This article is part of the In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Financial), how do I… series and of the wider In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, how do I… series which I am posting as I familiarise myself with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
So, in the article I discussed how to stop people posting to a closed year, but I started thinking about why you would want to post to a closed year. After all, the year has been closed to prevent posting.
The main reasons I can think of are to allow adjustments and corrections to be posted. Adjustments might include correcting errors which have been found, audit adjustments or additional postings, or legal obligations which require changes to be made. However, all of those could be managed by stopping posting until the year is closed rather than closing and continuing to allow posting.
I’ve not found a good explanation for why Business Central works the way it does, so I’m still waiting to understand this one myself; I’ve previously worked with Microsoft Dynamics GP which, depending on settings, allowed users to post only to the last closed financial year and the changes were automatically rolled forward into the open year.
One point to note for Business Central, is that if users do post into a closed year then the Close Income Statement process, must be run again. If this isn’t done then the closed year postings, won’t be transferred to retained earnings.