Dynamics GP Project Tracking with the General Ledger

Most companies have at least some requirement to track project related activity for their organizations, whether it's a research and development (R&D) project, an internal construction project, or a customer-specific project. There are several ways to utilize Microsoft Dynamics GP project tracking capabilities. Perhaps the simplest method is to merely use a specific segment in the chart of accounts to identify project activities.

Dynamics GP project tracking is very easy to set up this way. Since it is possible to have up to ten segments in your chart of accounts, just assign one of the segments to track project activities.

In this example I'm using the third segment to identify project activities:

With alphanumeric segment values, you can use letters to identify your projects. There are a few essential benefits of using the general ledger to track project activities are:

• It uses standard functionality that you're already using for the rest of your accounting requirements.
• It's simple to set up and maintain.
• The reporting flows naturally from the general ledger.

Here's an example of the standard trial balance report with transactions coded and grouped by project. This offers easy analysis of project activity at a detailed level:

The above report could even be enhanced by pulling in additional information from the account master file user-defined fields.

You can also use Management Reporter to include budgets and variance calculations in your reports. Since you can have an unlimited number of budgets in Dynamics GP, you can easily use one or more to store project budget information. Here's an example of a multi-year project with actual and budget amounts in Management Reporter:

For a visual explanation around Dynamics GP project tracking, take a look at this video showing this method of tracking project activity.

If it turns out that you want to track project activity at a task and sub-task level you will likely want to use a different method. In that case, the Project Accounting, Analytical Accounting, or a Dynamics GP add-on product would work better. There are many options, so explore the best method for your team.

Contact the Armanino team to learn more about Dynamics GP or to explore an assessment of your current technology systems and create a roadmap for future growth.