In 2013, I was wrote series about using Jobs in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Reason for this was that Microsoft have added several enhancements to jobs and project management features.

One of them was improvement of using work in process (WIP) to make monitoring this process easier and to improve the interaction with financial reporting. From Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, we have got the following enhancements:

• You can create and define a job WIP method, to supplement the five system-defined choices.
• Jobs setup has been expanded to include options to control the treatment of WIP in all jobs. For example, you can specify that a WIP method that you have defined be the default for your organization.
• Users can now track and perform WIP calculations in a new location. From here, you can calculate and post WIP to the general ledger and show any warnings if there are problems with a WIP calculation. For more information, see Job WIP Cockpit on my previous blog post.

Because, I already posted about that, I makes compilation of these posts and put them on one place, because this can be very useful in following posts about using of Job Posting Groups. This will not be a manual for using of Jobs module, but it can be helpful in some areas.

Job WIP Cockpit

As the most of projects are jobs performing usually several months (or several years), WIP calculation is very important part of Job Management. Now, we have new functionality for WIP calculation in Jobs – the WIP cockpit.

The WIP cockpit provides a complete overview of costs, revenues, and profits generated by the project in particular period. In a single place, we can see the amounts that will be posted to company ledgers, and see how these amounts were calculated, with details of the underlying transactions that caused them just another click away. In addition, the WIP cockpit displays WIP warnings, which enable users to see if the underlying collected data is in line with what is defined by the WIP method and if all prerequisites for recognizing costs and revenues are met before posting WIP to a company’s balance sheet.

The Job WIP Cockpit is the central location to track WIP for all of your projects. Each line contains information about a job, including calculated and posted WIP.

How WIP cockpit work?

You can find WIP cockpit page on Jobs->Tasks->Job WIP Cockpit.

The window has two parts, and supports easy access to the typical tasks and routines needed to ensure that WIP compliance stays on track. In the upper part of the window, for any job listed, you can select it and perform the following actions:

• Calculate WIP: On the Home tab, in the Process group, choose Calculate WIP. The results are displayed in the Job WIP Totals section of the window.
• Post WIP to G/L: On the Home tab, in the Process group, choose Post WIP to G/L. Job WIP totals are posted to the general ledger.
• Show Warnings: On the Home tab, choose Show Warnings to see the Job WIP Warnings list. From there, you can see the warning message, and make any adjustments that are necessary, if the WIP Warnings field is set to Yes.
• Entries: On the Analyze tab, you can review WIP entries and WIP general ledger entries, if there are any, as well as job ledger entries associated with the job.

In the lower part of the window, you can see details about calculated WIP for an individual job and use the information provided there to analyze your results.

Calculate WIP

It is necessary to position on required job on top part of window. After that you need to start function “Calculate WIP…”. NAV will make calculation and fill lines based on Job Tasks on bottom part of window, related with top job line. You can see calculated WIP values at bottom part of window.

If you made mistake, you can delete this WIP entries by starting function “Delete WIP Entries”. This function will delete bottom line related with required job line on top part of window.

If system find some problem, NAV will marked with Yes field “WIP Warnings”. You can open page from this field with warning comments.

Post WIP to G/L

If you want to post calculated WIP values to G/L Entry, you need do start function “Post WIP to G/L…”. System will post all WIP entries to G/L entries and move value from “Recog. Costs Amount” field to “Recog. Costs G/L Amount” field on top part windows, as delete WIP entries in bottom lines. You can see all transaction using report “Job WIP To G/L”. Also, you can analyze G/L entries using function “WIP G/L Entries” and using Navigate from that table.

Creating Jobs

I do not want to describe complete process of creating new Job. If you need it, you can find complete manual here. But I want to emphasize few things:

It is important to choose Job Posting Group on the Posting tab. Job posting groups determine which G/L Accounts we post to. The Job Posting Group that you set up on the Job Card will be used as default Job Posting Group on the Job Tasks, but you can change this posting group on each Job Task.

It is also important to set WIP Posting Method. It indicates whether ‘WIP Posting Method’ is per job or per job ledger entry. When we select ‘Per Job’, NAV uses total WIP costs and sales to calculate WIP. When we select ‘Per Job Ledger Entry’, NAV uses the accumulated values for WIP costs and sales. The default value is Per Job:

• Per Job: Default. If there have been no general ledger or WIP entries, you can modify this field. You can also modify this field if all existing entries are reversed.
• Per Job Ledger Entry: WIP is posted per job ledger entry. This option can be selected only if there are no existing WIP entries or WIP G/L entries, or if all WIP G/L entries have been reversed.

And finally, we have to set WIP Method. It contains the name of the work in process (WIP) calculation method that is associated with a job. Work in process (WIP) is used to match expenses with revenues. Microsoft Dynamics NAV supports multiple ways to calculate WIP and recognition of sales and costs (see the Job WIP Methods).

We should create a new Job WIP methods that reflects the needs of our company. After we have created it, we can set it as the default Job WIP calculation method that will be used in our company.

NAV supports multiple ways to calculate WIP and recognition of sales and costs:

• Completed Contract: No sales or costs are part of the calculation.
• Cost of Sales: Recognizes WIP when the customer is invoiced.
• Cost Value: Recognizes WIP when the customer is invoiced.
• Percentage of Completion: Recognizes costs as they are reported.
• Sales Value: Recognizes costs as they are reported.

In addition, it is possible to create our own formula for calculating the WIP associated with a job, but not now about this.

Create a code for the method, add a description, and then select the appropriate values for the ‘Recognized Costs’ and ‘Recognized Sales’ fields. By design, the ‘System Defined’ check box is not selected, but three others are selected. There are next fields:

• WIP Cost: For this field, the following applies: Cost Amount (WIP) = Usage (Total Cost) – Recognized Cost. For system defined WIP methods, the ‘WIP Cost’ field is the default and is checked. For WIP methods that we create, we can only clear the check box if we set ‘Recognized Costs’ to ‘Usage (Total Cost)’. When we do this, ‘Job Costs Applied’ and ‘Recognized Costs’ are not posted to the General Ledger.
• WIP Sales: For this field, the following applies: Sales Amount (WIP) = Contract (Invoiced Price) – Recognized Sales. For system-defined WIP methods, the ‘WIP Sales’ field is the default and is checked. For WIP methods that we create, we can only clear the check box if we set ‘Recognized Sales’ to ‘Contract (Invoiced Price)’. When we do this, the contract (invoiced price) is not posted to the general ledger.
• Valid: Indicates whether a WIP method can be associated with a job when we are creating or modifying a job. If we select this check box in the Job WIP Methods window, we can then set the method as a default WIP method in the Jobs Setup window. Once set, we cannot clear this check box if the WIP method has been specified as the default WIP Method in the Jobs Setup Window.
• System Defined: Indicates whether a Job WIP Method is system-defined. We cannot change the contents of this field.

I think, it is enough to understand following posts about usage of Job Posting Groups… maybe more than you really need, but… If you still need more, you can find it here. More about Job planning and similar topics, you can find here.