Amend GDPdU = GoBD = FEC

Amend GDPdU = GoBD = FEC

The audit export file in Dynamics 365 for Finance may be easily extended, a power user can do it on his/her own. For example, the auditors often ask for a “system date” or time column in the audit file for their DATEV applications: in a nutshell, they need to know when the invoice was really posted, not only the invoice date.

Here is how to fulfil this requirement:

  1. Open the Electronic reporting workspace (Organisation administration >  Workspaces). Make sure a custom “provider” is selected as “active”. Check here to learn how and why: Electronic Reporting (ER) Cookbook 2: new tips from the kitchen
  2. Click the Reporting configurations tile and locate the root Data export model node. To amend the French FEC file, select the  French FEC model mapping instead.
  3. Click +Create configuration and select the “Model Mapping based on data model Data export model” option. Namely, the model itself is very abstract in the case of this data export, the interesting stuff is hidden in the model mapping.
  4. Select the new model mapping in the tree and use the Designer, then click Designer again.
  5. In the Model mapping designer, look for the odd looking objects like _01xxxx, _02xxxx etc. at the bottom of the Data sources list. These are the “Table metadata” objects. I have a feeling that these artifacts were invented solely for this usage scenario of generic data exports with variable columns. In our case, choose _01Sachkonten, then Edit, then Editor.
  6. The Table metadata editor has a unique UI. In the leftmost list, select the Sachkontobuchungen table. In the rightmost list, locate the $Entries/$GeneralJournalEntry/createdDateTime node and Add it to the middle list of fields (see the screenshot above). Rename the new field, if necessary.
  7. That’s it, hit Save, close the table editor, confirm with OK and save the changes in the model mapping designer ultimately.
  8. In the end, Change status of your custom model mapping to Complete and mark it as the Default for model mapping to inactivate the standard one.
  9. If you need to format the date-time column in a special way, you’d need to make a format derived from the standard German audit file output, too. In that one, you’d need to modify the Transformation fmtdatatime. You will learn in the blog Electronic Reporting (ER) Cookbook 3: Working with dates how to do it.
  10. To test your changes, launch General ledger > Periodic tasks > Data export, select the Format mapping (choose your own if you modified it at step 9). Select Table Group = Ledger accounts, choose the dates, launch and verify the output in one of files in the resulting ZIP offered for download:


"130300-001-";2025-02-21;"Period 2";"68721077482";"Benutzung";"Verkauf - Lieferschein-Umsatzerlös, Gegenkonto";"Nein";"Nein";499,96;"EUR";499,96;"";21.02.2025;"SPS-1000165";21.02.2025;"SPK-000166";"Aktuell";"";"";68719785542;"SPK-000166"


"140200-001-";2025-02-21;"Period 2";"68721077479";"Benutzung";"Kosten der gelieferten Einheiten";"Nein";"Ja";-315,50;"EUR";-315,50;"";21.02.2025;"SPS-1000165";21.02.2025;"SPK-000166";"Aktuell";"";"";68719785542;"SPK-000166"

By the way, you may use the parameter Include “Create by” field to comply with another common requirement: export the user ID to prove to the auditor that it is the accountant who makes the ledger transactions, not an IT consultant 😉

Electronic reporting blog series

Further reading:

Z4-Meldung an Bundesbank
Enumerate lines in Configurable Business Documents
D365 Electronic Reporting: JOIN records in pairs
Electronic Reporting (ER) Cookbook 4: References in a model
Electronic reporting for data migration
Electronic Reporting (ER) Cookbook 3: Working with dates
Electronic Reporting (ER) Cookbook 2: new tips from the kitchen
Electronic Reporting (ER) Cookbook

Dynamics 365: Migrating fixed price projects and WIP balances

Dynamics 365: Migrating fixed price projects and WIP balances

To import a fixed-price project in Dynamics 365 for Finance, you need up to 14 different entities and more, and 18-20 steps, sometimes manual and time consuming.

Before importing, make sure that the employees have been declared as bookable resources in the company. If not, use the entities “Project scheduling resource” (ResResourceDataEntity) and “Project scheduling resource details” (ResResourceSetupDataEntity). See also AX7 Table Browser and Class Runner | Microsoft Learn for more information on the ResResourceIdentifier table.

Project contract and funding sources

Next, import the project master table in the following order:

  • Project contract (ProjContractEntity)
  • Project funding source (ProjFundingSourceEntity, the link between the customer and the project contract)
  • Project funding rule (ProjFundingRuleEntity, the link between the [multiple] customers and sources, and the project; typically, there is just one record with 100% allocation of the funds of just one customer to the whole project = project contract)
  • Projects (ProjectEntity, parent projects first; not a V2 version, that one does not work!) 

Next, deal with the open (unbilled) on-account transactions (a.k.a. instalments in CRM Project operations, a.k.a. billing milestones). There is no entity to export these, and no entity to import. The easiest is to extract the billing milestones to Excel, then open the form Project management and accounting > Enquiries and reports > Transactions inquiries > On-account, tailor the Excel sheet to match exactly the order of columns in the grid, then paste all milestones and hit Save, see also How to copy data from Excel into D365. The financial dimensions and VAT groups are inherited from the project master.

By the way, the billed milestones i.e. the on-account transactions in the Fully invoiced status are imported with the Beginning balance journal, see below.

Work breakdown structures

Project Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) are often used to slice the project scope into phases and tasks. Dynamics is currently only able to import draft WBS’ through the entities 

  • Project work breakdown structure – Draft (ProjProjectWBSDraftEntity, these are the projects tasks) and 
  • Project work breakdown structure – Draft estimates” (ProjWBSActivityEstimatesEntity, number of hours per task).

To export a WBS, the current WBS must be turned into a draft with the Edit button first; this is a manual work with 3 mouse clicks per project: select a project, open its WBS, click Edit.

Conversely, upon the migration of the draft WBS’es these must be activated manually with 4 clicks: select a project, open the WBS, click Publish, confirm with OK.

Project cost budgets

Importing the Project budget is a somewhat similar job, with even more manual interventions. There is no entity for the project budget, but project forecasts may be used as a primer. First, prepare a set of 3 forecast files, all with the same forecast model ModelID:

  • Project hour forecasts (ProjForecastEmplEntity by category, the employee ID is negligible)
  • Project expense forecasts (ProjForecastCostEntity, by category) 
  • Project item forecasts (ProjForecastSalesEntity by category; the item number may be omitted, populate the item allocation key ItemAllocateID instead).

Import the forecasts, then initiate the budgets project by project, this is a manual time-consuming operation with 7 clicks per project: select a project, click Project budget, choose Import, confirm with OK, then send the resulting budget into an automated Workflow (the project budget workflow must exist), close the form, repeat.

Historical project transactions

Finally, to migrate started, already running fixed-fee projects, you must import all historical project transactions. They are used to either build up the WIP balance of the project, or for the revenue recognition, or both. The historical project transactions are imported through the Beginning balances journals:

  • Project journal lines for on account beginning balances (ProjBeginningBalanceOnAccEntity) for the billed on-account milestones. The grand total of billed and unbilled (Chargeable) milestones gives the total contract value of the fixed-price project.
  • Project journal lines for cost/sale beginning balances (ProjBeginningBalanceCostSaleEntity) of 3 kinds: hour, expense, item [consumption].

The 3rd entity of this class, called “Project journal lines for fee beginning balances” (ProjBeginningBalanceFeeEntity) is rarely used, because the accrued revenue may be caught up differently.

The target project must be in the In progress stage already. Transactions posted through the beginning balances journal do not affect the general ledger but stay in the project sub-ledger, hence the voucher number in the line is not important. The impact on the P&L and/or balance (for project posted into WIP) only becomes visible after a proper GL balance migration.

To export project transactions of all kinds the entity “Project posted transactions“ (ProjPostTransViewEntity) may be used. Please keep in mind it is a SQL UNION VIEW, and it may skip some transactions under unclear circumstances. To export data from a legacy Dynamics system, consider using the usual Project management and accounting > Enquiries and reports > Transactions inquiries instead.

The minimal set of data for the beginning balances is listed below. Sales prices and amounts are irrelevant in fixed-price projects, and may therefore be omitted:

TRANSACTIONTYPE Cost Hour Item Remark
JOURNALNAME ProjBeg ProjBeg ProjBeg
JOURNALID 149-000020 149-000020 149-000020 A new number makes a new journal head
LINENUMBER 1 2 3 increment the line number
CATEGORYID Hotel PrjMan ItemReq
COSTPRICE 123,45 345,67 567,89
ITEMID R0028055 Not really mandatory for phased out products
DESCRIPTION Trv.exp 238 Kick-off 11th Little pwny Not mandatory
PROJECTDATE 06.11.2024 06.11.2024 06.11.2024
PROJECTID ABC000011 ABC000011 ABC000011
RESOURCE 000_542100 Personnel number, not mandatory
QUANTITY 1 8 1 For items, only the cost price may be imported; when multiplied with the Quantity, a rounding error may occur. Set the quantity to "1" for items and use the Cost amount for the Price
COSTSTATUS Operations Operations Operations "Balance" for projects with WIP, "Operations" for projects with an immediate P&L recognition

Once the beginning balances have been imported and posted, the recognised revenue may be brought up to date. The revenue recognition must be performed in the “Update with beginning balance amounts“ mode: the posting of such a revenue calculation record does not update the general ledger. If manually amended percentages of completion are used, let the revenue recognition run in this mode, then set the Completion method to Manual, enter the voluntary Percentage complete = XX%, hit Calculate, then Post.

Sales and purchase orders

At last, use the entity “Project item requirements” (ProjSalesItemRequirementEntity) to import open (not delivered) Item requirements (also known as a “project BOM”). Be aware that you cannot control the Sales order number with this entity, D365 simply draws one Sales ID per project.

The entities

  • Purchase order headers V2 (PurchPurchaseOrderHeaderV2Entity) and
  • Purchase order lines V2 (PurchPurchaseOrderLineV2Entity) 

are suitable for the project PO import. Keep in mind that open project POs for tangible goods (stocked products) are getting imported as standalone project purchase orders, “self-destructing” upon receipt of the goods; D365 prepares a neutralizing negative inventory transaction. However, if the purchase order was derived from an item requirement, this is going to leave an uncovered demand for items, since a standalone project PO remains “stock neutral”, so to say. When importing SO–backed purchase orders, remove the Project ID from the PO header, then apply a marking to the SO item requirements line (manually). This will allow for PO line consumption through the item requirements.

Good luck!

Project Management and Accounting blog series

Further reading:

Advance payment invoices in Fixed fee projects in D365, D-A-CH style
What Item requirements can’t do
Revenue recognition with project budget shadow forecasts
Intercompany project invoicing in practice: Process
Intercompany project invoicing in practice: Setup

Troubleshoot the VAT Declaration in D365 for Finance

Troubleshoot the VAT Declaration in D365 for Finance

Users of the VAT declarations (both Excel and XML) in the financial department are often shocked by error messages of this kind:

  • Evaluating binding of format component Excel/Sheet1/I_Turnover/Box_200
  • Fehler beim Bewerten des Ausdrucks für Pfad ‚Boxes/Box81_Base‘

The exact error message differs by country: the first is produced by the “VAT Declaration Excel (CH)” / “VAT Declaration XML (CH)” for Switzerland, the second one is from Germany. In reality, the error has nothing to do with the “Boxes” i.e. the Excel layout but a clear sign that the Application specific parameters / Setup fail to classify a specific VAT use case. Namely, a VAT code was used in a module / situation not envisioned by the FiCo functional consultant who configured the VAT Declaration.

Follow the below algorithm to troubleshoot the VAT Declaration and add additional cases into Application specific parameters:

1. Use division by dichotomy to find the exact date

… when it happened. Most of the European VAT declarations are returned monthly, and it takes on average 7 attempts to narrow down the date. Locate the VAT declaration in the Organisation administration > Workspaces > Electronic reporting, Reporting configurations tree under the Tax declaration model node. Keep starting the report with the Run button above, variate the dates. For example:

01.05.2024 – 15.05.2024: no error

16.05.2024 – 23.05.2024: error

16.05.2024 – 19.05.2024: no error

20.05.2024 – 21.05.2024: error

20.05.2024: no error => it happened on the 21.05.2024

2. Find uncommon combinations of VAT code and Direction

Having spotted the date, filter tax transactions by that date and the VAT settlement period using the query Tax > Inquiries and reports > VAT inquiries > Posted VAT (hereafter I refer to the en-gb language of the D365 UI). Export the results into Excel. Build a pivot table by the VAT code and direction, counting the vouchers (= business cases) at the cross sections. Start looking for outliers, pay particular attention to the low counts i.e. seldom use cases. Often the mistake is obvious:

VAT codeDuty-free purchaseDuty-free saleUse taxVAT payableVAT receivable
euSt171  
exSt 7   
FoodR   15 
R   25
ServSt   11 
St   39 

In this example, the euSt code designates VAT exempt intra-community sales, or intra-community acquisitions at the standard tax rate of 19% (= “use tax” or Import VAT / purchase VAT in en-gb, see Minimalistic EU VAT Configuration in Dynamics 365). This code is not supposed to appear in the context of a VAT free purchase, but someone managed to make such a transaction in a general ledger journal when entering a EU supplier invoice.

You cannot fix the tax transactions, but the Application specific parameters may be amended to account for this irregularity. Open this list of Conditions and filter it by the tax code in question to validate the suspicion:

You have to add a new line with this combination of the Tax code and the Transaction classifier to capture this exceptional case. Namely, a pair euSt–PurchaseExempt must be added. Try the VAT declaration one more time to confirm that the problem is now gone.

3. Use a fallback condition

Sometimes it is not that easy to spot a pattern: the occurrences may be too many even on a single day. Your next approach may be to leverage the placeholders *Not blank* for the Tax code and *Not blank* for the Transaction classifier. These lines must be placed at the very bottom of the list of conditions (note the Move down button).

Use these fallback lines with placeholders to redirect the total tax amount of the questionable nature into a separate VAT declaration cell which is typically empty, for example to the cell 61-InputTaxCorrection on the German “UVA” tax declaration. This will give you an idea how much is missing in tax, and what the tax origin amount may be.

Do not keep the placeholders in your PROD setup for long: by doing so, you are resigning and testifying that you don’t really know what is happening in the tax ledger but play dice with the tax authority, which is a very bad idea.

You may also have some tax transactions that do not need to be reported to the tax authority at all. Capture such a case with a combination of a VAT code and direction, and send it into the Other cell i.e. into oblivion:

4. If nothing helps

…then you may have encountered a true bug in the VAT declaration, a case that does not fit into any of the Transaction classifier categories but an Error one!

Indeed, recently we discovered that the reversal of a customer transaction settlement with a realised cash discount is accompanied by a positive adjustment of the VAT payable (i.e. we again own more VAT to the state, which is correct). But this adjustment is not attributed to the VAT direction of Sales, it results in an Error in the VAT declaration instead.

Add lines with the explicit Transaction classifier = Error to manage this case:

Blog series on Finance and VAT in the EU

Further reading:

Troubleshoot the VAT Declaration in D365 for Finance
D365 Petty cash review
Advance payment invoices in Fixed fee projects in D365, D-A-CH style
Sometimes you pay Reverse Charge in D365
Minimalistic EU VAT Configuration in Dynamics 365
Austrian VAT declaration / Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung 2020
EU Tax directives