Smart Start #4: Project Budgeting in the new Microsoft Dynamics AX
Creating and managing a project budget is an evolving process readily managed in the new Microsoft Dynamics AX. It allows for budgeting by amount, category, or activity.
The project RFQ functionality provides both the budgeted revenue and budgeted cost for the four quoting components items, labor hours, expenses and fees shown here.
Item costs are pulled from the item master, hours costs can be pulled from several places set up in AX7, the labor category, person assigned to the project, even manually entered on the quote lines. Expenses are managed in a manner similar to labor hours while fees allows for budgeting project bonuses and penalties. Budgeting for a product or service not yet defined in the product master? AX 7 handles this with categories which have similar traits as an item with the flexibility needed for quoting. Converting a quote to a project creates budgets for both revenue and expenses.
Projects budgets can exist at the top level of the project hierarchy, each level of the hierarchy, or individual projects with roll up capabilities. Adding a new quoted project to an existing hierarchy? No problem for AX 7. Rather than creating a new project, select an existing project. A project can have multiple iterations of budgets all of which can be saved, maintained and used for various reasons including forecasting, comparison and estimates to complete. The delivered workflows provide control over the budget process including approval for original amounts and any changes. Budgets can be expanded into more detail components or just as easily summarized. At any point in the project or at any level of the hierarchy budgeted to actual comparisons are available.
Check back for the fifth in the “7 Smart Starts for AX 7” Series.
More updates on the New Dynamics AX Projects will be in future articles.
