Year-End Advice from Three Wise Men
Accounting year-end can be a lengthy process but it doesn't have to be a complicated process with Business Central. Preparation and procedures. Preparation and procedures. Preparation and procedures. Say it with me! Preparation and procedures. If you follow these two little words of advice not only will year-end be simpler it'll be quicker too. Here are some tips from three wise men to help your year-end close in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Wise Man 1: You must have clearly defined month-end and year-end procedures.
Wise Man 2: Run your pre-close year-end reports
Bank Account - Detail Trial Balance (Make sure this is reconciled, etc.)
Customer - Trial Balance
Customer - Detail Trial Balance
Vendor - Trial Balance
Vendor - Detail Trial Balance
Closing Trial Balance (Compare this year to the previous year)
Detail Trial Balance
Trial Balance
Consolidated Trial Balance
Wise Man 3: Run your post-close year-end reports
Trial Balance
Aged Accounts Payable
Trial Balance/Budget
Trial Balance by Period
Account Schedule (Typically, if you're using these in Business Central it's probably already a part of your month-end procedure)
Reconcile Customer and Vendor Accounts (This is something auditors will normally want to check if you get audited)
All Three Wise Men Are In Agreement On:
Do not think you are losing your mind when on the Accounting Periods page in Business Central you cannot click to close an individual period. This is how the system is designed.
At the end of December go into the General Ledger setup and open January for posting but setup certain finance users to be able to back post in December for month-end adjusting entries.
The best practice is to close the year-end when you are suppose to and then isolate adjusting entries down the road. Once again, if you get audited this is better for the auditors.
When it comes to running the Close Income Statement Job, yes you can post to previous fiscal years after you do this. As long as you have the proper access it should not be a problem. Don't forget that once you make your entries you have to run the Close Income Statement Job again.
Don't forget that the G/L entry that gets produced from this job you have to manually post this transaction. It will not post itself to the G/L.
