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Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Answered

Create a Job's Budget - Actual People Resources not know at job creation

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Posted on by 50

As an Engineer-to-Order (ETO) business, our projects can last from between six to eighteen months; when we create a budget for a job, we know what tasks need to be carried out and the skill or trade required to undertake it, what we don't know is which specific employee or sub-contractor may actually undertake the work.

We have considered creating 'generic' resources for skills and trades, such as Architect, Quantity Surveyor or Cladding Engineer, which we use when creating the budget for the job. During our testing, this has worked well to a point. However,  when the timesheet for the employee who carried out the specific task is posted to the job, the actual costs are fine, but the 'generic' budgeted hours remain unchanged.

My understanding is that the quantity field on a job planning line will only reduce if the timesheet entry matches the job number, task number and resource id of the job planning line. Can you confirm that this is the case? If this is the case, can you allocate a specific timesheet entry to a job planning line but with a different resource?

We could change the resource allocated to the job planning line when we know who may undertake the task, but it is not unusual for various factors to conspire so that someone else does the work, such as illness or weather conditions. Also, this would add extra work on our project administrators.

Has anyone else had a similar issue? I would be very interested to know how you solved your problem.

Thank you in advance for your help.

  • RobinsonsScotland Profile Picture
    50 on at
    RE: Create a Job's Budget - Actual People Resources not know at job creation

    Ben,

    Thank you for your follow-up guidance.

    I am going to use Power BI to give us the information we need.

    Thanks again.

  • Verified answer
    Ben Baxter Profile Picture
    5,708 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at
    RE: Create a Job's Budget - Actual People Resources not know at job creation

    Not at the Time Sheet level.  You would have to set a Job Planning Line in the Job Journal, which I'm not even sure would reduce the Remaining Qty as the Resource is different.

    Since this is likely for analysis I would suggest using Power BI and having a report that does the math for Budget Lines less "Blank"/Usage Lines of Resources within the same Resource Group.  Or do it based on Budget Dollars less Actual Dollars for the Task.  Depends on the detail you're looking to understand.

    If it is a business critical need, you could likely create an Extension do this in BC.  You would add an Applies To JPL (Job Planning Line) field to the Time Sheet.  This makes the assumption the person entering the time is able to correctly identify and select the JPL you want the time recorded against.

  • RobinsonsScotland Profile Picture
    50 on at
    RE: Create a Job's Budget - Actual People Resources not know at job creation

    Ben,

    Thank you for taking the time to answer my question; it is much appreciated.

    On re-reading my post, apart from the obvious spelling mistakes, I realised that I referred to the Quantity field when I should have referred to the Remaining Quantity field, which I believe does reduce. Is there any way to reduce this value when the person actually undertaking the task timesheet is posted?

    Regards,

    Michael

    Robinsons

    Lockerbie, Scotland

  • Suggested answer
    Ben Baxter Profile Picture
    5,708 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at
    RE: Create a Job's Budget - Actual People Resources not know at job creation

    The way you are handling the Budget with a generic Resource is the best approach.  The Quantity field on a Job Planning Line does not get reduced when actual time is posted to the Job, even if the Resources matched.  If it did the budget would continually go down and you would not have an accurate Budget vs. Actual analysis.  If you are use to seeing this behavior, then perhaps you have an ISV extension in your system.

    I would not recommend trying to change the generic to the actual person.  While it can help with the creation of the Time Sheets, it generally takes more effort than value received.  If needed you could add an ISV scheduling tool to better move the work from a Generic Resource to an actual Resource, but again only if truly necessary.

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