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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Small and medium business | Business Central, N... / Opening Balances &...
Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Suggested answer

Opening Balances & Cut Over

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Posted on by AD-22040756-1 640

What do others on the forum do when migrating opening balances to Business Central from another system and it takes a long time to close the month end or year end and there is this long cut over period?

For example, go live is October 1 but it takes two weeks to close off the September month end - so opening balances can't be posted in Business Central until something like October 15. In this case there are two weeks (October 1-15) where new activity such as sales invoice with inventory, or payments for open invoices from the old system, cannot be posted in Business Central.

Do you typically save all of this activity and then enter it all on October 15 after opening balances are entered? 

Or do you make the September cutover earlier so the month end can be closed earlier? Or even work over a weekend to finish the month end earlier?

Just wondering what people here prefer in these situations

Thanks  

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  • Suggested answer
    YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    YUN ZHU 92,891 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at
    RE: Opening Balances & Cut Over

    Hi, I tend to import year-end balances so I can use the new system from a new fiscal year. There is also no need to look at multiple systems at year end.
    If that's difficult, the end of the month is indeed a good option.

    And, you can post data for September 30th on October 15th and it's not a problem. The posting period can be set in General Ledger Setup.

    pastedimage1665616729121v1.png

    So I think you can use the new system on October 1st (Master data needs to be imported in advance), and import the final balance of the previous month on October 15th.

    Hope this helps.

    Thanks.

    ZHU

  • AD-22040756-1 Profile Picture
    AD-22040756-1 640 on at
    RE: Opening Balances & Cut Over

    Hi ZHU, thanks for your answer. So if you prefer to import year-end balances - lets assume December 31 is your year end - do your clients always have the data ready by early January? I assume no and that it will take them at least a few days or weeks to finish up the year end.

    So what do you do for new transactions in this time? For example, new sales invoices in the first week of January before the opening balances are entered. Do you tell the clients to wait and not post them in BC until opening balances are posted?

  • Suggested answer
    YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    YUN ZHU 92,891 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at
    RE: Opening Balances & Cut Over

    Hi, Yes, generally we let customers prepare data in advance. If there is a difference, they can make adjustments after going live. instead of re-importing it again.

    Then, I think just like your current system, you can only close the September period on October 15, but you cannot prohibit users from entering data from October 1 to October 15 before closing the period.

    So you can import the data on December 31, and then let users start using the new system on January 1, and then adjust the balance on December 31 after closing the period. I think it doesn't affect later data.

    Unless you want to import not only Opening Balance, but also transaction data, such as unshipped orders, orders with partial invoices, this is very difficult to handle.

    This is just my personal opinion, I hope to give you some help.
    Hope other experts on the forum can give you better advice.

  • Suggested answer
    Dallefeld Profile Picture
    Dallefeld 193 User Group Leader on at
    RE: Opening Balances & Cut Over

    So I’m going to disagree with Zhu Yun. Cut over whatever day you want to cut over. Bring over all your transactional general ledger data for the year yes but you don’t have to wait till the month is closed or cut over and then add transactions in later during the month just do the cut over at whatever day you want to cut over. Reconcile your AR your AP all of your accounts and your financials as of that day and then continue forward

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