Design Detail: Project Status

In the Industrial Equipment Manufacturing, Project Control Suite is a complete project management solution to manage projects effectively from within Business Central.
Start with defining a project deliverable, costs, tasks and task sequence to calculate a timeline.
Track project task progress with lifecycle-based status control, and charge costs (including resource, material, and equipment usage) to a project during execution.

Full integration with Microsoft Dynamics Business Central sales, purchasing, assembly, inventory and warehouse management, manufacturing, and service management keeps you in touch with every aspect of a project through its execution.

Project Status

Planning

The project is being planned. When a project has the status Planning, you can undertake preliminary calculations and set up the project's structure before you get to the Quote status. Estimates can be used to create a high level cost estimate, based on Elements and Activities, for the Project to be detailed out in the Quote status. A project in the planning status is created by selecting the Planning status in the Create Project Wizard. Either specify a template or leave the fields on the 2nd page of the wizard empty to Estimate the Project. From the planning status a Service Object can be created from the Project Deliverable, with this Service Object the Service Department can start planning and prepare service contracts. When the Project progresses Service-Items are added to the Service Object.

Quote

A special kind of sales quote. When a project has the status of quote, you can make preliminary calculations. The project is offered to a customer. You can set up or change the project's structure and schedule. A Project Quote is either created from the Planning status or can be created directly from an Opportunity, through the Create Project wizard or manually through the New action. A Project Quote can be created for a Contact in combination with a Customer Template. When an Estimate exists it must be broken down into budget lines with the help of a Breakdown function where each Project Cost Type per Element can be broken down in individual budget lines. Project Quotes can be archived enabling you to work with several Versions of the Project Quote. The current version of the Project Quote is always the active one and a new version is created by either archiving the current version or by restoring a previously archived version. When the Project Quote is Won, and promoted to the Order status, a Customer is created (when required) and the Project Quote is archived. When a Project Quote is Lost the status is changed to Completed.

Open

A special kind of sales order. Every control feature of the Project can be maintained (Planning, WIP, Posting). You can use sales invoices and credit memos to customers to invoice the project as per the invoicing method. Service Item: You can select Project Items, for which a Service Item Group is selected and where Create Service Item is enabled, from the Project Item list and have them created as Service Items, when creating the Service Item can be linked to the Project’s Service Object.

Completed

The project is done. When a project is completed, you use this status to close the project. You can use the statistics on a completed project for comparison purposes and for the planning of future projects. The actual costs of the completed project can be compared to the scheduled figures. Be sure to keep this information not only for comparison, but also for use as a guideline or template for future projects.

See Also

Welcome to Industrial Equipment Manufacturing