Jobs

Under NAV 5.0 the Jobs modules has been fairly heavily rebuilt.

I'll summarise here and try to expand in the future.


For a long time it has been felt that the jobs module in NAV needed to be overhauled. In NAV 5.0 Microsoft has done just that.

Gone are the old concepts of Phases, Tasks and Steps.

Gone are Job budgets.

Now we have Job Task Lines and Job Planning Lines.

Each job has Job Task Lines. These are built up in a similar way to G/L Accounts. Lines are set to be heading, posting, begin and end totals or totalling in the same way as G/L accounts.

The structure also mirrors the structure of MS Project and while there is no integration out of the box right now, its something I think could be done fairly easily, when I get a bit of time I'll give it a go.

You can also specify different Job Posting Groups against each Task Line which allows for better division of WIP and Job Recognition.

Each Task Line has associated Planning Lines. Planning lines are similar to the old job budgets. However the do slightly more than the old budgets. Each Planning Line can be defined as Schedule or Contract or both. At the simplest level Schedule is the expected costs and profits, just like the old budgets. Contract defines the amount you are allowed to on charge to the customer of the Job.

Whenever you post an entry to a Job you have to select if it is Contact, Schedule, Both or neither. You also have to select the Job Task that the entry is against.

Once you start posting Job entries you can create sales invoices. Again this is much easier than under Version 4 and earlier. Now all you have to do is go to the Job Planning lines, or Job task lines, and use a function 'Create Sales Invoice'.

Other enhancements to Jobs include more control around how WIP is calculated and posted, including a new Tab on the Job card that gives a breakdown of the current WIP and Recognition.