project operations lite

Setting up Project Operations Lite | Blog Series

priyeshwagh777 Project Operations , , , , , , ,

I felt that I should document steps to setup a Project Operations Lite Trial environment for everyone who’s trying to spin up a Project Operations Instance and trying to get the basic setup done as of January 2024.

Hopefully, this blog series will help you to quickly access and understand the info you need to setup your Project Operations Lite trial environment –

Provisioning a Project Operations Trial

BlogDescription
Starting a Project Operations Lite Trial EnvironmentDescribes how you can provision a new trial for Project Operations Lite and

Setting up Master Data in Project Operations Lite

BlogDescription
Setting Up Default Organizational Unit, Cost and Sales Price List in Project Operations LiteFind and rename a default Organizational Unit, attach a Cost Price List to the default Org Unit and also create a Sales Price List
(Roles, Prices will be added in preceding post)
Resource Roles and adding Role Prices to Cost and Sales Price List in Project OperationsReview and Create Resource Roles, Add Resource Roles to Sales and Cost Price Lists

Billing / Invoicing

BlogDescription
Time and Materials Billing Backlog table in Project OperationsExplains what Time and Materials Billing Backlog table in Dataverse in Project Operations is used for.

Copilot for Project Operations

BlogDescription
Enable Copilot for Project OperationsEnable / Disable Copilot as a feature for Project Operations
Create Project Plan using Copilot in Project OperationsCreate a Project Plan for your Project using Copilot based on the Description and other details on the Project record.

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

Resource Roles and adding Role Prices to Cost and Sales Price List in Project Operations

priyeshwagh777 Project Operations , , , , , ,

Now that in the previous blog posts of this series, the Organization Units, Cost Price and Sales Prices were setup – Setting Up Default Organizational Unit, Cost and Sales Price List in Project Operations Lite, let’s look at what Roles (or Resource Roles) are and how you can add them to the Price Lists

Resource Roles

Let’s see how we can add Resource Roles –

  1. Navigate to Resources Area and then select Resources sub-area in Project Operations App.

  2. Now, navigate to Roles on the Sitemap and you’ll see some existing Roles already available out-of-the-box

  3. If you open any existing roles, you’ll see that Billing Types the type/behavior of the Role which we’ll discuss in further sections.

    Now, let’s add the Resource in both Cost and Sales Price Lists in the next section.

Add Role in Cost Price List

Now, lets assume we want to assign a Cost Price to the Consulting Lead role (which is of type Chargeable). Let’s see below on how we can do this –

  1. Navigate to the Organizational Units in Settings area in Project Operations since it’s easy to go than to find the Cost Price as you might not remember the exact name every time.
    Open the Organization Unit record which is your default Organization Unit for the PO environment.

  2. Now, since we had already associated a Cost Price in the previous sections, you can open the Price List.

  3. Now, once you open the Cost Price List, go to Role prices tab and click on + New Role Price to add the existing Role to this price list and define the Cost of the Role to the organization.

  4. Now, make sure you select the Role and also select the Organization Unit even if you have selected the Cost Price List from the Organization Unit. That’s because you can add multiple prices for the same role across different Organization Units.

    I’m keeping a sample Cost Price of $150

  5. Once you Save and Close, the Role Price will be defined in this Cost Price for this Org Unit.


    Alternatively, let’s also add the same Role in the Sales Price List as well from this series.

Add Role in Sales Price List

Let’s also add the same Consulting Lead role to the Sales Price List as well –

  1. Navigate to the Sales area and then look for Price Lists. Look for the Sales Price List you created for your organization.

  2. In the Sales Price list, go to Role Prices and click on Add New Role Price

  3. Now, as Sales Prices are supposed to be higher than Cost Prices, I’m using a Price of $240 for the Consulting Lead which was $150 in the Cost Price

  4. And once you Save and Close, it’ll be added to the Sales Price list as shown below.

Hope this post was useful!

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

Setting Up Default Organizational Unit, Cost and Sales Price List in Project Operations Lite

priyeshwagh777 Project Operations , , , , , , , , ,

One of the first things to do when starting a new Project Operations Lite environment is to start setting up organizational data for your environment and in that, setting up Organizational Units, Price Lists and Roles is one of the first things to start setting up –

Let’s see on how you can start the same!

Organizational Unit

One of the first things is to find the Default Org unit for your Project Operations Lite environment –

  1. Ensure that in your Project Operations environment, you are in Project Operations app. On the SiteMap, switch to the Projects area and then, Settings sub-area.

  2. Now, locate Parameters and there should be 1 record in the Parameters which is mapped to the Default Organization Unit. Select the same (click on the clickable Default Organization Unit lookup itself to directly go to the Organizational Unit [or referred to as Contracting Unit in further blogs])

  3. Once in the Org Unit record, update the name to what should be relevant based on your use case.

  4. I’ve renamed this to a more readable name based on my example. Now, it should be easy for you to deal with this Org Unit while referencing further.

Cost Price List in Organizational Unit

Now that the Org Unit is found and renamed correctly, let’s add a Cost Price List first –

  1. In your Org Unit record, click on Add Existing Price List.

  2. Then, click on New Record button upon clicking the Look for records lookup field.

  3. Select Price Lists as the record type and it should be the only option there.

  4. Then, it’ll open the Price List record creation form on the window and you can start filling in the details. Make sure the Context selected is of type Cost.
    Also, the Effective Start Date and Effective End Date should be relevant as all calculations will be successful only if the dates to be processed for transactions fall inside the intended Price List dates.

    Save and Close the record once completed.

  5. Then the saved record will be shows as selected on the lookup field and you can then click on Add button at the bottom.

  6. Once added, the sub-grid on the Org Unit will take a while to refresh and then show you the tagged Cost Price List correctly.

Now, you have tagged a Cost Price List successfully. Let’s quickly add a Sales Price List.

Sales Price List

Now that you have created and tagged a Cost Price List in the previous section, let’s quickly create a Sales Price List shell so that you have a corresponding Sales Price List to look at as well –

  1. Navigate to the Sales area and then select, Sales sub-area in the Sitemap.

  2. Here, click on the Price Lists table and then click to add a new Price List record.

  3. Note that the Context of the record should be Sales this time since we want to create a Sales Price List. Save & Close once the record looks satisfactory based on your relevant information to fill in.

  4. Now, you can see that the Sales and Cost Price Lists are ready in your environment.

Next Section here will cover adding Resource Roles, and then adding Role Prices to the Sales and Cost Price Lists.

In later parts of this series, we’ll continue to add more to the Price Lists, Roles etc.

Hope this post was useful!

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!

Starting a Project Operations Lite Trial Environment

priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications , , , , , , ,

One of the first things you want to get done is to spin up a Project Operations Trial environment. Here’s how you do it!
Note that no Credit Card is required for a Project Operations trial environment.

Project Operations Trial Environment

Here’s how you start a Project Operations trial environment –

  1. Navigate to https://trials.dynamics.com/ which will be redirected to https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365-free-trial/ and the page you’ll see will be something like this –

  2. Scroll down on the page till you see the option for Project Operations. Click on Try for free.

  3. Once you click on Try for free, you can enter a new email on which you want to start a trial. I’ve come up with a sample email which I haven’t used before. I prefer not to enter an email/username which I already use.

  4. Click Next and then you can select Setup my account.

  5. Then, you can validate/enter the details which would be something like this and click Next.

  6. Then, choose if you want to receive an OTP via Text or a Call. Text is my preferred way so I selected that and clicked on Send verification code.

  7. I received an OTP which I entered as asked on the next pane and clicked Verify.

  8. Further, I’ll be shown the login details of the trial environment I want to create. Once this is done and I save the information, I click on Next.

  9. Then, you’ll be shown the details of the environment you’ll be provisioning. Save this info before proceeding.
    Next, click on Start using Dynamics 365 Project Operations (CE) – Preview Trial. It’ll redirect you to the questionnaire page on a new tab where you’ll need to answer the questions before choosing the Deployment Type.

Deployment Type Questionnaire

As we left off from the Step #9 in the above section, you’ll be taken to a questionnaire Wizard in order to provision a Project Operations trial –

  1. Yes to managing Opportunities as they move through the process.

  2. Yes to requiring advance or extensible resource management.

  3. Yes to requirement of workflow for approval of Time and Expense.

  4. No to advanced Expense management.

  5. No to Non-Stocked Materials

  6. No to Stocked materials as well.

  7. Select the version here. Even if you would have answered the questions randomly, you would have still gotten to choose a different version than recommended. Hence, the answers above point to a recommendation of Project Operations Lite type of Deployment.
    Click Begin Setup once Lite Deployment is selected.

  8. Setup will start provisioning once you click on Start.

  9. And it’ll take a while and it’ll say that it will redirect you to the Power Platform Admin Center.

  10. And once you are redirected to Power Platform Admin Center and you’ll see that the environment is provisioning. This will take a few minutes before completion.

Set Name and URL for your environment

Provisioning a Project Operations trial will get set a predefined URL and name which you should update to be readable –

  1. Open the environment once the link is clickable and the State is set to Ready.
  2. Then, click on the Edit button

  3. Once you click Edit, you’ll get to update the Name and the URL. Set to something that is relevant to the purpose of the environment.

  4. Once you click on Save, you’ll see this loading page which will take a while to complete and finally, your Project Operations Lite environment setup will be ready!

Here’s Microsoft’s Documentation detailing which all Deployment Types have different Project Operations features available – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/project-operations/environment/determine-deployment-type?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this post was useful!

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

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!