First 90 Days on Business Central: A Finance Team's Checklist

The go-live date is not the finish line. It is the starting pistol. What the finance team does in the weeks that follow decides whether Business Central becomes the way you work or a system you work around.

This is a practical checklist for the first 90 days: what to lock down in month one, what to make routine in month two and what to review by day ninety.

Key PointMonth one: configure. Month two: make it routine. Month three: review and fix what the team works around.

Month one: get the foundations right

Start with the chart of accounts. Confirm in the first two weeks that account categories, posting groups and dimensions match how your business actually reports. A dimension set up wrongly now becomes a reporting correction later.

Bank import comes next. Microsoft explains that the Import Bank Statement function fills the reconciliation from a file provided by the bank, and that Match Automatically pairs the lines with bank entries. If your team still reformats statement files by hand, fix that now.

Lock user access to role by the end of week two. Business Central controls access through permission sets and security groups. Split posting from approval, so no one user can create, approve and post a purchase invoice alone.

Pro TipNo one user should be able to create, approve and post a purchase invoice alone.

Month two: make the core processes routine

Month one is about configuration. Month two is about behaviour. The aim is a documented cadence for every core finance process that the team follows every time.

Reconcile the bank weekly rather than monthly. A short weekly reconciliation on a clean import is easier to keep on top of than a month of accumulated exceptions.

Move purchase approvals into the system. Microsoft's guide to approval workflows explains that approvers are notified when a record needs their approval, with amount limits set per user. Approvals by email or on paper leave no audit trail in Business Central.

Run your first period close early

Run a full period close in month two even if it is messy. Capture the exceptions, note the manual steps and schedule them to automate or remove before month three.

Microsoft's overview of closing years and periods covers accounting periods and posting date ranges, which you can restrict once a period is closed. Our data migration process guide covers the opening balances that close depends on.

Month three: review and level up

By day ninety you have real data in the system and a clear picture of where the team still works around it. Look in particular for approval workflows that exist but are not enforced, dimensions applied inconsistently, and reports exported to Excel and rebuilt by hand.

None of these are system limits. They are configuration choices that can be changed, so rank them by the time they cost. Plan for the twice-yearly updates too, using our practical guide to Business Central upgrades.

Watch OutDo not move project support away at go-live. Keep it until the team trusts each process.

Mistakes to avoid in the first 90 days

• Treating go-live as the end. Keep project support in place until the team has done each process enough times to trust it.
• Deferring training. A short walkthrough of the posting logic in week one is cheaper than untangling months of inconsistent postings.
• Skipping the 90-day review. It is the normal checkpoint for any system live for a quarter, not a sign that something went wrong.

Keep VAT in view throughout. GOV.UK says all VAT-registered businesses should now be signed up for Making Tax Digital for VAT, so check your first return from Business Central carefully.

What a 90-day review looks like

If you have been live for two or three months, our free Business Central review runs a sixteen-module read-only scan of your system and emails you a report inside one business day. Its checks include G/L setup, cash and banking, purchasing and posting periods.

For the wider picture, read our practical guide to Business Central migration. The ICAEW technology resources offer independent guidance on finance systems.