Setting Up Finance

Before you can begin to run your business, you must specify rules and defaults for how you want to manage finance processes for that company. You start by setting up the core of the company's accounting records - the chart of accounts. Then you set up posting groups, which makes the process of assigning default general ledger posting accounts to customers, vendors, and items more efficient.

Some finance setup can be done automatically with assisted setup guides, and some must be done manually. For more information, see Getting Ready for Doing Business.

You can use dimensions to add different types of information to every transaction. You can set up your company's basic dimensions, such as Projects and Departments. Later, you can add more dimensions when you need them, and you can set up temporary dimensions for use during a limited time period, for example, in connection with a sales campaign. For more information, see Working with Dimensions.

Many of the setup tasks must be completed before you can begin recording financial transactions, but most settings can be changed at a later date. Some of the set up tasks are optional, for example, you only set up Intercompany Postings and Consolidations if you are working with multiple companies. Some setup tasks, such as specifying the period during which posting is allowed, may have to be repeated periodically.

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

To	See
Specify how you want to be paid by customers, and how you want to pay your vendors.	Set Up Payment Methods
Specify payment terms to manage due dates and to calculate possible payment discounts.	Set Up Payment Terms
Specify the posting groups that map entities like customers, vendors, items, resources, and sales and purchase documents to general ledger accounts.	Setting Up Posting Groups
Create account schedules and define account categories to define the contents of financial charts and reports, such as the Balance Sheet and Income Statement reports.	Prepare Financial Reporting with Account Schedules and Account Categories
Set up a tolerance by which the system closes an invoice even though the payment, including any discount, does not fully cover the amount on the invoice.	Work with Payment Tolerances and Payment Discount Tolerances
Set up fiscal periods.	Work with Accounting Periods and Fiscal Years
Set up reminder terms to help you collect for overdue payments.	Set Up Reminder Terms and Levels
Define how you report value-added tax amounts that you have collected for sales to the tax authorities.	Set Up Value-Added Tax (VAT)
Prepare to handle unrealized VAT in connection with cash-based accounting methods.	Set Up Unrealized VAT for Cash-Based Accounting
Set your Sales and Purchases features up to handle payments in foreign currencies.	Enable Application of Ledger Entries in Different Currencies
Define one or more additional currencies so that amounts are automatically reported in both LCY and an additional reporting currency on each G/L entry and on other entries.	Set Up an Additional Reporting Currency
Periodically adjust additional currency equivalents to make up for fluctuating exchange rates.	Update Currency Exchange Rates
Define multiple interest rates to be used for different periods for delayed payments in trade transactions.	Set Up Multiple Interest Rates
Prepare to round invoice amounts automatically when you create invoices.	Set Up Invoice Rounding
Add new accounts to the existing chart of accounts.	Setting Up the Chart of Accounts
Set up business intelligence (BI) charts to analyze cash flow.	Setting Up Cash Flow Analysis
Enable invoicing of a customer who is not set up in the system.	Set Up Cash Customers
Set up Intrastat reporting, and submit the report to an authority	Set Up and Report Intrastat
Make sure an entry in a general journal is allocated to several different accounts when you post the journal, either quantity, percentage, or amount.	Use Allocation Keys in General Journals
Set up source codes and reason codes that you can use to track audit trails	Setting Up Source Codes and Reason Codes for Audit Trails
Specify default reports to be used for different document types.	Report Selection in Business Central

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Setting Up Finance

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