Maintenance forecasts
When a work order is created, work order jobs are created that have assets and maintenance job types. A maintenance job type can also have a maintenance forecast, in which case, the forecast is automatically copied to the work order.
A forecast is defined as the expected hours, items, and expenses on a work order. Those forecast lines can be deleted from the work order or you could add lines. Whether the forecast lines should be deleted or added is determined by the lifecycle state, the project type, and the stage rule that is related to the project type.
View maintenance forecast lines
To view a maintenance forecast, go to Asset management > Work orders > All work orders and, in the Project section, select Forecast. The Work order maintenance forecast page appears, where you can see the Hours, Items, and Expense FastTabs. On this page, you can view the forecasts for hours and items, each using line properties of billable or non-billable items. For the items, the setup of Automatically will include the cost price of the item.
The Expense FastTab displays the Cost price and Sales price, which allow you to select Billable or NonBill.
A summary of the forecast totals is provided on the Maintenance forecast totals FastTab.
Watch the following video to learn how to add forecast lines to a work order.
Integration with Project management and accounting
Work orders can be set up to be integrated with a project in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, on the Asset management parameters page. The following image shows that a project has been entered in the Maintenance forecast project field. This project will automatically be updated with work order data, and any transactions that are created on the project will be populated on the work order.
Asset management > Setup > Asset management parameters
To update a forecast based on entries in other modules, follow these steps:
- Select Asset management > Periodic > Forecast > Update work order forecast.
- In the Update work order forecast dialog box, on the Records to include FastTab, add specific work orders or work order maintenance jobs, as needed. Select Filter to make the relevant selections.
- On the Run in the background FastTab, set up the automatic update as a batch job, as you require.
- Select OK to start the forecast update.
The following image shows that the forecast that was entered on the work order now resides on the Project page.
Project management and accounting > Projects > All projects
Conversely, any forecast data that was entered from the project will update the work order forecast.
Asset management > Work orders > All work orders > select a work order line > Project FastTab > Forecast > Hour forecasts
The work order forecast has been updated on the Work order maintenance forecast page.