Silverline Ledger

For finance teams at growing small and medium businesses

Outgrowing your accounting software? Plan the move properly.

Silverline Ledger helps finance managers and controllers decide whether Dynamics 365 Business Central is the right next system, plan the migration, put purchase approvals into Power Automate, and set up the reporting the business actually asks for in Power BI.

Book a readiness review

We plan and configure systems. We don’t provide accounting, tax or audit advice.

Before you change anything

Signs the current system is holding the finance team back

Common patterns, not a diagnosis. Some of these have fixes that don’t need a new system at all, and a readiness review should say so.

  • Month-end keeps getting longerMore journals, more reconciliations, more spreadsheets bolted on each quarter.
  • Approvals happen by email replyPurchase orders signed off with “OK” in a thread, then nobody can find it at audit time.
  • Reports are rebuilt by handExports pasted into the same workbook every month before anyone can read the numbers.
  • The business has changed shapeA second entity, a new currency, stock in a warehouse: things the original set-up never expected.
  • One person holds the workaroundsWhen they’re on holiday, part of the close waits for them to come back.
  • Integrations are held together by exportsSales, payroll or ecommerce figures arrive as files someone uploads by hand.

Services

From “should we?” to month-end on the new system

Each service stands on its own. Many teams start with a readiness review and decide on the rest afterwards.

  1. 1Readiness
  2. 2Migration planning
  3. 3Purchase approvals
  4. 4Reporting

Finance-system readiness review

A structured look at how your finance processes run today, what the business will need over the next few years, and whether Business Central fits. The output is a recommendation you can take to the directors, including “not yet” if that’s the honest answer.

Relevant to: Dynamics 365 Business Central

You receive

  • A process map of purchase-to-pay, order-to-cash and month-end close
  • A list of requirements, split into must-have and nice-to-have
  • A fit assessment against Business Central, gaps noted plainly
  • A written recommendation with indicative next steps

We’ll ask for: a walkthrough of your month-end, your chart of accounts, and a sample of the reports you produce.

Migration planning

A plan for moving from your current accounting software to Business Central without losing history or confusing the first month-end. It covers what moves, what stays archived, and how you’ll know the opening balances are right.

A plan, not a guaranteed go-live date. Timings depend on your data, your team’s availability and any implementation partner involved.

You receive

  • Chart of accounts mapping and dimension design
  • A data migration scope: master data, open items, balances, history
  • A reconciliation checklist for opening balances
  • A cut-over plan with a parallel-run or sign-off point

We’ll ask for: trial balance exports, customer and supplier lists, and who signs off each step.

Purchase approvals

Purchase requests and invoices routed to the right approver automatically, with limits you set, reminders when something waits too long, and a record of who approved what and when.

You receive

  • An approval matrix agreed with finance: approvers, limits, cost centres
  • Approval workflows in Business Central and Power Automate
  • Approve-or-reject notifications in Outlook or Teams
  • An approval history you can export for audit
Example purchase approval route A request goes to the budget holder. If it is under the example limit it is approved. If it is over, it also goes to the finance manager before approval. Request Budget holder ? Over example limit? Approved Finance manager No Yes
Example routing. Limits and approvers are agreed with you.

Management reporting

A Power BI report pack built on Business Central data, so the monthly numbers are ready when the ledger closes, not after a day of spreadsheet work. Designed around the questions your directors ask, not around every field the system holds.

You receive

  • A short list of agreed management measures and their definitions
  • A Power BI report connected to Business Central, with scheduled refresh
  • Access set so each manager sees the parts relevant to them
  • A handover guide for adding a page or measure later
  1. Profit and loss against budget
  2. Cash position and aged debt
  3. Aged creditors and approvals waiting
  4. Margin by product line or entity
  5. Notes and measure definitions

Example contents. Yours is agreed in the first meeting.

Hypothetical example

How the four pieces fit together

A made-up business to show the sequence: a distributor with two trading entities and one warehouse, still on the accounting package it started with. This isn’t a client story.

  1. Readiness

    The review finds month-end takes over a week, mainly in inter-company journals and stock adjustments. Business Central is a reasonable fit, and one gap needs a decision.

  2. Migration planning

    Two years of history move as summary balances; open invoices move in full. The plan includes a parallel month before switching off the old system.

  3. Purchase approvals

    Warehouse purchases over an agreed limit go to the operations director as well as the budget holder; everything else is approved in one step.

  4. Reporting

    Directors get one report covering both entities, refreshed overnight, instead of two spreadsheets combined by hand.

Free resource

Finance System Readiness Checklist

A printable checklist for finance managers deciding whether it’s time for a new finance system. It covers processes, data, people, reporting, integrations, and budget and timing, with a summary page to bring to a directors’ meeting.

Open the checklist

About

About Silverline Ledger

Silverline Ledger works with finance teams at the point where the business has grown faster than its finance system. The focus is planning and configuration around Dynamics 365 Business Central, Power Automate and Power BI, with documentation your own team can keep using.

What we don’t do

  • Provide accounting, tax, audit or financial advice
  • Promise cost savings, go-live dates or faster closes
  • Act for Microsoft. Silverline Ledger is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft

Contact

Book a readiness review

Tell us what system you use now, roughly how many people work in finance, and what’s prompting the question.

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