Dynamics Field Service, Project Service & Sales

If you have Field Service and/or Project Service installed in your Dynamics 365 instance you might be aware of the different forms that were added to the opportunity, quote, order, opportunity lines, quote lines and order lines entities. Not everyone is aware that the sales module in Dynamics 365 works really well with the Field Service and Project Service Automation modules so I am going to explain this functionality in this article.

Field Service Opportunity

When we look at it from the Field Service perspective, we have the ability to create Service-Maintenance types of opportunities, which allows users to sell maintenance agreements. (An example of a maintenance agreement is a monthly visit by a Field Tech to perform maintenance on an asset, or a cleaning service that sends out a cleaner to a building once every two weeks.) Users have the ability to create a quote from the opportunity, where the agreement can be configured. Things such as recurrence, products used, services used and tasks can be configured and will be included to calculate the total cost, list price and margin of the maintenance agreement. When the customer approves the quote, it can be marked as won, and an order will be created. The agreement will also be created at this point, which can be found under the order line.

Project Opportunity

When we look at sales from a project service perspective, we can create work-based opportunities, which can be used to price out projects. Users have the ability to create a quote from the work-based opportunity where the project can be tied to a quote line. This is also the place where we can set the billing method, whether or not to include time, expenses or fees, the billing start date, and the invoice schedule. When navigating to quote line details, users can import these from the project estimate. What this means is that once the project has been tied to the quote line and the project tasks have been updated, we can import these. This will allow users to provide more accurate quotes to their customers, as these quote line details show the total time per role, price per role and total amounts per role. The totals will roll up to the total amount field on the quote. The project quote form also has Profitability Analysis and Comparison to Customer Expectations tabs which shows charts and other metrics that sales reps can use to determine the overall value of the quote and if it meets customer and organization expectations.
When the customer approves the quote, it can be marked as won, and an order (renamed to project contract) will be created. This is also the place from where users can generate invoices once time entries have been submitted, approved and marked as ready to be billed.

Differentiation

Now how do we know if an opportunity is a project opportunity or a field service opportunity? If you have Field Service or Project Service Automation installed in your Dynamics 365 for CE instance, a field called msdyn_ordertype has been added to the opportunity, quote and order entities. I would recommend adding this field to the main opportunity form and the quick create form, so that when the opportunity is created, we can set this value. The default value of this field is ‘Item Based’.

The values in this option set field are as follows:
– Item Based: ‘Regular’ Sales Opportunity – Will load the ‘Opportunity’ form
– Work-Based: Project Opportunity – Will load the ‘Project Information’ opportunity form
– Service-Maintenance Based: Field Service Opportunity – Will load the ‘Field Service Information’ opportunity form

Keep in mind, if you open a non-item based opportunity/quote/order in the sales hub, this form won’t be editable. There is an on-load rule on the Field Service and Project Service forms that lock these forms.

Demonstration

Below are two videos demonstrating how both Field Service and Project Service opportunities work. This includes a full walk-through from opportunity, to quote to order. Enjoy!