Microsoft Dynamics GP Year-End Closing Procedures: Solutions to Common Issues

It’s year-end season and there is no better time to discuss Dynamics GP year-end issues, and provide solutions to the most common Microsoft Dynamics GP year-end closing problems.

In this blog I’m covering common errors experienced when attempting to close the G/L year in Microsoft Dynamics GP. In addition, I will supply a few helpful links to sites that I, myself, will reference from time to time.

Before we cover common errors, I’ll briefly discuss the nuts and bolts of the closing process. Once you hit the ‘close year’ button on the year-end closing window, two major processes occur:

1. The year is marked as historical and all entries marked with the year in question will be moved from the YTD OPEN table (GL20000) to the Historical table (GL30000).
2. A year-end closing journal entry is created closing all Profit and Loss type accounts to designated Retained Earnings account(s). In addition, all Balance Sheet type accounts are rolled forward into the new year.

Common Error Messages Received During the Microsoft Dynamics GP Year-End Closing Process:

'Retained Earnings account not found'
This is the most common error encountered and immediately stops the year-end process since it cannot validate the retained earnings account for one or more segmented accounts. Generally, this message is seen when the financial module is set to close by divisional retained earnings. For instance, if you’re closing based on a segment of your account structure, you must have a retained earnings account for each value of that segment. Please review the following knowledge-based articles for more information.

How to use divisional retained earnings accounts

Common causes of 'Retained Earnings not found' error message

‘A single use batch or quick journal transaction has not been posted yet. Do you want to continue closing?’
This message always makes users pause to determine if they are processing the correct steps. It simply warns the user there is an unposted single-use batch and/or an unposted quick journal transaction existing in General Ledger. This message will not prevent you from continuing with the year-end closing routine. However, you may want to double check the unposted batches/transactions to make sure they do not need to be posted within the year you’re attempting to close. If you do not want to post the single-use batch or the quick journal transaction, continue with the year-end closing routine.

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint ‘PK##0671112′. Cannot insert duplicate key in object ‘##0671112′
This error seems like the most complicated one of the four we’ll discuss, but is fairly simple to translate and resolve. The process has encountered transactions with accounts that do not contain a currency. Basically, you’ll need to locate the account(s) that do not have a currency association and assign one to the account(s). For more information and detailed steps on resolution, please consult this knowledge-based article: Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint

‘Sorry, another user is closing the year’
This most likely indicates that a close process has not completed or had been started and aborted and did not properly clear the system batch activity table. Run the following to find the stuck batch and the corresponding delete statement to delete the batch.

1. SELECT * FROM DYNAMICS..SY00800
2. You’ll probably see a batch with an ID (NUMBER) of GL_Close. If you see this batch, you’ll need to delete it with the following :
3. DELETE DYNAMICS..SY00800 where BACHNUMB = ‘GL_Close’

I hope this blog post helps you troubleshoot and resolve any issues you may encounter with your Microsoft Dynamics GP year-end close process.

I’ll leave you with three bits of advice to follow prior to running through your financial year-end close routine

1. Make a backup
2. Make sure you have a backup. Honestly, I cannot stress this enough. If you failed to capture a backup and something horribly goes wrong, it’s costly and time intensive to fix the issues.
3. Make sure all your GL accounts have the proper posting types. The most common issue I see is when a Profit and Loss account was erroneously set up as a Balance Sheet account. If that happens, the account rolls forward and does NOT close to Retained earnings, please click here to resolve this particular issue.

Give me a call at 760-930-6400 or shoot me a message should you have any questions.

Written by:
Eric Marschke, Customer Care Specialist, FMT

Posted by: Jakob Bechgaard