Configure and use the general ledger in Dynamics 365 Finance

Discover how Dynamics 365 Finance empowers business users to stay in control of finances and manage funds with accurate information for financial planning and forecasting.

In today's global market, businesses receive and send payments using different currencies. Exchange rates must be managed properly to lower the monetary loss when accepting multiple currencies. Understanding how to forecast the amount of loss or gain caused by changes in exchange rate values can help you make smart business decisions to handle cash discounts and payments.

When you record financial data in Dynamics 365 Finance, you must include the date of the transaction. By using a fiscal calendar and breaking it down into segments of years and periods, you can post or record financial data to a predefined open period.

Before you set up a chart of accounts, you should plan what the chart of accounts is going to look like. The definition of a chart of accounts can be different across industries and can be different for customers. This module explores the process of planning and setting up a chart of accounts that's tailored to meet the specific needs of a customer's finance department.

Dynamics 365 Finance helps you effectively structure and manage financial accounts in your organization's general ledger system. Using the main account, allocation, and automatic transaction features can help you streamline your business processes.

Financial dimensions play an important role in Dynamics 365 Finance. They serve as key identifiers that provide granularity and flexibility in tracking and analyzing financial data within your organization.

In any Dynamics 365 Finance implementation project, the first step is to set up the General ledger module. All other modules post their related financial transactions into the general ledger. The ledger also provides the means for sharing the chart of accounts, currencies, and fiscal calendar by multiple legal entities.

Dynamics 365 Finance helps make the general journal process easier and ensures that correct data is captured, and internal control isn't compromised. Let's get familiar with the general ledger processes, and then perform daily procedures in General ledger.

You can use intercompany accounting when accounting processes are centralized for subsidiaries or branch offices. With intercompany accounting, you can create a single entry that posts to multiple companies. Dynamics 365 Finance provides features that help you set up the system, process transactions, and trace intercompany transactions.

Accruals are used in accrual accounting to track revenue that is recognized in the period that it's earned in, not when payment is received, and to track expenses (costs) that are recognized when they occur, not when payment is made. Allocations are used to distribute amounts across multiple ledger account combinations. They help to ensure that expenses or revenue is charged to the correct object in accounting. By using allocations and accrual features in Dynamics 365 Finance, financial leaders can create rules, configure source and destination, and schedule the task only once, the rest is taken care of by Finance.

You can complete closing procedures for a period or a year. Closing processes prepare the system for a new period. In this module, you learn how to prepare, configure, and perform periodic processes in Dynamics 365 Finance.