1. Braun Intertec & Dynamics AX
Carmen Borgeson, CFO

2. Original Implementation
Soft go-live February 2014, Full go-live May 2014
Initially implemented 2012 R2
Primary modules Used:
G/L, A/R, A/P
Project Accounting
Human Resources (for workers and contractors)
Travel and expense (expense report approval)
Used ePortal for timesheets and expense reports
Exceeded budget and timeline

3. Upgrade to 2012 R3 Started January 2016 6,000 hour budget
Extensive end-user SME involvement
Finished on-time, under budget

4. Areas of customization
Project Accounting
Initially used SAG’s PROJ AX module, but most of this was removed during R3 upgrade.
Customization areas:
Timesheet improvements
Project Totals
Quote Quality Review (validation framework)
Collections Portal
Project revenue review/analysis tools

5. Timesheet improvements
What was the Problem?
Employee base was accustom to entering weekly unit pricing (fee and expense transactions) for services performed on the projects they worked:
Equipment utilized in the field
Tests performed

6. Allows employee to enter unit pricing in a grid/daily format.
Upon posting of the timesheet, hours, expense and fee journals are created.

7. Project Totals What was the Problem?
Our project management teams needed one place to look to find high-level information to more effectively manage the project.
Total billable budget and effort to date
A/R and WIP balances
Invoices issued to date

8. Customization – Project Totals
This is pointed to a warehouse and the data is refreshed every hour or the user can perform a real-time refresh at any time.
Project Totals information is repurposed through out our system.
A grid view of the warehouse totals (updated hourly or on demand) was created so data for multiple projects can be exported to Excel and analyzed.

9. Quote Quality Review What was the Problem?
Certain data fields and activities were not being completed during our quoting process resulting in incomplete project records.
Some of the fields and activities are not known at the time the quote is originally developed, but become knowing during the quoting process.

10. Customization - QQR
This quality control framework can be used on any form or table in the system
This quality control framework can be used on any form or table in the system

11. Collections Tool What was the Problem?
Within Braun’s collection process, the Project Client Communicator (PCC) is responsible for collections.
From a invoice collections point of view, AX is very customer centric. Thus, the PCC had no visibility into the projects requiring the PCC’s action.
We fed data to a legacy project-based collections tool that was on unsupported technology and we were unable to change its source code (developed in early 2000’s)

12. Project Collection Tool Search Capability

13. Customizations – Collections Portal
Allows our users to:
Input notes into the collection process including the same note on multiple invoices.
Set follow up dates.
Move the invoice(s) to the next stage of the collections process.
Print a report of all notes by Client and Project which can be used during legal processes as necessary.
Collection notes are an attachment, and we brought them forward in a fact box

14. Expense Report in Rich Client
What is the Problem?
Expense reports could only be entered in ePortal and the process is cumbersome.
Customization within ePortal is more difficult and costly.
Eventually, if ePortal is no longer needed, all functionality could be moved into the Rich Client which would free up a third of our servers.

15. Expense reports in Rich Client
Entire process from entry to approval to posting can be performed in the Rich Client including drag and drop of receipts
Everything a user needs to enter is contained in the grid instead of in different pop-up dialogue boxes
Customization is easier and user experience is faster and more streamlined.

16. Change Orders What is the Problem?
PCC’s had a lack of visibility to certain project milestones
Steam lines the process of updating the budget - editing a project’s structure was difficult, entirely manual
Provides client facing change reporting.
Lack of accountability regarding scope change requests and approval process.

17. Project Change Orders
Change Order Alert is sent to the PCC when a project is 80% or 100% to budget.
PCC then can choose to create a Change Order off of this alert.

18. Project Change Orders
During a change order, the projects current WBS is pulled back into a quotation stage. The header information stays the same but the structure is easily manipulated.
All approvals are tracked and can be queried later.
Internal and External scope change reports are available.

19. Project Revenue Analysis Workbench
What is the Problem?
The revenue and cost from our projects follows the employee who performed the work back to the employee’s department
There is no mechanism in AX to review revenue at period-end.
AX’s project related information is too detailed.
No ability to drill through a project.
No ability to review based on metrics

20. Project Revenue Analysis Workbench
Accounting staff can review various metrics including sales per billable hour and net revenue by ledger date, project and financial dimension.
Accounting staff can drill down into transactional data.

21. Questions?