Maximize efficiency, improved forecasting, and manage complex projects when providing professional services.

Tracking all aspects of a project or contract is one of the greatest challenges in the professional services industry. Sometimes, even measuring the degree of project completion can be difficult. Poor management of resources can turn what promises to be a year of profitable projects into a year of unmet expectations.
That’s why Microsoft Dynamics GP supports professional services organizations with tools to access decision-driving information, realize a rapid return on investment, and focus on dedicated customer service. Microsoft Dynamics GP can help businesses like yours:

• Meet Scheduled deadlines through a complete and accurate picture of project status.
• Take advantage of the historical information you already have to make more accurate forecasts and management decisions.
• Manage increasingly complex projects by organizing time, equipment, and employees effectively to meet customer demand for accelerated schedules and smaller budgets.
   

Since your organization is project-based from start to finish, it’s important to have control of contracts, jobs, and projects in order to maximize your profits. You may struggle with efficiently using resources across billable projects, and making sure that each project is planned and controlled from initial quote to final billing. The following Microsoft Dynamics GP tools can help you achieve day-to-day control:

• Contract/project/cost code detail: See every detail of each project and track, monitor, and access all information, activities, budgets, costs, and billings related to specific contracts, projects, and cost codes.
• Time entry and billing: Track the true costs of a project by capturing the amount of time spent and detailed notes related to any project, which can then be used for documentation, billing, and better quote generation.
• Activity-based or fee billing: Bill fees accurately by logging specific activities related to a project and generating billing for those activities based on predefined fee structures.
• Cost-recovery billing: Capture all expenditures for specific projects, whether employee reimbursements, vendor invoices, or internal resources, and bill those cost items based on predefined billing rules.
• Web-based time/expense reporting: Enter, edit, and approve detailed time and expense transactions when they happen in the field through a Web-based application.
• Cash-basis financial reporting: Generate financial statements on a cash basis or modified cash basis, in addition to traditional accrual-basis financial statements.
• Process improvement: Automate your business processes to tighten schedules and reduce costs by creating reusable templates and processes.
• Business agility: Adapt to sudden change with better access to and finer control of your information. You’ll be equipped to respond to changes in business priorities, competitive pressures, new technology, and even economic downturns.
• Team collaboration: Manage teams, even when members are spread over long distances, using Web-based collaboration tools and communication portals.
   

Your people are your greatest asset. Help them work smarter, faster, and more efficiently, and you’ll help them be more successful. Microsoft Dynamics GP helps enable you and your people to manage project performance and meet your budgets and bill on time. You’ll be able to:

• Increase employee productivity: Equip employees with easy access to key project information and templates that help enable them to perform routine project and budget tasks more quickly.
• Track unlimited contracts and projects: Create contracts, budgets, and projects with as much or as little detail as you need. Easily track project status and profitability, labor, equipment, materials, and employee expenses.
• Stay informed about budget changes and revenues: Track and control change orders by line item or by the original budget, and use enhanced reporting capabilities to display the exact information you need.
• Ensure timely, accurate billing: Automate invoicing processes and meet the needs of your project by tailoring billing options and customizing invoice formats.
• Get detailed employee information: Respond to employee and management requests with information views that help you quickly identify the exact information you need.
• Manage employee resources: Manage and track employee information to help you make confident decisions. You can run “what if’ scenarios to help you understand the business impact of salary changes.
• Share information: Eliminate data entry and improve accuracy with data sharing that makes information available when you need it, helping you to identify trends and track expenses.
• Simplify employee benefits administration: Manage benefit plans by setting up and tracking plan details, setting maximum match rates for retirement contributions, creating overtime and double-time pay rates, generating targeted benefit letters, and establishing cash accounts for medical and child care expenses.