Six Best Practices for Using Microsoft Dynamics GP to Improve Processes and Save Time in Closing the Books

As a former controller and CFO, I’m a big fan of Steve Bragg’s best practices books and podcasts. They highlight steps that people in the trenches can take to speed up their processes, close the books faster and improve controls.

One thing I’ve noted while reading Steve’s books is that many of his best practices can easily be implemented as part of Microsoft Dynamics GP. So I thought that would take a look at some of these items starting with applying fast close principles to financial processes for GP.

The idea behind a fast close is to close the books with a minimum of time and effort without sacrificing accuracy. The key to a fast close is to keep improving your process by moving items out of month end, automating functions and standardizing parts as much as possible.

Some ways that Microsoft Dynamics GP can help include:

· Post automatically throughout the month – Dynamics GP’s native functionality allows posting transaction to the GL in real time. Yet many companies still wait until month end to post all their journal entries. Posting throughout the month allows a company to see the progress and make corrections or adjustments throughout the month.

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