Investment project and beginning balances in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations (AX)

When you want to load beginning/opening transactions in a project without affecting financials/general ledger, then one should use the feature known as beginning balances in "Project management and accounting" module in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations (AX)

1. Enable beginning balances setup for the project type and project stage in "project management and accounting parameters"

1. Setup project beginning balance type journal
2. Create a beginning balance journal header and in lines specify the opening transactions with details
   1. The types allowed for beginning balance journal are:
      1. hour
      2. Expense
      3. Item
      4. Fee
      5. On account
   2. If needed enable a flag in "project management and accounting parameters" under journals and ledger section viz. "Automatically set accounting date to open period"
   3. Recommend to create dedicated categories for loading opening balances.
   4. After the beginning balance journal is posted, verify the posted transaction against the project and also verify that there is no financial voucher posted.
      1. Ensure the line property being chosen has the WIP posting for capitalize cost set to Yes/enable.
3. Post regular transactions on the project (let us take investment project type)
   1. e.g. hour posting

1. When running estimate for investment project, ensure to enable "Beginning balance" slider and then run through the estimate.

1. After running the estimate, beginning balance transactions would directly show in the Profit and Loss section or WIP section based upon on the line property.
   1. If line property has the WIP posting for capitalize cost set to Yes/enable then it would appear in WIP section
   2. If not enable then would appear in profit and loss section and these transactions total would reflect as Not capitalized in the Consumption section of estimate.

1. All regular posted project transactions would appear in WIP (work in progress)
2. When you the post estimate for the investment project, only the WIP cost would be transferred to the project cost

1. Upon eliminating the estimate,