Integration Preparation

The Work Order Management in MAIN-TOOL has an integration with the Financial Management of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The Integration must be configured before commissioning of MAIN-TOOL.

This is based on 2 setup tables:

• Work Order Posting Setup
• Work Order Dimension Setup

Both tables function similarly to the „General Posting Setup“ in Financial Management in BC.

A data record consists of the combination of a type of posting group, which represents the business transaction, and the product posting group, which is loaded by the item, for example.

The counterpart to the business posting group in MAIN-TOOL is the work order posting group, i.e. the work order posting setup and the work order dimension setup represent the combination of work order posting group and product posting group.

Before these tables can be set up, relevant information must first be provided.

Keyword business transactions:

The business transactions that are mapped in MAIN-TOOL Work Order Management lead to the expense accounts to which these transactions are posted in Financial Accounting. In order to determine the expense accounts, some possible business transactions will now be highlighted:

Business Transaction: Consumption of Inventory-Managed Items

If materials management for spare and wear parts is mapped in BC, the material withdrawal or consumption of items must be taken into account.

If an inventory-managed item is posted via a work order in MAIN-TOOL, e.g. via the Work Order Journal or a Work Order Feedback, this has an effect on the warehouse stock on the one hand and on the other hand the posting to financial accounting is influenced by the Work Order Posting Setup of MAIN-TOOL.

Item - Determination of the Product Posting Groups

It is recommended, to view all items that may already exist in BC. This can be used to determine the product posting groups that have already been created and assigned.

If there are several product posting groups, it must be determined which items are or should be used with which product posting group in MAIN-TOOL.

In the simplest case there is a product posting group for spare and wear parts.

Item - Determination of the Expense Accounts

Based on the determined product posting groups and the business transactions it must be defined, which expense account is to be addressed in each case, for example:

• Maintenance + Material/Spares ➝ Expense Account 4711
• Repair + Material/Spares ➝ Expense Account 4712
• Standstill or Revision + Material/Spares ➝ Expense Account 4713

From this a matrix can be created.

Using the combinations of product posting group and expense account, work order posting groups can be derived, for example:

• „MAINT“          for Maintenance
• „REP“                for Repairs
• „REV“                for Revisions

Business Transaction: Feedback to In-house Service

MAIN-TOOL uses the Resources of the BC Resource Planning for the feedback of In-house Service, like e.g. worked hours.

A resource can be of type „person“ or „machine“, so resources can also represent operating resources, e.g. for machine operations.

Note:

• MAIN-TOOL allows to post resource costs to financial accounting based on Work Order Feedback to Work Orders

Resource - Determination of the Product Posting Groups

If In-house services are to be confirmed for maintenance work orders, the product posting group of the resource must be taken into account.

This also applies also to feedback of resources of the machine type.

If resources are not currently being used, corresponding product posting groups must be created. Often, one product posting group for the In-house services and one product posting group for the machines is sufficient.

Resource - Setup Cost Rate

It is recommended to store the current internal cost rate for the resources. This is usually calculated once a year by the commercial department.

If there are several charging rates, e.g. "Regular working time" and "Overtime", these can be stored in the list "Resource Prices" after clicking on "Prices" and again "Prices".

Resource – Determination of the Clearing Accounts

MAIN-TOOL offers the possibility to transfer costs of In-house services into the financial accounting with the function "Post Work Order Cost to G/L". If In-house services are to be recorded in MAIN-TOOL, corresponding G/L accounts must be defined and assigned in the work order posting setup.

Often, these G/L accounts do not yet exist in the chart of accounts. Since only the internal clearing rates are posted as costs, these accounts are often created as clearing accounts outside the regular chart of accounts.

Many users use only one account which is both debited and credited. The account balance is then always zero and the individual G/L items only show which value was posted with which cost center or cost object.

Business Transaction: Purchase or Cost of External Services

Another cost generator is external services. MAIN-TOOL includes an extension of the item to define as an external service.

Note:

• Items of the type „External Service“ do not produce article items and value items.
• No inventory items are mapped. Nevertheless, „Inventory“ must be selected in the „Type“ field.
• Since BC does not support the purchase of resources, external services must be mapped either via the item or via G/L account.
• However, G/L accounts cannot be planned in the work order.

As a result, these must also be created like items.

External Services - Determination of the Product Posting Groups

If external services were not previously purchase via the items and this functionality is now to be used, then only the chart of accounts can be used as the basis for determining the product posting groups.

The chart of accounts must be used to determine, which accounts are used for purchasing external services. If necessary, these accounts are already provided with unique product posting groups.

Business Transaction: Investment Orders

Finally, the possibility of mapping investment orders in MAIN-TOOL is looked at. This function can be set up for the following postings:

• Posting of activated In-house Services
• Posting of activated Overheads

For this purpose, the following tables were extended by the field „Overhead Rate % (Capitalization)“:

• Resource
• Item
• G/L Account

The feature of capitalization is usually defined directly in the work order, but could also be preassigned in the time schedule, which is, however, very rarely used.

The corresponding fields are created in the „Booking“ info tab.

The account „0120“ selected in the following figure is the balance sheet account for „Buildings under Construction“.

Note:

• There is no posting to the Asset Accounting. I.e. the costs are first collected in the account “ „Buildings under construction“. Later, the incurrent costs must be manually reposted to the fixed asset, since, as a rule, not everything may be capitalized.

It is recommended to create at least one work order posting group for investments. The decisive factor is the number of accounts for "current overhead" and "current In-house Service", since the product posting groups are already transferred from the product to the posting.