Working with Projects

Integration of Projects into the sales process

In the standard version of Business Central, there is almost no connection between the sales module and the project module. This means that an integrated process, where the Sales Order includes the total budget, which is invoiced based on the progress of the project, cannot be mapped. So there is no possibility to invoice a offered Project (or the respective project components) to the customer based on Time Recordings.
Project Tasks and Project Planning Lines are required for the provision and billing of services (in the form of Time Recordings). In the standard of Business Central, however, these are only created when an item is shipped, for example. Since services are represented in the form of items, this point in time is too late from the point of view of the time recorder. Therefore, DYCE Project Billing was used to integrate the Project into the sales module and to create the Project Tasks required for time recording on the basis of the Sales Order. At the same time, the project managers' requirement that the individual partial budgets (in the form of Sales Order items) can be broken down into even smaller components was encountered by this implementation.

Illustration using the example of a software implementation project

A software implementation project consists of the sale of the corresponding licenses, consulting services in the form of workshops, training sessions and project management accompanying the project, and development tasks for adapting or expanding the software's range of functions. It takes about half a year and is divided into several phases. The consulting budget is to be divided into the number of workshop and training sessions and the development budget is to be divided into the individual adjustments, so that a budget overrun in a sub-area can be identified immediately.
The total budget splits up into licenses, consulting and development services with the corresponding quantity. For the particular activities (e.g. workshops and training or also the changes to be implemented) the project manager needs in each case individual Project Tasks with the appropriate partial budget. Here the system is to support him.
At the start of the project, a training session is held for the key users before entering the workshops. The consultants involved record their times on the designated Project Tasks (more precisely: the related Project Planning Lines). At the end of the first month of the project, the services performed within this month are to be invoiced. For this purpose, the project manager can use a filtered view (in Project Billing page), which displays the Project Tasks of his projects for which time has been recorded. After review, he releases the Time Recordings for posting.
The project office posts these Time Recordings, creates the invoices in the next step and posts them, as well. The posted invoices are sent to the customers including a Detail Overview, which lists the details of the services provided.