Month-end close is one of those processes that quietly grows over time—a manual check added here, an extra spreadsheet reconciliation there—until what should take two days ends up taking five. If your close has taken longer than it used to, the solution is rarely “work faster.” It’s usually about removing the manual steps that Business Central was designed to handle for you.
Waiting until the end of the month to reconcile bank accounts, VAT, or intercompany balances is a surefire way to let things pile up. Business Central's bank reconciliation and recurring journal templates are designed for a weekly workflow—use them weekly, and month-end becomes a final check rather than a full reconciliation process.
Rent, depreciation, accruals, allocations—if an entry repeats every month with the same structure, it belongs in a recurring journal entry, not retyped from a spreadsheet. Set it up once with the correct allocation keys and formulas, and it posts automatically each period with minimal review required.
If your closing checklist is currently stored in Excel or a shared document, separate from the system itself, you’re adding a manual synchronization step that nobody asked for. Consider creating the checklist as a job queue or a simple task list linked to actual BC data—so that “Has the bank account been reconciled?” is a real-time check, not a box someone checks from memory.
A quick filter on the General Ledger Entries list for the current period—sorted by amount—reveals obvious errors (duplicate entries, incorrect accounts, missing dimensions) before they are locked into a closed period. Two minutes spent here saves you from having to make an adjusting entry later.
It's a small thing, but locking the accounting period immediately after closing prevents accidental backdated entries from quietly altering figures you've already reported. Make this the very last step on your checklist, every time.
If your closing process is still taking longer than it should despite getting the basics right, it’s often a sign that the chart of accounts, dimensions, or approval workflow need to be reviewed rather than the checklist itself. [LINK: Talk to us] if you’d like a second pair of eyes on your closing process.
