Inventory Period System Access Policy – Need Your Input

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Posted on by VJ VM

Hi everyone. Happy New Year!

We conduct inventory counting on 31st December and typically post the counting journal by the 2nd or 3rd of January, after reconciling any differences.

Every year, we disable system access for the Warehouse and Sales Departments during this period until the inventory is posted. However, there’s ongoing disagreement about this policy. Some argue that since the inventory will be posted backdated to 31-12-24 (with the actual transaction date being 03-01-25), the system should be reopened for transactions starting 01-01-25.

I disagree with this approach. For example, if a material shortage is identified on 31st December, leaving the system open creates a risk. Someone could post a delivery or transaction for the full system quantity on 1st January or later, leaving no remaining quantity available to account for the shortage during inventory posting. Similarly, the Sales Department might make stock reservations, requiring us to manually remove them before posting the inventory counting.

Am I correct in this assessment?
Are there alternative approaches to manage this process without disabling system access?
If we keep the system open, are there additional factors we should consider beyond those I mentioned?

Looking forward to your thoughts and suggestions!

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Dynamics 365 Finance

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VJ VM 96 on at

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Inventory Period System Access Policy – Need Your Input

Dear André. Thanks for replying. You didn't complete your thoughts... "In my opinion, the risk is"

To clarify, my finance department believes there is no need to restrict system access for warehousing and sales during the inventory period. The inventory counting journal will be created on 31-12-2024, with the physical counting completed the same day. However, the journal will only be populated and posted by 03-01-2025, after accounts verify the counts, consolidate data, and account for pending transfers or last-minute stock receipts/deliveries.

During this 3–4 day period, I prefer to restrict system access for the warehouses and sales departments. While the system captures a snapshot of inventory, it requires accurate data entry to correctly reserve quantities in the journal—especially if the counted stock is less than the system’s recorded quantity. This process typically takes the first few days of January.

In my opinion, if system access is allowed from 01-01-2025, discrepancies may arise. Sales orders could reserve incorrect quantities, and warehouses might issue deliveries based on inaccurate stock levels. Furthermore, if the counted quantity (which hasn’t been entered yet) on 31-12-2024 is less than the system quantity, and the system’s excess quantity is sold on 1st January, we won’t be able to post the journal due to insufficient stock.

So, in the best-case scenario, we would need to remove reservations before posting the counting journal. In the worst case, deliveries could be issued, and invoices generated, requiring returns to correct stock levels before the counting journal can be finalized.

Yes, we use the Finance user group to handle previous-year postings, and no one else has access. While restricting menu access by ledger periods is helpful, the above scenario still prevents us from opening the January period until the counting journal is posted.
André Arnaud de Cal... 291,472 Super User 2024 Season 2 on at

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Inventory Period System Access Policy – Need Your Input

Hi VJ,

Happy new year and thanks for your question.

Can you clarify the next sentence, as it is a bit confusing: "Some argue that since the inventory will be posted backdated to 31-12-24 (with the actual transaction date being 03-01-25), the system should be reopened for transactions starting 01-01-25. ". What exactly do you mean by "reopened... starting 01-01-25"?

Usually, several transactions needs to be entered in the new year with a posting date in the old year. This is not only for inventory counting, but also for e.g. incoming vendor invoices, or other transactions that can be only posted once all information is available.

It is possible to set menu access on the ledger periods per module. You can then specify if e.g. a particular user group can post in the old period. When and how to use this depends on the required process. This opens the option to post the counting journal in either the old or the new year.

When you create a counting journal, it takes a snapshot of the inventory at that moment in time. If you had 5 on-hand according to the system and the user counted 3, then the posted quantity will be -2 regardless when you post the journal. This could be potentially after 10 days. The recommendation, however, is to perform and post the counting as soon as possible.

In my opinion, the risk is