Namith Hosmane's Blog

Wanted to share the recent implementation experience of D365 for one of our clients in the telecom industry. The project management and accounting module in D365 provides that capability to manage capital projects from recording the project expense\spends to converting them to fixed asset or eliminating them to ledger\project

In this part of my blog on capital projects, I would like to cover key configurations required for managing the capital projects in D365

Project groups:

The groups are mandatory setup to create any project in D365. To manage the capital project it is required to create project group with project type “Investment” to enable functionalities that required to specify capitalization rules. For more details regarding the project group click here

Project management and accounting > Setup > Posting > Project groups

Project working time templates:

Working time templates are global configurations that can be utilized across project management, accounting, warehouse management, and more. Within the working time template, we can specify the days and times when projects can be created in D365. From a system perspective, it is generally best practice to allow project creation on all days and at all times to accommodate real-time integrations from other third-party systems. For more details regarding working time templates click here

Organization administration > Setup > Calendars > Working time templates

Period types

The period types defines how frequently the project expenses or spends can be capitalized. The period types allow to create period type for Week, Bi-weekly, Semi-monthly, Month, Day, Quarter, or Year. It also provides an ability to do it for ledger period or create own custom period. For more details click here

Organization administration > Setup > Calendars > Period types

Cost template

The cost templates are used to define the method in which the transactions should be included to convert the expenses to an asset\ledger or project. For the capital project the cost to complete method should be “Set cost to complete to zero”. For more details click here

Project management and accounting > Setup > Estimates > Cost template

Forecast models:

The forecast models are required for managing the project budget control in D365. The Original and remaining forecast model are two types used for managing the project budgets. For more details regarding the forecast models click here

Project management and accounting > Setup > Forecasts > Forecast models

Line properties:

The line properties is one key configuration in D365 to determine if the project cost should be capitalized or not as some of the project cost will not be capitalized. Hence as a best practice create two line properties for Capex and Opex and define capitalization accordingly for the capital projects. The line properties can then be assigned to project group or project category level. For more details click here

Project management and accounting > Setup > Line properties > Line properties

Category groups:

The category groups are used shared the default properties like posting profiles. There must be at least one category group for each transaction type and each project category is assigned a group.

Project management and accounting > Setup > Categories > Category groups.

Shared categories, project categories

Shared categories are global configuration where the same category can be used across modules like Expense, Project and production. It is mandatory to create a shared category whenever new project category is required.

Organization administration > Setup > Categories > Shared categories

Project categories represent detailed level category configuration which provides an ability to map the category group, line properties and GL accounts to which posting should occur

Project Management and Accounting > Setup > Categories > Project categories

For more details on category group, shared and project categories click here

Project journal names:

Project journal names are required to record the transactions in the system where distinct number sequences can be configured to accurately track the project financials. For details click here

Project management and accounting > Setup > Journals > Journal names

Project management and accounting parameters

The project management and accounting parameters defines configuration related to specific legal entity around default project type, project stages, number sequences and define the project budget control configurations

Project Management and Accounting > Setup > Project management and accounting parameters

Stay tuned for the next blog on how to use this configuration and convert the project transactions to Fixed\ledger or another project.