The End of Year Journal is an essential add-on and feature to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, especially since it is an accounting and finance system. In turn, this addon supports precise financial reporting and compliance. The primary function is to gather all General Ledger Entries which consist of the End of Year journal template and compute the Net Change values accordingly within the Chart of Accounts page.
This add-on is particularly crucial because the user is certain that all documents and journals have been posted, thus data tracking is made easier. Moreover, the End of Year Journal summarizes the business's financial performance throughout the year.
Availability of the End of Year Journal
The main functionality of the End of Year Journal can be found on the Chart of Accounts page, specifically the Source Code Net Change field, as seen below:
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Before being able to see the column ‘Filter by totals’ there are some steps that need to be done:
Create a new Source Code
Assign the End of Year Source Code within the Source Code Setup page
Create a new General Journal Template
Create and Post Journal Lines
Filter by totals within the Chart of Accounts page
Creating a new Source Code
Within the search bar in Business Central search for the Source Codes page. This page holds all of Business Central’s available source codes that can be used.
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After entering the Source Codes page, click on the + New action button which is located at the top. A new empty line will be available, and here the desired source code and description for that source code must be typed.
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Once the Source Code and Description have been filled in, press the Enter key on the keyboard to submit your entry.
If changes need to be done to the Source Code for some reason, the below modal will pop up. Click Yes to continue.
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The created entry or other available codes can be found either by source code or respective description using the pages' search bar. In this case the Source Code was set as EOYJNL and the description as End Of Year as seen below:
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When all changes have been done and submitted, the page can be closed.
Assigning the Source Code within the Source Code Setup
Use the search bar in Business Central to locate the ‘Source Code Setup' page. This page is used to define source codes and reason codes for audit trails.
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Click on the last section listed as End Of Year on this page.
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Subsequent to opening this section, click on the down arrow within the drop-down list/menu and choose the End Of Year Source Code setup in the previous step.
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This page can be closed after choosing the Source Code, as it will be automatically saved.
Creating a new General Journal Template
Navigate to the ‘General Journal Templates’ by utilizing the search bar in Business Central. This page in Business Central enables users to create and maintain journal templates for a variety of financial transactions on the 'General Journal Templates' page.
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Click on the + New action button at the top of the page so that can create a new general journal template. Once clicking on this button an empty row will appear.
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Enter the Name and Description of the End of Year Journal template within the first two cells.
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Next choose the Type of journal from the drop-down list. In this case ‘End of Year’ should be chosen.
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Upon choosing the type of journal the corresponding Source Code will update within the source code field. To confirm your new journal template just press the Enter key on the keyboard.
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Creating and Posting ‘End of Year’ Journal Lines
Find ‘End of Year Journal’ by entering it into the Business Centrals' search bar.
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The ‘End Of Year Journals’ page is identical to the ‘General Journals’ page as seen below:
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Here we are using the ‘Batch Name: Test', but it can be changed to any other needed batch name. Journal lines can be either single-entry or double-entry.
Single-Entry: Here the user enters one entry per transaction. This approach is normally utilized for more straightforward cash-based accounting.
Double-Entry: In this case a debit and a credit are recorded for each transaction in double-entry accounting. One account is used for keeping track of the debit, while another is used to record the credit. This is a more complicated accounting approach but is recommended as it offers a more comprehensive financial picture.
After choosing one of the above entry types click the Post/Print action button at the top of the page.
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Here you have 4 available options:
Post: This action button immediately posts the journal lines to the ‘General Ledger Entries’ page. The information entered within the journal is then transferred to entries on individual accounts.
Preview Posting: This action button enables you to review the different types of entries that will be created when posting.
Post and Print: This action button will simply post the journal lines and then open the posted document so that you can print it from there.
Test Report: This action button will create a report that shows what the result will be if the journal is posted. In turn it allows you to certify that the entries are correct before concluding and posting.
As soon as posting is complete, you can view the ‘Chart of Accounts’ page for further results.
Filtering by totals
Search for ‘Chart of Accounts’ within the search bar of Business Central.
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Initially the Source Code Net Change field is the same as any other field on the page as seen below:
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If we use the functionality to ‘Filter totals by…’ a certain filtering attribute the field will change accordingly.
After clicking on the ‘Filter totals by..’ chose the + Filterbutton.
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This button will let you choose one or multiple filtering options. In this case we will filter by Source Code.
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Another drop-down menu will be visible to select the Source Code, in this case the EOYJNL.
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Then the values within the ‘Source Code Net Change’ field will immediately change and show which accounts have been affected. Obviously the values will change if there has been a journal line or multiple lines posted to the ‘General Ledger Entries’, otherwise all values will remain as ‘0.00’.
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