7 Essential Reports to Managing Your Project-Based Business with Microsoft Dynamics: #1 – Project Evolution

With the extensive amount of data that is available within a Microsoft Dynamics ERP system, it can sometimes be daunting to know where to start. Each department within the organization has their own way of reviewing and interpreting data and project-based businesses are no different. This is why we have created a list of what we feel are the 7 essential reports that a company should be reviewing when managing its projects.

Project report #1: A project evolution report.

Every organization needs a report that will give you a snapshot of your project’s progress throughout its entire lifecycle. As your projects continue to advance, you will be able to review the details such as:

• Project costs versus budget
• Time and expenses already invoiced versus what is sitting unbilled in your work in progress (WIP)
• Comparison of your project’s profitability against internal benchmarks and other industry averages

What you need to keep in mind with this kind of report is that since it touches so many different groups within your organization, the details will probably change very quickly as time is continuously being entered against the project and invoices are being sent out on a regular basis. This is why it is important to have reports such as this one be updated on a daily basis (ideally it would be in real time) in order to accurately monitor the actuals so that you are assured that you are analyzing your projects with the most up to date information.

What we like about this type of report is that it gives you a snapshot of your complete project’s lifecycle from the budgetary phase all the way through to the invoicing phase. With the drilldown capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics, you can review your projects as a general overview or as detailed as the individual transactions allocated to each project.

Things to look out for when reviewing this type of report:

• That your budget is aligned with your actuals to date (from both a cost and revenue perspective)
• Keeping your WIP as close to zero as possible – the longer your unbilled time stays in this account, the less likely you will be able to collect on it later on.

When you have a report such as this one which can be used by a variety of different roles within an organization, it is important that there is the ability to filter and review their information in different ways depending on the particular person’s needs. By having the capability to filter the information, it makes it easier for the different managers to review the data, which in turn reduces the number of reports that need to be created or modified because each group is satisfied with the details within the report. Another reason why we like a report that can span across the different roles and departments is that everyone is now analyzing their data from the same source, so that when they are reviewing their information with other departments, there is only one version of the truth.

This is just one report on how you can more efficiently manage your project-based business. Download the eBook today for the complete list of reports at http://www.jovaco.com/en/library/how-to-measure-your-projects/.

By JOVACO Solutions, a project accounting expert in Quebec