Month-end close in Business Central
A practical month-end close checklist for Business Central — reconciliations, accruals, depreciation, inventory cost adjustment, and locking the period.
A clean month-end close in Business Central is mostly process discipline supported by a handful of routines. The system isn't trying to be clever — it gives finance the order to run things in.
Cut-off and accruals. Set the Posting Date limits in the General Ledger Setup so that no one back-dates into the closed period. Post recurring accruals (rent, utilities, payroll, deferred revenue) from the Recurring General Journal, which can be templated and reused each period.
AP and AR reconciliation. Reconcile Detailed Vendor Ledger Entries and Detailed Customer Ledger Entries totals to the GL control account balances. Differences usually trace to direct postings to AP/AR control accounts (which the system blocks by default, but can be allowed); investigate and correct via the Reconcile Customer/Vendor Accounts report.
Bank reconciliation. Reconcile every active bank account to its bank statement balance. Post fees, interest, and direct debits from the reconciliation page. Carry forward any in-transit items.
FX revaluation. Run Adjust Exchange Rates for foreign currency customer, vendor, and bank balances. This produces unrealized gain/loss entries reflecting period-end rates.
Inventory cost adjustment. Run Adjust Cost — Item Entries for all items. This flushes landed cost from inbound transactions into outbound cost of goods sold, and corrects any mid-period cost reversals. Then run Post Inventory Cost to G/L to propagate the cost into the GL. Inventory in the GL should match the Inventory Valuation report to the penny.
Fixed asset depreciation. Run Calculate Depreciation for the period; review and post the resulting FA journal.
Sub-ledger reconciliations. Inventory, fixed assets, jobs (WIP), VAT — each has a control account in the GL that should match the underlying sub-ledger totals. The relevant reconciliation reports are Inventory G/L Reconciliation, FA G/L Reconciliation, and Job WIP G/L Reconciliation.
VAT settlement. Run Calc. and Post VAT Settlement to close the VAT entries into a payable/receivable balance, then post the payment to the tax authority.
Lock the period. Move the Allow Posting From date forward so the closed period is read-only. Some companies also set per-user posting date ranges.
Year-end. At year-end, run Close Income Statement to roll P&L to retained earnings, then process the Closing Date posting and lock the year.
Related guides
- Account schedules and financial reports in Business CentralHow Business Central's account schedules and the newer Financial Reports feature work — and how to build P&L and balance sheet reports without leaving BC.
- Aging reports in Business CentralHow Business Central's aging reports work — AR aging, AP aging, date-driven buckets, customisation, and the operational use in collections and cash management.
- Approval workflows in Business CentralHow approval workflows work in Business Central — built-in templates, custom workflow design, Power Automate alternatives, and approval limits.
- Bank deposits and cash management in Business CentralHow Business Central handles physical bank deposits, cash receipts, and the day-to-day cash management beyond bank reconciliation.
- Bank reconciliation in Business CentralHow bank reconciliation works in Business Central — bank feeds, statement imports, AI-assisted matching, and month-end reconciliation.