Financial management

Business Central includes a standard configuration for most financial processes, but you can change it to suit your business needs. Learn more at Setting Up Finance.

The default configuration includes a chart of accounts and standard posting groups, which make the process of assigning default general ledger posting accounts to customers, vendors, and items more efficient.

The following sections describe a sequence of tasks, with links to the articles that describe them.

Take a video tour

This video introduces some of the key capabilities for managing finances.

Get started with finance capabilities

Before you can begin to run your business, you must specify how you want to manage your company's financial processes.

To... See
Change the standard configuration of Business Central for most financial processes to suit your business needs. Setting Up Finance
Learn about the general ledger and the chart of accounts (COA). Understanding the General Ledger and the COA

Accounting

This section describes some of the accounting tools that you use to register financial transactions so that they meet your registration, reporting, and managerial finance requirements.

To... See
Add dimensions for richer business intelligence. Work with Dimensions
Learn how to use additional currencies and update currency exchange rates automatically. Update Currency Exchange Rates
Allocate revenues and expenses to periods other than when the transactions actually posted. Defer Revenues and Expenses
Allocate an entry in a general journal to several different accounts when you post the journal. Allocate Costs and Income
Assign extra costs, such as freight and physical handling expenses you incur during trade, to the involved items. This way the cost is reflected in inventory valuation. Use Item Charges to Account for Additional Trade Costs
Learn about the available options to automate sending subscription invoices to customers and register recurring revenue. Work with Recurring Revenue
Post employee expenses for work-related activities and make reimbursements directly to employee bank accounts. Record and Reimburse Employees' Expenses

Financial analytics

This section describes analytical tools you can use to get insights into your financial data.

To... See
Get an overview of the capabilities for analyzing finance data. Financial analytics overview
Analyze and monitor your finance KPIs with the Power BI Finance app. Power BI finance app
Set up consolidated financial reporting across business units or legal entities. Handling finance reporting across business units or legal entities
Set up and use financial reporting to produce statements and overviews. Prepare financial reporting
Perform ad-hoc analysis of financial data directly on list pages and queries. Ad-hoc analysis on finance data
Analyze financial data from your chart of accounts. Analyze finance data from the chart of accounts
Analyze actual amounts versus budgeted amounts. Analyze actual amounts versus budgeted amounts
Analyze cash flow. Analyze cash flow
Explore built-in key financial reports. Built-in key finance reports
Explore built-in key fixed assets reports. Built-in fixed assets reports
Analyze accounts receivable data with Power BI, Data analysis, or Excel. Accounts receivable analytics
Explore built-in accounts payable reports. Built-in accounts payable reports

VAT and taxes

Working with VAT in Business Central is easy, and you can either use a manual or an automatic setup. These articles provide information about how to meet your country/region-specific regulations.

To... See
Calculate value-added tax (VAT) on sales and purchase transactions so you can report the amounts to the tax authorities. Work with VAT on Sales and Purchases
Prepare a report that lists VAT from sales, and submit the report to tax authorities in the European Union (EU). Report VAT to Tax Authorities
Manually convert service contracts to change their VAT rate. Convert Service Contracts that Include VAT Amounts

Manage receivables and payables

The core of finance is centered around managing receivables and payables, registering transactions, reconciling banks accounts, paying vendors, receiving customer payments, reimbursing employees for expenses, and so on. This section provides links to the core concepts.

To... See
Apply incoming payments, reconcile bank accounts during payment application, and collect outstanding balances. Managing Receivables
Make payments, apply outgoing payments, and work with checks. Managing Payables
Ask your customers to submit payment before you ship to them, or submit payment to your vendors before they ship to you. Invoicing Prepayments
Reconcile and transfer funds between bank accounts. Reconciling Bank Accounts

Manage multiple companies

Business Central gives small and mid-sized businesses a business management solution that's easy-to-use and maintain at a low cost of ownership.

To... See
Set up intercompany partners and process transactions, manually or automatically, between legal entities within the same company. Managing Intercompany Transactions
Combine general ledger entries from multiple companies in one virtual consolidated company for financial analysis. Consolidating Financial Data from Multiple Companies
Work more closely with related companies that you have access to and to get information about key point of interest (KPI) data. Manage Work across Multiple Companies in the Company Hub

At the end of each accounting period or at the end of the fiscal year, there are a number of administrative tasks to do. For example, you'll probably want to make sure all documents and journals are posted, ensure currency data is up to date, close the books, and so on. The actual tasks will depend your company.

To... See
Manage inventory and manufacturing costs, and report and reconcile costs with the general ledger. Managing Inventory Costs
Import salary transactions from your payroll provider into the general ledger. Import Payroll Transactions
Learn how to use the Accountant Role Center, engage an external accountant, and use the Company Hub to manage accounts of multiple clients. Accountant Experiences in Business Central

Managerial accounting

As a business manager or controller, it's important that you can prepare and analyze the business data you need to make informed decisions. The articles in the following table help you prepare data. To learn more about analytics, go to Business Intelligence and Reporting Overview.

To... See
Analyze the costs of running your business by allocating actual and budgeted costs of operations, departments, products, and projects to cost centers. Accounting for Costs
Monitor the flow of cash in and out of your business. Analyzing Cash Flows in Your Company
Follow an end-to-end process describing how to use financial reports to make cash flow forecasts. Walkthrough: Making Cash Flow Forecasts by Using Financial Reports
Work with financial statements and overviews in Microsoft Excel. Analyzing Financial Statements in Excel

Free e-learning modules

Want to learn more about Business Central on your own pace?

Find free e-learning modules for Business Central here

See also

Setting Up Finance
Working with the Sales module
Working with the Purchasing module
Closing Fiscal Periods
Managing Projects
Importing Data from Other Finance Systems
Working with General Journals
Working with Business Central

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