Case study · Engineering services
Projects resourced, tracked and billed in one flow
Engineering firms run hundreds of projects with shared specialists, and margin depends on resourcing and billing well. This is how we connected sales, resourcing, delivery and finance in Dynamics 365 Project Operations.
Project overview
Project-based operations on Dynamics 365.
- Industry
- Engineering services
- Client
- Confidential
- Solution
- Project operations
- Platform
- D365 Project Operations + Finance
- Timeline
- 8–14 months
- Team
- 6 people
- Contracts
- T&M, fixed price, milestones
- Resourcing
- Skills-based
- Revenue
- Percentage of completion
Expected business outcomes
What the client set out to achieve
Utilisation and billing speed are what change margin.
-
3–8 pts
Higher billable utilisation
Skills-based resourcing puts the right people on projects sooner.
Percentage-point range; depends on resourcing practice before
-
30–50%
Faster billing cycle
Approved time and expenses flow directly to invoices.
Target range after the first billing cycles
-
Monthly
Project margin forecasts
Estimate at completion per project, reviewed monthly.
Where project managers update forecasts
Business challenges
How project firms ran before
Sales, resourcing and finance each work from their own view of a project.
Estimates
Built in spreadsheets and not carried into delivery.
Resourcing
Managed by email between project and resource managers.
Time
Timesheets in one tool, expenses in another.
Revenue
Revenue recognition calculated in spreadsheets at month-end.
Margin
Project profitability known after the project closes.
Proposed solution
What the Project Operations build covers
The full quote-to-cash flow for projects.
-
Estimates and quotes
Project estimates with roles, effort and pricing carried into contracts.
-
Resourcing
Resource requests matched by skills, availability and location.
-
Time and expenses
Time and expenses against project tasks with approvals.
-
Revenue recognition
Revenue recognised by contract type, including percentage of completion.
-
Billing
Invoices from approved actuals or milestones.
-
Project controls
Budget, actuals, forecast and margin per project and portfolio.
Project requirements
What the client asked us for
The request was one flow from estimate to invoice. The critical part is resourcing: specialists are shared, and poor allocation costs both margin and delivery.
Revenue recognition is agreed with finance and auditors early, because it drives how contracts are set up.
What the project had to deliver
- 01Estimates carried into delivery
- 02Skills-based resourcing
- 03Time and expenses to billing
- 04Monthly margin forecasts
Key challenges & considerations
What made it harder, and what we did
-
Complex contract structures
What we did
Contract structures were modelled with their billing milestones and rules before projects were migrated.
-
Shared resources across business units
What we did
Resources were scheduled from a shared pool with skills, visible across business units.
-
Revenue recognition standards
What we did
Revenue recognition methods were agreed with the auditors early and configured per contract type.
-
Project managers' time for forecasting
What we did
Forecasting was kept to a short monthly update that project managers could complete in minutes.
What we watched for
- Agree revenue methods with auditors early
- Keep time entry simple
- Make forecasting part of the monthly rhythm
- Pilot with one business unit
Development process
Quote to cash, end to end
Each stage of the project lifecycle is built and tested in turn.
-
Design
Contract types, resourcing rules and revenue methods agreed.
-
Sales and estimating
Estimates and quotes live for new projects.
-
Resourcing and time
Resource management and time entry rolled out.
-
Finance integration
Revenue recognition and billing connected.
-
Portfolio reporting
Project controls and portfolio dashboards.
Technology stack
Dynamics 365 Project Operations
Microsoft's project-based services platform.
Projects
- D365 Project Operations
- Resource scheduling
ERP
- D365 Finance
- Project accounting
Productivity
- Time entry app
- Expense app
Reporting
- Power BI
- Portfolio dashboards
Quality assurance & deployment
Rehearsed until cut-over was routine
Finance and supply chain systems cannot be tested in production. Processes were proved end to end in test environments, and the cut-over was rehearsed until it held no surprises.
- End-to-end process tests across finance and operations
- Automated regression tests for standard and extended processes
- Data migration rehearsals, reconciled entity by entity
- User acceptance testing by business process owners
- Performance tests at real transaction volumes
Deployment
- 01Finance integrationRevenue recognition and billing connected.
- 02Portfolio reportingProject controls and portfolio dashboards.
- 03Rehearsed cut-overA timed cut-over plan, rehearsed at least twice, with a go or no-go decision by the business.
- 04Hypercare and warrantyOn-site or remote support through the first period close, and six months of free bug fixing.
Final deliverables
Margin visible before it's too late
Projects flow from estimate to invoice without re-keying, specialists are allocated by skill, and every project has a monthly margin forecast.
Finance recognises revenue in the system and bills faster from approved actuals.
- Connected quote-to-cash
- Skills-based resourcing
- System revenue recognition
- Monthly margin forecasts
Handed over to the client
- 01Configured Dynamics 365Production and test environments
- 02Extensions and integrationsSource code and documentation
- 03Migrated dataReconciled entity by entity
- 04Process documentation and trainingBy business process
- 05Six-month warrantyFree bug fixing after delivery
Success metrics
How success is measured
| Measure | Outcome | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Higher billable utilisation | 3–8 pts | Percentage-point range; depends on resourcing practice before |
| Faster billing cycle | 30–50% | Target range after the first billing cycles |
| Project margin forecasts | Monthly | Where project managers update forecasts |
Verified reviews
What clients say about our Dynamics work
Verified reviews from our clients on the same kind of work, published on Clutch.
-
Custom Software Development
Web-Based Coupon App Development
The work produced by the team was of exceptional quality.
Jon Thies
CTO, Model Rocket Feb 2022 – Mar 2023
-
Custom Software Development
Mobile & Web Platform Development & Design
Silver Scintilla was responsive, respectful, and enjoyable to work with, quickly addressing any questions or requests.
DeShawn Brown
CEO & Founder, Lithios Jun 2021 – Nov 2022
-
Custom Software Development
Web-Based HRM System Development
Silver Scintilla provided the best solution with scalable functionality, personalized features, and robust security.
Suheb Khan
Director, Collaborative Insight Technologies Jul 2020 – Jun 2022
Related
Services we used on this project
Free discovery call
Have an idea? Let's turn it into AI-powered software.
Book a free discovery call with our experts. Share your idea and we will help you shape the scope, timeline and budget, under NDA.
- Free consultation
- NDA before we talk
- Transparent estimate