Get Ready for Year-End: A Business Central Checklist for Finance Teams

6 days ago

4 min read

As the financial year comes to a close, finance teams often have several reconciliations,

adjustments, and reporting activities to complete. Starting the preparation ahead of time gives

the team more opportunity to review outstanding items and resolve issues before completing the

year-end process.

For organizations using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, year-end preparation is also

a good opportunity to review whether financial processes, setup, and reporting are ready for the

close. Here are some areas finance teams can start reviewing before year-end arrives.

Your Year-End Business Central Checklist:

1. Review your general ledger

Begin with a review of your general ledger to confirm that transactions have been recorded

correctly and that account balances are reasonable.

Check for unusual balances, entries that still need attention, dimension errors, and transactions

that may require adjustment or reclassification.

Reconcile key balance sheet accounts and make sure supporting schedules agree with the

balances recorded in Business Central.

2. Review Accounts Receivable

Take a closer look at customer accounts to identify unpaid invoices and other open transactions that should be addressed before year-end.

As part of the review, check for items such as:

Unapplied customer payments.
Outstanding credit memos.
Old receivables.
Customer balances requiring investigation.
Potential write-offs or adjustments.

Cleaning these items before year-end can make reconciliation and reporting easier.

3. Review accounts payable

Review vendor balances and make sure invoices relating to the current financial year have been

recorded appropriately. Check for outstanding vendor invoices, unapplied payments, credit memos, and transactions that may require accruals.

4. Complete bank reconciliations

Bank accounts should be reconciled regularly throughout the year, but year-end is a particularly

important checkpoint. Make sure Business Central balances agree with bank statements and investigate outstanding deposits, payments, or other reconciling items.

5. Review fixed assets

If your organization uses Fixed Assets in Business Central, review your asset records before

completing year-end activities. Confirm that acquisitions and disposals have been recorded correctly and that depreciation has been calculated and posted as required. Also, review whether any assets need to be written off, reclassified, or adjusted.

6. Review inventory

For organizations managing inventory, year-end may require additional preparation. Review inventory quantities and valuation, investigate negative inventory, and complete necessary

adjustments, and make sure costing processes are up to date.

Physical inventory counts may also need to be planned depending on your organization's year-end procedures.

7. Reconcile taxes

Review the appropriate tax accounts and confirm that balances agree with supporting tax

reports and filings. Depending on your organization and jurisdiction, this may include GST/HST, VAT, sales tax, withholding tax, or other applicable taxes. Investigate differences before completing the year-end close.

8. Review foreign currency balances

Organizations working with multiple currencies should review their exchange rates and foreign

currency balances. Determine whether foreign currency adjustments need to be completed for customers, vendors, and bank accounts before finalizing financial statements.

9. Review financial reports

Run your key financial reports before completing the final close. Review the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Trial Balance, aged receivables, aged payables, and other reports your organization uses for financial review. Identifying reporting issues early provides more time to investigate them.

10. Review posting periods

Posting controls are an important part of the year-end process. Review the Allow Posting From and Allow Posting To dates in Business Central and determine when users should no longer be able to post transactions into the previous period. Remember that closing the fiscal year and controlling posting dates are separate activities in Business Central.

11. Close the Fiscal Year

Once the appropriate reconciliations, adjustments, and reviews have been completed, the fiscal

year can be closed in Business Central. Closing the fiscal year identifies the accounting periods as closed, but organizations should understand the impact of this process and complete their internal review before proceeding.

12. Complete the closing income statement process

After the fiscal year is closed, review the Close Income Statement process. This process transfers the year's income statement balances to the appropriate retained earnings account. Make sure the resulting entries are reviewed and posted according to your organization's accounting procedures.

Don't wait until year-end to prepare

Year-end preparation does not have to start on the last day of the fiscal year. Starting earlier gives finance teams more time to reconcile accounts, investigate outstanding transactions, review financial reports, and resolve system or process questions before deadlines arrive. A well-prepared year-end can also provide an opportunity to identify processes that could be improved or automated for the next financial year.

Prepare for year-end with Systema Solutions.

Whether this is your first year-end using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central or you want to improve your existing process, Systema365 can help your team review your Business Central setup and prepare for the year-end close.

A Business Central Year-End Readiness Review can cover areas such as posting periods, general ledger, accounts receivable and payable, bank reconciliation, fixed assets, inventory, taxes, foreign currency, financial reporting, and year-end closing procedures.

Talk to us to prepare your Business Central environment and finance team for a smoother year-end.