Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps – New Book on Sales order based Revenue Recognition

 I am very much excited to announce the launch of my second Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps book on Amazon called “Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps – Sales Order-based Revenue Recognition In-depth”. Please check the link below. This book is available in paperback and e-book format (Kindle).

Link for Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps – Sales Order-based Revenue Recognition In-depth

Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps has a new offering – a new “Revenue Recognition” module where the revenue recognition is sales order-based. The module is introduced to empower the users to execute revenue recognition for contracts in line with rules and regulations as mentioned in IFRS 15.

This book has in total 256 pages and the pages are all coloured so that the screenshots are seen in much greater detail for better understanding. The book not only explains the topic theoretically but also has supporting T-account details which give an overall picture of the entire revenue recognition process. Please see the actual images of the paperback copy.

As mentioned earlier, I did write a book previously about fixed price projects revenue recognition. When I learnt about this new feature of sales order revenue recognition in the system, I thought of completing the loop. And hence created a book about this new sales order based revenue recognition, so that both of these two books together would broadly cover the revenue recognition area in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations system collectively and would be helpful for the end users as well as functional consultants.

Link for Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps Fixed Price Projects Revenue Recognition In-depth 

Hope the readers find this new book (and the previous one) insightful and hope they get more knowledge about how the system recognizes revenue using this new sales order-based revenue recognition offering.If you have any acquaintances, associates, colleagues, friends, relatives, and people you know, who work in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, please share this news with them.

Thanks…Stay calm and safe!!

 

Kind regards

Sarang Kusare

Project posting profile - Front end and Back end terminology mapping - Quick Post

Please refer to the screenshot below. This screenshot maps the different project posting profile on the front end to the project posting profile on the back end in the project ledger posting definition data entity.

Thanks
Sarang

Expense report, Expense voucher, Expense vendor invoice, Expense payment voucher - D365FO

Short post - Please refer to the table below to check how the system behaves when there are following different scenarios with respect to an expense report, expense voucher, expense vendor invoice and expense payment to the employee.

Thanks
Sarang

D365 Finance and Operations - Expense Mileage

Default mileage rate can be set at the expense parameters:

Mileage type expense categories can be set up and optionally mileage tiers can be set up at:

Mileage tiers can be defined per mileage expense category:

Mileage rate tiers can be defined for miles or number of passengers and can be date bound as well.

 Once the employee books the mileage, the system picks the applicable mileage rate into the expense line. If the employee puts a lot of mileage in one expense line, which covers many tiers, the system splits the expenses lines accordingly intelligently for you.

In the expense report below I did create only two expense lines but they were spanning across multiple tiers. System split them into 4 lines and posted the mileage rate accordingly.

When the mileage is posted, then the same gets recorded against the employee at:

That’s how the system knows how many miles are claimed against each tier for each employee.

The only thing that is not correct is the ‘New’ button on this form. I think that is there to manually enter the miles claimed by the employees in the exceptional scenarios where the system fails to do so.

Thanks 

Sarang

Project budgets and cost control in Dynamics 365 FinOps - IMP Parameters (Quick post)

Project budget control in Dynamics 365 FinOps is widely used for cost control (and can be used for revenue control, if the project is a capped T&M kind of a project). However, I am going to write about some of the typical parameters which I feel are important for a consultant to know while discussing this feature with the client.

Budget control parameters

Independent budgeting for sub-projects

• If YES, the user can create a fresh budget for a sub-project
• If NO, the user needs to create a budget revision to create a budget for sub-project

Allow budgeting control outside the project hierarchy

• If YES, the user can associate this project to a project budget of some another project outside of the current project hierarchy, where a budget is defined. When this value is YES in the project parameters, then on the project record, if the user turns the 'Use alternate project budget for budget verification', the 'Alternate project' drop down will display those projects in the system on which project budget is defined.

Associating the project budget to a project budget of some other project

• If NO, the user even if the ‘Use alternate project budget for budget’ on the project record is set to YES, the ‘Alternate project’ drop down will display nothing.

Budget control interval

• This is like telling the system at what point in time do you wish the budget control action to kick in. Do you wish to kick in the control mechanism when the ‘Total budget’ is hit or ‘Project to date’ is hit or  ‘Current period’ is hit or any other value etc.
• The value selected on the parameters is copied over to the new project. This value can be overridden on the project. If the value of this parameter on the project is other than 'Total budget', then it works in conjunction with the 'Allocate amount' feature, which is available while creating the budget.
• 'Allocate amount' feature should be used before the budget is submitted for approval. This feature is not available after the budget is approved. (Readers - Please let me know if there is any other way to allocate the amount after the budget is approved.)

Allocate budget feature not available after budget approval

Thanks

Sarang Kusare

Open in Excel v/s Export to Excel

Open in Excel v/s Export to Excel

This is a short post explaining the subtle difference between 'Open in Excel' and 'Export in excel feature' in Dynamics 365 FinOps.

Open in excel

When the 'Open in Excel' option is clicked on the data grid in Dynamics 365 FinOps, then the system opens the DYNAMIC excel sheet using 'Data connector'. That DYNAMIC excel sheet is nothing but the 'Data entity' holding that data. The sheet is dynamic because if the user creates a new record in the excel sheet and hit 'Publish', then the new record is created in the system and stored in the database. Similarly, if the user edits/deletes any record in the excel sheet and publishes the sheet, then the grid is updated accordingly.

Open in Excel

Data entity file created

Data connector

Export to excel

When the 'Export to Excel' option is clicked on the data grid in Dynamics 365 FinOps, then the system downloads the STATIC excel sheet with the data from the data grid on the screen. It is just a copy of the data and has no impact on the actual data in the system if records are created, edited or deleted in the excel sheet.

Export to Excel

Static excel sheet with downloaded data

Hope the difference is clear now.

Thanks

Kind Regards
Sarang

Was “Hit Refresh” by “Microsoft Future Decoded 2018” – Part 1

What a timing I must say, I just finished reading “Hit Refresh” by Satya Nadella and within a few days I received registration confirmation from Microsoft that I can attend the “Microsoft Future Decoded 2018” event. I was very much excited to attend the event as that was my chance to experience what I just finished reading in “Hit Refresh”. However, before I write about my experience at the event, let me first write something more about this wonderful book called “Hit Refresh” by none other than the present Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella.

Working day in and day out in the Microsoft product stack (like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, Customer engagement, PowerAps, PowerBI etc), I wanted to read something more about Microsoft, not from a technical or product related perspective but more from the organization perspective. With this thought in mind when I entered the Foyles bookstore in Waterloo and I got this book. I have always loved autobiographies as they are the first-hand account of what the person in question has gone through in his/her life. In terms of motivation and having a different perspective on life, autobiographies are way much better than the self-help books, because autobiographies are more straight from the horses’ mouth and hence more effective and long-lasting in terms of the impact that they make.

Hit Refresh

The book talks about Satya’s personal journey from his childhood in India to the point of he becoming a CEO of Microsoft and beyond. The book is a very engaging and interesting read but key takeaways from the book are some of these statements mentioned below. I actually have the habit of reading books with marker/ pen/pencil in hand, so that I can mark / highlight / underline the lines that I liked the most. In a nutshell, this book not only talks about his personal journey but also talks more about the journey on which Microsoft has been and what its journey would be like in future.

                                         

Some of the lines from the book “Hit Refresh”, which I couldn’t help from quoting it here are as below. They are mostly around leadership, technology, future trends at Microsoft.

• • Compete vigorously and with passion in the face of uncertainty and intimidation.
  • You must always have respect for your competitor, but don’t be in awe of it. You must go and compete.
  • One brilliant character who does not put the team first can destroy the entire team.
  • Leadership is about bringing the best in everyone, to bolster the confidence of the people you are leading.
  • An empathetic leader should always think about how the technology his team creates affect the daily lives of the people using it.
  • Consistency is better than perfection.
  • For anything monumental to happen, there has to be a great mind or a set of agreeing minds.
  • Microsoft mission – to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.
  • The world is divided into learners and non-learners, demonstrating that a growth mindset can move you forward but a fixed mindset can limit you.
  •  Learning to fly is not pretty but flying is.
  • To be a leader in this company, your job is to find the rose petals in the field of shit.
  • Bring clarity to those you work with (while explaining this point, Satya mentioned that he does not want someone to be the smartest person in the room, but he wants that same person to use their smartness/intelligence and use it to develop deep shared understanding within teams and define course of action in the event of uncertainty.
  • Leaders need to inspire optimism, creativity, shared commitment and growth through times good and bad.
  • Success can cause people to unlearn the habits that made them successful in the first place.
  • Trust is built by being consistent over time. Trust has many components as well, respect, listening, transparency, staying focused and being willing to hit reset when necessary.
  • Partnerships are journeys of mutual exploration and so we need to be open to unexpected synergies and fresh ways to collaborate. Openness is the best way to get things done and to ensure all parties feel terrific about the outcome.
  • Being straightforward with one another is the best way to achieve a mutually agreeable outcome in the fastest time possible.
  • Tomorrow always begins with a chance to create new opportunities.
  • Time needs to be managed with Employees, Customers, Products and Partners.
  • We tend to overestimate what we can achieve in the short run but underestimate what can be achieved in the long run.
  • Mixed Reality (MR), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum computing are all independent threads today but they are going to come together in future.
  • MR will become an essential tool in medicine, education and manufacturing.
  • AI will help forecast crisis like Zika epidemic and help us focus our time and attention on the things that matter the most.
  • Quantum computing will give computational power to cure cancer and global warming.
  • At Microsoft, we are betting that quantum computing will make artificial intelligence more intelligent and mixed reality even more immersive.
  • E + SV + SR = T/t (Empathy + Shared values + Safety and Reliability = Trust over time)
  • No product or policy works if it fails to reflect and honour the lives and realities of people and that requires those who design the product to truly understand and respect the values and experiences underlying those realities. So empathy is a crucial ingredient in developing a product or a policy that will earn people’s trust.
  • Trust is essential and it is also painfully vulnerable to a multitude of forces.
  • (Education + Innovation) * Intensity of tech use = Economic growth
  • Societies that utilize new tools quickly are likely to be more productive.
  • Although automation tends to reduce employment and the share of labour in national income, the creation of complex tasks has the opposite effect.
  • The third wave of globalization will come when telepresence and telerobotics(like HoloLens) become affordable.

Most Important Point, hence direct from source 

With all this fresh in the mind, I attended the two-day “Microsoft Future Decoded 2018” event here at the Excel exhibition centre in London. More about that in part 2 of this thread, till then hit refresh..:-).

Thanks

Sarang

New book on Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps – “Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps – Fixed Price Projects Revenue Recognition In-depth”

I have released a new paperback book called “Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps – Fixed Price Projects Revenue Recognition In-depth” on Amazon about the fixed price projects revenue recognition last Thursday .i.e. 27th September 2018. In this blog post i am going to talk about the book and the motivation behind that.

I knew basic fixed price projects revenue recognition and how to perform it in the system. However, when it came to knowing all the possible fixed price projects revenue recognition scenarios, i always had to dig the internet and find out how this scenario works and how that scenario works. And while doing that i realized that apart from the basic information about the fixed price revenue recognition, there was not much available on the internet. This triggered me write this book. I thought lets put all the logical and allowed scenarios on paper in details, along with the screenshots, explanation, supporting T-accounts, other relevant details, exceptions, shortcomings, specific behavior  and have it all in one place, in one book. The aim was to stop looking the internet endlessly for this topic henceforth.

What i did initially was plotted all the permutations and combinations with all the elements of the project group like 4 values of ‘Revenue recognition accounting rule’, 3 values of ‘Calculation methods’ and 4 values of ‘Matching principle’ and put them on excel sheet. The number came somewhere around 36. Also added further scenarios when i brought the ‘Cost template’ and its values for ‘Completion based on’ in scope. This added few more permutations and combinations with ‘Straight line’ and ‘WBS’ type of revenue recognition further adding to the scope. However, after trying each one of them by setting them up individually in the system, i concluded that 11 unique scenarios are the ones which i should be writing about in this book.

I decided to name it as “Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps – Fixed Price Projects Revenue Recognition In-depth” as this book gives the in-depth explanation for all the 11 scenarios along with all the accounting and relevant supporting details in over 200 pages. The second important decision was to print this book in COLOR, as the screenshots had many markings in RED, which i wanted the readers to really look at and understand it at once. The aim was always to uncover this complex beast of revenue recognition engine for fixed price projects.

Being a functional consultant, i have always faced many situations when client used to ask questions about a specific revenue recognition scenario and whether that is possible in the system and can i explain it. My regular answer was, “Let me get back to you on this”, as i knew that this is a complex area and this needs thorough preparation before presenting it to the client. Now with this book in place, i am personally in a much better position than what i was earlier. Not that i would answer all the questions about this topic instantly but at-least the turnaround time on them and the confidence would be much higher. I seriously feel that consultants working in the area of ‘Project management and accounting module’ of Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps, should definitely have a read through of this book.

Amazon link for the book is as follows: http://amzn.eu/d/7cEcot9

If you happen to read the book and if you wish to provide any feedback, then don’t hesitate to email it to me on kusaresarang@gmail.com. And if you like the book, then please write a review on Amazon, so that it would benefit other buyers too.

Thanks again!!

Kind Regards

Sarang Kusare

Quick post : Split the On-account invoice transaction for Credit note

When the project invoice includes just one on-transaction, then system does not allow the user to split that single transaction during the credit note.

Single on-account transaction cannot be split during credit note 

However when the project invoice involves multiple on-account transactions from the same and / or multiple projects / sub-projects, then the user can split the credit note and just process the credit note for the desired on-account transactions.

Multiple on-account transaction on the same invoice can be split during credit note

If the invoice proposal is run again, then only the one selected for credit note appears in the 'Create invoice proposal'.

On-account transaction selected for credit note

Once the credit note is posted, the transaction status for the selected on-account transaction changes to 'Chargeable'.

Status changed to 'Chargeable'

Thanks
Sarang Kusare

Reverting the SAME project transaction which is in 'Selected for credit note' back to 'Invoiced'

I just now came to know a way of reverting the SAME project transaction which is in 'Selected for credit note' back to 'Invoiced'.

When the project transaction is invoiced, the 'Transaction status' is changed to 'Invoiced':

When you select the transaction for credit note, the 'Transaction status' is changed to 'Selected for credit note'

I was wondering how do i put this 'Transaction status' back to 'Invoiced' as i selected the transaction mistakenly for credit note.

The solution is to just run the process again and 'Deselect' the transaction, which will revert the 'Transaction status' from 'Selected for credit note' to 'Invoiced'.

When clicked 'Ok', the system reverts the 'Transaction status' from 'Selected for credit note' back to 'Invoiced'.

The reason for knowing this was, i was getting stuck while posting an estimate on a % complete fixed price project. The on-account transaction based on which system calculates the accrued revenue was in the 'Selected for credit note' state and hence system was giving the error :

"On account cannot be chosen for type project and ID". 

Had i known this process of reverting the transaction status back to 'Invoiced' i would have been successful in posting the estimate.

Kind Regards

Sarang

Calculation Method and Balancing Fee Journal

There are three calculation methods when it comes to fixed price projects, they are:

1. None
2. Markup percent total
3. Markup percent estimate line

This post is not about describing what each of the calculation method does but this post is the super summary of when does the system create the balancing fee journal and when it does not. This post is for the advanced users of revenue recognition functionality. It is assumed that the readers of this post are aware of all the three methods and how they behave. This is a small post to just present the gist in a table format with respect to the creation of balancing fee journal for all three calculation methods.

Calculation method and Balancing fee journal

System behavior is different when the: 

• dimensions are NOT present on the project and hours transactions and  
• dimensions on the project and hours transactions are different

No dimensions on the project and hours transactions

Contract value - 100,000

On account transaction

Hours forecast - 146

Hours forecast

No dimensions on the project

No dimensions on project

Contract value distributed during the estimate

Contract value distribution among cost lines

Cost posted for all the three cost lines are 1,800, 1,200 and 3,600, which is equal to 6,600. Based on the contract value distribution, the revenue recognized should be 30,000. [((1,800 / 3,600) *20,000) + ((1,200 / 3,600) *30,000)) + ((3,600 / 18,000) *50,000))]

System suggested percent complete

System suggested percent complete

Actual hours v/s Hours forecast

But system suggested percent complete is 27.40 [((Total posted hours / Total hours forecast in Qty)*100), which is (40/146)*100 = 27.40] hence the accrued revenue value would be 27,400. Hence the balancing fee journal should be approximately 2,600. Completion is based on 'Quantity' in the cost template.

When the estimate is posted, following is the voucher posted:

One voucher for accrued revenue

And the posted transactions are as below, which shows the actual 30,000 accrued revenue and the balancing fee transaction of approximately 2,600. However strange enough there is no voucher for that balancing transaction.

Balancing fee transaction 

Dimensions on the project and hours transaction are different

I repeated the above example with the same values, but this time with the dimensions on the project and hours transaction. However the 'Department' dimension  on the project is 22, and on all the three hours transactions are 23, 24 and 25 respectively.

With all the steps same as above, when the estimate was created, the system showed a percent complete of 27.40. I manually changed to 25 to see the impact on the posting.

Percent complete changed from automatic to manual

The voucher that was posted was expected to have a balancing fee transaction of 5000, with the dimensions from the project.

Balancing fee transaction

Posted transaction was as below:

Posted transactions

However in this case the voucher was posted for the balancing fee transaction.

Hopefully this post has helped you get more insight into the revenue recognition and generation of balancing fee transaction.

Kind Regards

Sarang Kusare