Catapult’s Financial Close and Audit Module for Business Central is now available on Microsoft AppSource. It’s a Business Central extension that gives your finance team a repeatable month-end close, a review step on the work that matters, and a complete audit trail, all inside the system where your books already live.
Every finance team has someone who knows how the close really works. They know which reconciliations come first, which journal always posts late, and where last month’s bank statement ended up. It works fine until that person is out for a week, or the company adds a second entity, or a lender asks how you got to a number.
We built the module for that moment.
Why did Catapult build a financial close module for Business Central?
Business Central gives growing companies a solid general ledger. What it doesn’t include out of the box is a dedicated place to run the close. So the checklist ends up in a spreadsheet, the supporting documents end up in email and shared drives, and the record of who signed off on what ends up being whatever people happen to remember.
The usual fix is a separate enterprise close platform, which means another system to buy, host, and connect to Business Central. That’s a big ask for a company that just wants a cleaner month-end. We wanted a middle option, so we built the close workspace inside Business Central itself.
"Most finance teams aren’t missing discipline. They’re missing a place to put it. We built the Financial Close and Audit Module so the checklist, the evidence, and the approvals all sit in Business Central, right next to the books they’re about."
What does the Financial Close and Audit Module do?
The short version: you build your close checklist once. Each month you open a close period, and the module generates a dated copy of that checklist. People complete their tasks, someone else reviews them, and every action gets recorded. The useful part is in the details.
A close checklist you only build once
Set up a template with your tasks, owners, reviewers, and evidence requirements. Due dates are written relative to your close deadline, so a task due three days before the deadline stays three days before the deadline, whatever month it is. Open a new period, click Generate Period Work, and the whole checklist appears, dated and assigned. If one task depends on another, nobody can skip ahead.
Reconciliations that show the difference right away
Pull the general ledger balance and the supporting open entries into a reconciliation and the module calculates the difference for you. Open items are sorted into aging buckets (0 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, and over 90 days), so an item that’s been sitting for a quarter doesn’t go unnoticed. And if a G/L balance changes after you’ve approved a reconciliation, the module flags it for recertification instead of letting it quietly go stale.
Approvals that don’t let anyone grade their own work
By default, the person who completed a task can’t approve it. Reviewers either approve the work or send it back with a written reason, and that reason stays on the record. Reviewers can see the attached evidence but can’t add their own, so the person signing off is never the person who supplied the support.
Evidence attached where the work happens
Required evidence is an actual file, not a box someone can tick. The evidence indicator only switches on once a file exists, and the module records who attached it and when. For AR and AP aging tasks, it can generate the standard aging report and attach it for you.
Journals and variances reviewed before they’re final
Journal Reviews add a sign-off step to journal batches, with live debit and credit totals, and you can still post in the standard General Journal. For variances, you set a materiality threshold. Anything above it needs a written explanation before it can be submitted.
An audit trail you don’t have to assemble
Every complete, submit, approve, return, reject, reconcile, lock, and reopen is written to Close History, permanently. A period can’t be locked while work is still open, and reopening a locked period takes a documented reason, so the original lock stays in the record. When an auditor asks who approved something and when, the answer is already there. There’s even a read-only Auditor role, so external auditors can see everything without being able to change anything. Underneath all of it are five roles (Preparer, Reviewer, Manager, Auditor, and Admin) that mirror how a close team is actually organized. Built-in reports cover the questions that come up at month-end, like where the bottlenecks are and what’s still open, and the module publishes its data as read-only feeds for Power BI if you want a live dashboard.
Who is the Financial Close and Audit Module for?
It’s built for growing organizations running Business Central that have outgrown a spreadsheet close but don’t need an enterprise-scale platform. Three people tend to care most. The Controller or Finance Manager runs the close day to day. The CFO, in-house or outsourced, needs audit-ready controls without adding headcount or another system. And the Business Central administrator or Catapult consultant is the one who sets it all up.
"A growing company shouldn’t have to pick between a spreadsheet and a platform built for a company ten times its size. This gives finance teams real controls, inside the Business Central they already run, without a second system to manage."
See how it works
Watch the short preview below to see the module in action. For the whole thing, Blair Hurlbut walks through a complete close, from template setup to the audit trail, in the full product demo.
How do you get started?
The module is available now on Microsoft AppSource. If you want to look before you talk to anyone, the pricing guide covers what’s included, and the full demo shows a close from start to finish. You can also read more on the Financial Close and Audit Module product page.
If you’d rather talk it through, get in touch with our team. One of our solution experts will help you work out how it fits your close process.
A few quick questions
Does it run inside Business Central?
Yes. It’s a native Business Central extension, so there’s no separate system to buy, host, or integrate.
Can the person who completes a task also approve it?
Not by default. Segregation of duties is on out of the box, and your organization can tighten it further so only the assigned reviewer can approve.
Can it handle more than one company?
Yes. The All-Entity Close Progress report shows how each company is moving through its close this period.
