Dynamics 365 Project Operations
Your projects finish on time and on budget
One platform connects your project managers, resource schedulers, finance team, and billing workflows. Your team stops chasing numbers across spreadsheets and starts seeing margin in real time.
Redefine is a Dynamics 365 consulting partner that delivers every implementation with a named consultant, a written delivery plan, and a go-live date you agreed before the project started.
8 weeks
Average go-live timeline
100%
Named consultant assigned
Microsoft
Solutions Partner
The problem
Why most project-based businesses miss their numbers
Project Operations replaces the manual handoffs and disconnected data that erode margin before an invoice is even raised.
The old way
- Project managers export timesheets to spreadsheets and reconcile hours manually at month end
- Finance cannot see project-level margin until invoices are raised and posted, too late to act
- Resource scheduling lives in a separate spreadsheet, double-booking is discovered at the start of a sprint
- Fixed-fee projects burn past budget before anyone in finance is notified
- Producing one invoice requires three systems and a full day from a finance analyst
Life with Project Operations
- Time and expense captured in the app, manager approves in one click and costs post to the project ledger automatically
- Finance sees live project margin, revenue recognition, and budget consumption on a single dashboard
- Resources booked from a unified schedule board with skills, availability, and utilization visible at a glance
- Budget alerts fire at a configurable threshold, before overrun happens, not after the client invoice
- Invoice drafts generate from approved time entries and milestones, and finance reviews and sends in minutes
"We found out we were over budget on three projects only after the invoices went out. There was nothing in the system to warn us any sooner."
Operations director, professional services firm
Onboarding process
From signed agreement to first project delivered in eight weeks
Every Redefine implementation follows a structured delivery sequence with milestone sign-offs and a named consultant from day one. No handoffs to offshore teams mid-project.
Phase
W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
W6
W7
W8
1Discovery and kickoff
Phase 1: Week 1
Discovery and kickoff
- Requirements workshop with project managers, finance lead, and information technology sponsor
- Billing model review: fixed-fee, time-and-materials, and retainer contracts catalogued
- Stakeholder map and approval chain defined with named Redefine consultant
- Written delivery plan issued and signed off by both parties before week ends
Kickoff completeWeek 1 of 8
Billing models in scopeFixed-fee, Time and Materials, Retainer
Legal entities2 (United States, United Kingdom)
Named consultantAlex R., confirmed
Delivery planSigned off
2Configuration and data setup
Phase 2: Weeks 2 and 3
Configuration and data setup
- All five modules configured: resource management, project accounting, time, expense, billing
- Chart of accounts mapped to project cost categories in Dynamics 365 Finance
- Resource roles, bill rates, and booking rules configured to your practice model
- Revenue recognition rules set to match your billing contract types
Configuration in progressWeek 2 of 8
Resource managementComplete
Project accountingComplete
Time and expenseIn progress
Revenue recognitionQueued
3Parallel testing
Phase 3: Weeks 4 and 5
Parallel testing
- 47 user acceptance testing scenarios across all billing models, resource types, and legal entities
- Finance team validates the full time entry to invoice cycle end-to-end
- Edge cases tested: multi-currency projects, cross-entity bookings, milestone triggers
- Finance lead signs off on test results before cutover is authorized
47
Total
44
Passed
3
Review
Time entry to invoicePass
Resource booking conflictPass
Fixed-fee milestone billingIn review
4Training and cutover
Phase 4: Week 6
Training and cutover
- Role-based training for project managers, resource schedulers, and the finance team
- Historical project data migrated and reconciled against source records
- Opening balances posted to Dynamics 365 Finance and verified
- Cutover plan signed off, go-live authorized to proceed on schedule
Team training26 / 28 users
Data migrationComplete
Opening balancesComplete
Cutover planReady for sign-off
5Go-live and first invoice
Phase 5: Weeks 7 and 8
Go-live and first invoice
- System goes live, first real project created in production on day one
- First time entries submitted, approved, and posted to the project ledger
- First invoice raised and sent directly from Dynamics 365
- 30-day check-in scheduled with your named consultant, support service level agreement active from day one
System liveWeek 8 of 8
First projectPRJ-0001, Live
Time entries approved18 entries posted
First invoiceINV-2024-001, Sent
Day 30 check-inScheduled
What you get
Every capability your project team has been asking for
Dynamics 365 Project Operations covers the full lifecycle from opportunity to invoice, with finance and delivery teams working in the same system.
Resource management
Book the right person before the project starts
Schedule resources against projects using skills, availability, and utilization targets. See who is overloaded and who has capacity in a single board without leaving Project Operations.
Project accounting
See margin at project level, not just at month end
Revenue recognition, cost accrual, and budget tracking run inside Dynamics 365 Finance. No manual reconciliation between your project system and your general ledger.
Time and expense
Time captured once. Posted everywhere automatically.
Your team submits time from mobile, desktop, or Microsoft Teams. Managers approve with one click. Approved entries flow to project costs, payroll, and invoicing without manual re-entry between systems.
See time and expense detailsThis week: Sarah K.Submitted
PRJ-0042 Digital Transformation6.5 hours
PRJ-0039 Platform Migration2.0 hours
Week total8.5 hours
Awaiting manager approval
Project profitability
Know which clients and project types actually make money
Compare budget to actual at any point in the project lifecycle. See gross margin by client, project type, or delivery team before the engagement closes.
Billing and invoicing
Fixed-fee, time-and-materials, retainer, all in one system
Mix billing types across projects in the same organization. Invoice drafts generate automatically from approved time entries, milestones, and expense claims, with no manual assembly required.
Client result
Revenue from $14 million to $90 million on one integrated ERP platform
PK
Parsons Kellogg
Promotional products and branded merchandiseEnterprise provider of promotional apparel and branded merchandise operating across more than 30 storefronts and serving national corporate clients with over one million inventory items.
The problem
Operations ran across disconnected platforms with no unified view of inventory, orders, or financial performance. Reporting required manual consolidation from multiple systems, creating delays and data inaccuracies that slowed decisions at scale.
The result
$14M
annual revenue
Scaled from under $14M to over $90M following Dynamics 365 ERP implementation with Power BI and headless architecture
30+
Storefronts unified
1M+
Inventory items
What changed
Dynamics 365 ERP became the central operating platform, unifying inventory, order processing, and financial reporting across all 30 stores. Power BI connected all systems into real-time executive dashboards. A headless architecture enabled catalog management across all storefronts from a single source of record.
- Real-time analytics across all stores via Power BI dashboards connected to Dynamics 365
- Representational State Transfer interfaces connecting Dynamics ERP, customer relationship management, Power BI, and mobile applications
- Automated financial transactions and warehouse workflows across all locations
Integrations
Built to connect with the tools your team already uses
Project Operations ships with native connectors to the Microsoft ecosystem and supports custom integrations for the tools your delivery and finance teams rely on daily.
Dynamics 365 Sales
Opportunity to project handoff and customer context continuity
Dynamics 365 Project Operations
Your operational core
Microsoft Teams
Time approval in-chat, project notifications
Power BI
Real-time margin and utilization dashboards
Dynamics 365 Finance
Project costs post directly to the general ledger
Microsoft Project Online
Advanced scheduling for complex programs
SharePoint
Project documentation and deliverable storage
Custom application programming interfaces
Professional services automation tools, payroll, and practice management platforms
Outlook and Exchange
Calendar sync, meeting workflows, and client communication history
Why Redefine
How Redefine compares to typical implementation partners
Most professional services firms have worked with at least one partner that handed the project to a junior team mid-engagement, missed the go-live date, and left the client to configure project accounting alone.
| What matters at go-live | Typical partner | Redefine |
|---|---|---|
| Named consultant assigned from day one | Sometimes | Always |
| Written delivery plan with signed milestone dates | Rarely | Every project |
| Project accounting configured to your billing model | Partial | Included |
| Go-live date commitment in the contract | No | Yes |
| Post-go-live support service level agreement in writing | Optional add-on | Standard |
| Resource planning workshop in delivery scope | Not typically | Included |
| Fixed-fee discovery before full project begins | Uncommon | Available |
Common questions
Questions we hear from every project-based business
Dynamics 365 Project Operations connects your project managers, resource schedulers, finance team, and billing workflows in one platform. It covers project planning, resource scheduling, time and expense capture, project accounting, and real-time profitability reporting so your team sees margin at every stage without switching systems.
A standard implementation for a professional services firm typically runs six to ten weeks from kickoff to go-live, depending on billing model complexity, number of legal entities, and integration requirements. Redefine provides a written delivery schedule with milestone sign-offs before the project begins.
Dynamics 365 Project Operations includes scheduling and work breakdown structure tools that cover many needs previously handled by Microsoft Project for project-based businesses. It also integrates with Microsoft Project Online when your team needs advanced scheduling for large or complex programs.
Yes. Project Operations supports fixed-fee, time-and-materials, retainer, and milestone-based billing models. You can mix contract types across projects within the same organization. Your Redefine consultant configures billing rules to match how you currently invoice clients before go-live.
Implementation cost depends on user count, billing model complexity, integrations required, and whether data migration is in scope. Most professional services firms should budget between $40,000 and $150,000 for a full implementation. See full guidance on our Dynamics 365 implementation cost page.
Is this a fit
Project Operations works best for some teams, not all
We turn away engagements that are not the right shape. Here is the shape that fits.
Good fit when
- Your firm runs project-based work for clients and bills against time, milestones, or fixed-fee contracts
- You already use, or plan to adopt, Dynamics 365 Finance as your general ledger
- A project manager and a finance lead can each commit 3 to 4 hours per week to the implementation
- You need project margin visibility before invoices land, not after
Not a fit if
- You want a one-time licence install with no configuration or accounting integration
- Your business is a sole operator with no need for resource scheduling or multi-user time entry
- You are committed to a competing enterprise resource planning stack that will not co-exist with Dynamics 365 Finance
- You need a system fully live in under four weeks with no parallel testing window
Not sure? Tell us your situation and we will be straight with you.
Plan your build
Tell us about your project operation
A 30-minute conversation with a named consultant. No commitment. No pitch. We will tell you whether Project Operations maps to your billing model and team structure before you sign anything.
Brief received
We will review your workflow and send a scoped proposal within 3 business days. A named consultant will reach out within 48 hours to confirm details.
48 hours
First response time
3 days
Scoped proposal
Microsoft
Solutions Partner
Yours
Config and code ownership
Get started
Ready to see Project Operations in your environment?
Talk to a Redefine consultant about your current project management setup. We will show you how Project Operations maps to your billing model and team structure before you commit to anything.
No commitment. No pitch. A 30-minute conversation with someone who has implemented this before.
8
Week average go-live timeline for professional services firms
100%
Of Redefine implementations include a named consultant from day one
3
Billing models supported: fixed-fee, time-and-materials, retainer, in one system
Written
Go-live plan signed by both parties before implementation begins, with no surprises