Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Training Course

Course overview

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance implementations succeed or fail on the quality of financial design behind the configuration. Finance professionals, functional consultants and system owners must translate chart-of-accounts structures, statutory requirements, approval controls and reporting needs into a usable ERP model. This course addresses the practical challenge of configuring and governing Dynamics 365 Finance so that transactions post correctly, close processes are controlled, and management receives reliable financial information without excessive spreadsheet workarounds.

Participants work through the core configuration and operating capabilities of Dynamics 365 Finance: legal entities, fiscal calendars, ledgers, account structures, financial dimensions, posting profiles, workflows, budgeting, fixed assets, cash and bank management, accounts payable and accounts receivable. They learn to design financial dimensions, configure posting logic, manage period-end activities, use financial reporting and Power BI outputs, and apply security and data-management controls. Advanced sessions examine integration considerations, auditability, exception handling and configuration decisions that affect scale and maintainability.

The five-day programme combines instructor demonstrations with guided configuration labs in a Dynamics 365 Finance environment. Participants use a structured case organisation to configure a finance model, process representative transactions, investigate posting results and produce reports. They leave with a completed finance configuration workbook, including a chart-of-accounts and dimension design, posting-profile decisions, workflow controls, period-close checklist and a prioritised action plan for applying the design in their own organisation.

The course is best suited to people who already understand accounting operations or ERP delivery and now need working competence in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. It serves both professionals responsible for day-to-day financial processes and managers who need staff able to make controlled, evidence-based configuration decisions.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure legal entities, fiscal calendars, ledgers and accounting currencies in Dynamics 365 Finance
• Design a chart of accounts, account structures and advanced financial dimension rules
• Set up posting profiles that control subledger-to-general-ledger accounting entries
• Build approval workflows for journals, purchase invoices and budget controls
• Execute period-end close activities using financial period controls, allocations and reconciliations
• Configure budgeting, fixed assets, cash and bank management process settings
• Produce financial statements and operational analysis using Financial reporting and Power BI
• Create a finance configuration workbook documenting design decisions, controls and test scenarios

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Dynamics 365 Finance Functional Consultants — who configure finance processes and translate requirements into system design
• Finance Systems Managers — who own the operating model, controls and roadmap for the finance platform
• Financial Controllers — who need reliable close, reconciliation and reporting processes in Dynamics 365 Finance
• ERP Project Managers — who must govern finance workstreams, design decisions and implementation risks
• Senior Accountants — who support ledger, payables, receivables, fixed assets and period-end operations
• Business Analysts — who gather finance requirements and prepare configuration, testing and process documentation

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand double-entry accounting, general-ledger concepts, accounts payable and receivable, and standard period-end activities such as reconciliation and close. Experience using an ERP system is expected; prior exposure to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Finance and Operations, or AX is helpful but not essential. Participants should be comfortable navigating browser-based business applications and working with Excel data. This is not an accounting fundamentals course and does not teach software development, X++ coding or Azure administration. No prior Power BI development experience is required, although familiarity with basic financial reports will help.

Training methodology

An instructor leads each topic through a finance-process scenario, then demonstrates the relevant Dynamics 365 Finance workspace, configuration page and transaction flow. Participants complete guided labs in a training environment, including ledger setup, financial dimensions, posting-profile testing, workflow routing and report production. Small-group case discussions require participants to defend design choices for a multi-entity organisation with control and reporting requirements. Each day closes with a practical output, and the final session converts the completed configuration workbook into an application plan for the participant’s own finance environment.

Course outline

Day 1: Finance architecture and general ledger foundation

• Dynamics 365 Finance navigation, workspaces and organisational hierarchy
• Legal entities, operating units and intercompany design principles
• Fiscal calendars, fiscal years, periods and period-status controls
• Ledger setup, accounting currencies and exchange-rate types
• Chart-of-accounts design for statutory and management reporting
• Financial dimensions, dimension sets and account structures
• Voucher principles and general-journal posting lifecycle

Workshop: Configure the general-ledger foundation for a case-study group and produce a chart-of-accounts, dimension and calendar design sheet.

Day 2: Subledgers, posting control and cash processes

• Customer and vendor master-data finance settings
• Accounts receivable posting profiles and customer transaction posting
• Accounts payable posting profiles and vendor invoice accounting
• Sales-tax groups, item sales-tax groups and tax posting logic
• Cash and bank management accounts, bank groups and payment methods
• Bank reconciliation workflow and cash-position considerations
• Tracing vouchers from subledger transactions to general ledger

Workshop: Process supplier and customer transactions, reconcile their voucher postings, and resolve deliberately misconfigured posting-profile exceptions.

Day 3: Budgeting, fixed assets and controlled approvals

• Budgeting architecture, budget models and budget codes
• Budget register entries and budget-control configuration
• Budget funds available calculation and encumbrance concepts
• Fixed-asset groups, profiles and depreciation books
• Fixed-asset acquisition, depreciation, transfer and disposal postings
• Workflow configuration for journals, invoices and budget documents
• Security roles, duties, privileges and segregation-of-duties controls

Workshop: Configure a departmental budget and fixed-asset policy, then build an approval workflow with role-based routing and escalation.

Day 4: Close, reporting and data governance

• Financial-period close workspace and close-task management
• Ledger settlements, allocations and recurring journal processing
• Foreign-currency revaluation and year-end closing concepts
• Financial reporting row definitions, column definitions and report trees
• Management Reporter migration considerations and Financial reporting administration
• Power BI finance semantic models and operational dashboard use
• Data management framework, data entities and configuration migration

Workshop: Run a simulated month-end close, produce a financial statement and create a data-import plan for controlled configuration migration.

Day 5: Implementation design, testing and application planning

• Finance fit-gap analysis and requirements traceability
• Configuration workbook structure and decision logging
• Conference room pilot scenarios and end-to-end process testing
• User acceptance testing scripts, expected results and defect triage
• Integration touchpoints with supply chain, payroll and banking systems
• Lifecycle Services project methodology and environment governance
• Finance-operating-model roadmap and post-go-live control review

Workshop: Present a completed finance configuration workbook and 90-day implementation action plan for the case organisation, supported by test scenarios and control decisions.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Microsoft Lifecycle Services, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Excel

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions