Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Using Schedule APIs with Power Automate and custom project templates
Tested on Project Operations on Dataverse version 4.11.0.156 (June 2021 update) Schedule APIs were introduced to public preview in the spring of 2021 for Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Project for the web (later P4W). They’re used to programmatically create, update, and delete what are known as scheduling tables. These tables are listed below. Table nameTable logical… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on...
Two-way sync of bookings between Dynamics 365 and Outlook, Part III – Sync from Outlook to D365
In part II we looked at syncing bookings from Dynamics 365 to Outlook. In this part we’ll look at syncing existing bookings from Outlook to Dynamics 365. Events originating from Outlook as new events are not synced so this blog post only covers syncing existing events. I might write a separate blog post about syncing events that Originate from Outlook, after relevance search in Power Automate… Continue Reading Antti...
Scheduling modes in Project Operations and Project for the web
Tested on Project Operations on Dataverse version 4.10.0.186 (May 2021 update) Scheduling modes have landed in Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Project for the web. If you have used Microsoft Project (the desktop application) before, then you might be familiar with task types for fixed units, fixed work, and fixed duration. While in the desktop app the task type can be changed on a task… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Two-way sync of bookings between Dynamics 365 and Outlook, Part II – Sync from D365 to Outlook
In part I we looked at change notifications in Graph API. In this part II we’ll cover how bookings (Bookable Resource Bookings) are synced from Dynamics 365 to Outlook when bookings are created, updated or deleted. To clarify terminology, bookings, Bookable Resource Bookings, and BRBs are used interchangeably in this blog post. Before we move on, I want to emphasize that the entire concept… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Diagnosing an empty staging table and integration journal
Tested on:Project Operations solution version 4.9.0.52 (pre-alpha), F&O 10.0.16. I recently redeployed my F&O T2 and Dataverse environments in hopes of seeing my F&O T2 appear in PPAC. While the whole deployment process has small details that have changed and evolved since ProjOps’ GA, the overall process has remained the same: Deploy F&O, deploy Dataverse, link environments, choose legal… Continue Reading...
Project for the web: Deploying to sandbox and production Dataverse environments and syncing users
Deployment to sandbox and production Dataverse environments became available for Project for the web in early 2021. Prior to that it was only possible to install P4W in a tenant’s default environment. While the possibility to install P4W in a sandbox or a production is a great win for ALM, there are some caveats to keep in mind: When P4W is installed in a sandbox or a production… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Two-way sync of bookings between Dynamics 365 and Outlook, Part I – Change Notifications
Syncing Bookable Resource Bookings between Dynamics 365 and Outlook has been a hot topic since Microsoft officially deprecated the feature. I wrote about syncing bookings to Outlook with Power Automate back in 2019. While a one-way sync has always been fairly easy to achieve, I received a fair amount of feedback that customers are looking for a two-way sync between D365 and Outlook. This has… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Changing the “bill to” customer after invoicing
Tested on:Project Operations solution version 4.6.0.123 (pre-alpha), F&O 10.0.15. The Dynamics Community forums had an interesting question about changing the “bill to” customer after invoicing. With a “bill to” customer I mean the customer at the receiving end of an invoice. While this is a pretty frequent requirement (I’ve been in this situation myself many times), there isn’t a simple…...
Deploying ProjOps for Dataverse+F&O based integrated scenarios, Part II – T2 F&O with Dataverse
In part I we deployed a Cloud-hosted T1 F&O with Dataverse. In part II, we’re going to deploy F&O as a Microsoft Managed T2 sandbox for UAT with Dataverse. But what does Microsoft Managed mean? A Docs article states that : “A Microsoft subscription means that the customer purchases Finance and Operations licenses, which will then allow them to deploy environments to an Azure subscription which… Continue...
Deploying ProjOps for Dataverse+F&O based integrated scenarios, Part I – T1 F&O with Dataverse
Dynamics 365 Project Operations has three different deployment options. In simple terms, the different options are Dataverse only, F&O only and Dataverse+F&O integrated. The Dataverse only deployment is similar in nature to what Project Service Automation offers. The F&O deployment could be considered as an implementation of the PMA module in F&O and the integrated deployment is exactly what… Continue Reading...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Importing time entries, Part II – Recalls
Tested on:Project Operations solution version 4.4.0.70 (UR 4), CE-only deployment In my previous post I talked about importing and integrating time entries from a 3rd party system into Dynamics 365 Project Operations. Sometimes there might be a need to roll back an imported entry batch though. This doesn’t only apply to import scenarios but to everyday use of ProjOps as well. The ask of… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Importing time entries, Part I
Tested on:Project Operations solution version 4.4.0.70 (UR 4), CE-only deployment Time entries play an important role in Dynamics 365 Project Operations. They are instrumental in the creation of business transactions as both the cost and sales components of Actuals are created based on approved time entries. Sometimes organizations have a time tracking system that they prefer to keep,… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Transaction Categories and Expense Categories
Tested on:Project Operations solution version 4.3.0.59 (UR 3), CE+F&O integrated deployment Transaction Categories and Expense Categories have an important role in the setup of Dynamics 365 Project Operations. They’re used in all deployment options. In the CE only “lite” deployment they work exactly as they did in Project Service Automation. An integrated CE+F&O deployment adds additional… Continue...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Billing methods on project tasks
Tested on:Project Operations solution version 4.3.0.59 (UR 3), CE-only deployment The General Availability of Dynamics 365 Project Operations has introduced a long-awaited feature of billing and chargeability options for project tasks. As I’m writing this blog post, this feature is currently only available in a CE-only deployment however the integrated CE+F&O deployment will also receive… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Updating from public preview to GA in a CE only scenario
Dynamics 365 Project Operations became generally available (GA) on October 1st, 2020. With GA, many have already asked if the public preview version 4.2.0.24 (UR 2) of ProjOps can be updated to the GA version 4.3.0.59 (UR 3). This blog post will look at the CE side of things and on that side, the short answer is YES! ProjOps definitely can be updated however data upgrades are not supported…. Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Configuring Dual Write alerts
Tested on:Dual-write application orchestration solution version 2.0.777.353Dual-write core solution version 1.0.18Project Operations solution version 4.1.0.35 (UR 1) Alerts in Dual Write help admins react to planned and unplanned maintenance. During the Dynamics 365 Project Operations public preview, a common scenario is to turn off the F&O Virtual Machine while the Customer Engagement side… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Advances and Retainers
Tested on: ProjOps version 4.1.0.35 (public preview, UR1) Advances and Retainers is a new feature that was released with the UR1 update of Dynamics 365 Project Operations. With this feature, upfront payments can be defined. The value of delivered services can then be reduced from the advance/retainer amount. If delivered services exceed the advance/retainer amount, the difference is… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Not-to-exceed limits
Tested on: ProjOps version 4.0.0.726 (public preview) The 2020 release wave 1 introduces quite a few really exciting new features to the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement core of Dynamics 365 Project Operations. One of the new features is the ability to set up not-to-exceed limits for project contracts and quotes, with the possibility of enforcing them at invoicing. While some additional… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations public preview: Copying CE environments in the Full Deployment option
Tested on: ProjOps version 4.0.0.726 (public preview) As I’m writing this blog post, the Dynamics 365 Project Operations public preview has been running for 2.5 weeks. At the moment, the Product Team offers three different deployment options: Full Deployment (CE+Project Management and Accounting in F&O).Customer Engagement only.Project Management and Accounting (F&O) only. The ProjOps… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Split billing
Tested on: ProjOps version 4.0.0.726 (public preview) Dynamics 365 Project Operations introduces certain enhancements to Quotes and Project Contracts. All enhancements are described in the 2020 release wave 1, and one of them is split billing. With this new feature, it’s possible to add multiple accounts to a Quote or a Project Contract (Order) and define a billing split percent for each… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Time Entry recall request comments with Power Automate
Tested on: PSA version 3.10.30.41 Project resources occasionally make mistakes with time entries and want to recall them. If a time entry has already been approved, a user recalling them is given an option to type a reason for their recall request. One might think a project approver will then get a notification with comments about the request. In reality, a recall request is only seen on… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Creating a Project Team Template
Tested on: PSA version 3.10.30.41 A recent customer ask was about creating a project team automatically when a Project was created in PSA. While creating a project team is usually a one-time effort at the beginning of a project, I do see value in project team templates in cases where teams are fairly static and they’re assigned on different projects. The ask sounded interesting so I wanted… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Resource Utilization Grid
Tested on:PSA version 3.10.20.4 I was talking with fellow MVP Mohamed Mostafa about utilization in PSA and our conversation got me thinking it’s time to revisit that old topic. MVP Scott LeFante did a thorough investigation into utilization back in 2018 but back then the utilization grid was “same but different”. As the grid has since changed and there is now even official documentation by… Continue Reading...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Settings and Parameters
Tested on:PSA version 3.10.20.4, Update Release 17.5 One of the first blog posts I wrote was a checklist for PSA’s basic settings. This was before V3 and features like Multidimensional Pricing or what was introduced in the October ’18 release wave. I’ve always used a checklist for PSA’s basic settings and parameters when I’ve started an implementation project. That checklist has proven very…...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Weekly time entry reminders with Power Automate
Professional services organizations want their staff to submit time entries promptly. Some organizations require employees to submit time entries daily, while weekly time entries are in general probably the most common practice. Sometimes people forget so a helpful email reminder can come in handy. Personally, I’m fairly precise with my time entries but sometimes I simply forget to submit them… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Update and fix Date on Time Entry
Tested on:Dynamics 365 PSA version 3.10.9.21 Time Entries in PSA can be created by using either the quick create form on Time Entry or the Time Entry Grid PCF control that is by default enabled on the entity. If we look at the msdyn_date (Date) field after a Time Entry record has been created, the field’s value is displayed in a user’s local time in the UI. So far so good. This is how it… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Helpful Time Entry and Project Approval views
Tested on:Dynamics 365 PSA version 3.10.9.21 Time Entry and Project Approval entities usually need to be complemented with custom views in D365 PSA projects. This blog post has examples of some common requirements for custom views. Before we jump into the examples, it’s good to remind ourselves of a couple of points on how PSA behaves: When a Project Team Member is set as a Project… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Main Form Dialog in Project for the web and D365 PSA
The April 2020 preview release for Model-driven apps has a new feature, which makes it possible to open a record in a dialog. This new feature is called Main form Dialog (MFD). Quoting Microsoft’s blog post about MDF, ” With this feature you can now open a related record entity on a parent or base form without requiring the user to navigate away, your users can stay in context and edit an… Continue Reading Antti...
Fixing the Sales Pipeline funnel chart’s Pipeline Phases with Power Automate
Every now and then customers comment that their Sales Pipeline funnel chart displays business process stages that they think shouldn’t be on their funnel. The first thing I investigate is what their current Lead To Opportunity and Opportunity Sales Process are and whether any changes have been made to them. If the processes are altered after D365 has been implemented, the funnel chart can… Continue Reading Antti...
Customizing and extending Project for the web
Project for the web was released in October 2019. It runs on Common Data Service, which opens up loads of possibilities for customizing and extending Project. Out-of-the-box, Project offers two different user experiences: An Office UI experience as well as a Model-driven Power Apps experience, based on Unified Interface. Custom Canvas Power Apps can naturally also be built, as long as certain… Continue Reading Antti...
Power Automate: Adding run-only users to a Flow with Flow
One of my previous posts was about listing a user’s Resource Assignments using Power Automate. As the Flow in question is a “personal productivity Flow” that needs to be fired off in a user’s context, a challenge I faced was distributing the Flow to the masses. Well… in my case there’s only me in my tenant and test environment but you get the picture if you have 100 not to mention 1000 people…...
Listing a user’s active Resource Assignments in Project for the web and D365 PSA with Power Automate
A frequent ask from a user assigned to a project is “Which tasks am I assigned to?”. In Project for the web’s (later P4W) and PSA’s terms, this translates to “What are my Resource Assignments?”. Out-of-the-box, there isn’t a straightforward experience to get such a list, unless a new view for Resource Assignments is created in P4W’s or PSA’s Model-driven app. Another solution would...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Creating a Project with Power Virtual Agents
Power Virtual Agents is definitely a hot topic as I’m writing this blog post. It’s a pretty easy tool to use and definitely a lot of fun. My idea for this post was to create a project in Project for the web by using PVA’s bot as a project template builder. However due to some current limitations with some of Project for the web’s entities, I had to switch my tool from P4W to D365 PSA. The idea… Continue...
Project vlog: Project and Project Task Work Hours
I was watching a couple of Project for the web demos from Ignite by Heather Heide and Russel Hercules. Those demos made me realize that the vlog I previously made about Work templates didn’t fully cover the impact of a Work template’s and Bookable Resource’s work hours on a Project Task’s duration. In short, the following video shows how a Project Task’s duration changes based on a Work… Continue...
Project: Creating a hierarchy for parent and subprojects
Categorizing projects between parent and subprojects is a pretty frequent requirement that I hear in presales. While Project’s Office UI doesn’t support hierarchy visualizations (at least yet), Model-driven apps on CDS do. Visualizing hierarchical data has been around since Dynamics CRM 2015. It’s quite simple to set up and with the new Project, the process is less hassle (at least at the… Continue Reading...
Project: Changing Work Hours for a Work template’s Template Resource
Work Hours and Work templates, which are also known as Calendar Templates and Work Hours Templates, have have a logic of their own in both Project for the web and Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation. Back in the day of PSA V1 and V2, new Work templates needed to be created from scratch, if a change to the underlying work hours was needed. In PSA V3, things got a bit better and changes to… Continue Reading Antti...
Project vlog: Project for the web’s Model-driven app
The Model-driven app for Project for the web makes it possible to extend Project with out-of-the-box features like Roles and Skills. Learn about the different entities and features that ship with Project but are currently mainly accessible from Project’s Model-driven app. Project – Model-driven app Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their blog Project vlog: Project for the web’s Model-driven app The...
Project vlog: Getting started with the new Project for the web
The new Project for the web was officially released on October 29th, 2019. This vlog is a 10 minute intro to the new Project to get you up and running with the next generation project management tool from Microsoft. Getting started with Project Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their blog Project vlog: Getting started with the new Project for the web The new Project for the web was officially released on October 29th,...
Project vlog: Boards
This vlog covers boards in the new Project for the web. Learn how to quickly arrange and group tasks based on progress, bucket and finish date. Project – Boards Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their blog Project vlog: Boards This vlog covers boards in the new Project for the web. Learn how to quickly arrange and group tasks based on progress, bucket and finish date. Project – Boards Blog Syndicated with...
Project vlog: Work templates
This vlog covers Work templates in Project for the web. Learn how to efficiently use Work templates and how to define and set work hours so that projects follow defined working days. Project – Work templates Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their blog Project vlog: Work templates This vlog covers Work templates in Project for the web. Learn how to efficiently use Work templates and how to define and set work...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Setting up Inter-Organizational Sales in PSA
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE with PSA version 3.10 Multi-currency scenarios are common for many professional services organizations. While PSA has always supported multi-currency scenarios for inter-org sales, that specific area is one of the most complex ones to configure in PSA. The October ’18 wave of business application releases also introduced a new cost price list feature, which will… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Referencing records when using the Common Data Service (current environment) connector
The CDS (current environment) connector is the newer version of the two CDS connectors that are available. It has nice new features such as a Create/Update/Delete trigger, support for Service Principals in solution aware Flows and some smaller features in its different actions. It’s the go-to connector to use in solution aware Flows. Despite all the improvements, the connector has also… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: List of all Primary Keys, Primary Fields and option sets
PSA version referenced: 3.11 Figuring out Primary Keys, Primary Fields and option set values in Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation sometimes takes a bit of time and effort. While there are some sources out these such as the Web API Reference and the Entity Reference, it makes life easier to have all relevant PSA entities and option sets easily available from a single source. This post… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Creating a team, a channel and a D365 PSA tab in Microsoft Teams using Flow
This blog post is about enabling collaboration with Microsoft Teams when a Project is created in Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation. The Flow covered on this post will check whether an Account already has a Teams team or not. If a team is present, a new channel for a Project and a PSA tab are created. If a team is not present, the Flow does a bit more and creates an Office 365 Group, a… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Field Service: Moving attachments from Notes to Azure Files and Azure Blobs with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE with Field Service v 8.8.2.160, mobile project v 1.0.1322 The previous blog post I wrote was about moving attachments from Notes to SharePoint Online with Flow. My decision to use SharePoint caught the attention of some Azure fans, so I thought I’d explore Azure based storage as well. Azure Storage and all its different services isn’t directly my workload, but this… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Field Service: Moving attachments from Notes to SharePoint Online with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE with Field Service v 8.8.0.88, mobile project v 1.0.1322 One of the handy features in Field Service Mobile is the possibility to capture images and signatures. Despite the changes introduced in April 2019 to the storage costs for Common Data Service, SharePoint Online might be better suited for storing all the images that pile up from service and maintenance calls…. Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Custom Product Bundles
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE with PSA version 3.9 Enabling Product Bundles has long been a discussion when it comes to Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation. The OOTB Product Bundles are not supported in PSA but the ask for the feature is out there. It’s something I’ve been running into in pretty much every single presales case that involves materials in some shape or form. As support… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Field Service: Syncing Bookable Resource Bookings to Exchange with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE with Field Service version 8.8 I’ve previously written about syncing Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation’s Resource Assignments to exchange with Flow. For the most part, that Flow can also be used to sync Bookable Resource Bookings to Exchange. The reason we want to do this is because the OOTB feature is deprecated. The Flow covered on this blog post can… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Five Q&A scenarios around Time Entries, Actuals, entry recalls and cancellations of approvals
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE with PSA version 3.8 I was recently doing some testing around Time Entries, Actuals, entry recalls and cancellations of approvals in Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation. With all the new functionality PSA has around entry recalls and approval cancellations, I can see how the scenarios I’m writing about on this blog post might be a question mark to many PSA… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Syncing Resource Assignments with Project Task details to Exchange
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE with PSA version 3.7 The idea for this blog post came from a conversation on the D365 CE Partner Connect Yammer. Kerry Burn with The 848 Group and CIM had a good question about syncing Project Task information with Bookable Resource Bookings to a user’s calendar in Exchange. Syncing information about Project Tasks has never been supported OOTB and the whole sync… Continue Reading Antti...