The Project Net Profit screen in Dynamics SL provides net profit and budget analysis for a project or a group of projects, showing one line of information for each account category. As account category to Dynamics SL is like a project manager’s chart of accounts-just easier to read (not numbers).
Also available in this screen is a graphical representation of the data and the ability to drill down to supporting detail.
In the Project Net Profit Screen, you can see that Commitments created by Purchase Orders and Timecards are also reflected in this screen-making the screen itself quite useful to project managers who have made commitments (cut purchase orders or had crews working on projects).
Only account categories with an account type of Revenue or Expense are displayed. Three total lines are calculated and displayed. The Total Revenue line is the sum of all revenue account categories.
The Total Costs line is the sum of expense account categories. If both revenue and expense account categories are present, a Net Total line is calculated as revenue minus expenses. The variance is the difference between the total budget and the EAC amount.
Also available in this screen is a graphical representation of the data and the ability to drill down to supporting detail. A single row or column may be graphed by selecting it from the grid and clicking Graphical display.
Clicking Communicator opens Send Messages in the Communicator module to notify someone about the profitability of a project. Clicking Task Net Profit opens Task Net Profit, where a profit analysis for all tasks may be viewed. Clicking Drill down opens Transaction Detail Inquiry in order to view the individual transactions that make up the amount for the selected project and account category.
Note that if the Commitment column is highlighted when you click Drill down, Commitment Detail Inquiry (PA.CMD.00) opens for viewing the individual commitment details.
One of the reasons I love to demonstrate this screen is that once you have opened up Task information, you can easily summarize the project’s tasks into groups that are logical for a project manager to want to see, and then with one click-export to Excel for PM’s and other important people that want only to see the information and not have to learn how to either navigate through Dynamics SL or pay for a user license.
Recently Light Users have made more people interested in getting this data through Microsoft’s Business Portal. Dynamics SL also allows every grid, with Dynamics SL 2011, to export the entire grid to Excel with one click.
So as you can see, this one screen in Dynamics SL, Project Net Profit, allows you to quickly demonstrate the usefulness of the Project Controller module.
After all, what’s the use of having useful and intuitive integration from general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, purchasing, inventory and order management, if you can’t quickly view the project’s progress versus a budget and drill down into the detail?
To download the datasheets, front and back, for Dynamics SL and its Project Controller, Project Allocator, Project Flexible Billings, Project Time and Expense, Project Utilization or Project Communicator, please click on the following link for Project Accounting.
