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                                 EXHIBIT 99.1


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

     Great Plains Software, Inc. (the "Company"), or persons acting on behalf
of the Company, or outside reviewers retained by the Company making
statements on behalf of the Company, or underwriters, from time to time make,
in writing or orally, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended). When used in conjunction with an
identified forward-looking statement, this Cautionary Statement is for the
purpose of qualifying for the "safe harbor" provisions of such sections and
is intended to be a readily available written document that contains factors
which could cause results to differ materially from such forward-looking
statements. These factors are in addition to any other cautionary statements,
written or oral, which may be made or referred to in connection with any such
forward-looking statement.

     The following matters, among others, may have a material adverse effect
on the business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations or
prospects, financial or otherwise, of the Company. Reference to this
Cautionary Statement in the context of a forward-looking statement or
statements shall be deemed to be a statement that any or more of the
following factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those in
such forward-looking statement or statements:

WE MAY BE UNABLE TO MARKET AND SELL OUR PRODUCTS IF WE ARE UNABLE TO MAINTAIN
A STRONG PARTNER NETWORK

         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.

DEMAND FOR OUR PRODUCTS MAY DECREASE IF WE ARE UNABLE TO ANTICIPATE AND ADAPT
TO RAPIDLY CHANGING TECHNOLOGY

         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.

DEMAND FOR OUR PRODUCTS MAY DECREASE IF MIDMARKET BUSINESSES FAIL TO ADOPT
MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGIES OR OUR PRODUCTS BECOME INCOMPATIBLE WITH NEW DEVELOPMENTS
IN THESE TECHNOLOGIES

         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 these 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

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requires that our products and technologies continue to be compatible with
new developments in Microsoft's technologies.

OUR MANAGEMENT AND INTERNAL SYSTEMS MAY BE INADEQUATE TO HANDLE POTENTIAL
GROWTH OF OUR SALES AND WORKFORCE

         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 complementary to ours, or that
allow us to enter into new markets. Such acquisitions would place additional
demands upon our management.

DEMAND FOR OUR PRODUCTS MAY DECREASE IF WE ARE UNABLE TO COMPETE SUCCESSFULLY
IN THE MIDMARKET BUSINESS SOFTWARE MARKET

         The market for business management solutions is highly competitive.
We expect this competition to intensify, particularly in the Midmarket. Many
of our competitors have greater financial, marketing and technical resources
than we do. We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully
against these companies.

SOFTWARE THAT WE LICENSE FROM OTHER COMPANIES FOR RESALE MAY BECOME UNAVAILABLE
OR OUTDATED

         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.

WE MAY BE UNABLE TO IDENTIFY OR COMPLETE SUITABLE ACQUISITIONS AND INVESTMENTS,
AND ANY ACQUISITIONS AND INVESTMENTS WE DO COMPLETE MAY CREATE BUSINESS
DIFFICULTIES OR DILUTE OUR SHAREHOLDERS

         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 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.

OUR EARNINGS MAY BE AFFECTED BY POTENTIAL CHANGES IN ACCOUNTING PROFESSION
PRACTICES

         Recently, the SEC has been critical of the U.S. accounting practice
of writing off in-process research and development costs incurred in
connection with acquisitions. We are aware that the SEC and the U.S.
accounting profession are in dialog regarding retroactive application of
recent SEC guidelines on this subject. We cannot predict the outcome of that
dialog. However, if the new SEC guidelines were applied, it could cause a
reduction of in-process research and development write-offs taken in
connection with two acquisitions in fiscal 1998, and a

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corresponding increase in the amount of goodwill associated with each
acquisition, which would produce increased amortization expense against
income in future periods.

ANTICIPATED FLUCTUATIONS IN OUR QUARTERLY REVENUE AND OPERATING RESULTS MAY
RESULT IN REDUCED PROFITABILITY AND LEAD TO REDUCED PRICES FOR OUR STOCK

         Our quarterly revenue and operating results have varied in the past
and can be expected to vary in the future. As a result, we cannot assure you
that we will be able to maintain profitability on an annual or quarterly
basis. It is possible that in some future quarters our operating results will
fall below our expectations or those of market analysts and investors. In
that event, the price of our common stock would likely decrease.

         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. In addition, our business has experienced and may
continue to experience seasonality. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis
of Financial Condition and Results of Operations -- Selected Quarterly
Operating Results." In Item 7 of our Form 10-K for the year ended May 31,
1999.

THE EXPECTED CONTINUING DECLINE IN SALES OF OUR DOS- AND MACINTOSH-BASED PRODUCT
COULD NEGATIVELY AFFECT OUR BUSINESS

         We have shifted our product focus from a DOS- and Macintosh-based
product, Great Plains Accounting, to our Dynamics C/S+ and Dynamics products
which are based on Windows NT and Microsoft SQL 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." In Item 7 of our Form 10-K
for the year ended May 31, 1999.

WE MAY FACE INCREASED COMPETITION AND DOWNWARD PRICE PRESSURE IF WE ARE UNABLE
TO PROTECT OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

         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 make
source code available to certain of our Partners and customers. This
availability may increase the likelihood of misappropriation or other misuse
of our intellectual property.

         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 non-negotiable license agreements
found printed on the software packaging 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.

WE MAY FACE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT CLAIMS WHICH WOULD BE COSTLY TO
RESOLVE

         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 infringement 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 infringement claim assertions will not require us to enter into
royalty arrangements that could be costly.

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DIFFICULTIES PRESENTED BY INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, LEGAL, ACCOUNTING
AND BUSINESS FACTORS COULD NEGATIVELY AFFECT OUR BUSINESS IN INTERNATIONAL
MARKETS

         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. Our international business is 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
-    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.

OUR PRODUCTS, SYSTEMS AND SALES MAY BE SUBJECT TO YEAR 2000 PROBLEMS

         Our current products are Year 2000 compliant. Nevertheless, our
business could be adversely affected by Year 2000 problems. For example,
Midmarket businesses may lack sufficient resources 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 that 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." In Item 7 of our Form 10-K for the year ended May 31, 1999.

OUR STOCK PRICE IS VOLATILE

         The trading prices of the Company's Common Stock could be subject to
wide fluctuations in response to quarter-to-quarter variations in the
Company's operating results, developments or disputes concerning intellectual
property rights, technological innovations or new products, governmental
regulatory action, general conditions in the accounting and financial
management software industry, increased price competition, changes in
earnings estimates by analysts or other events or factors, many of which are
beyond the Company's control. In addition, the stock market has experienced
extreme price and volume fluctuations, which have particularly affected the
market prices of many computer software companies and which have often been
unrelated to the operating performance of such companies.