Hi everyone,
I am working with both PMA and Service Subscriptions in F&O, and I’ve encountered a fundamental design difference that I am trying to understand or work around.
For Time & Material projects, D365 allows automatic revenue accrual at the moment when hours/expenses are posted (WIP). When the customer invoice is later generated, the accrual is reversed and actual revenue is recognized.
This follows the standard T&M pattern: earned revenue first->invoice later.
However, in Service Subscriptions, the system enforces the opposite sequence. According to Microsoft documentation:
“You can’t post accrued revenue until the fee transactions are invoiced.”
This means that subscription revenue accrual cannot happen when related costs (for example, posted resource hours) are incurred, even if the business model requires such matching. The subscription engine only permits revenue recognition after the subscription invoice exists, effectively following a deferred revenue->earned revenue model.
Questions from my side:
- Has anyone successfully implemented a workaround that enables revenue accrual for subscription-based projects prior to invoicing, similar to the T&M accrual logic?
If yes, how was it approached (customization, extension, different modules usage or etc?) - Is there any supported configuration that allows Service Subscription fee transactions to participate in the standard project WIP accrual engine (ProjTrans → Accrued revenue), instead of the subscription-specific accrual rules?
- Has anyone modeled subscription-type scenarios using PMA (example Fixed-price project revenue schedules) instead of Service Management, in order to achieve earlier revenue accrual? What were the pros/cons?
- Is this limitation intentional from an IFRS 15 standpoint in Microsoft’s design (subscription = deferred revenue model only), or is there an architectural constraint tying subscription accrual strictly to the invoice posting event?
- If the requirement is to accrue revenue periodically based on consumed hours but invoice the customer on a different subscription cycle, is there a recommended pattern or workaround (forecast models, separate accrual journals, custom WIP logic, etc.)?
Any guidance, past project experience, or alternative approaches would be highly appreciated.
Thanks a lot!!

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