How to Manage Build-to-Order with Projects in Dynamics 365 Business Central

TMC Build to Order in BC

I want to show you how you can manage build to order projects in Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Project Structure

We will be looking at project structure, how we can set up tasks and subtasks. We will be looking at planning lines, the detail of the projects. I am also going to show you assemblies in a project where I can use a standard assembly but also a customized assembly. We will look at sales invoicing. We will look at project posting journals and also the work in progress. So let’s get started.

Role Center

So I’m logged in to Business Central as a project manager. This is my role center. This is the standard role center, and I’ve got information about projects in Business Central. What I like here is down in the left hand corner, I’ve got my projects. These are the projects that I’m focused on and it gives me easy access to them. So let’s take a look at this.

Billing Section

This is the project that we’ll be working with today. I’ve got different tasks of different natures, and we’ll take a look at that. First of all, let’s look at the billing section. I’ve got a billing schedule already set up so I can bill my customer as I progress through the project. You can see that schedule right here. Further down, I’ve got the cost of the project.

Planning Lines

Let’s take a look at the planning lines. These are the planning lines for this particular task. On this task, I’ve got 2 assemblies. These assemblies are set up here. I’m going to have a style one pump and a style 2 pump. The style one pump I’m going to assemble just as is, as I normally would do it. And the second one, I’m going to customize that. So when I put this in the project, I said I’ve got a quantity of five and also the quantity to assemble of five. So what this does is Business Central is automatically going to create those assemblies so I can manage them from there. So let’s take a look at it. This is the list of my current assemblies. The bottom 2 here were just created by the project that I just showed you. So let’s open them up.

Standard Assembly

This is my standard assembly in Business Central. I’ve got different components in order to complete the project. I will assemble this item here. I’ve got five of them, and then I’m going to close it to the project and I’ll be done.

Customized Assembly

The second order here. Let’s take a look at that. This is the same standard assembly, but what I can do is I can change it. For example, if I want to change the quantity, I can change the quantity of the component items. Here I’m going to do that. I can also add an item or take an item out if I want to. So let’s add an item here. I’ve got this item from my inventory. I’m going to add it to this particular assembly. This will be a new version of this particular assembly that I’m going to include in the project. So I’m going to add 4 per unit. I’ve got five of these units. So I’m done here. I’m going to save this. This is going to be a different assembly. It’s going to have a different cost.

Other Tasks

Let’s take a look at these other tasks. I have got a task here. I’m taking other items from my inventory to include in this particular project. You can see those right here. I have got inventory items here, and I have got a quantity in the cost. And here’s another plan line for this particular task. I’m going to subcontract this out. I’m going to create a PO. The cost of the PO will end up in the project.

Sales Invoicing

Next, let’s take a look at the sales invoicing. This is easy to do in Business Central. I’m back in the project and here’s my billing schedule. I’m going to go back and bill the first down payment. Go into the planning lines here and it’s easy to do. This is the information that I need. I can scroll over to the right and see the amount that’s going to be invoiced. It’s right here. It’s $1000 and all I need to do is create a sales invoice. So that’s done. Let’s take a look at the invoice. Here’s the sales invoice here. It hasn’t been posted. It’s just been created. I can delete it from here or I can go ahead, send it out to the customer and post it, which is what I’m going to do. I’m just going to go ahead and post that and I’m done. And I can now see on my project schedule that I have invoiced that down payment. So I’m ready to go.

Posting Costs

Let’s take a look at posting some of the costs here before we continue. If you like this type of content, the best way to support us and to help others find this content is to subscribe to our channel, activate the notifications, and share your thoughts in the comments section below. Thank you for helping us grow this channel. Let’s get back to the demonstration. I am going to generate and post a couple of different types of project posting journals. 1 is going to be for the two assemblies I created. I am going to post those. I am also going to post the inventory items I took out of my inventory and put into the project. And then we are going to process the PO to the subcontractor. So let’s get started to create a posting journal. I’ll go into the detail line and these are the assemblies. Let’s go ahead and create a project journal. And right from here, I can go and post that. And I’m going to go ahead and post a second line, create the project journal, then I will go ahead and post it. But when I go ahead and do that, I see I have got an insufficient quantity for some of the items on that assembly. This is easy to fix. I will run a quick planning worksheet to get that information in the MRP process and create the purchasers and receive those. And these are the items I need to complete those final assemblies. So I’m going to go ahead and order these. I will select the ones I want to create. I will carry out the action messages. This will create the purchase orders. Then I will go ahead and receive those in and then post that journal. Here’s one of the purchase orders here. I’m just going to go ahead and post that. Here’s the second purchase order. I’m going to go ahead and receive that as well and I’m done with that. I can go back into the planning line and open the project journal. It’s got this item here. I’ll go ahead and post it. The next thing to do is create a project journal for the additional items I added into this particular project. That’s also easy to do. Go down here, open up the planning line, create project journal lines. Here’s my project journal for those two items. I can go ahead and post them. You’ll take it out of inventory and put the cost into the project, and we’re done.

Purchase Order Costs

Next, let’s see how I use the purchase order to bring an additional cost related to a subcontract that I have for this particular project. I put this purchase quote together when I was planning this project and presenting it to my customer. My customer obviously wants to go ahead with it, so I’m going to go ahead and turn this into an order and then I’m going to receive it. Now, this purchase quote is already assigned to the project and to the task within the project and also a specific line item in the detail. You can see that right here. I’m going to go ahead and make an order of this. Here’s a order right here. I’m going to go ahead and receive this and invoice it. This cost will then go into the project. So I’m done with the cost on this project. The project is complete. I need to do some additional billing.

Calculating Work in Progress

Next, let’s take a look at calculating the work in progress. I can do this at any time in the life of the project. At the bottom of the project page is a work in process summary. I can calculate it, recognize it, and then post it to the general Ledger. So right now I’ve done no calculation. It’s easy to do. All you need to do is go up to WIP, calculate the WIP. It will go ahead and calculate the WIP based on the criteria I set up for this particular project. So I’m going to go ahead and calculate it and you can see the calculation right here. The next thing to do is I can move this to the general Ledger on a periodic basis if I want to. So I’m going to go ahead and do that and a post to the GL and I’m done.

Conclusion

And that was a quick view on how to manage a build to order project within Dynamics 365 Business Central. It’s really quite easy to do. We looked at the project structure and the detail how we can handle custom assemblies in that project and then also do the accounting associated with it, including sending invoices to customers.