This is what happens in the video
You can reconcile your open customer ledger entries against the balance on your customer accounts in the chart of accounts in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Use the built-in report “Reconcile Customer and Vendor Accounts” to do this.
The reconciliation matters because Business Central lets you post manually to any account, including customer and vendor control accounts. That means the chart of accounts balance does not always match the sum of your open ledger entries.
You can run the report with a date filter to reconcile at a specific cut-off date, such as the end of last month. The report shows the total per customer posting group, so you can check each customer account separately if you use more than one. When the difference shows zero, your accounts reconcile. When it does not, you need to dig into the entries to find the source of the discrepancy.
Why customer ledger entries and the chart of accounts can drift apart
In Business Central it is possible to create postings manually on any account, including the accounts you use for customer totals. Because of that flexibility, the amount sitting in your chart of accounts is not always identical to the sum of your open customer ledger entries.
That is why it is worth reconciling the two regularly. You want to confirm that the customer control account in the chart of accounts actually reflects what is recorded as open entries on your customers.
Checking the customer total in the chart of accounts
Start in your chart of accounts and find the account that holds your customer total. There you can see the amount according to the chart of accounts. If you want to reconcile at a specific point in time, for example the end of last month, you can apply a date filter to that balance.
Running the Reconcile Customer and Vendor Accounts report
After checking the chart of accounts, run the report called Reconcile Customer and Vendor Accounts. You can enter a date filter here as well if you are reconciling at a specific date. If you leave the filter out, the report shows all open entries.
The report is useful for reconciling several things at once. At the end it shows your customer total, broken down by the different customer posting groups. If you use different customer accounts, you can reconcile the individual amounts on each account and still see the combined total.
Reading the result and handling differences
The report shows the difference between the ledger entries and the chart of accounts. If the difference is zero, your accounts are in balance and the reconciliation is clean.
If the difference is not zero, you have to dive into your entries to figure out where the discrepancy comes from. Typically this points back to manual postings made directly on the control accounts.
Q&A
Why do open customer ledger entries not always match the customer account in the chart of accounts?
Because Business Central allows manual postings on any account, including customer control accounts. A manual posting can change the chart of accounts balance without creating a matching customer ledger entry, so the two figures can drift apart.
Which report reconciles customer accounts in Business Central?
Use the report named Reconcile Customer and Vendor Accounts. It compares your open customer entries with the balance on the customer accounts in the chart of accounts and shows the difference.
Can I reconcile customer accounts at a specific date?
Yes. You can apply a date filter both on the chart of accounts balance and in the Reconcile Customer and Vendor Accounts report, for example to reconcile at the end of last month. If you leave the date filter out, the report shows all open entries.
How do I reconcile customers when I use several customer posting groups?
The report shows the total per customer posting group. If you use different customer accounts, you can reconcile the amount on each account individually and still see the combined total at the bottom.
What do I do if the reconciliation shows a difference?
A difference of zero means your accounts are in balance. If the difference is not zero, you need to go into the entries and trace where the discrepancy comes from, which often points to manual postings on the control accounts.