In this context, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides a solid foundation for financial management. The ERP offers robust capabilities in accounting, financial control, and compliance. However, when the Projects module is used to support a project-based management model in a professional services environment, its limitations can begin to hinder both operational efficiency and financial performance.
This is where OMZY comes into play. Developed specifically for professional services firms, OMZY extends project-based management in Business Central by structuring every stage of the project lifecycle, from financial planning to billing, while improving visibility, control, and data consistency across projects.
1. Project Financial Management That Starts with a Controlled Budget
The budgeting capabilities provided out of the box in Business Central are not sufficient to effectively manage project budgets in a professional services context. In project financial management, the budget serves as the baseline against which performance and profitability are measured. In reality, however, projects evolve constantly: scope changes, resource reallocation, and shifting client priorities are part of day-to-day operations.
In the standard Business Central Projects module, budget changes can quickly obscure the original baseline. OMZY addresses this challenge by allowing organizations to lock the initial budget while enabling unlimited revisions, each fully tracked and historized.
This approach allows project managers and finance teams to compare the original plan, successive adjustments, and actual results throughout the project lifecycle. It strengthens financial governance, supports post-project analysis, and enables more informed decision-making. These are key foundations of effective project financial management.
2. Cost Categories That Structure Project-Based Management from the Point of Entry
Effective project-based management in Business Central depends on clear rules applied consistently at the moment data is entered. In the standard Business Central module, resources typically post time directly to project tasks. OMZY introduces an additional, critical layer through cost categories.
Cost categories play a central role in ensuring rigorous and profitable project execution. They structure every expense, hour worked, or activity according to a clear accounting logic from the moment it is entered, automatically driving financial posting through posting groups. Beyond accounting, cost items also serve as the foundation for performance management through productivity codes. These codes make it possible to distinguish billable from non-billable time, value-added activities from internal efforts, and to analyze team efficiency at a much more granular level.
In practice, this means employees no longer need to worry about contractual or accounting nuances when entering time or expenses. The system applies the correct rules in the background. The result is fewer errors, more consistent practices, and more reliable financial data to support project tracking, billing, and profitability analysis across a project-based organization.
3. Resource Planning Aligned with Financial Objectives
Resource management is a core pillar of project management, and an equally critical one in a project-based management environment. In the Business Central Projects module, planning lines allow budget lines to be converted into planning lines to assign one or more resources. While useful, this functionality does not provide a visual representation of how assignments are distributed over time.
The advanced planning features built into OMZY strengthen proactive project control by offering clear, visual, and actionable visibility. With the Gantt chart, managers can view the full project timeline, understand task dependencies, and track progress intuitively. Planning views also display resource assignments over time, making it easier to balance workloads and anticipate availability conflicts. In addition, the resource capacity view provides a consolidated picture of planned effort, available capacity, and utilization levels, allowing organizations to quickly identify overloads or underutilized periods.
By combining detailed planning with real-time capacity views, OMZY helps organizations align resources with project priorities, protect delivery timelines, and maximize profitability across their project portfolio.
For teams, this planning translates into a clearer understanding of assigned tasks and expectations. By directly linking tasks to timesheets, OMZY supports smoother execution and stronger data discipline, benefiting overall financial tracking.
4. Accurate Time and Expense Tracking at the Core of Project-Based Management
In any project-based management model, the quality of financial oversight depends on the accuracy of field data. Hours worked, expenses incurred, and reimbursable costs must be captured consistently and reliably to reflect the true state of each project.
OMZY natively integrates timesheets and expense reports directly with projects in Business Central. Each entry is automatically associated with the correct project, cost category, and rate, based on rules defined upstream.
This integration breaks down silos between teams, minimizes manual adjustments, and provides real-time visibility into incurred costs. For organizations focused on project financial management, this visibility is essential to monitor profitability, adjust priorities, and avoid unpleasant surprises at project close.
5. Project Billing That Is Flexible, Consistent, and Aligned with Services Reality
Project billing is often the stage where the limitations of standard billing modules become most apparent. With fixed-fee billing (progress-based, milestone-based, or calendar-based), time and materials, and sometimes a combination of both within the same project, the realities of professional services demand a level of flexibility that standard tools often struggle to support.
OMZY enables multiple billing methods, including mixed models within a single project, while automating the rules defined earlier in the process. End-of-cycle batch billing also simplifies the handling of high invoice volumes without sacrificing accuracy or traceability.
This approach ensures stronger alignment between project execution and the invoice ultimately sent to the client. To explore project billing challenges in more depth within a Business Central project-based management context, we invite you to read the following article: Project Billing in an ERP for Professional Services Firms
A Coherent Project-Based Management Journey, from Budget to Revenue
By structuring project-based management in Business Central around an advanced Projects module (covering budgeting, cost structure, resource planning, time and expense capture, and billing) OMZY enables professional services firms to gain stronger control over project financial management, without multiplying tools or relying on custom development.
At JOVACO, we support professional services organizations in implementing Business Central and OMZY with an approach grounded in the operational and financial realities of project-driven businesses. Our goal is to help teams fully leverage their ERP while enabling more structured, more visible, and more profitable project-based management.
Going Further with Project-Based and Project Financial Management
Project financial management is a strategic priority for professional services firms seeking to improve profitability and financial visibility. When properly supported, it becomes a sustainable performance lever rather than a source of complexity.
Explore our resources to learn more about practical approaches to project-based management, project management, and project financial management with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and OMZY, or contact us for a personalized demonstration of OMZY.
