GP Year-End Closing Explained

Have you run your GL year-end closing routine yet?  Here is a refresher on what this process does.

• Closes all Profit and Loss (P/L) account balances into Retained Earnings account(s)
• Balance Sheet account balances are rolled forward to the new year by having Balance Brought Forward (BBF) entries created.
• All open General Ledger records (GL20000) are moved to the historical table (GL30000).
• Inactive General Ledger accounts without a balance and no historical transactions are removed if you are not ‘maintaining’ inactive accounts.
• The Year that was just closed is marked as historical.

Even though you have closed the year, you can still post to that year. GP allows you to post back to the last closed year. Just be sure your Financial module is open in Fiscal Periods Setup (Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Company > Fiscal Periods). GP also allows you to reverse a year-end closing.

When you reverse a historical year, the original Balance Brought Forward (BBF) journal entry gets removed from the system. Then when the year is re-closed, a new BBF entry is created. Once the year is re-opened, this allows you to post adjustments in the GL and when ready, you can re-close the year.

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GP Tip: Batch Activity Inquiry

Have you ever tried to select a batch to post or print an edit list only to find that it is in use? When a batch is in use, the Status will normally be “Busy” or “Receiving”.

You can find out who has a batch open by going to Administration > Inquiry > Batch.

Here you will see any open Batch ID’s and the User ID that has that batch open.

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GP Tip: How to make customer or vendor info a GL Transaction Smartlist favorite

You can take advantage of Dynamics GP’s Smartlist feature in many ways to save time. Here’s how you can make customer and vendor information a favorite in the GL Transaction Smartlist….

Go to Microsoft Dynamics GP > Smartlist and open Smartlist. Then click on Account Transactions.

Click on Columns.

Click Add.

Scroll to Originating Master ID. Hold down CTRL and select Originating Master ID and Originating Master Name.

Then click Ok.

You will then see the Originating Master Id and Originating Master Name displayed on the smartlist.

Save the smartlist by clicking Favorites. On the Add or Remove Favorites Window give the smartlist a Name and click Add, Add Favorite.

That’s it! Hope this helps.

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Microsoft GP Support Ending in 2031

October 2024 – After selling and supporting Microsoft Dynamics GP for over 25 years, we at CSSI Technologies are saddened to report that Microsoft has just announced a multi-year timeline for ending its support of GP in 2031. Let us begin by saying that CSSI remains committed to supporting our Dynamics GP customers. The same is true for the industry partners and add-on developers who make GP such a great product.

The most important message is: Don’t panic! There is plenty of time to think about any ‘next steps’, and we must also note that Microsoft has repeatedly tried to end GP in the past, only to fail because the 40,000+ companies (in the US alone!) which use GP refused to move to what they perceived as substandard products. This history may again repeat itself.

Microsoft’s Timeline for Ending GP Security Updates

Below is Microsoft’s official timeline for the sunsetting of Dynamics GP:

• April 1, 2025: No new sales of Perpetual licenses. New Subscription licenses continue for 1 more year.
• April 1, 2026: No new customer sales for any type of license (Perpetual or Subscription).
• September 30, 2029: End of product enhancements, regulatory (tax) updates, service packs and technical support.
• April 30, 2031: End of security updates.

What to expect in the leadup to 2029?

Microsoft’s development and support of GP will continue through Sept. 2029.

GP remains business-as-usual until then. You can still submit and vote for product suggestions for features you would like to see added in the next few years. There are hundreds of ideas here, grouped into 30 categories.  Vote on existing suggestions and/or submit your own.

What happens in Sept. 2029 and beyond?

After product support and enhancement stops in September 2029, the only Microsoft support available with be specifically for security updates and hotfixes. Microsoft will end security updates and fixes in April 2031.

But wait… that doesn’t necessarily mean the end.

GP is very mature and stable. Even after Microsoft’s technical support ceases, GP will continue to be a very functional system for those customers who wish to keep using it.

As time goes on after 2031, it is possible that changes in the Windows and Windows Server operating systems, SQL Server, Exchange Server and Microsoft Office platforms may cause problems. However, we are seeing some early indications that members of the GP ecosystem may step in to play a role and resolve these problems. We will keep you posted as we learn more.

What are Microsoft’s intentions?

Microsoft has made announcements like this before, and each time, the Dynamics GP community has continued to thrive.  CSSI uses Dynamics GP itself, so we understand its importance to you.  Your GP system is more than just software—it’s the backbone of your business.  It’s where your finances, operations, and decision-making converge. We know that many of you rely on a mix of third-party add-ons and customizations to run your business.

Microsoft is going to try to convince GP users to quickly ‘migrate’ to Business Central, its newer subscription-only product. Microsoft loves the subscription model, since once your business is committed to Business Central, you will be defenseless against any and all future subscription price increases.

We advise caution for now, for these reasons:

1. Business Central is hard-pressed to replace the stability and deep, vertical functionality that GP and its community of ISV Solutions has come to offer over years of maturation. If GP is working well for you, be cautious about moving to software which may not work as well for your business.
2. We are concerned that Microsoft is downplaying the complexity and expense of a Business Central implementation, particularly for heavily-customized GP users. The time and expense of moving should be closely examined and reality-checked by anyone considering a move.
3. Be aware that Microsoft has a history of attracting users to new software platforms with low pricing, and then increasing the price once customers face barriers to exit. Once you are locked into the subscription model, you will largely be at Microsoft’s pricing mercy.

CSSI Technologies will continue to support GP

If you’re worried that this announcement marks the definitive end of GP, don’t panic.  We’ve been through these waves of uncertainty before when Microsoft tried to convince GP users to migrate to other systems. However, GP customers have continued to use and depend on their systems for 5, 10, even 15 years after Microsoft’s previous “end-of-life” dates.  It is possible that this pattern may continue well past 2031.

CSSI remains committed to supporting Dynamics GP.

With a runway of 7 years, you don’t need to feel pressure to take hasty action. As we learn more about this developing situation, we will keep you informed. So please watch our monthly GP newsletters for updates.

Please let the team at CSSI Technologies know if you have questions!

GP Tip: Save time by copying GP price lists

If you assign many different Price Levels to your items, then setting up a new inventory item can be time-consuming.  Save time by coping Item Price Lists from one item to another.  (Note:  both items must share the same unit of measure schedule.)

1 – Go to Inventory > Cards > Price List
2 – Select an item you want to copy TO
3 – Click on the Copy button

4 – Select a Source Item Number (the item to copy FROM)

5 – Click on Process
6 – Print the Copy Price List Audit Report to the screen to verify that the copy was successful
7 – Make any necessary changes
8 – Click on Save

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GP Tip – Excluding Inactive Customers/Vendors from GP Lookups

Here’s a time-saving GP for you. Do you have many inactive customers and vendors the clutter up your lookup windows? You can easily exclude them by following these steps:

1. In the lookup window, click on the drop-down to the left of View
2. Select “Exclude Inactive Customers” (or Vendors)
3. Click on the drop-down again
4. Select “Set as Default View”

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GP TIP: Wondering how to prevent certain documents from appearing on a vendor check stub?

If you have fully applied documents that you do not want to print on a vendor’s check stub, you can go to the Edit Vendor Payment window.

This window is available in the Build Payment Batch window.

It is also available in the Edit Payment Batch window.

Or you can go to Purchasing > Transactions > Edit Vendor Payment.

Click on the Check Stub button at the bottom of the window and uncheck the checkboxes beside those documents that you do not want printed on the check stub.

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Save Time When Processing EFT Payables in GP

If you are processing EFT for payables in GP, you can now post to the Bank Rec by batch total, instead of individual payments. This was a new feature added in GP 18.5. Simply go the Purchasing > Setup > Payables and check the “Allow Summary Post to Checkbook for EFT/CC.

When marked, if an EFT batch of vendor payments is posted, the Bank Reconciliation is updated with a single EFT payment that you can drill down on to see a breakdown of the detail.

Note that this feature does not apply to Manual Payments in GP and this new field in Payables Setup will not be enabled automatically at time of the upgrade of your system.

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Here’s a new Dynamics GP feature which was added in the GP 18.4 release – how to save inquiry window sort options.

This option is available in the following windows: Receivables – Transaction by Customer, Receivables – Transaction by Document, Sales Item, Payables – Transaction by Vendor, Payables – Transaction by Document, Bank Reconciliation – Checkbook Register, Checkbook Balance.

Select your default Sort by option then click on View > Save Window Preferences.

In addition to the sort options being saved, the “Include” Type (Work/Open/History) will be saved, along with the size of the window if you change it.

These saved default settings are per individual user and are system wide, so the saved setting will default for any company that user logs into.

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Hope that learning how to save inquiry window sort options is helpful for you! For GP technical support or help with upgrades, please contact CSSI.

GP Tip: GL Transaction SmartList with Originating Name

If you’ve ever needed a way to find all transactions that posted to a particular GL account by Vendor or Customer, here’s an easy way.  Use a SmartList.

Open SmartList and expand the Financial folder then the Account Transactions folder. Start with an existing list and modify it.

In this case, we are going to create a list of all postings to the Accounts Payable GL account and include the Vendor ID, Vendor Name and Document Number.

Click on the Columns button.  Select Add to add columns.  Select a column that you do not want included and click on Remove.

Rearrange the order of the columns by first checking the box to the left of the column name then use the up and down arrows on the right side of the window.

In the screenshot below, the “Originating” columns contain information from the originating transaction. If you are viewing GL transactions that originated in accounts payable, then Originating Master ID represents Vendor ID. If you are viewing GL transactions that originated in accounts receivable, then Originating Master ID represents Customer ID.

Next to filter your list on GL account number, date, etc., click on the Search button.  Select a column name in each Search Definition field.  In our example, we’re including all transactions that posted to the Accounts Payable account for a specific TRX (Transaction) Date range.

When creating a new SmartList favorite, always be sure to increase the number of maximum records that will be searched. This normally defaults to just 1,000.

To save your new list, click on the Favorites button. Type in a Name then click on Add > Add Favorite.

The results will look something like this:

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