Business Central feature spotlight: Posting Date Restrictions

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a fully integrated ERP system. Once a transaction is posted, it’s immediately reflected in the General Ledger. The chart of accounts shows real-time information relating to expected and actual costs depending on the transaction meaning that there is no month end batch process to close the sales or purchase ledger. 

This has always been controlled by “Allowed Posting Dates” which are available on both the user setup and the General Ledger Setup. For each user, only transactions with a posting date that fall within these dates can be posted.   

When the new month begins, these dates then need to be updated manually to allow the user to continue their job for the new month. 

The good news is that the latest version of Business Central introduces two new fields. Users can now personalise these fields on the page to automate and simplify how they control posting dates. 

This can now control the Allow Posting Dates by using a date formula, meaning that the from and to dates are now calculated from the work date. 

When a new month begins, posting dates update automatically based on the formula, removing the need for manual intervention. 

Having this flexibility allows you to set different formulas for specific users, for example, you may want to keep finance users open for the previous month so the “Allow Posting From Date Formula” now becomes -CM-1M.  There is no longer the need to remember to change dates for each user manually once the new month kicks in. 

These fields have also been added to the General Ledger Setup, allowing for the same logic to apply across the whole company. 

While the company-wide settings are useful, the real benefit comes from applying these formulas at user level. This removes a recurring month-end task, reduces administration and helps prevent posting date restrictions from being overlooked. 

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