Migration Guide: Work Order Budget Lines Update (2026)

Overview

DYCE Project Billing is undergoing a structural evolution. To support granular budget allocation and seamless Jira integration, the data structure is moving from Work Order Header fields to Work Order Lines.

This change allows multiple budget lines to be assigned to a single work order, enabling task-oriented approvals rather than broad project-based billing.

Key Benefits

• Multi-Budget Allocation: Assign multiple project tasks and planning lines to a single work order.
• Jira Integration: Time Tracking can be used directly in Jira. Time recordings, work orders, and work order lines are synchronized with Business Central.
• Jira Structure: Aggregate the complex Jira hierarchy in Billing Work Orders and connected Sub-Work Orders to simplify invoicing.
• Task-Oriented Approval: Release and invoice time recordings based on specific tasks (work orders) rather than the entire project task.
• Status and period-based invoicing: Time recordings of work orders can be released based on the status (e.g., change request, software changes) or at the end of the month (e.g., workshops, training), which allows for invoicing them as soon as possible.

Mandatory Dependency: DYCE Time Tracking

This restriction will be enforced in June 2026.

Crucial Requirement: Work orders are functionally dependent on DYCE Time Tracking.

A work order cannot perform its primary purpose of capturing and validating time recordings unless the following condition is met:

• Time Tracking Enabled: "Time Tracking must be enabled in the Feature Management page in the Administration area of DYCE Connect (Link to Feature Management).
• Impact of Disabling: If this setting is disabled, it is technically impossible to create time recordings for work order.

Why this matters: The work order structure has been specifically developed to connect external systems such as Jira and Azure DevOps via Time Tracking. If Time Tracking is not used, DYCE does not support time recordings in work orders.

Project Billing 2026.4

The most significant change is structural. Previously, details such as the Project Task or Project Planning Line were stored directly in the header of the work order. This change allows for an impressive innovation.

• The 2-level hierarchy enables the definition of a Billing Work Order, which is used to release and invoice the time recordings of the Sub-Work Orders.

  • Usability Improvement: This eliminates the need for complex multi-level nesting in the releasing and invoicing process, while allowing users to organize work naturally (e.g., individual tasks rolling up to a Story or Epic for invoicing).
  • Billing Consistency: A Sub-WO automatically inherits its Customer and Project from the Billing Work Order, ensuring 100% billing consistency across a project team without manual data entry.
  • Time Recording Consistency: Time recordings have to use the customer and project of the work order, regardless of the Budget Type, to ensure the time recordings of a work order contribute to the same project.

• Refined Budget Types Open and Project

  • "Open" Mode (High Flexibility): Perfect for reactive work (e.g. support tickets in Jira Service Management). If a user creates a time recording in a new task, the system auto-creates the work order and the work order line. It even auto-fills the Customer/Project based on the first entry. Everything is transferred to Business Central to be released and posted, without any manual effort.
  • "Project" Mode (High Control): Designed for fixed-budget implementations (e.g. sales order). Users are restricted to selecting only pre-defined work order lines, preventing accidental overruns or misallocations at the point of creating time recordings.

• Advanced financial and budget guardrails

  • Structural Locking: Once a time recording is released or posted, the system "freezes" the structural metadata (Customer, Project, BWO). This prevents the "shifting sand" problem, where an invoice target is changed after the work has been approved.
  • Budget Reservation: Work order lines can now exclusively reserve quantities. If the budget is shared, it uses “first-come, first-served,” but for specific change requests, the budget can be "locked" to that specific work order.
  • Visual Indicators: If the sum of reserved quantities exceeds the actual project budget, the system highlights the values in red, providing immediate visual feedback to project managers.

• Seamless Billing Logic (Service Billing Types) The logic behind how time becomes money is now more granular:

  • Time & Material: Automatically scales the budget ceiling as work progresses.
  • Budget (Capped): Allows effort tracking beyond the limit but strictly stops invoicing once the ceiling is reached.
  • Fixed Price: Effort is tracked for internal cost analysis, but the invoice is driven by completion, not hourly duration.

More information about work order business logic

Available in May

Please note that these features will be available once the update has been completed and the data upgrade has been performed in May. Project Billing will be limited to one work order line per work order with Budget Type Project to be compatible with Connect. Work order lines in work order with Budget Type Open are not allowed. Work order posting is locked until the Connect Backend is ready.

Update Process

The new versions of DYCE Project Billing and DYCE Sync have been released on AppSource (version 2026.4.0.0).

Stage 1:

• ToDo:
  • The update of the Sync app and Project Billing should be completed by 04.05.2026
  • Start with the Sync app. It should update Project Billing automatically.
  • If the upgrade did not trigger, it can be run manually with the action Create Work Order Lines from Header (Stage 1 Migration) in Project Setup. If it did run, the action is disabled.
  • Please check the field Migration Stage in Project Setup. It should display Header to Line Done.
  • Please check that the Sync is still running.
• Result:
  • After the update, Project Billing (2026.4) works with work order lines.
  • The Sync app 2026.4. translates the work order lines in BC to the header fields in Connect.
  • DYCE Connect (Time Tracking) is still working with the fields (project task and planning line) in the header. If the project task has been saved in the work order but no planning line is selected, the work order line will be created without a planning line. The data upgrade will be triggered automatically.
  • The logic of the work order will remain the same in this stage.

Update Sync app Project Billing

Project Billing will check the Sync app when updating. If the Sync has not been updated, the data upgrade will not be triggered automatically. If the Sync is not updated, it will not be able to transfer records between DYCE Connect and BC.

Project Billing without Sync:

If the Sync app is not installed, the data migration will not be triggered automatically.

• ToDo:
  • It can be run manually with the action Create Work Order Lines (Full Migration) in Project Setup. If it did run the action is disabled.
• Result:
  • Please note that it will not be possible to create time recordings for work orders if Time Tracking is disabled (or not Onboarded). Please contact your partner if you are using a work order, but do not use Time Tracking.
  • The field Migration Stage in Project Setup should display Upgrade Done. Please check.

Temporary Restrictions

Until the 3-stage rollout is complete, there are two key points to keep in mind for your active projects:

• Work Order Posting: The field in Project Setup is temporarily locked until the Connect Backend (Stage 2) is ready. This prevents synchronization errors during the transition.
• Single-Line Limit: In the first phase (Stage 1), each work order with Budget Type Project is limited to a single budget line. work orders with Budget Type Open cannot have any work order lines. This ensures compatibility with the older Connect backend. The full "Multi-Line" capability will be unlocked automatically during Stage 2.

Stage 2:

• Todo:
  • There is nothing to do on your end. Singhammer will update Connect to work with work order lines in mid-May.
• Result:
  • The temporary restrictions are lifted.
  • Work Order Business Rules are applied for working with work orders, from now on.

Stage 3:

• Todo:
  • The field Migration Stage in Project Setup should display Upgrade Done. Please check.
  • If the data migration is not automatically triggered, it can be run manually with the action Create Work Order Lines from Time Recordings (Stage 2 Migration) in Project Setup. If it did run, the action is disabled.
• Result:
  • The migration did run automatically. The first Heartbeat sent by Connect will trigger the data migration in Project Billing (BC)
    1. The migration will send all existing work order lines from BC to Connect. This is done so that the IDs of the lines are the same in BC and Connect.
    2. Work order lines will be created for all time recordings with a project planning line and work order (both Budget Types). If the work order does not have a project, no work order lines will be created.
    3. The newly created work order lines will automatically be synced to Connect.

Technical Version Constellations

Constellation	Project Billing	Sync App	Connect Backend	Migration Stage	Note
Legacy	2026.3. or older	2026.3. or older	2026.3. or older	Field on Project Setup not added yet	Baseline version before the update
Incomplete Stage 1	2026.4. or newer	2026.3. or older	2026.3. or older	None	Update the Sync app NOW. It can no longer communicate with Project Billing.
Complete Stage 1 - April	2026.4. or newer	2026.4. or newer	2026.3. or older	Header to Line Done	If the Migration Status is not Header to Line Done contact your partner.
Stage 2 - May	2026.4. or newer	2026.4. or newer	2026.4. or newer	Upgrade Done	If the Migration Status is not Upgrade Done contact your partner.
Standalone	2026.4. or newer	2026.4. or newer	n/a	None	The data upgrade will not run automatically.

Legacy

DYCE Project Billing is installed, and the April 2026.4 version has not been installed yet. If the DYCE Sync app is installed, the April 2026.4 version has not been installed yet. Please check the apps in the Business Central Admin Center if you are uncertain, which apps are installed or which version they have.

Incomplete Stage 1

DYCE Project Billing has been updated to version 2026.4, but the Sync app has not been updated.

The Sync can no longer manage the communication between Project Billing and Time Tracking.

Update the Sync app immediately to avoid potential data loss. If you cannot update it in the Admin Center, turn off the Automatic Synchronization in DYCE Synchronization Setup and contact your partner.

Complete Stage 1 - April

DYCE Project Billing and Sync app is installed and updated to version 2026.4. The field Migration Stage in Project Setup displays Header to Line Done.

Target Release - May

DYCE Project Billing and Sync app is installed and updated to version 2026.4. The Connect Backend (Time Tracking and Project & Resource Planning) has been updated. The field Migration Stage in Project Setup should display Upgrade Done.

Standalone

DYCE Project Billing is installed, but the Sync app is not. The data migration has to be triggered manually. The action Create Work Order Lines (Full Migration) in Project Setup runs the data migration. If it has already run, the action will be disabled. Please note that it will not be possible to create time recordings for work orders if Time Tracking is disabled (or not onboarded). Please contact your partner if you are using a work order, but do not use Time Tracking. The field Migration Stage in Project Setup should display Upgrade Done.