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...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Custom Insight Cards in PSA with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.7, Unified Interface I recently replied to a question on the Dynamics Community forums about tracking end dates of Project Tasks and comparing them with related Milestones. The question was interesting because looping through all matching Project Tasks and Milestones due utcNow() is something that we need either code or Flow for…. Continue Reading Antti...
Custom Insight Cards in PSA with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.7, Unified Interface I recently replied to a question on the Dynamics Community forums about tracking end dates of Project Tasks and comparing them with related Milestones. The question was interesting because looping through all matching Project Tasks and Milestones due utcNow() is something that we need either code or Flow… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Recalling Time Entries, canceling approvals and correcting Actuals
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.6, Unified Interface The October ’18 release introduced new features to Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation. With PSA’s Update Release 6, the last batch of these new features are now available in the product. Recalling approved Time and Expense Entries, canceling Project Approvals and correcting existing Actuals are… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Recalling Time Entries, canceling approvals and correcting Actuals
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.6, Unified Interface The October ’18 release introduced new features to Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation. With PSA’s Update Release 6, the last batch of these new features is now released. Recalling approved Time and Expense Entries, canceling Project Approvals and correcting existing Actuals are three features that are… Continue Reading Antti...
Using Flow to create a Project with tasks based on Project Contract Line Details
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.6, Unified Interface By default, Project Contract Line Details (later referred to as PCLDs) can be created by importing Project Task and Expense Estimate details from a Project. This is a fast way of creating a frame for an Order and Order Line. Data for PCLDs doesn’t have to be typed in again manually, if a Project with… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Using Flow to create a Project with tasks based on Project Contract Line Details
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.6, Unified Interface By default, Project Contract Line Details (later referred to as PCLDs) can be created by importing Project Task and Expense Estimate details from a Project. This is a fast way of creating a frame for an Order and Order Line. Data for PCLDs doesn’t have to be typed in again manually, if a Project with tasks… Continue Reading Antti...
Setting Products and Milestones as “Ready to Invoice” when a Project Task is “Complete”
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.6, Unified Interface I was talking to my friend MVP Scott LeFante about products and tasks in Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation after our PSA focused At Your Service episode. Scott and I were thinking about ways of invoicing Product-based lines and Milestones when a Project Task is complete. I naturally wanted to try… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Setting Products and Milestones as “Ready to Invoice” when a Project Task is “Complete”
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.6, Unified Interface I was talking to my friend MVP Scott LeFante about products and tasks in Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation after our PSA focused At Your Service episode. Scott and I were thinking about ways of invoicing Product-based lines and Milestones when a Project Task is complete. I naturally wanted to try that… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Creating a Planner plan from a D365 PSA Project with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.6, Unified Interface My previous post about Creating To-Do tasks from D365 PSA’s Resource Assignments with Flow got me thinking about some of the other collaboration tools we have on the Office side. This led me to think about the possibilities Planner has to offer in conjunction with managing projects with Dynamics 365… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article...
Creating To-Do tasks from D365 PSA’s Resource Assignments with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.5, Unified Interface I recently traveled back from the MVP Global Summit with a colleague and fellow MVP Vesa “Vesku” Nopanen. Vesku is a “Microsoft Teams MVP” and a true expert on collaboration, modern workplace and digital transformation. Talking to him got me thinking about all the project and task management tools… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Updating Invoice Line Details and Actuals with values from custom fields
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.4, Unified Interface On my previous post I wrote about using Flow to pass values from custom fields on Actuals throughout PSA’s end-to-end process. The Flows in my previous post used Time Entries as the source for a value for Case. This value was then carried throughout PSA’s end-to-end process from an Unbilled Sales Actual to… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Using Flow to pass values from custom fields on Actuals throughout PSA’s end-to-end process
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.4, Unified Interface One of the interesting challenges in PSA has always been passing values from custom fields on Actuals throughout PSA’s end-to-end process. With end-to-end I mean the process of Time Entry to Invoice, keeping in mind that Invoices can be corrected and reconfirmed. Before we dive into the Flows that make this… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: From Expense Entries to a Project’s Estimate Lines with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.1, PSA solution version 3.3, Unified Interface There was a very interesting question on the Dynamics Community forums about updating Expense Estimates (which are really Estimate Lines related to an Estimate) on a Project based on approved Expense Entries. OOTB this is a bit challenging as Expense Entries are never related to a Project Task nor are they… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Getting started with Roadmap
Tested on:Roadmap, Project Online, Common Data Service, Flow The new Roadmap service is rolling out to tenants in different regions. It will give organizations a ” cross-functional, big picture view of all the work in process “. Roadmap and Project Online’s new Home are the first pieces in Microsoft new project management experience. The new project management experience will… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on...
Setting Actuals to “Ready to Invoice”
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.2, PSA solution version 3.3, Unified Interface On this blog post I’m covering the changes to how Actuals are invoiced in PSA V3.3. I have also included a small twist by recreating the OOTB functionality of setting Actuals to “Ready to Invoice” and “Not Ready to Invoice” with Flow. Invoicing Actuals has changed slightly in version 3.3 of… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their...
Reversing, canceling and deleting Actuals
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.2, PSA solution version 3.3, Unified Interface Actuals are records that hold financial data about approved Time and Expense Entries, Milestones and Materials in Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation. Actuals are primarily created in the context of Sales (revenue) and Cost for Projects and Project Contracts, and are in most cases passed on to a… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on...
Customizing the new Custom Control based Time Entry grid
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.2, PSA solution version 3.3, Unified Interface The October ’18 update of Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation has introduced many much needed features to PSA. One of these features is the new Custom Control based Time Entry grid. For one, it makes submitting Time Entries a lot faster. With the new CC grid the customization experience around Time… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article...
Validating Resource Roles at Time Entry with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.1, Project Service Automation solution version 3.1, Unified Interface I have previously written a blog post about preventing Time Entries in Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation when a resource’s Project Team Member Role is different than the Role being used for a Time Entry. Another requirement that occasionally comes up is… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their...
Project Team Member Role to Time Entry with Flow
Tested on: Dynamics 365 version 9.1, Project Service Automation solution version 3.1, Unified Interface When a new Project Team Member record is created, a Role is chosen for the team member. This doesn’t mean that the same Role has to be used when submitting Time Entries as Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation allows a user to submit Time Entries for any defined… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their blog...
From Opportunity Lines to Work Order Products and Services with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.1, Field Service solution version 8.x, Unified Interface A common customer scenario is one where a core Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Opportunity form is in use for a sales process. “What do we do with our Opportunity form” is a question that arises in almost every Field Service and PSA implementation where D365 CE is already in… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their...
Vlog covering Bookings and Assignments in PSA V3
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.2, PSA solution version 3.1, Unified Interface Version 3 of Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation has changed the way bookings and assignments work in PSA. As they are now only loosely coupled, Project Managers have more flexibility when it comes to resourcing. This vlog will cover resource bookings and assignments in PSA V3. Be sure… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their...
Marking a Project Task as Complete to prevent Time Entries
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, PSA solution version 3.x, Unified Interface A subject that comes up frequently is marking Project Tasks as Complete to prevent Time Entries to those tasks. As Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation doesn’t have this functionality out-of-the-box, we have to do some customizing to achieve this goal. This brief blog post will cover… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their...
Two-tier Time Entry approvals with Flow
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, PSA solution version 3.x, Unified Interface, Microsoft Flow Time and Expense Entries and their approvals are an important part of Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation. A slight downside to Project Approvals is that the logic is based on a single level approval process: A user (or users) set as a Project Approver under Project Team Members approves… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
PSA V2, Field Service V7 and the Unified Interface
Tested on:Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement version 9.0.2PSA solution version 2.4.6.27Field Service solution version 7.5.3.36Unified Interface I recently tried the Field Service app after updating the V7 Field Service solution and to my surprise the app launched on the Unified Interface. When I was provisioning Field Service to a vanilla instance a few days ago, I… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Reconciliation View
Tested on: Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, PSA solution version 3.x, Unified Interface PSA version 3 has a new feature called the Reconciliation View. It’s found on the Project entity. As bookings and assignments on tasks are now only loosely coupled in V3, the new Reconciliation View allows a project manager to reconcile differences between them. This blog post covers three high level… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article...
Using Flow and PSA to create Time Entries of Work Order Service Tasks
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, Field Service solution version 8.x, PSA solution version 3.x, Unified Interface, Microsoft Flow Enabling field technicians to generate additional sales on their service calls is one of the many selling points of Dynamics 365 for Field Service. When Microsoft’s Global Field Service Director Ben Vollmer gave a presentation on Field Service at the D365UG… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Time Entries in Field Service by using Flow and PSA
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, Field Service solution version 7.x, PSA solution version 2.x, classic web client, Microsoft Flow One of the most frequent questions I face when doing Dynamics 365 Field Service presales is “How do we submit time entries?“. OOTB Field Service doesn’t offer Time and Expense Entries the way Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation does. Field Service… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Adding a lookup to a related Agreement and Work Order on an Invoice
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, FS solution version 8.x, Unified Client Interface When looking at a Field Service Invoice, one quickly notices it is missing a lookup to a related Agreement and Work Order. References to those entities can be found but they are a couple of mouse clicks away. Navigating to an Invoice Line reveals references to a related Agreement… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their...
Video walkthroughs of PSA’s basic settings
Applies to:Dynamics 365 CE version 9.0.2, PSA solution version 3.x, Unified Client Interface Basic settings for Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation have remained the same with the introduction of version 3 of PSA in the summer of 2018. I have previously written a checklist for basic settings which you can find here. With V3 of PSA, some of the settings are… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s Article on their...
Two approaches to implementing PSA
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation differs between organizations and partners. This includes the reasons behind implementing it, the way it is approached and even the way it is implemented. PSA (and Field Service) are both applications that can be used out-of-the-box by simply going through all the required settings and parameters. Usually a PSA project does include some customization… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Setting a new Template Resource for a Work Hours Template
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, PSA solution version 3.x, Unified Client Interface In Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation solution version 3, changing a Template Resource now also changes the calendar the template uses. In PSA solutions V1 (D365 CE version 8.2) and V2 (D365 CE version 9.0) we had to create a new Work Hours Template if we wanted to make changes to a calendar and the… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Creating a Project Hierarchy
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2 (web client) Project hierarchy is a frequently asked question in a Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation implementation. While visualizing hierarchically related data is not yet supported on the Unified Client Interface but is just around the corner, the classic web client can be used for this. If you are going to update to PSA V3.x very soon, the… Continue Reading Antti Pajunen’s...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Project Approval delegation on project level
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2 (web client) While Time Entries can be delegated in Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation, Project Approvals work differently. To approve Time and Expense entries, one must have Project Approver set to Yes under the related Project Team Member record. A Project Approver can then approve all submitted Time and Expense entries for a project. While it’s… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Vlog on closing a Project Contract
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2 (classic web client) I had an interesting discussion with a fellow D365 CE consultant Youngha Kim about Project Contracts. He mentioned about a business requirement he had to close a Project Contract when related projects are finished and when the contract is done. Out of the box we can really only confirm a Project Contract in Dynamics 365 Project Service… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Using a cut-off date to reject Time Entries
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2 (Unified Client Interface)Sometimes businesses have a requirement to reject Time Entries entries based on a set cut-off date. This blog post covers two different cut-off date examples and includes a detailed customization walkthrough for implementing cut-off dates in Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation. Let’s look at two possible requirements: 1. Set a… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Using Journals to cancel out Task Progress % and Resource Utilization %
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, web clientPSA solution version 2.4.3.11 Talk around Resource Utilization % and its behavior is a fairly frequent discussion in the Dynamics Community. MVP Scott LeFante has recently written an excellent article on Project Resource Utilization to bring clarity to what impacts a Bookable Resource’s Utilization %. While this blog post demystifies a small… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation version 3: What can we expect of the new Unified Client Interface only version of PSA
Microsoft released a video of the Business Applications Spring 2018 Release a while back. The final 24 or so minutes of this 1 h and 6 min long video include a very nice part about version 3 of Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation by Elliott Ichimura and Rupa Mantravadi as they go over the new features of V3 through a demo. Quick eyes catch the new features and improvements but if you’re… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Circumventing Time and Expense Entry approvals with the Field Service mobile app
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, web clientField Service mobile app (truck app) While working on Resco configurations for our demo environment, my colleague Juhani Sammalkangas suddenly stated that Project Approvals can be circumvented using the Field Service mobile app (truck app). After a brief moment of disbelief I naturally decided to try this out. The idea is something that is both a… Continue Reading Antti...
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: Disabling the automatic “Welcome to the team!” emails
Tested on:Dynamics 365 version 9.0.2, web client One of the OOTB features of Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation are the automatic “Welcome to the team!” emails that are sent when a Bookable Resource is added as a Project Team Member for a Project. While this is a handy way of informing a user that they have been added to a project team, there are other more efficient and modern ways of… Continue Reading Antti...