Financial Management

Business Central includes a standard configuration of most financial processes, but you can change the configuration to suit your business. For more information, see Setting Up Finance.

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

The following table describes a sequence of tasks, with links to the topics that describe them.

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
Make your customers submit payment before you ship to them, or submit payment to your vendors before they ship to you. Invoicing Prepayments
Reconcile bank accounts and transfer funds between bank accounts. Reconciling Bank Accounts
Set up intercompany partners and process transactions, manually or automatically, between legal entities within the same company. Managing Intercompany Transactions
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
Manage inventory and manufacturing costs, report costs, and reconcile costs with the general ledger. Managing Inventory Costs
Understand the general ledger and the chart of accounts. Understanding the General Ledger and the COA
Combine general ledger entries from multiple companies in one virtual consolidated company for financial analysis. Consolidating Financial Data from Multiple Companies
Add dimensions for richer business intelligence. Work with Dimensions
Create G/L budgets to forecast different financial activities and assign dimensions for business intelligence purposes. Create G/L Budgets
Record income or expenses directly in the general ledger without posting dedicated business documents. Post Transactions Directly to the General Ledger
Post reversing entries to undo value postings in the general journal or quantity postings on purchase and sales documents. Reverse Journal Postings and Undo Receipts/Shipments
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 that you incur during trade, to the involved items so that the cost is reflected in inventory valuation. Use Item Charges to Account for Additional Trade Costs
Post employees' personal expenses for business-related activities and reimburse employees by making payment to their bank account. Record and Reimburse Employees' Expenses
Recognize revenues and expenses in other periods than when the transactions were posted. Defer Revenues and Expenses
Learn about the available options to automate sending subscription invoices to your customers and register recurring revenue. Work with Recurring Revenue
Learn how to use additional currencies and update currency exchange rates automatically. Update Currency Exchange Rates
Import salary transactions from your payroll provider into the general ledger. Import Payroll Transactions
Use functions to calculate value-added tax (VAT) on sales and purchase transactions so that 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 EU. Report VAT to Tax Authorities
Manually convert service contracts to change their VAT rate. Convert Service Contracts that Include VAT Amounts
Monitor the flow of cash in and out of your business. Analyzing Cash Flows in Your Company
Follow an end-to-end procedure on how to use account schedules to make cash flow forecasts. Walkthrough: Making Cash Flow Forecasts by Using Account Schedules
Work with financial statements and overviews in Excel. Analyzing Financial Statements in Excel
Learn how to use the Accountant Role Center, invite an external accountant, and use the Company Hub to manage accounts for multiple clients. Accountant Experiences in Business Central

Take a Video Tour

The following video introduces some of the key capabilities for managing finances.

[!Video https://www.microsoft.com/videoplayer/embed/RE4Fss4?rel=0]

See Also

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

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--- author: edupont04

ms.topic: include ms.date: 12/20/2021 ms.author: edupont

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