d365 project operations

Time and Expense Agent [Production Ready Preview] – Part 1

priyeshwagh777 Project Operations , , , ,

In between all the AI conversations, you wouldn’t want to be kept wondering what Agents in Power Platform/Dynamics 365 Applications are capable of.

So, the name of the Agent itself suggests their capability and one such agent is Time and Expense Agent.

Enable Time and Expense Agent

Just like any other Project Operations features, you can enable the Time and Expense Entry Agent from the Settings area as shown below –

  1. Navigate to Settings and then to Parameters.


  2. Then, drop down from the Feature control menu and then look for the Enable Time and Expense Entry agent option.

  3. You’ll be asked to confirm and you can first read through the instructions.

  4. Once you click enable, it takes a few moments to complete loading and then you get to Download the policy document for Time and Expense entries.


  5. Once you click on Download, a Microsoft Doc it just opens in a new tab. Link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/project-operations/approvals/approvals-agent-policy#policy-document-examplesnt-policy?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

    Scroll down in this document, you’ll find Policy Document for each type of Entry.
    Click on the same and then you’ll be able to save a Doc file.


    Download what is exported when you click the above link.
    Here’s what the document looks like, it looks like an SOP designed for internal processes.

  6. While you are reviewing the document, also note that the Time Entry agent is now a new area in My Work in Projects in your Project Operations SiteMap.

Setup Approvals Agents as an Admin

Now, you need to first set the Approvals Agent up so that it can be used –

  1. Open Power Apps App Builder (https://make.powerapps.com/) and make sure to open the right environment.
    Then look for the solution Project Service Agent

  2. Then, open Objects and then Connection References. Look for the ones marked as Add to Solution as shown.

  3. Then select CDS solution (If you can remember it from a while ago 😊). Then click Save.

  4. Then open the CDS Default Solution as shown below –

  5. In the solution, go to Connection References and you should see the ones which you added in earlier steps. Edit the added connection and then on the right hand pane, select New Connection.

  6. Once you click on New Connection, it’ll open a New Tab and you’ll need to search Copilot Studio.

  7. Click on it, and it’ll ask you to create a new connection. Click Create.

  8. Then, you’ll be asked to login (most likely, you’ll want to use the logged in user)

  9. Then, the Connection will appear once logged in. After this, go back to the Connection in the CDS solution.

  10. You’ll now be able to select this connection.
    You’ll be asked to Save Changes.

  11. Then, once this is done, go back to Project Service Agent solution and go to Cloud Flows. Look for Approvals Agent trigger (Production-ready preview) and turn it on.

Watch out for Part 2 on this series to use the Approvals Agent! Coming Early Sep 2025.

Here are some Power Automate posts you want to check out –

  1. Select the item based on a key value using Filter Array in Power Automate
  2. Select values from an array using Select action in a Power Automate Flow
  3. Blocking Attachment Extensions in Dynamics 365 CRM
  4. Upgrade Dataverse for Teams Environment to Dataverse Environment
  5. Showing Sandbox or Non Production Apps in Power App mobile app
  6. Create a Power Apps Per User Plan Trial | Dataverse environment
  7. Install On-Premise Gateway from Power Automate or Power Apps | Power Platform
  8. Co-presence in Power Automate | Multiple users working on a Flow
  9. Search Rows (preview) Action in Dataverse connector in a Flow | Power Automate
  10. Suppress Workflow Header Information while sending back HTTP Response in a Flow | Power Automate
  11. Call a Flow from Canvas Power App and get back response | Power Platform
  12. FetchXML Aggregation in a Flow using CDS (Current Environment) connector | Power Automate
  13. Parsing Outputs of a List Rows action using Parse JSON in a Flow | Common Data Service (CE) connector
  14. Asynchronous HTTP Response from a Flow | Power Automate
  15. Validate JSON Schema for HTTP Request trigger in a Flow and send Response | Power Automate
  16. Converting JSON to XML and XML to JSON in a Flow | Power Automate

Thank you!

Project Approvals are stuck in Queued status | PSA / Project Operations Quick Tip

priyeshwagh777 Project Operations , , , ,

Let’s see if you recently experienced changes in the way you do Approvals in PSA/Project Operations and your Approvals are stuck in Pending/Queued state, here’s what you can do.

Scenario

Recently, if you noticed some changes in your existing PSA/Project Operations – Approval Sets feature has been introduced that needs tweaking for it to work correctly for you.

You might observe that the Approvals are stuck in Queued status for infinite time and you don’t know when they will be successfully approved.
And they appear something like this –

Approval Threshold in Project Parameters

Now, navigate to Project Parameters as below –

  1. Once in Project Service App, go to Administration area and look for Parameters.

  2. In the Project Parameters record, you’ll find this field called as threshold.

  3. Then, you can enter a Threshold number so that your Approvals are not stuck when you Approve them.


  4. Then, Approve the Time Entries again (from Project Approvals). And they should go through this time.

  5. You’ll see a message that it will denote that the Approvals have been queued for Approvals and that they will be Approved. Then, you can look at the My Past Approvals view to find the completed Approvals view in Approvals.

You can read official Microsoft Docs on Modern Approvals in Project Operations here – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/project-operations/psa/approval-set?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this helped!

Here are some more Dynamics 365 Administrator related posts you might want to check –

  1. Enable Plug-in Profiler in Settings area in SiteMap in Dynamics 365 | [Quick Tip]
  2. Disable Recent Records from Dynamics 365 Lookup Control | Model-Driven Apps [Quick Tip]
  3. Language format for Whole Number field in Dynamics 365 CE
  4. Custom Help Pages and Guided Tasks for Unified Interface in Dynamics 365
  5. Make Managed fields Required in Dynamics 365 – Managed Properties Error [Workaround] | D365 CE Quick Tip
  6. Sign up for a Dynamics 365 Project Operations (Lite Deployment) environment and provision a new instance | Power Platform
  7. Show custom ribbon button based on Security Role of the logged in User in Dynamics 365 | Ribbon Workbench in XrmToolbox
  8. Filter records in a View owned by a Team you are a member of | Dynamics 365 CRM
  9. Duration field in Dynamics 365 converts Hours value to Days in Dynamics 365 | [Flow Workaround to convert in Hours and Mins]
  10. Form Access Checker in new Power Apps Form Designer | Model-Driven Apps in Dynamics 365

Thank you!

Sign up for a Dynamics 365 Project Operations (Lite Deployment) environment and provision a new instance | Power Platform

priyeshwagh777 Project Operations , , ,

Unlike other Dynamics 365 Trial instances sign up process which is from https://trials.dynamics.com/, Project Operations are requested and provisioned in a different way as of early 2021.

Let me walk you through how you can provision a Dynamics 365 Project Operations Trial (Lite Deployment) on a brand new instance/tenant.

Selecting a Deployment Type

Here are Microsoft Docs links to help you understand the different Deployment types – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/project-operations/environment/determine-deployment-type?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

To summarize –

Project Operations Lite Deployment is the CE only deployment meaning it does not connect to Finance & Operations for the full-fledged stocked/non-stocked scenarios talked about in the above MS Docs.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations – https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/project-operations/overview/?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Provisioning

It takes about 2-3 days for the Email to appear in your Mailbox.

  1. Below is how it looks like.

  2. There are 3 links in the Email. You’ll need to provision for the below 2 links –
    1. Office 365 Project Operations – Preview [Required]
    2. Dynamics 365 Project Operations (CRM) – Trial [Required]
    3. Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Trial

Process

I’ve created a YouTube video to summarize Sign Up and Provisioning of the Project Operations Lite deployment

Hope this was helpful!

Here are some more Dynamics 365 Administrator related posts you might want to check –

  1. Turn Teams On / Off at Org Level, provisioning users | M365 Admin Center Tip
  2. Convert environments between Production and Sandbox | Power Platform Admin Center [Quick Tip]
  3. Create new Sandbox and copy Production over to it in PowerPlatform Admin Center
  4. D365 Admin Center: Instance Picker Link / Power Platform Admin Center | Dynamics 365 Environments
  5. Remove ‘This Email has been blocked due to potentially harmful content.’ message in Dynamics 365 Emails | OrgDbSettings utility
  6. Wave 1 2021 Early Access is now available | Opt-in

Thank you!