Dynamics NAV Year End Closing

Updated: Aug 5, 2021

In this blog post we're going to show you how to complete a fiscal year close in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. This post will be expanding upon the Microsoft documentation listed on their website.

Step 1: Create Accounting Periods for Next Year

Navigate to Departments -> Financials Management -> Periodic Activities -> Fiscal Year -> Accounting Periods

If all periods begin on the same day of the month, the "Create Year" button on the ribbon can be used to create all periods for the next year. This method can currently be used for all companies. (Otherwise, manually create a row for each period's starting date in the next year)

Step 2: Close Accounting Periods for Current Year

Navigate to Departments -> Financials Management -> Periodic Activities -> Fiscal Year - Accounting Periods

Click the "Close Year" button on the ribbon.

This step is required in order to run the "Close Income Statement" process. Running this only sets the Accounting Period's "Closed" checkbox to "Yes". Even after running this process, users can still go back to create entries for these "closed" periods.

Step 3: Close Income Statement

Navigate to Departments -> Financials Management -> Periodic Activities -> Fiscal Year -> Close Income Statement...

Enter all values in the new window. When this process is run, the system will create a closing journal entry in the journal batch specified by the user on the Close Income Statement window.

In the "Close by" section:

Business Unit Code: Should be checked if closing by business unit.
Dimensions: Choose a dimension code and post the closing journal. For multiple Dimension codes, choose a dimension one at a time, review journal, post journal and then repeat the process.

Step 4: Review Closing Journal Entry

Navigate to Departments -> Financial Management -> General Ledger -> General Journals

Select the batch that was selected during the Close Income Statement process. The closing entry is available for review.

At this point, if "Retained Earnings" needs to be split among multiple accounts, the closing entry can be adjusted at this point.

After entry is adjusted (if required), select Posting -> Post and Print to post the closing entry for the year.

Step 5: Restrict Users from Posting Journal Entries to Closed Years

Navigate to Departments -> Financial Management -> Setup -> General Ledger Setup -> Administration

Use the "Allow Posting From" and "Allow Posting To" fields to restrict users from posting to prior periods. This is the only way to prevent transactions from being posted to a period after the period/year has been "closed".

Navigate to Departments -> Administration -> Application Setup -> Users -> User Setup

Should you need to create an adjusting entry to a "closed" period, simply remove the "Allow Posting From" restriction on the User Setup, enter and post the adjusting entry, and re-run the Close Income Statement process. After the adjustment is completed, re-populate the "Allow Posting From" value so that no further entries can be posted the prior period.

Are you interested in learning more about year-end in NAV or would like some help? Contact us!