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

August 31, 2025August 31, 2025 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations approvals agents, d365 project operations, microsoft ai, microsoft copilot, 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 –

Navigate to Settings and then to Parameters.
Then, drop down from the Feature control menu and then look for the Enable Time and Expense Entry agent option.
You’ll be asked to confirm and you can first read through the instructions.
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.
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.
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 –

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
Then, open Objects and then Connection References. Look for the ones marked as Add to Solution as shown.
Then select CDS solution (If you can remember it from a while ago 😊). Then click Save.
Then open the CDS Default Solution as shown below –
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.
Once you click on New Connection, it’ll open a New Tab and you’ll need to search Copilot Studio.
Click on it, and it’ll ask you to create a new connection. Click Create.
Then, you’ll be asked to login (most likely, you’ll want to use the logged in user)
Then, the Connection will appear once logged in. After this, go back to the Connection in the CDS solution.
You’ll now be able to select this connection.
You’ll be asked to Save Changes.
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 –

Thank you!

Time Entry Calendar in Project Operations

August 31, 2025August 31, 2025 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications Dynamics 365, dynamics 365 project operations, Power Platform, Project Operations, time entry calendar

If you have been used to doing Time Entries daily on the classic Time Entry grid and that has been a habit for quite some time, you might not realize that it is slower and inefficient to do, just because you got used to it now.
So, here’s Time Entry calendar view which is better way to visualize and do Time Entries! This is in Preview as of the day of writing this post.

Enable Time Entry Calendar View

Here’s how you can turn on your Time Entry Calendar from Project Operations’ Settings

Navigate to Settings Area in Project Operations Model-Driven app.
Then drop down form Features to find the Time Entry Calendar listed.
Click on it to turn it on. It’ll ask for confirmation, it ask describes what it does.

How Time Entry Calendar works?

Here’s how Time Entry Calendar feature works when you want to do Time Entries.

Now when you navigate to the Time Entries from My Work (or wherever you have put it), you’ll see this new option in My Work called as Time Entry Calendar, while you existing Time Entry section still exists as is.
When it loads, you can see the Time Entries now appear like how allocations appear on your Schedule Board, gives you a better way to visualize Time Entries to be done and and most importantly, select the Time for the Time Entry.
You can visualize Daily, Weekly and Monthly.
You can even click on the Time you want to make Time Entry on and the window pane will let you drill down to the Task level on the Project which you want to make Time Entry on.

Hope this was useful!

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

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Project Task Progress Update in Project Operations & Mark Task as Completed

March 29, 2025March 29, 2025 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations Dynamics 365, Project Operations, project progress

Up until now, you had to do Time Entries to mark a Project Task as completed. But, this makes difficult to gauge the progress of the project in actuality as some tasks might need to be marked as completed without having to do remaining Time Entries on them.

Here’s when marking Project Task as Completed comes in handy.

Default Behavior for Project Tasks in Project Operations

By default, you won’t be able to edit the % of the task in the Project Task Grid –

Till now, you are able to directly mark a Task as complete by using the below option –
And it’ll mark the task as Completed to 100%. But, when hover over the % completed, it’ll say that it’s a read-only and can’t be edited to put your custom % in there.
So, let’s see how this feature will let you edit the % complete to your desired number.

Enable marking Project Tasks as completed

In Project Parameters, you can find the Feature to mark Project Task as completed –

Drop down on the Feature Control and you’ll see that Task C

Mark Project Tasks as completed

When you enable this, you’ll see the below on the Project –

The Project form will have the field to allow Project Tasks to have custom progress % option.
Once you do this, you’ll then be able to hover over the Project Task and enter the % you desire.

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Cost Plus Billing in Project Operations

March 23, 2025March 23, 2025 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications cost plus pricing, dynamics 365 project operations, Project Operations

Here’s how your Project Contract can be setup for Cost Plus Billing in Project Operations –

So how does Cost Plus Pricing work? Simple Answer – Specify a Markup for the Sales price in terms of % based on what the Cost Price is.

So, when you enter the Sales Prices without having Cost Plus Pricing Enabled, you’ll see that you simply can enter the Sales Price of the Resource as shown below

Now, let’s see how you specify the Cost Plus pricing in Sales Price Lists so that it is driven off of the Markup of the % of the Cost Price.

Enable Cost Plus Pricing from Project Parameters

First, you need to enable Cost Plus Pricing in your Project Operations environment –

Given you have the correct access, navigate to Project Parameters settings in your environment and look for the Feature Control where it says that you can enable Cost Plus Pricing –
It’ll give you a warning that once this is enabled, you cannot disable it for the organization –
Now, when you try to add Role Prices in the Sales Price List, you can select this option –
And enter the % of the Markup you want to setup for Cost Plus Pricing.
In this case, my Markup is 25% of the Cost Price.
Now, my Cost Price for the Marketing Manager Role is $200.
Now, given that my Project Contract has Project Contract Line is this Role, the Amount will be determined based on this Markup. Here, I’ve quoted 100 hours for the Marketing Manager Role which makes the Cost Price as $20,000 and the Sale Price as $25,000.
Now, when the Unbilled Actuals is created, it’ll consider the 25% Markup for the Marketing Manager role and calculate the Billing Amount i.e. $250 which is a Markup of 25% on top of $200.

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Multi-currency Cost Price List in Project Operations Lite

March 11, 2025March 11, 2025 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations finance and operations, Project Operations

Here’s how you can have a Global Price List under an Org Unit without tying it to the currency of the base Org Unit which is the Default use case.

Currently, here’s how the default behavior is without having the multi-currency cost price list disabled –

Now, let’s see how this will change when we have the Multi-currency cost price list enabled for your environment.

Multi-currency Cost Price List

This can be enabled from Project Parameters. Here’s how you do this provided you have the correct access –

Go to Project Parameter record in PO Lite, you’ll see this – which you can select Yes and save to enable it.
When you enable, it’ll show this message before you confirm –
“You are changing the way a Cost Price List is selected by system. The setting you are choosing indicates that the system will no longer select a cost price by matching the currency of the price list with the currency of the contracting unit. Any cost price list irrespective of currency could be selected as long as it is applicable for the date. Please ensure that you understand the impact before making this change. Please note that this will impact cost price list defaulting for ongoing projects as well.“
Now, when you have the same enabled, you’ll be able to add a Cost Price list of different currency than that of the Organization Unit.
If you see above, the different currencies can exist for the Organization which has a certain currency.

Behavior

Here’s a caveat when you select a multi-currency Cost Price List still

You cannot have the Start and End Dates overlap each other even when you have different currencies. When you try to do this, it’ll give you the below error.
When Time Entries are made, the Inter-Organizational Sales Actuals are also created based on the Cost Price from that Price List.

Being able to schedule for Resources across multiple geographies

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

Thank you!

Deploy Custom Copilot to Teams as an App

January 26, 2025January 26, 2025 priyeshwagh777 microsoft copilot Bot Framework, custom copilot, microsoft azure open ai, Project Operations

Here’s how you can deploy a Custom Copilot to a Teams Chat given that your Custom Copilot is ready and Published.

In case you are also looking to create your first Copilot, this post might help you [although it has a different use case: Create your first custom Copilot for Customer Service Hub – Part 1 | Create Copilot]

Let’s see how you can now deploy your Copilot to Teams chat. One of the first ways to deploy your Copilot!

Custom Copilot in Copilot Studio

Here’s your custom copilot and here’s how you can publish it to Teams chat –

Go to the Channels section in the Custom Copilot. Make sure it is already Published.
When Copilot for Teams is yet not enabled, you’ll see a button to enabled for Teams called as “Turn On Teams” as shown below.
When you turn it on, it takes a few moments and the Bot is then ready to be opened in Teams.
You also have preferences to set around it’s access and whom do you want to share it with.
First, you can click Open agent and make sure it’s letting you add to your own Teams as an App.
When you click on Open agent, it’ll redirect you to your Teams asking you to confirm if you want to add it to Teams as an App.
Once you click Add, you can see it appear in the chat as well as an App which you can pin.
And that’s how the interaction with your Bot will be.
In my Use Case, I’m simply mentioning the name of the Project and who the new PMO should be for that project.
So, based on the above chat, I’m setting Abhishek Kumar as the new PM for the BH Road Project and I can see it reflect in Project Operations. Behind the scenes, my Custom Copilot is using Flow to update the Project Manager on the Project, simple!
Coming back to settings on availability of the bot, you can click on Availability Options and see the below settings.

and then, you can either share a link, share it with the org or download and manually upload to Teams.

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Project Estimate updates feature in Project Operations parameters

January 20, 2025January 20, 2025 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations dynamics 365 crm, dynamics 365 power platform, project estimates, Project Operations, project operations configuration, time and material

If you’ve worked on Project Operations for a while and are used to managing a Project and adding Expense and Material Estimates to a Project, you might have gotten used to putting things into the Materials and Expense Estimates tab – but this is now further simplified using Project estimate updates feature.

Let’s look at how this works!

Default Layout of Estimates on a Project

Let’s see below how the default Estimates appear on a project before the feature is enabled –

If you open a Project, you’ll find your Estimates tab here. It shows the distribution of time-phased estimates and this is non-editable
And the Material Estimates and Expense Estimates are their own separate tabs.

Expense Estimates

Material Estimates
Now, let’s go ahead and enable the Project estimate updates feature and look at the changes thereon.

You’ll be asked for confirmation before proceeding as this feature cannot be turned off.

Project estimate updates

Now, let’s look at how the Project estimate updates will appear –

The original Estimates tab which was static is now renamed as Time phased estimates
And the Material Estimates and Expense Estimates are consolidated under the Estimates tab.
Expense Estimates are seen as below

And there’s a way to switch between Expenses and Materials

And the Material Estimates are as below –

Hope this was useful!

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Thank you!

Project Contract Price List Defaulting Behavior in Project Operations

January 4, 2025January 4, 2025 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations dynamics 365 crm, price list in project operations, price lists, Project Operations

In Project Operations, if you are creating Project Contracts, you must be adding them explicitly to the created Project Contract. Also, the ways to create a Project Contract might be different in your case.

Let’s review some options on how you can configure Project Operations to create attach a Project Price List to a Project Contract in Project Operations –

Project Parameters for Price Lists Defaults

Here are some options on how you can set preferences for Project Price List Contract creation in Project Operations –

If you navigate to Project Parameters in Project Operations, you’ll see the below section where you can set Defaults for setting Price Lists on the Project Contract.
If you notice, the Price List Defaulting behavior applies to when the Project Contract is created as Project Contract controls the Pricing in project operations.

Below are the two scenarios in which Project Contract can be created –
1. Direct Project Contract Creation
2. Project Contract Creation from Quote.

And option on how Custom Pricing should apply is provided.

Default Behavior

Let’s look at the scenario of what happens when you create a Project Contract directly or through a Quote or without a Quote and create it directly –

The Project Contract will be created without associating a Project Price List and you’ll see this notification on the Project Contract asking you to associate a Project Contract Price List to the Contract for Pricing to be calculated –

For Direct Project Contract Creation

Let’s see what options we have for direct Contract creation and implications of each –

Below are the 2 options available when creating Project Contracts directly i.e. not going from a Quote being marked as Won.
And if we select the first option i.e. to Associate existing applicable standard price lists to project contracts, we have to also set a Price List in the Project Parameter itself to be defaulted.
You’ll see a Pricelist tab on the project parameter record itself and you can add a Price List which you want to be considered as default.
Now, when you create a Project Contract, the same Price List will be defaulted to the Project Price List tab and you won’t see the notification.
And when you choose to associate a “copy” of the Default Price List set in the Project Parameter.
And when you now create a Project Contract directly, you’ll rather see a new Project Price List created by copying the one defaulted.

For Project Contract Created from Quote

Let’s see what options we have for Contract creation from Quote and implications of each option available –

This is the parameter to configure for Project Contracts created from Quote.
And below are the options available when creating Project Contracts from Quotes on what types of Price Lists should be associated/created for Contracts.
When we choose the first option to associate the Quote Price List to Project Contract, as below –

we’ll see in second screenshot how the Price List is associated to the created Contract.
I have the below Quote Price List associated with the Quote

Now when I mark the Quote as Won, this Price List will be associated with the created Contract, this Price List is associated with the Contract itself without creating a new copy of any other Price List.
When I select the second option to associate quote price list to project contract with contract-specific price overrides for components estimated on the Quote.
So what this does is, for example, I’ve quoted some hours for Supervisor on the Quote and overridden the Price of one of the Quote Line Details

And when I create a Project Contract out of this Quote,
For the next option, as it states, you can simply create a Copy of the Prict List associated on the Quote Price List to the Contract Price list so that the reference can be of the Quote’s Price List but the Contract will have it’s own copy and not reference the one on the Quote already.

Now, let’s say I have this Price List on the Quote

Custom Pricing Options

Let’s look at some Custom Pricing Options –

We have the below 2 options for how Custom Pricing should be calculated. If none is selected, the Custom Pricing button on the Quote Lines and Contract Lines won’t function.
Now, when the Option 1 is selected i.e. Create full copy of the standard price lists – this will work how it used to in PSA. It’ll create a timestamped copy of the Project Price List which is already associated with the Contract.

See below –
It’ll create a new Price List and will retain all the Price List items which were part of the original Price List.

And this is the timestamped copy of the Price List which includes full Price List Items included.

And the items are included as well –
Now, when you select the second option i.e. Create protected price overrides for price list components used on the quote or contract.
It’ll create a copy but with only the items referenced in the Contract Line / Quote Line.

It’ll create a Price Override record in the referenced Price List itself. So, if you open the Price List, you’ll find the Override as below –

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Rejection & Recall comments on Time Entries

August 31, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations customization, Project Operations, time entries

In case you are wondering where are the Rejection Notes in case you need to run reporting on Rejected Time Entries and Approvals – and what you could potentially do with this – this short summary should help.

Rejecting Time Entries Notes

Let’s look at Rejecting the Time Entries Submitted by a Resource –

When you see a Submitted Time Entry. You can choose to Reject a Time Entry.
When you click on Reject, you’ll be asked to enter the Notes.
And then you open the Time Entry record itself, it’ll be in the Notes of the Time Entry record on the Form.

And that’s where it is which you can choose to send it out to the Resource i.e. upon creation of a Note where Regarding is set as Time Entry. But hang on! There’s another type of Notes that gets attached to the Time Entry as well. See next section –

Recalling Submitted Time Entry Notes

Let’s look at Rejecting the Time Entries Submitted by a Resource –

When you have submitted a Time Entry and the same has been Approved, you can choose to Recall it using this button as shown below –
And then you recall a Submitted Time Entry as opposed to recalling a Draft Time Entry, you’ll be asked to enter the Notes/Reason for recalling an Approved Time Entry as below –
And these Notes too go on the Time Entry record itself.

So, the bottom line is – If you want to send out the Notes to different audience based on where the Note came from – do it alongside identifying the field “Entry Status” so that you know if the Note is supposed to be sent to the Approver or the Bookable Resource.

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

Thank you

Project Status Update Reports on Projects using Copilot in Project Operations

February 27, 2024 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations ai, copilot, copilot for project operations, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Project Operations, project status update report in project operations

Now that you must have enabled Copilot for Project Operations [If not, you can refer this post to learn how you can enable Copilot for Project Operations – Enable Copilot for Project Operations]

Note: Please note that this is a Preview feature at the time of writing this post and hence, not recommended for Production usage.

Enable Copilot For Project Operations

First, you need to ensure that Copilot is enabled for your Project Operations environment – Enable Copilot for Project Operations

Once this is enabled, you’ll be able to see Copilot on the ribbon button on the Project. Let’s look at the same in the below section.

Project Status Update Report

Now that you have Copilot enabled for Project Operations, you can now create Task Plans for a Project in Project Operations –

When you navigate to a Project, you’ll see Copilot appear on the Ribbon given that you have enabled it for your Project Operations instance.
Once you select Status Report, it’ll give you option to generate either an Internal or an External Report. Then it runs in the background and takes a few minutes till Copilot will gather all the information for you and generate a report.
External Report generated is as below –
Internal Report generated is as below –

Here’s Microsoft’s Full Documentation on how Project Status Update Reports are generated in Project Operations’ Copilot (Preview) – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/release-plan/2023wave1/finance-operations/dynamics365-project-operations/generate-project-status-reports-using-project-manager-copilot?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this was useful!

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

Thank you!

Enable Time and Expense Agent

Setup Approvals Agents as an Admin

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Enable Time Entry Calendar View

How Time Entry Calendar works?

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Default Behavior for Project Tasks in Project Operations

Enable marking Project Tasks as completed

Mark Project Tasks as completed

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Enable Cost Plus Pricing from Project Parameters

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Multi-currency Cost Price List

Behavior

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Custom Copilot in Copilot Studio

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Default Layout of Estimates on a Project

Project estimate updates

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Project Parameters for Price Lists Defaults

Default Behavior

For Direct Project Contract Creation

For Project Contract Created from Quote

Custom Pricing Options

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Rejecting Time Entries Notes

Recalling Submitted Time Entry Notes

So, the bottom line is – If you want to send out the Notes to different audience based on where the Note came from – do it alongside identifying the field “Entry Status” so that you know if the Note is supposed to be sent to the Approver or the Bookable Resource.

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Enable Copilot For Project Operations

Project Status Update Report

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