About monitoring the progress of a project

Article
04/11/2023

Important

This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

During the course of a project, you can monitor various aspects of the project’s progress. For example, you can view the hour utilization of the project team members, or you can compare actual cash flow with the cash flow estimate that was made before the project started.

The following sections introduce the types of methods that you can use to monitor the progress of a project.

Note

This topic includes information about features that were added or changed for cumulative update 7 or later for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2. This information also applies to AX 2012 R3.

Project statements

Create a quick view of a project or projects by creating a project statement. You can create a statement that reflects activity for a single project, for multiple projects that are associated with a single project contract, or for one or more projects that an individual worker has contributed to.

Project statements that are associated with a worker or project contract can be limited to show activity from only the project types that you want. You can also choose the transaction types for which you want to track progress. You can specify a starting date or date range to create a project statement that contains only transactions from a certain time period. By limiting the time period for the project statement, you can also compare the difference between actual transactions and forecasted transactions.

You can view general information about the profit and loss structure of the projects and information about accrued revenue and WIP account balances. You can also view consumption details, invoicing totals to date, and details about the rates for hours that have been posted to revenue and cost accounts.

For more information, see Project statements (form).

Invoice control

Use invoice control to calculate and view posted transaction amounts. You can identify which transactions have been invoiced, which transactions remain to be invoiced, and which of those that remain to be invoiced will cause the original quotation amount to be exceeded. For more information, see Invoice control (form).

Project budget balances

Compare the budgeted revenue and costs for a project with the actual revenue and costs to date for a project. For more information, see Project budget balances (form).

Hour utilization

View the hour utilization rate for the project team members who are assigned to a project. You can calculate the hour utilization based on a team member’s billable or efficiency rate on either budgeted hours or the actual hours spent working on a project. For more information, see Utilization hours (form).

Cash flow

Compare the calculated cash flow for a project with the actual cash flow. You can view all cash flow details for a project, or focus only on certain aspects of the project. For example, you can include specific transaction types, specific dates on which payments for the project were made, and payments that you expect to receive. For more information, see Cash flow (form).

Cost control

Calculate and view the cost of one or more projects. You can view all cost details for a project, or focus only on certain aspects of the project. For example, you can view remaining costs on the project and the difference between the actual costs and the budgeted costs of individual cost lines. For more information, see Cost control (form).

Committed cost

View detailed information about the costs that your organization has committed to incur for a project. For more information, see Committed costs (form).

Estimated and actual revenue and costs in a WBS in AX 2012 R3 and CU7 or later for AX 2012 R2

When you select a project category for a task and the sales price and cost per hour are specified for the project category, the price and cost amounts are automatically added to the work breakdown structure (WBS) for the task. In the cost tracking view of a WBS, you can view a comparison between planned, estimated, and actual revenue and costs for a task.

For more information, see Create a work breakdown structure of tasks for a project.

Estimated and actual hours for tasks in a WBS in AX 2012 R3 and CU7 or later for AX 2012 R2

In the work breakdown structure (WBS) form, you can enter the estimated number of hours that are required to complete a task. When you enter estimated hours for tasks, the values are automatically added to fields in the effort tracking view of the WBS. You can compare planned, estimated, and actual hours posted for a task.