Project management, project billing, and the Project Operations decision

How Epicor Kinetic's project management and project billing translate to D365's Project management and accounting module — and when Project Operations is the answer instead.

What you will be able to do

• Distinguish between D365 Project management and accounting and Project Operations, and state the licensing and architecture implications of each
• Map Epicor project phases and WBS to D365 project structures
• Translate Epicor project billing models (fixed-price, milestone, time-and-material) to D365 project types and funding sources
• Describe the correct approach for migrating open projects at cutover
• Identify where Epicor project functionality maps to plain job costing versus a full project module

Introduction

Epicor Kinetic includes a project management and project billing module that many manufacturing customers use for two distinct purposes: internal job costing (tracking cost against a project number for analysis, without external billing) and external project delivery (fixed-price or time-and-material contracts with milestone billing and…

The decision framework — which D365 answer fits

Before choosing a D365 target, inventory what Epicor project functionality is actually used:

D365 project types and how Epicor billing models map

D365 Project management and accounting uses project types to control billing, revenue recognition, and cost behaviour:

Project structures — phases, WBS, and cost categories

Epicor projects are structured with phases (or tasks) beneath the project header. D365 provides a work breakdown structure (WBS) — a hierarchical task tree within the project:

Project budgets and forecasts

Epicor project budgets set the planned cost and revenue for a project. D365 provides:

Project-driven purchasing and item requirements

In Epicor, a purchase order can be linked to a project — the cost posts to the project upon receipt or invoicing. This supports project-driven procurement: buying materials or services specifically for a project, with cost tracked at the project level.

Timesheets and labour cost

Epicor project timesheets capture labour hours against project tasks. D365 project timesheets (TSTimesheetTrans) work similarly:

Revenue recognition and WIP

Post project transactions (hours, expenses, items) to cost accounts. Run the estimate process at period end. For fixed-price projects, the estimate calculates earned revenue using the configured method (completed percentage of cost, completed percentage of effort, or completed contract).

Open-project migration — Wave 5

Count of open projects in D365 = count of open projects extracted from Epicor. Sum of project WIP in D365 = sum of project WIP in Epicor = GL WIP control account balance. Sum of unbilled revenue in D365 = sum of unbilled revenue in Epicor. Remaining budget per project in D365 = remaining budget in Epicor.

Knowledge check

Summary

Project migration in an Epicor context is as much a scoping exercise as a data exercise. The first decision — whether to use Project management and accounting, Project Operations, or plain job costing — determines the licensing, integration, and implementation complexity.