Integrate with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service

Service organizations require a front-to-back application in which financials, inventory, and procurement are tightly coupled with service delivery. They generate financial data with every transaction. Every work order represents cost and revenue, and every resource generates profit and loss. Customer interactions add entries on the general ledger. The integration between Business Central and Field Service streamlines the end-to-end process of managing service operations and ensures a smooth flow of information between the two systems.

You can easily create and manage work orders in Field Service, track the progress of service tasks, assign resources, and capture consumption details. When you complete a work order in Field Service, the integration enables the smooth transfer of data to Business Central for further processing.

The integration also facilitates the invoicing and fulfillment of work orders in Business Central. You can generate accurate invoices based on the service activities and the consumption recorded in Field Service.

By integrating Business Central with Field Service, you don't have to enter data manually or duplicate efforts. Integration also provides a comprehensive view of service operations and financials, enabling better decision-making and operational efficiency.

Prerequisites

Because Field Service is built on top of Dynamics 365 Sales, you must set up a connection to Dataverse and enable integration to Dynamics 365 Sales.

You must download the Field Service Integration app from AppSource, and install it in Business Central.

Permissions and security roles for user accounts

When you install the Integration Solution, permissions for the integration user account are configured. If those permissions change, you might need to reset them. To do that, reinstall the Integration Solution from the Dynamics 365 Connection Setup page by choosing Redeploy Integration Solution. The following sections list the permissions and security roles that the solution deploys for each app.

Sales

  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Integration Administrator
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Integration User
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Product Availability User

Business Central

Users who post project journals must have the following permission set:

  • Dynamics 365 Sales Integration

Field Service

To use the integrated data, users must have the following security role:

  • Business Central Field Service Integration

For example, users must have this role to connect work orders to Business Central for processing.

Note

Note:
Ensure that users are assigned to the standard security roles and profiles in Field Service.

To learn more about column security profiles in Field Service, go to Field Service security roles.

Administrators must add one of the appropriate column security profiles to users in Power Platform. To learn more, go to Add teams or users to a column security profile to control access.

Note

Note:
To use the Open in Business Central action in Sales, you must have the following privileges for the following tables:

  • You must have Read permissions for the Dynamics 365 Business Central Connection (nav_connection) table.
  • You must have Read, Write, and Delete permissions for the Default Dynamics 365 Business Central Connection (nav_defaultconnection) table.

Other settings in Field Service

On the Field Service Setting page, make the following changes:

  • On the Purchase tab, clear the Use of Products Out of Stock field. Otherwise, you might get an "out of stock" warning when you choose a product that's out of stock in Field Service, but is in stock in Business Central.
  • On the Work Order / Booking tab, turn off the Calculate Price and Calculate Cost toggles. In the Work Order Invoice Creation field, choose Never.
Note

Note:
Setting up a connection to Field Service removes the coupling between resources and products. To make Business Central items available in Field Service, update the Field Service Product Type field to match the Type field on the items in Business Central. To learn more, go to Create a product or service.

Set up the integration in Business Central

After you have a connection to Dataverse and Sales, you can set up your integration to Field Service.

  • Download and install the Field Service Integration app from AppSource. Afterward, on the Extension Management page, find the Field Service Integration app, and choose the Set up action to run the assisted setup guide.
  • On the Assisted Setup page in Business Central, choose Set up integration to Dynamics 365 Field Service to run the assisted setup guide.

This section describes the key settings in the guide.

To let people post consumption of items and services in Field Service work orders, specify the Project Journal Template and Project Journal Batch to use to post consumption of products and services.

Because services are expressed in duration in Field Service, specify the Hours Unit of Measure to use to convert durations to quantities in Business Central.

You can also specify when work order products and service lines synchronize to Business Central. For example, they might synchronize when work order lines are used, or when someone completes a work order. Choose the appropriate option in the Synchronize work order products/services field.

After work order products and services synchronize to project journals in Business Central, you can choose whether to post the project journals manually. Choose the appropriate option in the Automatically post project journals lines field:

  • When a work order is complete.
  • When work order products or services are used.

After you finish the setup, run a full synchronization from the Dynamics 365 Field Service Integration Setup page. This action synchronizes table mappings for things like:

  • Project tasks for projects with the Apply Usage Link set. This synchronization makes Business Central projects available for selection in Field Service.
  • Resources that aren't blocked, don't have Use Time Sheet selected, and do have Hours specified as the unit of measure on the Dynamics 365 Field Service Integration Setup page.
  • Service items (requires that you're using the Premium experience in Business Central).

Standard Field Service entity mapping for synchronization

The basis of synchronizing data is mapping the tables and fields in Business Central with tables and columns in Dataverse, so they can exchange the data. Mapping happens through integration tables. To learn more about table mappings, go to Mapping the Tables and Fields to Synchronize.

Integration with Field Service introduces the following standard integration table mappings:

  • PJLINE-WORDERPRODUCT - Maps work order products in Field Service to project journal lines in Business Central.
  • PJLINE-WORDERSERVICE - Maps work order services in Field Service to project journal lines in Business Central.
  • PROJECTTASK - Maps projects and project tasks in Business Central to products in external projects in Field Service.
  • RESOURCE-BOOKABLERSC - Maps resources in Business Central to bookable resources in Field Service.
  • SVCITEM-CUSTASSET - (Premium Experience only) Maps service items in Business Central to customer assets in Field Service.

Use data in both applications

The following sections describe the features where you can use the data that comes from Business Central and Field Service.

Field Service

You can create work orders using the Service Account and Billing Account from Business Central. On work orders, you must select the Business Central Project Task in the External Project field. Selecting a project lets you synchronize work order products and services to the appropriate project task in Business Central.

You can add inventory and noninventory items as Work Order Products on work orders and get the quantity on hand and costs and prices from Business Central. To learn more, go to Create a work order from the work order form and record list.

You can add items of the type service as Work Order Services, and get costs and prices from Business Central. To learn more, go to Products and services tab.

Note

Note:
When a product or service's status on a work order changes from Estimated to Used in Field Service, they'll synchronize to project journal lines in Business Central.

You can book a resource and relate the Bookings to work order services using a Bookable Resource from Business Central.

Business Central

Depending on your settings on the Field Service Integration Setup page, when work orders include products and services, consumption information is transferred and posted using a Project Journal in Business Central.

The Quantity To Bill and Duration To Bill values are copied to the Qty- to Transfer to Invoice field. Based on those values, you can create and post sales invoices in Business Central to invoice the customer. After the invoice is posted and synchronized to the Dynamics 365 Sales environment, or consumption is processed in Business Central, the quantity invoiced and quantity consumed display on the Business Central tab on the Work Order Product and Work Order Service pages.

Use the Project Planning Lines page to track posting and invoicing of consumption on work orders. From the Project Planning Lines page, you can create and post sales invoices in Business Central. Afterward, you can synchronize them with Field Service and keep track of the status of the invoices.

Note

Note:
Work order services with a booking that uses a bookable resource that's coupled to a Business Central resource synchronize to two project journal lines: one line of type Budget for the coupled resource, and another line of type Billable for the item being serviced.

The product that's chosen on the work order service must be coupled to an item of the type Service in Business Central. Also, the base unit of measure for the item must be set to the Hours Unit of Measure that's chosen on the Dynamics 365 Field Service Integration Setup page.

You can create an invoice for an item of the type Service from the billable project planning line, and use the budget project planning line to register cost with the resource.

See also

Integrate with Microsoft Dataverse via data sync
Mapping the Tables and Fields to Synchronize