Microsoft Dynamics xRM – Professional Services (Part 2)

Posted by Ryan Toenies on December 3, 2009  |  Comments (1)

Abstract: This is a continuation of my last blog were I spoke about using CRM as an xRM platform to to track time.  In this blog I will discuss how you can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to track project expenses. 

Business Requirement: Track and submit project expenses tied to cost categories.  Integrate to any accounting system to facilitate and process expense reports.

Proposed Solution: Microsoft Dynamics CRM

First of all, I am not recommending that Microsoft Dynamics CRM replaces your accounting package.  On the contrary, your accounting package is vital to adhering to proper accounting principals/practices and for business critical reporting needs.  However, I am proposing that we can streamline data entry and accessibility by utilizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the primary user interface. 

For a professional services organization expense reports are tied to projects (those projects are either tied directly to a customer or are deemed internal expenses).  Because you are using CRM to track your customers it makes sense that we create Expense Report entities within CRM to track corresponding expenses.  If you look at my previous post you’ll see I discussed tracking time against your customers and their projects.  We now take that one step further by tracking expenses and providing data entry screens within the CRM application.

The first step is to create a new expense report.  The expense report contains 1 to many expense items. Think of the expense report as a container holding your specific expense items.

Once your expense report is created you can add expenses to the report.  Because CRM is so extensible you are able to create whatever fields you require when tracking expense items.  Expense codes, budgets, vendors, etc. can all be integrated to your accounting application for validation purposes.  Add and remove fields as desired – this is simply an example of what’s capable with the application.

Once you are finished adding expenses you simply submit the expense report for approval.  Microsoft Dynamics CRM utilizes the Windows Workflow Foundation so we can build our own customized workflow rules to manage the expense report process.  In this example we have a simple rule that notifies the appropriate individuals when a report needs to be approved and when it has been paid.  These workflow rules are created using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM workflow admin interface so you can create workflow rules specific to your business needs.

The expenses have now been created, submitted, approved, and paid all through Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  In addition, you can now create reports for expenses while pivoting on data that resides in any related entity like projects. 

The opportunities are truly endless with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.