Project contract lines overview
Applies To: Project Operations for resource/non-stocked based scenarios, Lite deployment - deal to proforma invoicing.
Project-based contract lines in Dynamics 365 Project Operations are designed to hold the estimate and billing agreements for specific components of project work on an engagement. The structure of a project–based contract line is extended for project estimates and billing scenarios with the following concepts:
- Billing method
- Project and task mapping
- Included transaction classes
- Not-to-exceed limit
- Chargeability setup
- Estimates using contract line details
- Contract line customers
The following table includes the fields on the General tab of project–based contract lines that help set up the basis for a detailed, ground–up estimate and billing arrangements for project–based work.
| Field | Description | Downstream impact |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Name of the contract line. This field identifies the discrete component of the contract that is being estimated. For a project contract created from a quote, this value is copied from a corresponding value of the project-based quote line. | The name copied over to the project invoice line that is created from this contract line when the invoice is created. |
| Billing Method | On a project contract created from a quote, this value is copied from the corresponding field on the quote line. This option set represents the two main contracting models supported by Project Operations: - Fixed Price - Time and Material |
Based on the billing method of the referenced contract line, the actual transaction is processed. If the contract line referenced by the actual has a time and material billing method, cost and unbilled sales actual records are created. If the contract line referenced by the actual has a fixed price billing method, only a cost actual is created. |
| Invoice Schedule Type | On a project contract created from a quote, this value is copied from the corresponding field on the quote line. This option set represents the two Invoice Schedule Types for Fixed Price contracting model supported by Project Operations: - Completed Milestones - Progress-based |
This Invoice Schedule Type is only relevant for the fixed price billing method in Lite deployment. Project Operations for resource/non-stocked based scenarios doesn't support this concept. Based on the Invoice Schedule Type, Milestones are allowed to be billed based on the progress percentage (%) (Progress-based) or only when fully completed (Completed Milestones). Completed Milestones is the default value. |
| Project | Use this field to identify the project that is used to deliver the work on this engagement. | This value is used with Included Tasks and Included Transaction Classes to resolve the contract line reference on an actual or estimate line record. |
| Included Tasks | Indicates if this contract line includes all project tasks for the selected project or only a subset of the tasks. This option set has the following possible values: - All Project Tasks - Selected Project Tasks Only. A blank value in this field is equal to selecting All Project Tasks. |
If Selected Tasks Only is selected, you can select specific tasks and associate them to this contract line on the Task Billing Setup tab on the Project page. The value is used with Project and Included Transaction classes to resolve the contract line reference on an actual or an estimate line record. |
| Include Time | A Yes/No value indicates if time transactions or labor costs on the selected project is included on this contract line. A No value indicates that the time transactions or labor cost isn't included on this contract line. A Yes value indicates that they're included. | This value is used with the project to resolve the contract line reference on an actual or an estimate line record. |
| Include Expense | A Yes/No value indicates if expense costs on the selected project is included on this contract line. A No value indicates that the expense cost isn't included on this contract line. A Yes value indicates that it's included. | This value is used with the project to resolve the contract line reference on an actual or an estimate line record. |
| Include Materials | A Yes/No value indicates if material costs on the selected project is included on this contract line. A No value indicates that the material costs aren't included on this contract line. A Yes value indicates that it's included. | This value is used with the project to resolve the contract line reference on an actual or an estimate line record. |
| Include Fee | A Yes/No value indicates if fees on the selected project is included on this contract line. A No value indicates that the fees aren't included on this contract line. A Yes value indicates that they're included. | This value is used with the project to resolve the contract line reference on an actual or an estimate line record. |
| Contracted Amount | On a fixed price contract line, this amount is the agreed-on value that is invoiced to the customer for all the work components associated to this contract line. On a time and material contract line, this amount is an estimated value of what is invoiced to the customer for all the work components associated to this contract line. On a project contract that is created from a quote, this value is copied from the corresponding field on the quote line. When a project–based contract line has line details, this field is locked for editing and is summarized from the amount on the contract line details. | When the contract line has line details, this value can be modified by changing the amounts on the line details. On a fixed price contract line, this value is used to generate the amount before tax on periodic billing milestones. |
| Estimated Tax | The user can edit this field to input the estimated tax amount on the contract line. When a project–based contract line has line details, this field is locked for editing and is summarized from the tax amount on the contract line details. | When the contract line has line details, this value can be modified by changing the tax amounts on the line details. On a fixed price contract line, this value is used to generate the tax on periodic billing milestones. |
| Contracted Amount after Tax | The contract line amount after tax. This field is read only and is calculated as Contracted Amount + Tax. | On a fixed price contract line, this value is used to generate periodic billing milestones. |
| Not-to-Exceed Limit | The user can edit this field and is only available on project-based contract lines that have the billing method set as time and material. | The user can edit this field. When an actual for time and material references this contract line for time and material, the amount on the actual is evaluated against the not-to-exceed limit on the contract line. This evaluation is completed after the already spent and committed amounts are accounted for. |
| Customer Budget | This field is editable and is copied from the corresponding field on the quote line if the contract was created from a quote. | This field is only used for information and doesn't have any downstream significance. |
Validation rules for the options on the General tab of project-based contract lines
Rule 1: If the Included Tasks field is blank or set to All Project Tasks, all tasks of the project are included on the contract line.
Rule 2: When the Included Tasks field is blank or explicitly set to All Project Tasks, a project and a certain transaction class can only be included on one project-based contract line of a contract.
Rule 3: When the Included Tasks field is set to Selected Project Tasks Only, a project and a certain transaction class can be included on multiple project-based contract lines of a contract.
|
Contract |
Contract line |
Project |
Included tasks |
Include Time |
Include Expense |
Include Materials |
Include Fee |
Valid/ Not valid |
Reason |
|
C1 |
CL1 |
P1 |
Blank |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Not valid |
Violation of Rule #2. Time, Expense, Materials, and Fees on P1 project are included on both Contract lines CL1 and CL2. |
|
C1 |
CL2 |
P1 |
Blank |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
||
|
C1 |
CL1 |
P1 |
Blank |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Not valid |
Violation of Rule #2. Time, Materials, and Fees on P1 project are included on both Contract lines CL1 and CL2. |
|
C1 |
CL2 |
P1 |
Blank |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
||
|
C1 |
CL1 |
P1 |
Blank |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Valid |
Time, Materials, and Fees on P1 project are included on CL1.
No overlap in what is being included on each Contract line and therefore valid. |
|
C1 |
CL2 |
P1 |
Blank |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
||
|
C1 |
CL1 |
P1 |
Selected tasks only |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Not valid |
Violation of Rule #2 C1 includes Time, Materials, Expenses, and Fees on a subset of tasks on project P1. CL2 includes Time, Materials, Expenses, and Fees for the whole project P1 and therefore overlaps with what is included on C1. |
|
C1 |
CL2 |
P1 |
Blank |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
||
|
C1 |
CL1 |
P1 |
Selected tasks only |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Valid |
Per Rule #3 C1 includes Time, Expenses, Materials, and Fees on a subset of tasks on project P1. CL2 includes Time, Expenses, Materials, and Fees for a subset of tasks on project P1. The only other validation is around the subset of tasks on CL1 is different from the subset of tasks on CL2 to ensure that there are no overlaps there. Th system does this validation when tasks are associated. |
|
C1 |
CL2 |
P1 |
Selected tasks only |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |