Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

Budget, Usage and Billable

Hello everyone,

In our projects, we bill some of our tasks on a Time and Material basis, and other tasks have fixed prices no matter if we use less or more hours doing the tasks. Budget/billable lines are allowed, usage link is applied. Employees fill their time sheets and hours are posted in job journals. I haven't figured out yet how to proceed when hours exceed the budget allowed in both cases, without changing the budgeted hours and with the right usage.

Let's say that the budget is 10 hours, and that the employee worked 12 hours on the task. I have noticed that :

- Fixed prices : I use Both Budget and Billable for the job planning lines. In the job journals, when I import lines from time sheets, if the line type is Both Budget and Billable, the budgeted hours will increase to 12 hours. If Ieave the line type Blank, budget remains 10 hours but posted hours will top at 10 hours. I can still see 12 hours used in the posted job ledger though.

- Time and Material : I should select Budget in the job planning Lines and Billable in the job journal, right ?

Would it be easier if I disable budget/billable lines and usage link ?

Thanks !

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Business Central

This functionality has changed a bit over time, and at the current state I do not think the Usage Link is required.

For T&M Jobs, JPL's should be marked Budget only. The Time Sheets or Job Journal entries should be marked as Billable only. This way your original estimate remains the same and the system will record the actual Usage and create Billable JPLs at the same time. You can then go to the JPLs, highlight all and Create Sales Invoice. The system will only bill what hasn't been invoiced yet, so if the Job remains open a while you can quickly invoice for the next set of work without worrying about double billing the client.

For Fixed Bid Jobs, you have two options:

1) Use Budget/Billable JPLs, which will show the detail of what is being billed based on what you estimated (not actuals). When you record your Time Sheets or Job Journal entries, the Line Type should be left Blank. This way it records the Job Ledger costs without increasing your budget and without creating additional billable lines. At the end of your Job or specific Milestones, you select the lines you want to bill and Create the Sales Invoice.

2) Use Budget for your JPL estimate and create a single (or multiple milestones) Billable JPL. This allows you to control what is on the final invoice to the client regardless of how the work is performed. Again, when you record your Time Sheets or Job Journal entries, the Line Type should be left Blank. This way it records the Job Ledger costs without increasing your budget and without creating additional billable lines. At the end of your Job or specific Milestones, you select the line(s) you want to bill and Create the Sales Invoice.

I would recommend testing these scenarios in your Sandbox environment to ensure the workflow and customer facing information matches your business goals.

P.S. If this information was helpful in resolving your question, please mark it as a Verified Answer to help other forum Users.

Best Regards,

Ben Baxter

Accent Software Inc

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