Back to P100: Project Implementation and Processing

Lesson 7: Purchasing Services for Projects

Part 2: Capturing of Costs for Projects

This lesson describes how to purchase services for projects by processing accounts payable bills.

Purchasing Services for Projects: General Information

In Acumatica ERP, you can purchase services for projects without using purchase orders, so that these purchases aﬀect the cost budget of the projects. You can later bill the customer for the purchased services, based on the expenses recorded to the cost budget.

Learning Objectives

You will learn how to do the following:

Enter the accounts payable bill for the project
Specify the services to be purchased, and release the bill
Review the project and GL transactions that are generated during the processing of a purchase

Applicable Scenarios

You process a purchase of services for a project by using accounts payable bills without processing purchase orders to update the actual values of the project budget with the cost of the purchased services. You may need this, for example, if the Inventory and Order Management group of features is not included in your license or if you want to simplify the process of purchasing services.

Purchasing of Services for Projects

You purchase services—non-stock items that are configured so that the system does not require receipt for them— for projects using accounts payable bills. On the Details tab of the Bills and Adjustments (AP301000) form, you add a line for each non-stock item representing a service. To associate each bill line with a non-stock item with a project, you specify the project and project task. When you release the accounts payable bill with lines related to a project, the system updates the budget lines of the project with the same project task, account group, and inventory item on the Cost Budget tab of the Projects (PM301000) form. The system updates the Actual Quantity and Actual Amount of these cost budget lines with the billed quantity and amount. For more information on processing accounts payable bills, see AP Bills: General Information.

Workflow of Purchasing Services for Projects

The following diagram illustrates the workflow of purchasing services for projects using accounts payable bills.

Purchasing Services for Projects: Process Activity

This activity will walk you through the process of purchasing services for a project from a subcontractor with accounts payable bills.

Story

Suppose that the HM's Bakery and Cafe customer has ordered the installation service for previously bought juicers from the SweetLife Fruits & Jams company. The SweetLife company has contracted the Squeezo Inc. vendor to provide six hours of the installation service. SweetLife's project manager has created the project. To simplify the process of purchasing services, SweetLife's AP clerk has decided to skip the entering of a purchase order for the purchase. Acting as SweetLife's AP clerk, you will process the project-related purchase by using an accounts payable bill.

Configuration Overview

In the U100 dataset, the following tasks have been performed to support this activity:

On the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, the Project Accounting feature has been enabled to support the project accounting functionality.
On the Projects (PM301000) form, the HMBAKERY14 project has been created, and the INSTALL project task has been created for the project. This task is the default project task.
On the Non-Stock Items (IN202000) form, the INSTALL non-stock item of the Service type has been defined. On the General tab (Item Defaults section), the Require Receipt check box has been cleared. On the Price/ Cost tab (Standard Cost section), the Current Cost of the item has been set to 80.00. On the GL Accounts tab, the 54200 (Project Subcontract Expense) account has been selected in the Expense Account box.
On the Account Groups (PM201000) form, the SUBCON account group has been created, and the 54200 (Project Subcontract Expense) account has been mapped to the account group.
On the Vendors (AP303000) form, the SQUEEZO vendor has been created.

Process Overview

You will create a bill on the Bills and Adjustments (AP301000) form, and specify the project and project task in the
bill lines. Then you will release the bill. Finally, you will review the project balances on the Projects (PM301000)
form.

Step: Creating a Bill for the Project To create an accounts payable bill for the project, do the following:

On the Bills and Adjustments (AP301000) form, add a new record.
In the Summary area, specify the following settings:

Vendor: SQUEEZO
Date: 1/30/2025
Description: Services for HM's Bakery & Cafe

On the Details tab, click Add Row on the table toolbar, and add a row with the following settings:

Inventory ID: INSTALL
Quantity: 6
Project: HMBAKERY14
Project Task: INSTALL (selected by default)
Cost Code: 00-000 The system selects 54200 (Project Subcontract Expense) as the Account of the bill line, because this is the expense account of the selected item.

On the form toolbar, click Remove Hold to assign the bill the Balanced status, and then click Release to release the bill.
Open the Project Transaction Details (PM401000) form.
In the Selection area of the form, select HMBAKERY14 as the Project, and make sure the Account Group and Project Task boxes are cleared. Review the project transaction that has updated the actual values in the budget line. The debit account group in the transaction (SUBCON) is the group that is mapped to the 54200 expense account of the INSTALL non-stock item specified in the line.
On the Projects (PM301000) form, open the HMBAKERY14 project, and review the cost budget on the Cost Budget tab. Notice that the Actual Quantity and Actual Amount of the corresponding budget line have been updated (to 6 and 480.00, respectively), as shown in the following screenshot. Figure: Cost budget updated aer bill processing

You have completed the processing of the purchase of services for the project and captured the cost of services to the project budget. Part 3: Project Billing | 48