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Restricting P&L GL codes posting to balance sheet cost centres

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Posted on by GT-17080314-0

Hi Folks,

I fail to understand how or why the system lets P&L type GL codes post to BS cost centers. Our partners say it's a BC issue which I have trouble believing. Comments?

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Dynamics 365 Business Central migration

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AndrewThomas81 2,769 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Can you explain the issue further, what exact behaviour are you not expecting?

Kind Regards

Andrew Thomas FCCA MCP
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Teagen Boll 3,898 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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I am not sure I understand the question fully, but it sounds like you are saying that Balance Sheet Cost Centers/Department coding is allowed on income statement accounts? Your partner isn't correct if that's what they are telling you. Cost Centers are setup as a dimension. Dimension restrictions can be enabled on any GL Accounts.

You can use dimension restrictions in Business Central to tell the system what dimension values are allowed for each GL Account or even for Customers, Vendors, Items etc.:
This is a fundamental part of any setup in any BC implementation. Above you can see im using department but the same would apply for Cost Centers. I have it set so SALES is the only department dimension allowed for GL account 41100. You can select more than one value as well. My example is just a single value.

There's a lot more you can do with them to but that's just the start. You can read more here: Work with dimensions to track and analyze data - Business Central | Microsoft Learn

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Teagen Boll, CPA
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GT-17080314-0 10 on at

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Thanks for your replies. There are a combination of issues but the main one:
Expense on an AP invoice is coded to a P&L account (that account has a Cost Center Type P&L) but when the invoice posts the Creditor Control Account and The GST component (balance sheet accounts that are link to a balance sheet cost center) won't post unless we allow the P&L cost center to post to the BS account
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YUN ZHU 103,176 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Could the posting group settings be incorrect? Providing some screenshots would be very helpful.
Set up posting groups
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/finance-posting-groups?wt.mc_id=DX-MVP-5004336

Thanks.
ZHU
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OussamaSabbouh 19,477 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Hello,
This is standard Business Central behavior, not a posting bug: BC uses the G/L Account Category (Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, Cost of Goods, Expense) mainly for financial reporting, but it does not automatically restrict dimension/cost-centre values based on whether the G/L account is Balance Sheet or P&L. If your “cost centres” are dimension values, you need to enforce the rule through Default Dimensions / Value Posting on the relevant G/L accounts (for example, require a specific dimension/value) and, where applicable, Dimension Combinations to block invalid dimension-value combinations. So if you specifically want “P&L accounts cannot post to BS cost centres,” that control needs to be designed in the dimension setup; if your rule depends dynamically on both the G/L account category and the selected cost-centre value and cannot be represented by standard default-dimension rules, then a small validation customization would be required.
Regards,
Oussama Sabbouh
AndrewThomas81 2,769 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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It sounds like you have some setup issues. Are you able to show the entries created vs what you are expecting?

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Andrew Thomas FCCA MCP
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Grigorios Mavrogeorgis 3,381 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Hi, this is not a bug, BC has no idea that a cost centre belongs to the balance sheet. Dimension values are only codes, there is no link to the account type, so nothing blocks the combination on its own.
The control you want is Default Dimensions on the G/L account. Put the dimension there with Value Posting set to Same Code and only that value is accepted, or use a filter if a few values are allowed. Code Mandatory just forces something to be entered, it doesn't limit which one.
For a whole range of accounts don't do them one by one, mark the lines in the Chart of Accounts and use Default Dimensions - Multiple.
Dimension Combinations is something else, that blocks one dimension against another dimension, not against the account.

Glad to help - follow up if anything is unclear.
► If this solved it, marking it verified helps others too.
Regards,
Grigorios Mavrogeorgis
Business Central Consultant & AL Developer
Work: Gmsoft Limited
Blog: insidebusinesscentral
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gregorymavrogeorgis