A Guide for Closing Out the Year in Your ERP
Year-end is the perfect time to clean up your ERP, archive old data, validate mappings, and prepare the business for a smooth start next year. This checklist covers everything finance, operations, and IT teams should review annually.
Section 1: Chart of Accounts Cleanup
- Review inactive or unused GL accounts
- Merge duplicate accounts
- Confirm account descriptions are accurate
- Validate account types (asset, liability, equity, revenue, expense)
- Clean up dimensions, segments, and departments
Section 2: Vendor & Customer Master Cleanup
- Deactivate inactive vendors
- Update missing addresses, W9s, tax IDs
- Merge duplicate customer records
- Validate payment terms & credit limits
- Ensure all vendors have ACH/bank details
Section 3: Data Integrity Review
- Fix suspended or unposted transactions
- Clean up duplicate entries
- Validate open AP & AR items
- Review negative inventory balances
- Correct mis-coded jobs, items, or cost centers
Section 4: Security & Permissions Audit
- Remove users who left the company
- Confirm multi-factor authentication is active
- Review role permissions
- Ensure segregation of duties
- Audit admin-level access
Section 5: Workflow & Automation Tune-Up
- Review approval workflows
- Update approvers for new org structure
- Remove outdated routing rules
- Add automation to new processes added this year
Section 6: Reporting Cleanup
- Archive unused reports
- Standardize naming conventions
- Validate dashboard metrics
- Schedule recurring reports for next year
Section 7: Integrations & API Review
- Confirm all integrations are connected and error-free
- Verify data sync schedules
- Clean up outdated API keys
- Document integration dependencies
Section 8: Year-End Close Readiness
- Run year-end trial balance
- Review accrual entries
- Confirm depreciation, allocations, and recurring JEs
- Prepare audit support packages
- Lock prior-year periods once finalized
Conclusion
This checklist ensures your ERP enters the new year clean, accurate, secure, and optimized for growth.
