If you're anything like me, the words "manufacturing project" conjure up images of massive undertakings, like building a new plant or production line. You know the ones: lots of moving parts, countless pieces of equipment, and that endless sense of, "Are we ever going to finish this?" Trust me, I’ve been there. But in the world of Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O), tracking these projects isn’t just manageable, it’s streamlined. And I’m here to show you how.
The Setup: A Manufacturing Project in D365 F&O
Let’s set the stage. Now closed your eyes. Ummm, I didn't think this through. Open them again and continue reading but imagine you've closed your eyes. You’ve got a big manufacturing project on the horizon, let’s say you’re building a new production line. It’s going to take a couple of years, multiple vendors, and a whole lot of assets. Throughout the project lifecycle, you’re buying expensive equipment, installing it, and ensuring everything gets up and running before you even think about go live.
Here’s where D365 F&O’s Project Management and Accounting module comes into play. This module allows you to set up and track all the expenses related to the project, including those shiny new assets (like machines or conveyors). As the project progresses, you can track actual costs vs. budgeted costs, ensuring that you don’t go too far into the red.
Procure, Receive, and Track Assets in F&O
Before any of those fancy new machines can make their way onto your shiny new production line, you've got to procure them. And D365 F&O makes this process a breeze by integrating your Procurement and Sourcing with the Project Management module.
Procurement: For each asset you need to purchase for the project, you’ll create a purchase order in F&O. As you place orders with vendors, you can tag the purchases to the project, ensuring that all costs are tracked and allocated correctly to your project budget.
Receiving Assets: Once the equipment arrives, it’s time to mark it as received in F&O. This step updates both the project and the financials, ensuring your books are accurate and that the asset is now part of your project inventory. All of this is seamlessly integrated, so the minute you receive the asset, it’s tracked and ready for its next phase—whether that’s installation or straight into production.
Asset Tracking: As the assets are procured and received, they’re immediately tracked against the project in D365 F&O. This helps you manage both the acquisition cost and the overall project budget in real time.
Here’s the beauty of it all, because the Project Management module is connected to Procurement and Asset Management, everything is synced up, so you don’t have to manually track costs or lose sight of where your assets are at any given time.
The Challenge: Using a Third-Party Asset Management System
Now that you’ve got your assets in place and your new production line is running, you’ll need to manage the ongoing maintenance and tracking of those assets. For many organizations, this involves moving data from D365 F&O into a third-party asset management system—one more system to deal with.
Here’s where things start to get a little trickier. If you’re using a third-party asset management system, you’ve got to find a way to transfer all that asset data from D365 F&O over to your other system. That means a data integration process where things can get lost, delayed, or mismatched. You’ll also have to manually track any updates to the assets, like maintenance, overhauls, or decommissioning, in two separate systems—F&O for the financial data and your asset management system for maintenance and tracking.
And the fun doesn’t stop there. There are always compliance requirements to think about, and if your asset management system doesn’t play nicely with D365 F&O, you could find yourself in a world of double data entry. Not exactly efficient.
The Alternative: Using D365 F&O’s Asset Management Module
Now, here’s a thought—what if you didn’t have to deal with two systems? What if everything could be tracked and managed right within D365 F&O, including the maintenance of those assets after your manufacturing project wraps up?
Enter D365 F&O’s Asset Management module.
This module is designed specifically for handling the entire lifecycle of your assets. From the moment they’re purchased and added to your project in the Project Management and Asset Management modules, you can also tag them for future tracking and maintenance.
Here’s how it would work:
Asset Purchase and Tracking: As you purchase assets for the project, you can assign them to the project in both the Project Management and Asset Management modules. This creates a seamless connection between the initial acquisition cost and the future maintenance requirements.
Project Closeout: When your manufacturing project is complete, all the assets you've purchased remain tracked within F&O—no need to transfer data to a third-party system. All financial information, such as depreciation and asset value, is already linked to the project.
Ongoing Maintenance: With everything in F&O, you can set up maintenance schedules directly in the Asset Management module. Whether it’s routine inspections or major repairs, the module allows you to define service levels and track ongoing costs.
Reporting: One of the best parts of keeping everything in F&O is the ease of reporting. All your project expenses, asset costs, and maintenance data are housed in one system, making it much simpler to pull reports on asset health, depreciation, and total cost of ownership.
By keeping it all inside F&O, you eliminate the headache of maintaining two systems, avoid costly data integrations, and streamline reporting. Plus, since F&O’s Asset Management module is built specifically for this, it integrates perfectly with all the other data housed in the system, making your life that much easier.
Why Keep It All Inside F&O?
At this point, you’re probably asking, “But why should I ditch the third-party system if it’s already in place?”
Well, here are a few reasons why it might be worth considering:
No More Data Integrations: Integrations are tricky, expensive, and error-prone. By keeping everything in D365 F&O, you eliminate this entire problem.
Single Source of Truth: With all your data in one place, your finance team can track the full lifecycle of an asset—from purchase to maintenance to disposal—without worrying about missing information.
Streamlined Compliance: Whether it’s tax reporting or regulatory compliance, having your asset data in a single system makes it easier to pull the information you need quickly.
Lower Costs: Managing multiple systems is expensive. You’ve got the cost of the software, the cost of integration, and the cost of the staff required to maintain and troubleshoot it all. By using D365 F&O’s Asset Management module, you could significantly lower those costs.
Dad joke of the day
Why can't leopards play hide-and-seek?
Because they're always spotted.
DynamicsDad
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