Real-Time Job Margins Without Leaving the App They Already Use

The challenge

Project managers ran their work in Dynamics 365 while every actual cost landed in Business Central. Margin was therefore knowable only by someone willing to reconcile two systems by hand, which meant in practice it was reviewed after a job closed rather than while it could still be steered.

Where we came in

The instinct in this situation is a new reporting tool. But the project managers already had an app they used every day and trusted, and the accounting process worked. The cheaper and more durable fix was to move the data to where the people already were, and change neither system's workflow.

What we did

• Built cost synchronisation from the accounting system into the project-management system
• Extended the existing Canvas app the project managers already worked in, rather than introducing a second place to look
• Used the Power Platform tooling already licensed in the tenant, keeping custom development to a minimum
• Left the accounting workflow untouched so finance had nothing to relearn

Where it landed

• Project managers see cost data against their projects inside the app they already use
• Margin tracking no longer depends on a manual reconciliation between two systems
• Delivered on existing Microsoft licensing with minimal bespoke code to maintain