If you work in finance on Microsoft Dynamics GP, you know the last days of the month well. Vendor invoices arrive late. A bank statement does not agree with the checkbook. Someone posts to the wrong period, and the report you sent on Tuesday shows a different number on Wednesday.
Most of these problems have the same cause. The close depends on what people remember, when it should depend on a written list. This guide gives you that list. It is a month-end close checklist made for Dynamics GP, in the order the modules should be closed, with the windows and reports to use at each step.
Every organization closes a little differently, so treat this as a base. Follow it as written, or compare it with the checklist your team already uses and fill the gaps.
What Month-End Close Means in Dynamics GP
Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) has no single “close the month” button. Year-end close is a routine that you run from a menu. Month-end close is different. It is a set of checks, followed by closing the fiscal period so that nobody can post to it again.
The checks all answer one question: does each subledger agree with the General Ledger (GL)? A subledger is the detailed record inside a module, such as the list of unpaid vendor invoices in Payables Management. The GL holds one summary balance for the same items. At month-end, the two must show the same amount.
Take a simple example. Your payables aged trial balance shows 250,000 owed to vendors, but the payables account in the GL shows 262,000. The 12,000 difference is an error somewhere, and your balance sheet is wrong until you find it.
This is why the order matters. Purchasing and sales documents feed Inventory, Receivables and Payables, and those modules feed the GL. If you close the GL first, a late vendor invoice has no open period to post to. So you start with the source modules and finish with the GL:
- Purchase Order Processing
- Sales Order Processing
- Inventory
- Receivables Management
- Payables Management
- Bank Reconciliation
- Fixed Assets
- General Ledger
Microsoft uses the same sequence in its year-end closing procedures for Dynamics GP: Inventory, Receivables, Payables, Fixed Assets, and then the General Ledger.
Before You Start: Five Tasks for the Last Week of the Month
A calm close begins before the month ends. Complete these five tasks in the final week.
- Send a cut-off notice. Tell the purchasing, sales and warehouse teams the last date and time for entering receipts, shipments and invoices for the month.
- Check that next month is open. Daily work must continue while you close. Confirm that the next period is open in the Fiscal Periods Setup window.
- Clear unposted batches. Open the Series Post or Master Posting window to see every batch that is waiting. Post each one, or change its date if it belongs to next month.
- Look in Batch Recovery. A batch that stopped during posting is held there. Recover it now, because a stopped batch often causes differences later.
- Confirm the backup. Ask your IT team to confirm that a full backup of the company database has run. Microsoft lists a backup as a standard month-end step.
The Month-End Close Checklist, Module by Module
Work through the modules in order. Do not start a module until the one before it is complete. The pattern is the same each time: post everything, print the subledger report as of the last day, and compare it with the GL account.
1. Purchase Order Processing
- Enter every receipt for goods that arrived on or before the cut-off date.
- Match vendor invoices to their receipts and post them.
- Print the Received Not Invoiced report. Its total should equal the accrued purchases account in the GL.
2. Sales Order Processing
- Invoice every order that shipped on or before the cut-off date, and post the invoices.
- Review old open orders and back orders. Void the ones that will never ship.
3. Inventory
- Post all stock transfers, adjustments and count variances for the month.
- Print the Historical Stock Status report as of the last day of the month.
- Compare the report total with the inventory accounts in the GL.
4. Receivables Management
- Post all invoices, credit memos and cash receipts. If customers pay by card, check that every credit card payment in Dynamics GP has been recorded.
- Print the Unapplied Documents report, then apply open payments and credits to invoices.
- Run the aging routine (Tools > Routines > Sales > Aging).
- Print the Historical Aged Trial Balance as of month-end. Compare it with the receivables control account in the GL.
5. Payables Management
- Enter every vendor invoice dated in the month, including invoices still waiting for approval.
- Post all payment runs, and apply credit memos and prepayments.
- Print the Historical Aged Trial Balance for payables. Compare it with the payables control account in the GL.
6. Bank Reconciliation
- Enter bank charges, interest and transfers between accounts.
- Reconcile each checkbook to its bank statement in the Reconcile Bank Statement window.
- Then compare the checkbook balance with the cash account in the GL. This is a separate check, and many teams miss it. A checkbook can agree with the bank while the GL cash account is still wrong.
7. Fixed Assets
- Add new assets, and record any retirements and transfers.
- Run depreciation through the last day of the month.
- Run the GL Posting routine, then post the batch it creates in the General Ledger. Depreciation does not reach the GL until that batch is posted.
8. General Ledger
- Post every batch in the Financial series. This includes batches that other modules sent to the GL but did not post.
- Enter accruals and prepayments. Use a reversing entry for each accrual, so GP reverses the amount on the date you choose.
- If you use Multicurrency, run the revaluation routine for foreign currency balances.
- Print the Detailed Trial Balance and review any account with an unusual balance.
- Produce the financial statements, with a short note summarizing the main changes from last month.
How to Close the Period in Dynamics GP
When every balance agrees, lock the month. Go to Microsoft Dynamics GP menu > Tools > Setup > Company > Fiscal Periods.
The Fiscal Periods Setup window lists each period with a checkbox for every series: Financial, Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, Payroll and Project. Mark a checkbox to close that series for that period. After that, GP will not post a transaction dated in the closed period.
Three habits make this step work:
- Close in stages. Close Sales, Purchasing and Inventory as soon as the subledgers agree. Keep Financial open until the statements are approved.
- Use Mass Close for finer control. The Mass Close button lets you close a period for selected transaction types only.
- Limit who can open this window. If any user can reopen a period, the close gives you no protection. Record each reopening: who asked, why, and when the period was closed again.
When a Subledger Does Not Match the General Ledger
Start with the Reconcile to GL routine (Tools > Routines > Financial > Reconcile to GL). It works for Payables, Receivables, Inventory and Bank Reconciliation. Choose the module, the date range and the GL accounts. GP creates an Excel workbook that sorts transactions into three groups: matched, potentially matched and unmatched. Read the unmatched group first.
You will soon recognize the usual causes:
- A journal entry was posted directly to a control account in the GL.
- A batch was posted in the module but is still unposted in the GL.
- Someone changed the account distribution on a transaction before posting.
- Posting was interrupted, so only part of a batch reached the GL.
- The subledger date and the GL posting date fall in different months.
Reconcile to GL finds differences. It does not correct them. Correct each one in the place where it started. If you only add a journal entry in the GL to hide a subledger error, the same difference returns next month.
Give each difference an owner and a date. A list of open differences that nobody owns grows every month.
A Five-Day Close Calendar You Can Copy
Use five working days as a first target, then shorten it as the process improves.
| Working Day | Tasks | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Last week of the month | Cut-off notice, unposted batches, backup | Controller |
| Day 1 | Purchasing, sales and inventory checks | Operations accountant |
| Day 2 | Receivables and payables aged trial balances; close the Sales, Purchasing and Inventory series | Receivables and payables leads |
| Day 3 | Bank reconciliations and fixed asset depreciation | GL accountant |
| Day 4 | Accruals, revaluation and trial balance review | GL accountant |
| Day 5 | Statements approved; close the Financial series | Controller |
Six Ways to Make Next Month’s Close Faster
- Store the checklist inside Dynamics GP: Each series has a Checklists window under Routines. Add your own steps and link each one to its window. GP then shows who completed each step, and when.
- Block manual entries to control accounts: In Account Maintenance, unmark Allow Account Entry for receivables, payables and inventory accounts. We emphasize this step because it removes the most common cause of differences.
- Reconcile every week: Run Reconcile to GL in the middle of the month too. Five small differences are easier to solve than fifty.
- Use recurring batches: Set up rent, insurance and other fixed monthly entries as recurring batches, so nobody has to type them again.
- Build SmartList favorites: Save the searches you use for analyzing unposted transactions and unusual amounts.
- Train a second person for every step: If one person holds the whole close, one absence can stop it. Dynamics GP training helps here, and so does a backup plan for your in-house GP team.
What the Dynamics GP Support Timeline Means for Your Close
Your close also depends on software that stays supported. Microsoft will end product support and updates for Dynamics GP, including tax and regulatory updates, on December 31, 2029. Security patches will end on April 30, 2031. Since April 2026, a new customer can no longer buy a Dynamics GP license. Our guide on how long Microsoft will support Dynamics GP explains each date.
For month-end, this means two things. First, stay current. Install each Dynamics GP year-end update, and plan a Dynamics GP upgrade if you are on an old version. Second, keep your close process written down and your subledgers clean. Both make a later Dynamics GP to Business Central migration simpler, because there is less old data to correct first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Dynamics GP have a month-end closing routine?
No. GP has year-end closing routines, but month-end is a set of checks followed by closing the period in the Fiscal Periods Setup window.
Can I reopen a closed period in Dynamics GP?
Yes. Unmark the checkbox for that series and period in Fiscal Periods Setup, post the entry, and close the period again. Keep a record of each reopening.
What is the difference between month-end and year-end close in Dynamics GP?
Month-end locks a period. Year-end also moves profit and loss balances to retained earnings and brings balance sheet balances forward into the new year.
How long should a month-end close take in Dynamics GP?
It depends on your transaction volume and the number of modules you use. Five working days is a reasonable first target for a mid-sized company. Teams that reconcile every week often finish sooner.
How Nevas Technologies Can Help
Nevas Technologies brings more than 20 years of Microsoft Dynamics experience and a dedicated GP team. Our consultants help finance teams find reconciliation differences, repair interrupted batches, improve reports and remove any customization that slows the close. We can also set up the close checklist inside your GP system and train your team to use it.
If your close takes longer than it should, our Dynamics GP support team can review your checklist with you. You can also contact us to plan your next step, whether that is a GP upgrade or a move to Dynamics 365 Business Central.
