Year End Closing Task List in Business Central

Congratulations may be in order if you are one of the many companies that implemented Business Central sometime in the past year!  So now it is nearing the end of your first year in your new system and you are wondering what your new year end tasks will be and where do you find that list?!?!

First, there is no list! One of the reasons is that this list will vary from company to company depending on what functionality your company has utilized over the past year and may even include custom processes developed specifically for your company.

We won’t detail out the typical monthly closing task list here, but we provide you with some once-a-year tasks to help you get going on your own year-end task list.

We leave you to critique as necessary to create a unique year-end task list created specifically for your company.  Add or subtract tasks from the list as needed.

General Ledger

• Close the Posting Date Range in the General Ledger Setup for the previous year, when ready, just as you do for the month end. The year end close is no different and is controlled with this date range just like the month end.
• Create new Accounting Periods.
• Post annual recurring Journal Entries such as a reserve for bad debt account, etc.
• Review allocation values and re-calculate if needed.
• Review the Fixed Asset list for any write offs or disposals missed during the year.
• Review the Users list for any licenses assigned to someone that no longer needs it.
• Review Change Log settings to see if you want to make any changes. Perform maintenance to keep the Change Log Entries manageable.
• If used, update Budgets for the upcoming new year.

Sales

• New price updates for any Customers for the upcoming year? They can be set up now with a future effective date, if they don’t apply until later.
• This is also a good time to review Sales trends for the past year to prepare for the new year.
• Review for resale certificate expiration dates for resale customers that have submitted them previously.
• Review Accounts Receivable report detail for any payments not applied and apply them.
• Post Receivable write-offs if necessary.
• Correct any reconciliation issues with your Receivable account and the detailed report.

Payables

Manufacturing

• Review and certify Bill of Material changes.
• Adjust Item Overhead Rate and Scrap % as needed.
• Update Work Centers
• Costs
• Efficiencies
• Shop Calendars/Work Shifts
• Calculate Work Center load for the upcoming year.
• Review and certify Routing changes.
• Review and plan for Standard Cost changes of purchased materials.
• Review and plan for the Standard Cost roll-up of produced materials.
• See our blogpost on updating standard costs and also visit our products page to download our FREE Standard Cost History app for Business Central.

Inventory

• Run the Adjust Cost-Item Entries routine even if you have ‘Automatic’ selected in the Inventory Setup for this option.  If many entries are created, you may want to move this to a month end task.
• Create Inventory Periods (if your company uses them).
• Review Cycle Count setups for any updates or adjustments.
• Resolve any General Ledger and inventory reconciliation issues.

Services & Resources

• Review and plan for Service Contract renewals if necessary.
• Update Resource cost and prices if needed.
• Review and update Service routes if used.

NOTE: The year can be closed and re-opened multiple times in Business Central.  Do not leave the Posting Date Range open in the General Ledger Setup in anticipation of audit entries in the future that need to post to the prior year.  The closing entries can be generated as many times as needed so don’t hold up the posting date restrictions for it.

We hope this list gives you a jump-start on creating a specific year-end task list for your company and your particular needs.

Reach out to us at Info@ternpoint.solutions if you have any questions.