countries where we sell
products do not protect our products and intellectual property rights to the
same extent as the laws of the United States.
 
    Although we have never been the subject of a material intellectual property
dispute, we cannot assure you that a third party will not assert that our
technology violates its intellectual property rights. As the number of software
products in our target markets increases and the functionality of these products
further overlap, we believe that all software developers may become increasingly
subject to infringement claims. Any such claims, whether with or without merit,
can be time consuming and expensive to defend. We cannot assure you that third
parties will not assert infringement claims against us in the future with
respect to our current or future products or that any such assertions will not
require us to enter into royalty arrangements that could be costly.
 
RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
 
    We have operations in a number of international markets. We intend to
continue to expand our international operations and our international sales and
marketing efforts.
 
    Currently, we operate subsidiaries in Canada, the United Kingdom,
Scandinavia, South Africa, Singapore and Australia. We also maintain exclusive
distribution agreements with international distribution Partners in Germany,
Poland, the Czech Republic, the Benelux Countries, Portugal, Latin America and
the Middle East. As a result of the royalty structure for our international
Partner network, our gross margin on international sales through our
international distribution Partners is generally lower than our gross margin on
sales in the United States.
 
    Our international business remains subject to many risks, including:
 
    - local economic and market conditions
 
    - political and economic instability
 
    - difficulties in enforcing intellectual property and contract rights
 
    - difficulties in tailoring our products to fit local accounting principles,
      rules, regulations, language, tax codes and customs
 

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    - fluctuations in currency exchange rates
 
    - difficulties and costs of staffing and managing foreign operations
 
    - the need for compliance with a wide variety of foreign and United States
      export regulations
 
These risks may materially and adversely affect our business, results of
operations or financial condition.
 
YEAR 2000 RISKS
 
    Many currently installed computer systems and software are coded to accept
only two-digit entries in the date code fields. These date code fields will need
to accept four-digit entries to distinguish 21st century dates from 20th century
dates. As a result, computer systems and software used by many businesses and
government agencies will need to be upgraded or replaced in order to comply with
Year 2000 requirements or risk system failure or miscalculations causing
disruptions of normal business activities.
 
    Our current products are Year 2000 compliant. Even though our current
products are Year 2000 compliant, we cannot assure you that Midmarket businesses
will have sufficient resources available to acquire new systems such as ours
because they may be diverting resources to assess and fix internal systems that
may not be Year 2000 compliant.
 
    We have reviewed our own information technology and other technology systems
to assess and remediate any Year 2000 problems. While the amount of remediation
work required to address Year 2000 problems is not expected to be extensive and
while we have received assurances from our major suppliers that they are
addressing the Year 2000 issue, we cannot assure you our internal systems will
function properly in the Year 2000. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of
Financial Condition and Results of Operations -- Year 2000."
 
VOLATILITY OF STOCK PRICE
 
    The market price of our Common Stock has fluctuated in the past and is
likely to continue to be volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuation. The
stock market in general has experienced price and volume fluctuations and this
has been especially true of the technology sector. Investors may be unable to
sell their shares of our Common Stock at or above the offering price. In the
past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their
stock have been the object of securities class action litigation. If we were
sued, we could incur substantial costs and our management's attention and
resources could be diverted. See "Price Range of Common Stock."
 
SUBSTANTIAL INFLUENCE BY OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS
 
    We anticipate that the executive officers, directors and entities affiliated
with them will, in the aggregate, beneficially own approximately 33% of our
outstanding Common Stock following the completion of this offering. These
shareholders may be able to exercise substantial influence over all matters
requiring shareholder approval, including the election of directors and approval
of significant corporate transactions. This concentration of ownership may also
have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of Great Plains.
See "Management" and "Principal and Selling Shareholders."
 
BROAD DISCRETION IN USE OF PROCEEDS
 
    Our management can spend or invest the proceeds from this offering in ways
with which the shareholders may not agree. See "Use of Proceeds."
 
ANTI-TAKEOVER PROVISIONS
 
    Provisions of our articles of incorporation, amended by-laws and Minnesota
law could make it more difficult for a third-party to acquire us, even if doing
so would be beneficial to our shareholders.