Overview of the project to profit business process flow and its relationship to other processes
Applies to: Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Human Resources, Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
This article describes the project to profit end-to-end business process flow and its relationship to other business processes that can be used within Dynamics 365.
Project to profit process relationship
The following diagram shows the relationship of other processes and products/features for the project to profit process.
There are several processes that are often prerequisites to the project to profit process, including the following list:
Order to cash
The order to cash process can be upstream to the project to profit process, if your organization sells tangible items that lead to a larger project. For example, installation or warranty that is related to a tangible product.
Design to retire
This process can be an upstream process in two senses.
When you define the details for your project contract lines, or estimate projects, you can add items to the estimate. But first, you must configure the design to retire process.
Product lifecycle management might initiate a project to create or revise a product.
Prospect to quote
Most organizations use some sort of quoting or opportunity management process for larger projects. If you plan to use Dynamics 365 to support this process, you must configure the prospect to quote process to support the creation of leads, opportunities, and quotes, for example.
The project to profit end-to-end process is broken down into the following business process areas:
Govern projects
Manage project contracts
Manage project resources and schedule
Manage project delivery
Manage project financials
Monitor and analyze project performance
Learn more about the business process areas at Project to profit business process areas.
The downstream processes for the project to profit process include the following list:
Acquire to dispose
A primary goal of a project might be the creation of an asset that has a long useful life. You might have to amortize the accounting value of the asset over its lifetime. When the asset enters service, the accumulated costs of the project become the acquisition value of a new fixed asset that is managed via the Acquire to dispose business process.
Case to resolution
The case to resolution downstream process might start after an initial sale of a product or service as part of a project. For example, a company sells a software product to implement an enterprise solution. After the project is completed, the customer experiences issues. In such cases, the case to resolution process can be triggered to track and manage resolution of the issue.
Inventory to deliver
As for the order to cash process, if a project includes the sale of tangible, stocked products, the normal downstream inventory to deliver process applies to picking, packing, and shipping the product.
Order to cash
Order to cash can be downstream to project to profit. The sale of tangible or intangible products to customers is often within the scope of a project. For example, a project involves selling a software license and delivering work to implement it on behalf of a customer. For such products, the normal order to cash process often applies. This process includes entering sales orders, delivering the product, invoicing for it, and processing customer payments.
Plan to produce
In scenarios such as engineer to order or build to order manufacturing, you often manage the production of subassemblies or finished products as part of the project. For example, a manufacturer wins a contract to design, build, and commission custom equipment. Because the project takes months, or even years, and encompasses many cost components, the manufacturer manages the contract as one or more discrete projects.
Design to retire
A project might be intended to create or revise products to be sold and thus provide inputs to a downstream end-to-end process.
Source to pay
The Source to pay process involves purchasing goods and services and making payments for them. In most organizations, the procurement of various materials and equipment is necessary to complete a project. If you plan to use Dynamics 365 Project Operations to support your organization, make sure you configure the Source to pay process for tasks such as the following list:
Create purchase requisitions
Create purchase orders
Receive goods and services
Invoice approvals
Invoice payments
Make financial reconciliation
Record to report
The record to report downstream process involves the following tasks:
Recording generated revenue from the project as a financial transaction
Performing reconciliation to ensure all financial transactions recorded accurately
Preparing financial statements
Analyzing financial data
Closing the accounting period
Service to cash
Service to cash can be downstream to project to profit. For example, you sell intangible services such as consulting or health care services to customers. This process involves steps such as the following list:
Providing a service
Generating the service report for the services provided
Invoicing for the service
Processing customer payment
Featured capabilities
There are product-specific capabilities that interact with the project to profit process including, but not limited to, the following list:
Project Sales
Dynamics 365 Project Operations encompasses rich capabilities to win more deals and accelerate the sales cycle with fast and accurate quotes, flexible pricing, and seamless transitions from estimate to execution.
Project for the Web
Project for the web is a project management tool offered by Dynamics 365. It's a cloud-based application that enables businesses to manage their projects, resources, and budgets in a centralized location. With Project for the web, users can create, manage, and track projects from start to finish, allowing them to stay on top of deadlines, resource allocation, and project progress.
Universal Resource Scheduling
Universal Resource Scheduling is an advanced scheduling engine in Dynamics 365 Project Operations. Organizations can optimize resource use by aligning the right people with the right skills, to the right projects. It also provides a visual representation of resource availability and workload, which makes it easier for project managers to manage and allocate resources.
Time and Expense Tracking
With the Time and Expense Tracking system in Dynamics 365 Project Operations, team members can easily track and submit their time and expenses for approval and billing purposes. Project team members can submit time and expenses from anywhere, using their mobile devices or desktops.
Material usage
Material usage in Dynamics 365 Project Operations supports tasks such as the following list for project managers:
Create purchase orders for materials
Track material deliveries
Manage material inventory levels
Allocate materials to specific tasks or projects
Track material usage and costs at the project level
Subcontracting
With Dynamics 365 Project Operations, organizations can manage subcontracting activities within projects such as the following list:
Create and manage subcontractor contracts with vendors
Track subcontractor work
Monitor subcontractor costs
Create subcontractor invoices
Manage subcontractor payments
Project Accounting
Project accounting provides essential capabilities such as the following list:
Accurate forecasting
Budgeting and recording of project costs and revenues
Invoicing
Revenue recognition
Compliance
Visibility into key project and overall business health metrics
Microsoft Teams
Project teams can improve productivity and collaborate more effectively with Microsoft Teams. The teams can communicate via chat, video, and voice. They can share files within Project Operations, and access project information directly from within Teams.
Project to profit business process flow
The following diagram shows the high-level flow of the project to profit business process. Each solid rectangle on the diagram represents an end-to-end business process area. The diagram shows the subprocesses for the end-to-end business process in this article. The arrows on the diagram show the flow of the business process in a typical organization. If a subprocess can lead to more than one other subprocess, the parallel subprocesses are shown as branches.
The following steps are illustrated in the project to profit end-to-end business process flow diagram.
The upstream processes Case to resolution, Order to cash, Prospect to quote, and Service to cash are connected to subprocess a. Manage project opportunities. Product and service lifecycle management is connected to subprocess c. Manage project contracts.
Start
Project to profit end-to-end process
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Manage project stakeholders
Manage project budgets
Manage project risks
Manage project quality
Manage project communications
Manage project budgets, Manage project quality, and Manage project communications connect to subprocess l. Monitor and analyze project performance.
Manage project risks connects to subprocess l. Monitor and analyze project performance and the downstream process Case to Resolution.
Manage project contracts
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Parallel branches from this subprocess are i. Capture project expenses, j. Process project invoices, and the downstream processes Service to cash, Design to retire, Order to cash, Plan to produce, and Source to pay.
Monitor and analyze project performance
The downstream processes Service to cash and Case to Resolution connect to End.
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End
Next steps
If you want to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to assist with your project to profit business processes, use the following resources and steps to learn more.
Define the business process scope of your project. Learn more at Process-focused solution
Request a demo or get a free trial of Dynamics 365 solutions for the project to profit process. Learn more at Request a demo
Get an overview of each end-to-end business process area at Project to profit business process areas overview.
Related information
Use the following resources to learn more about the project to profit process in Dynamics 365.