Open Forum

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

I guess it depends on how extensive your Jobs are.
In the past, I have used G/L Budgets for this, but in combination with Dimensions. I nominated Job Number as a Global Dimension and made it the Default Dimension on on the Job. ((So the Job number was it's own Dimension) To be fair, I did have a small modification made so that when a new Job was created, it created a new Dimension value automatically, but this was really just a cherry on the top.)
I then used GL Budgets but all entries had a Dimension Value against them, and then could create Account Schedules or Analysis by Dimension reports that viewed actuals to budget etc.
It really would depend on the nature of the Jobs though as to whether this would be a good fit- in the instance I did this, the jobs were long running research projects, lasting several years, and there were only maybe 25 at any given time, spread across a number of departments in the business. It probably would be too unwieldy to use for shorter Jobs.
It might be worth looking at the Jet Reports Budgeting tool as a third party option?  I've not used it myself but it looked good in thet demo I had,
Kind Regards
Clare

------------------------------
Clare Dyson
Aptean
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Clare,

Thank you for your reply. Job Number is one of our global dimensions. I will check into the Jet Reports.

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 03:55 AM
From: Clare Dyson
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

I guess it depends on how extensive your Jobs are.
In the past, I have used G/L Budgets for this, but in combination with Dimensions. I nominated Job Number as a Global Dimension and made it the Default Dimension on on the Job. ((So the Job number was it's own Dimension) To be fair, I did have a small modification made so that when a new Job was created, it created a new Dimension value automatically, but this was really just a cherry on the top.)
I then used GL Budgets but all entries had a Dimension Value against them, and then could create Account Schedules or Analysis by Dimension reports that viewed actuals to budget etc.
It really would depend on the nature of the Jobs though as to whether this would be a good fit- in the instance I did this, the jobs were long running research projects, lasting several years, and there were only maybe 25 at any given time, spread across a number of departments in the business. It probably would be too unwieldy to use for shorter Jobs.
It might be worth looking at the Jet Reports Budgeting tool as a third party option?  I've not used it myself but it looked good in thet demo I had,
Kind Regards
Clare

------------------------------
Clare Dyson
Aptean

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Clare,
I like the use of a Global Dimension for analysis of the Job and as you stated that small modification to auto create the new Job Dimension prevents user error.

Do you only post G/L Accounts to Jobs, or do you post Time and Inventory to your Jobs?  And if you are only posting G/L Accounts to the Jobs, do you still run WIP, or do you analyze the Job through the Account Schedule and post WIP as a manual entry?

------------------------------
Robb Delprado
Senior Trainer and Consultant
New View Strategies
robb@newviewstrategies.com
860.558.8032
Houston, TX
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 03:55 AM
From: Clare Dyson
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

I guess it depends on how extensive your Jobs are.
In the past, I have used G/L Budgets for this, but in combination with Dimensions. I nominated Job Number as a Global Dimension and made it the Default Dimension on on the Job. ((So the Job number was it's own Dimension) To be fair, I did have a small modification made so that when a new Job was created, it created a new Dimension value automatically, but this was really just a cherry on the top.)
I then used GL Budgets but all entries had a Dimension Value against them, and then could create Account Schedules or Analysis by Dimension reports that viewed actuals to budget etc.
It really would depend on the nature of the Jobs though as to whether this would be a good fit- in the instance I did this, the jobs were long running research projects, lasting several years, and there were only maybe 25 at any given time, spread across a number of departments in the business. It probably would be too unwieldy to use for shorter Jobs.
It might be worth looking at the Jet Reports Budgeting tool as a third party option?  I've not used it myself but it looked good in thet demo I had,
Kind Regards
Clare

------------------------------
Clare Dyson
Aptean

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

In this particular instance we were posting (mostly) Time/Resources against the job Dimension using Timesheets, as well as any relevant invoices which were always coded against the correct Dimension, or even allocated across multiple dimensions in Journals (No inventory)
Dimensions were set to be mandatory on the relevant G/L accounts.
All Tasks on the timesheet were derived from a Job, therefore had the default Dimension Job/Job Value (and in some cases other Dimensions on the task line also, as we had Project 1, Country code 1, Project 1, Country code 2 etc.)
We didn't run WIP (There was no requirement to in this case) and reporting was a Multi-Dimensional analysis of Budget Vs Actuals.

We also had some small modifications made around Timesheets to enforce business rules around submitting all hours (minimum contracted hours per week), and had so set up some additional Dimensions for 'Timesheet only' purposes, so that people could add in their Annual Leave/Sickness/Training etc so that even non-chargeable (Overhead)  time could be analysed.
Kind Regards
Clare

------------------------------
Clare Dyson
Aptean
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 01, 2021 09:37 AM
From: Robb Delprado
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Clare,
I like the use of a Global Dimension for analysis of the Job and as you stated that small modification to auto create the new Job Dimension prevents user error.

Do you only post G/L Accounts to Jobs, or do you post Time and Inventory to your Jobs?  And if you are only posting G/L Accounts to the Jobs, do you still run WIP, or do you analyze the Job through the Account Schedule and post WIP as a manual entry?

------------------------------
Robb Delprado
Senior Trainer and Consultant
New View Strategies
robb@newviewstrategies.com
860.558.8032
Houston, TX

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 03:55 AM
From: Clare Dyson
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

I guess it depends on how extensive your Jobs are.
In the past, I have used G/L Budgets for this, but in combination with Dimensions. I nominated Job Number as a Global Dimension and made it the Default Dimension on on the Job. ((So the Job number was it's own Dimension) To be fair, I did have a small modification made so that when a new Job was created, it created a new Dimension value automatically, but this was really just a cherry on the top.)
I then used GL Budgets but all entries had a Dimension Value against them, and then could create Account Schedules or Analysis by Dimension reports that viewed actuals to budget etc.
It really would depend on the nature of the Jobs though as to whether this would be a good fit- in the instance I did this, the jobs were long running research projects, lasting several years, and there were only maybe 25 at any given time, spread across a number of departments in the business. It probably would be too unwieldy to use for shorter Jobs.
It might be worth looking at the Jet Reports Budgeting tool as a third party option?  I've not used it myself but it looked good in thet demo I had,
Kind Regards
Clare

------------------------------
Clare Dyson
Aptean

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Lukas,

Adding on to Clare's reply... G/L Budgets are 100% the feature and tool when a company needs to both establish and present budgetary reports comparing a specific Chart of Account Budget to Actual. In addition, you can take the G/L Budgets and create them Dimensionally so you can run your Account Schedules applying Dimension Actual to Budget. You can also see the G/L Budget using Analysis by Dimension page.

As for Jobs, Jobs Budget is what my customers use when establishing any Project (Job) and running Job Reports comparing Job Actual to Job Budget. They establish a Budget for all Planning Lines to make sure the Job is profitable and if not you can see the Line that went south.

You can run Job Cost Budget Reports (pic 1), Actual Price to Budget (pic 2). All in all you have a few reports to utilize and you can always pull data out via Jet or Power BI. If you are looking for a Jobs Training Manual, send me your email address and I will send you the last NAV Job Manual published.



Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

@Steven Chinsky,

I curious how your clients have accounted for the fact that budget numbers can be changed with actual postings. For example, if I budget 10 hours, but post actual hours of 12, the budget number increases. Now the budget to actual report will show the budget is 12 hours instead of the original 10.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Amanda​​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 07:55 AM
From: Steven Chinsky
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Lukas,

Adding on to Clare's reply... G/L Budgets are 100% the feature and tool when a company needs to both establish and present budgetary reports comparing a specific Chart of Account Budget to Actual. In addition, you can take the G/L Budgets and create them Dimensionally so you can run your Account Schedules applying Dimension Actual to Budget. You can also see the G/L Budget using Analysis by Dimension page.

As for Jobs, Jobs Budget is what my customers use when establishing any Project (Job) and running Job Reports comparing Job Actual to Job Budget. They establish a Budget for all Planning Lines to make sure the Job is profitable and if not you can see the Line that went south.

You can run Job Cost Budget Reports (pic 1), Actual Price to Budget (pic 2). All in all you have a few reports to utilize and you can always pull data out via Jet or Power BI. If you are looking for a Jobs Training Manual, send me your email address and I will send you the last NAV Job Manual published.



Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

@Amanda Mayer,
The budget will only change if your Line Type is "Budget" or "Both Budget and Billable" in the Job Journal (or when the entries pass through the Job Journal).  The recommendation is to always have the Line Type be blank, or in case of a T&M Job set the Line Type to "Billable".

@Lukas Sundahl
If your Job requires you to Output a finished good, you would want to look into third-party extensions, otherwise the base Jobs module is good for long duration project tracking.  You'll probably add some little modifications to dial it in for your business, but overall it does a good job tracking Budget vs. Actual.

​​

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Amanda Mayer
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Steven Chinsky,

I curious how your clients have accounted for the fact that budget numbers can be changed with actual postings. For example, if I budget 10 hours, but post actual hours of 12, the budget number increases. Now the budget to actual report will show the budget is 12 hours instead of the original 10.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Amanda​​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 07:55 AM
From: Steven Chinsky
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Lukas,

Adding on to Clare's reply... G/L Budgets are 100% the feature and tool when a company needs to both establish and present budgetary reports comparing a specific Chart of Account Budget to Actual. In addition, you can take the G/L Budgets and create them Dimensionally so you can run your Account Schedules applying Dimension Actual to Budget. You can also see the G/L Budget using Analysis by Dimension page.

As for Jobs, Jobs Budget is what my customers use when establishing any Project (Job) and running Job Reports comparing Job Actual to Job Budget. They establish a Budget for all Planning Lines to make sure the Job is profitable and if not you can see the Line that went south.

You can run Job Cost Budget Reports (pic 1), Actual Price to Budget (pic 2). All in all you have a few reports to utilize and you can always pull data out via Jet or Power BI. If you are looking for a Jobs Training Manual, send me your email address and I will send you the last NAV Job Manual published.



Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Amanda,

Sorry got pulled into meetings all morning...

Thanks Ben for replying to this!

Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 09:35 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Amanda Mayer,
The budget will only change if your Line Type is "Budget" or "Both Budget and Billable" in the Job Journal (or when the entries pass through the Job Journal).  The recommendation is to always have the Line Type be blank, or in case of a T&M Job set the Line Type to "Billable".

@Lukas Sundahl
If your Job requires you to Output a finished good, you would want to look into third-party extensions, otherwise the base Jobs module is good for long duration project tracking.  You'll probably add some little modifications to dial it in for your business, but overall it does a good job tracking Budget vs. Actual.

​​

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Amanda Mayer
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Steven Chinsky,

I curious how your clients have accounted for the fact that budget numbers can be changed with actual postings. For example, if I budget 10 hours, but post actual hours of 12, the budget number increases. Now the budget to actual report will show the budget is 12 hours instead of the original 10.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Amanda​​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 07:55 AM
From: Steven Chinsky
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Lukas,

Adding on to Clare's reply... G/L Budgets are 100% the feature and tool when a company needs to both establish and present budgetary reports comparing a specific Chart of Account Budget to Actual. In addition, you can take the G/L Budgets and create them Dimensionally so you can run your Account Schedules applying Dimension Actual to Budget. You can also see the G/L Budget using Analysis by Dimension page.

As for Jobs, Jobs Budget is what my customers use when establishing any Project (Job) and running Job Reports comparing Job Actual to Job Budget. They establish a Budget for all Planning Lines to make sure the Job is profitable and if not you can see the Line that went south.

You can run Job Cost Budget Reports (pic 1), Actual Price to Budget (pic 2). All in all you have a few reports to utilize and you can always pull data out via Jet or Power BI. If you are looking for a Jobs Training Manual, send me your email address and I will send you the last NAV Job Manual published.



Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Thanks Ben. Our jobs do not require a finished good output. Our projects (jobs) currently vary in length from 1-5 years.

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 09:35 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Amanda Mayer,
The budget will only change if your Line Type is "Budget" or "Both Budget and Billable" in the Job Journal (or when the entries pass through the Job Journal).  The recommendation is to always have the Line Type be blank, or in case of a T&M Job set the Line Type to "Billable".

@Lukas Sundahl
If your Job requires you to Output a finished good, you would want to look into third-party extensions, otherwise the base Jobs module is good for long duration project tracking.  You'll probably add some little modifications to dial it in for your business, but overall it does a good job tracking Budget vs. Actual.

​​

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Amanda Mayer
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Steven Chinsky,

I curious how your clients have accounted for the fact that budget numbers can be changed with actual postings. For example, if I budget 10 hours, but post actual hours of 12, the budget number increases. Now the budget to actual report will show the budget is 12 hours instead of the original 10.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Amanda​​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 07:55 AM
From: Steven Chinsky
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Lukas,

Adding on to Clare's reply... G/L Budgets are 100% the feature and tool when a company needs to both establish and present budgetary reports comparing a specific Chart of Account Budget to Actual. In addition, you can take the G/L Budgets and create them Dimensionally so you can run your Account Schedules applying Dimension Actual to Budget. You can also see the G/L Budget using Analysis by Dimension page.

As for Jobs, Jobs Budget is what my customers use when establishing any Project (Job) and running Job Reports comparing Job Actual to Job Budget. They establish a Budget for all Planning Lines to make sure the Job is profitable and if not you can see the Line that went south.

You can run Job Cost Budget Reports (pic 1), Actual Price to Budget (pic 2). All in all you have a few reports to utilize and you can always pull data out via Jet or Power BI. If you are looking for a Jobs Training Manual, send me your email address and I will send you the last NAV Job Manual published.



Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

@Ben Baxter

This makes sense. So best practice is to set your budget lines to budget only and time sheet entry lines to billable (for T&M). You'll get double the lines, but be able to retain budget information. Did I capture that correctly?

What would expect in a fixed fee project where you still want to track actual hours, but budget estimated hours? Leave those lines as blank?

Thanks,
Amanda​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 09:35 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Amanda Mayer,
The budget will only change if your Line Type is "Budget" or "Both Budget and Billable" in the Job Journal (or when the entries pass through the Job Journal).  The recommendation is to always have the Line Type be blank, or in case of a T&M Job set the Line Type to "Billable".

@Lukas Sundahl
If your Job requires you to Output a finished good, you would want to look into third-party extensions, otherwise the base Jobs module is good for long duration project tracking.  You'll probably add some little modifications to dial it in for your business, but overall it does a good job tracking Budget vs. Actual.

​​

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Amanda Mayer
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Steven Chinsky,

I curious how your clients have accounted for the fact that budget numbers can be changed with actual postings. For example, if I budget 10 hours, but post actual hours of 12, the budget number increases. Now the budget to actual report will show the budget is 12 hours instead of the original 10.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Amanda​​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 07:55 AM
From: Steven Chinsky
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Lukas,

Adding on to Clare's reply... G/L Budgets are 100% the feature and tool when a company needs to both establish and present budgetary reports comparing a specific Chart of Account Budget to Actual. In addition, you can take the G/L Budgets and create them Dimensionally so you can run your Account Schedules applying Dimension Actual to Budget. You can also see the G/L Budget using Analysis by Dimension page.

As for Jobs, Jobs Budget is what my customers use when establishing any Project (Job) and running Job Reports comparing Job Actual to Job Budget. They establish a Budget for all Planning Lines to make sure the Job is profitable and if not you can see the Line that went south.

You can run Job Cost Budget Reports (pic 1), Actual Price to Budget (pic 2). All in all you have a few reports to utilize and you can always pull data out via Jet or Power BI. If you are looking for a Jobs Training Manual, send me your email address and I will send you the last NAV Job Manual published.



Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Exactly!  The Job Planning Lines are set to Budget (Budget), the time sheet lines are either Blank (non-T&M) or Billable (T&M).  The lines posted in/through the Job Journal will create Job Ledger Entries (Actuals), and if set to Billable will also create the Billable Planning Lines used in the Create Sales Invoice process.

In the case of a fixed fee project, you typically would have pre-defined Job Planning Lines set to Billable, and a specific Planning Date (which can change) for when each billable event will occur.  All actual costs posted to the Job would be with a Blank Line Type so that you are only creating the Job Ledger Entries to run your Budget vs. Actual analysis.

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 11:16 AM
From: Amanda Mayer
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Ben Baxter

This makes sense. So best practice is to set your budget lines to budget only and time sheet entry lines to billable (for T&M). You'll get double the lines, but be able to retain budget information. Did I capture that correctly?

What would expect in a fixed fee project where you still want to track actual hours, but budget estimated hours? Leave those lines as blank?

Thanks,
Amanda​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 09:35 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Amanda Mayer,
The budget will only change if your Line Type is "Budget" or "Both Budget and Billable" in the Job Journal (or when the entries pass through the Job Journal).  The recommendation is to always have the Line Type be blank, or in case of a T&M Job set the Line Type to "Billable".

@Lukas Sundahl
If your Job requires you to Output a finished good, you would want to look into third-party extensions, otherwise the base Jobs module is good for long duration project tracking.  You'll probably add some little modifications to dial it in for your business, but overall it does a good job tracking Budget vs. Actual.

​​

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Amanda Mayer
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Steven Chinsky,

I curious how your clients have accounted for the fact that budget numbers can be changed with actual postings. For example, if I budget 10 hours, but post actual hours of 12, the budget number increases. Now the budget to actual report will show the budget is 12 hours instead of the original 10.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Amanda​​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 07:55 AM
From: Steven Chinsky
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Lukas,

Adding on to Clare's reply... G/L Budgets are 100% the feature and tool when a company needs to both establish and present budgetary reports comparing a specific Chart of Account Budget to Actual. In addition, you can take the G/L Budgets and create them Dimensionally so you can run your Account Schedules applying Dimension Actual to Budget. You can also see the G/L Budget using Analysis by Dimension page.

As for Jobs, Jobs Budget is what my customers use when establishing any Project (Job) and running Job Reports comparing Job Actual to Job Budget. They establish a Budget for all Planning Lines to make sure the Job is profitable and if not you can see the Line that went south.

You can run Job Cost Budget Reports (pic 1), Actual Price to Budget (pic 2). All in all you have a few reports to utilize and you can always pull data out via Jet or Power BI. If you are looking for a Jobs Training Manual, send me your email address and I will send you the last NAV Job Manual published.



Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Thanks Steven. All of this detail helps me get a better idea of what steps to take next.

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 07:55 AM
From: Steven Chinsky
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Lukas,

Adding on to Clare's reply... G/L Budgets are 100% the feature and tool when a company needs to both establish and present budgetary reports comparing a specific Chart of Account Budget to Actual. In addition, you can take the G/L Budgets and create them Dimensionally so you can run your Account Schedules applying Dimension Actual to Budget. You can also see the G/L Budget using Analysis by Dimension page.

As for Jobs, Jobs Budget is what my customers use when establishing any Project (Job) and running Job Reports comparing Job Actual to Job Budget. They establish a Budget for all Planning Lines to make sure the Job is profitable and if not you can see the Line that went south.

You can run Job Cost Budget Reports (pic 1), Actual Price to Budget (pic 2). All in all you have a few reports to utilize and you can always pull data out via Jet or Power BI. If you are looking for a Jobs Training Manual, send me your email address and I will send you the last NAV Job Manual published.



Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Lukas
Your initial question sparked a lot of great conversation.  The Job functionality doesn't get a lot of attention, but the responses provided great information.

------------------------------
Robb Delprado
Senior Trainer and Consultant
New View Strategies
robb@newviewstrategies.com
860.558.8032
Houston, TX
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 10:27 AM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Thanks Steven. All of this detail helps me get a better idea of what steps to take next.

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2021 07:55 AM
From: Steven Chinsky
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Lukas,

Adding on to Clare's reply... G/L Budgets are 100% the feature and tool when a company needs to both establish and present budgetary reports comparing a specific Chart of Account Budget to Actual. In addition, you can take the G/L Budgets and create them Dimensionally so you can run your Account Schedules applying Dimension Actual to Budget. You can also see the G/L Budget using Analysis by Dimension page.

As for Jobs, Jobs Budget is what my customers use when establishing any Project (Job) and running Job Reports comparing Job Actual to Job Budget. They establish a Budget for all Planning Lines to make sure the Job is profitable and if not you can see the Line that went south.

You can run Job Cost Budget Reports (pic 1), Actual Price to Budget (pic 2). All in all you have a few reports to utilize and you can always pull data out via Jet or Power BI. If you are looking for a Jobs Training Manual, send me your email address and I will send you the last NAV Job Manual published.



Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

We don't use job number as a dimension, and we needed to track performance against original budget, even if, as the job progressed, values and dates changed.

We asked our partner to create functionality to take a "snapshot" of job planning lines at the time the job goes into Open status. A copy of those planning lines is put in a table called [Job Budget Lines] with two additional fields: [Date of Snapshot] and [Active]. Any new budgets have Active set to 1 and old budgets have Active set to 0.

They also created some flow fields on the job list and job task list to show "Budgeted Resource Cost", "Budgeted G/L Cost" and "Budgeted Income".

It's not built-in functionality, but is relatively simple.

------------------------------
Dianne Butterworth
Business System Manager
The King's Fund
London
United Kingdom
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Dianne,

Your customizations sound similar to a third-party app called "Job Manager".  It allows the User to save an Original Estimate, essentially taking a snapshot of the current Job either at time of Quoting or time of acceptance.  They also add similar statistics breakdowns on the Job List by Cost Category in the Fact Box section.  There are a lot of great extensions in the market for Jobs.

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 05:24 AM
From: Dianne Butterworth
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

We don't use job number as a dimension, and we needed to track performance against original budget, even if, as the job progressed, values and dates changed.

We asked our partner to create functionality to take a "snapshot" of job planning lines at the time the job goes into Open status. A copy of those planning lines is put in a table called [Job Budget Lines] with two additional fields: [Date of Snapshot] and [Active]. Any new budgets have Active set to 1 and old budgets have Active set to 0.

They also created some flow fields on the job list and job task list to show "Budgeted Resource Cost", "Budgeted G/L Cost" and "Budgeted Income".

It's not built-in functionality, but is relatively simple.

------------------------------
Dianne Butterworth
Business System Manager
The King's Fund
London
United Kingdom

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Thanks for that, Ben. We upgraded to BC14 last year and will definitely look at that as we migrate our code to extensions.

------------------------------
Dianne Butterworth
Business System Manager
The King's Fund
London
United Kingdom
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 08:29 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Dianne,

Your customizations sound similar to a third-party app called "Job Manager".  It allows the User to save an Original Estimate, essentially taking a snapshot of the current Job either at time of Quoting or time of acceptance.  They also add similar statistics breakdowns on the Job List by Cost Category in the Fact Box section.  There are a lot of great extensions in the market for Jobs.

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 05:24 AM
From: Dianne Butterworth
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

We don't use job number as a dimension, and we needed to track performance against original budget, even if, as the job progressed, values and dates changed.

We asked our partner to create functionality to take a "snapshot" of job planning lines at the time the job goes into Open status. A copy of those planning lines is put in a table called [Job Budget Lines] with two additional fields: [Date of Snapshot] and [Active]. Any new budgets have Active set to 1 and old budgets have Active set to 0.

They also created some flow fields on the job list and job task list to show "Budgeted Resource Cost", "Budgeted G/L Cost" and "Budgeted Income".

It's not built-in functionality, but is relatively simple.

------------------------------
Dianne Butterworth
Business System Manager
The King's Fund
London
United Kingdom

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

@Ben Baxter

What would you say are the top 3 most common third-party apps for Jobs and what additional features (high-level) do they bring?

Thanks,
Amanda​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 08:29 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Dianne,

Your customizations sound similar to a third-party app called "Job Manager".  It allows the User to save an Original Estimate, essentially taking a snapshot of the current Job either at time of Quoting or time of acceptance.  They also add similar statistics breakdowns on the Job List by Cost Category in the Fact Box section.  There are a lot of great extensions in the market for Jobs.

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 05:24 AM
From: Dianne Butterworth
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

We don't use job number as a dimension, and we needed to track performance against original budget, even if, as the job progressed, values and dates changed.

We asked our partner to create functionality to take a "snapshot" of job planning lines at the time the job goes into Open status. A copy of those planning lines is put in a table called [Job Budget Lines] with two additional fields: [Date of Snapshot] and [Active]. Any new budgets have Active set to 1 and old budgets have Active set to 0.

They also created some flow fields on the job list and job task list to show "Budgeted Resource Cost", "Budgeted G/L Cost" and "Budgeted Income".

It's not built-in functionality, but is relatively simple.

------------------------------
Dianne Butterworth
Business System Manager
The King's Fund
London
United Kingdom

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

@Amanda Mayer, Wow, that is a tough question to answer.  What might be important for one company could have no value to another.  It is likely one or a combination of some of the solutions below depending on the client need.

Overall Interface and Features:
Cost Control - Job Manager
To-Increase - Advanced Job Management
Netsmartz - Project Pro (Construction specific)

Time Collection and Reporting:
Insight Works - Shop Floor Insights
JournyX - JX

Scheduling:
Netronic - Visual Jobs Scheduler
ExpandIT - Resource Planning (Service oriented)



​

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 08:59 AM
From: Amanda Mayer
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Ben Baxter

What would you say are the top 3 most common third-party apps for Jobs and what additional features (high-level) do they bring?

Thanks,
Amanda​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 08:29 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Dianne,

Your customizations sound similar to a third-party app called "Job Manager".  It allows the User to save an Original Estimate, essentially taking a snapshot of the current Job either at time of Quoting or time of acceptance.  They also add similar statistics breakdowns on the Job List by Cost Category in the Fact Box section.  There are a lot of great extensions in the market for Jobs.

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 05:24 AM
From: Dianne Butterworth
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

We don't use job number as a dimension, and we needed to track performance against original budget, even if, as the job progressed, values and dates changed.

We asked our partner to create functionality to take a "snapshot" of job planning lines at the time the job goes into Open status. A copy of those planning lines is put in a table called [Job Budget Lines] with two additional fields: [Date of Snapshot] and [Active]. Any new budgets have Active set to 1 and old budgets have Active set to 0.

They also created some flow fields on the job list and job task list to show "Budgeted Resource Cost", "Budgeted G/L Cost" and "Budgeted Income".

It's not built-in functionality, but is relatively simple.

------------------------------
Dianne Butterworth
Business System Manager
The King's Fund
London
United Kingdom

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

Amanda,

I will say DITTO to what Ben wrote. I have used Cost Control and To-Increase, in the overall section. I am in the process of using Insight Works for time collection, but in a Manufacturing space. I have also used Netronic in the past.

Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 10:35 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Amanda Mayer, Wow, that is a tough question to answer.  What might be important for one company could have no value to another.  It is likely one or a combination of some of the solutions below depending on the client need.

Overall Interface and Features:
Cost Control - Job Manager
To-Increase - Advanced Job Management
Netsmartz - Project Pro (Construction specific)

Time Collection and Reporting:
Insight Works - Shop Floor Insights
JournyX - JX

Scheduling:
Netronic - Visual Jobs Scheduler
ExpandIT - Resource Planning (Service oriented)



​

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 08:59 AM
From: Amanda Mayer
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Ben Baxter

What would you say are the top 3 most common third-party apps for Jobs and what additional features (high-level) do they bring?

Thanks,
Amanda​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 08:29 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Dianne,

Your customizations sound similar to a third-party app called "Job Manager".  It allows the User to save an Original Estimate, essentially taking a snapshot of the current Job either at time of Quoting or time of acceptance.  They also add similar statistics breakdowns on the Job List by Cost Category in the Fact Box section.  There are a lot of great extensions in the market for Jobs.

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 05:24 AM
From: Dianne Butterworth
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

We don't use job number as a dimension, and we needed to track performance against original budget, even if, as the job progressed, values and dates changed.

We asked our partner to create functionality to take a "snapshot" of job planning lines at the time the job goes into Open status. A copy of those planning lines is put in a table called [Job Budget Lines] with two additional fields: [Date of Snapshot] and [Active]. Any new budgets have Active set to 1 and old budgets have Active set to 0.

They also created some flow fields on the job list and job task list to show "Budgeted Resource Cost", "Budgeted G/L Cost" and "Budgeted Income".

It's not built-in functionality, but is relatively simple.

------------------------------
Dianne Butterworth
Business System Manager
The King's Fund
London
United Kingdom

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------

@Ben Baxter and @Steven Chinsky - This is a great list. I think jobs is so rarely talked about that its sometimes difficult to know what addons are out there and might be good. The base functionality is underused, as well.            ​​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 03, 2021 08:27 AM
From: Steven Chinsky
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Amanda,

I will say DITTO to what Ben wrote. I have used Cost Control and To-Increase, in the overall section. I am in the process of using Insight Works for time collection, but in a Manufacturing space. I have also used Netronic in the past.

Thanks,
Steve

------------------------------
Steven Chinsky
Manager
Wipfli
Mansfield MA
NAVUG/BC Programming Committee Member
NAVUG All-Star, Granite Award Recipient, MCP, DCMP

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 10:35 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Amanda Mayer, Wow, that is a tough question to answer.  What might be important for one company could have no value to another.  It is likely one or a combination of some of the solutions below depending on the client need.

Overall Interface and Features:
Cost Control - Job Manager
To-Increase - Advanced Job Management
Netsmartz - Project Pro (Construction specific)

Time Collection and Reporting:
Insight Works - Shop Floor Insights
JournyX - JX

Scheduling:
Netronic - Visual Jobs Scheduler
ExpandIT - Resource Planning (Service oriented)



​

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 08:59 AM
From: Amanda Mayer
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

@Ben Baxter

What would you say are the top 3 most common third-party apps for Jobs and what additional features (high-level) do they bring?

Thanks,
Amanda​

------------------------------
Amanda Mayer
NAVUG All Star

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 08:29 AM
From: Ben Baxter
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Dianne,

Your customizations sound similar to a third-party app called "Job Manager".  It allows the User to save an Original Estimate, essentially taking a snapshot of the current Job either at time of Quoting or time of acceptance.  They also add similar statistics breakdowns on the Job List by Cost Category in the Fact Box section.  There are a lot of great extensions in the market for Jobs.

------------------------------
Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel, IN

Original Message:
Sent: Feb 02, 2021 05:24 AM
From: Dianne Butterworth
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

We don't use job number as a dimension, and we needed to track performance against original budget, even if, as the job progressed, values and dates changed.

We asked our partner to create functionality to take a "snapshot" of job planning lines at the time the job goes into Open status. A copy of those planning lines is put in a table called [Job Budget Lines] with two additional fields: [Date of Snapshot] and [Active]. Any new budgets have Active set to 1 and old budgets have Active set to 0.

They also created some flow fields on the job list and job task list to show "Budgeted Resource Cost", "Budgeted G/L Cost" and "Budgeted Income".

It's not built-in functionality, but is relatively simple.

------------------------------
Dianne Butterworth
Business System Manager
The King's Fund
London
United Kingdom

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 28, 2021 01:49 PM
From: Lukas Sundahl
Subject: NAV Job Budget & Forecasting

Hey everyone!

I am trying to find good instructions/details on using NAV's Job Budget & Forecasting tool. In my search it looks like a lot of the budget information online is about budgeting at the GL Level. With our organization we want to track budget vs. actuals better by using details from the job level.

If you have any tips and content to use existing functionality in NAV I would greatly appreciate your input. For now we want to use NAV, but we would be open to a third party solution if we cannot achieve our objective through NAV itself.


Thanks,
Lukas

#BC/NAVPlus
#NAV2017
#Functional
#Leadership​​​​

------------------------------
Lukas Sundahl
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies
Tulsa OK
------------------------------