Project categories (form)

Article
10/09/2018

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Click Project management and accounting > Setup > Categories > Project categories.

Use this form to set up project categories for direct and indirect costs, and for customer and vendor retention terms. The settings that you select for a category determine how costs are posted to projects and financial accounts.

Tasks that use this form

Create categories and category groups for projects

Define validation connections

Key tasks: Create and maintain indirect costs

Navigating the form

The following tables provide descriptions for the controls in this form.

Tabs

Tab	Description
Project	Select a category group. You can also specify whether the worker ID is required for posting to the active category and define the item sales tax group of the active category group.
Cost accounts	Select an account in one of the account type fields on this tab if the account applies for a specific posting type for all projects. The accounts listed on this tab correspond to the accounts listed on the Cost accounts tab in the Ledger posting setup form.
Revenue accounts	Select an account in one of the account type fields on this tab if the account applies for a specific posting type for all projects. The accounts listed on this tab correspond to the accounts listed on the Revenue accounts tab in the Ledger posting setup form.

Project

Select a category group. You can also specify whether the worker ID is required for posting to the active category and define the item sales tax group of the active category group.

Cost accounts

Select an account in one of the account type fields on this tab if the account applies for a specific posting type for all projects.

The accounts listed on this tab correspond to the accounts listed on the Cost accounts tab in the Ledger posting setup form.

Revenue accounts

Select an account in one of the account type fields on this tab if the account applies for a specific posting type for all projects.

The accounts listed on this tab correspond to the accounts listed on the Revenue accounts tab in the Ledger posting setup form.

Buttons

Button	Description
New	Create a new project category line.
Delete	Delete the selected project category line.
Setup	Open a menu that contains the following items: Cost price - hour – Set up a cost price for hour categories. Cost price - expense – Set up a cost price for expense categories. Sales price - hour, Sales price - expenses, Sales price - fee, Sales price - subscription – Set up a sales price for hour, expense, fee, and subscription categories. Service subscriptions – Set up subscriptions that are attached to a selected subscription category. Project/group line properties – Set up a line property for the category. Note You cannot attach a line property to a subscription category because line properties are not used for subscription transactions. Ledger posting setup – Set up ledger posting by category. Note The list of records in this form offers a quick overview of the posting profile of a specific category.
Validation	Open a menu that contains the following items: Assign workers – Maintain a list of workers who are authorized to use the cost category. Assign projects – Maintain a list of projects that are available for the category. The list is part of the validation system. You can set up validation groups in the Setup > Validation section.
Function	Select one of the following menu items: Create subscription fee – Create subscription transactions for a selected subscription category. Index subscription – Update the index or base price for subscriptions. This option applies only to categories that are associated with fee subscriptions. Accrue subscription revenue – Post accrued revenue for fee transactions or reverse accrued revenue.
Transactions	View the transactions for the selected category.
Committed costs	View committed costs for categories.
Forecast	Open submenu items to copy or delete a forecast or transfer a forecast to a ledger.
Project control	Open submenu items to view projects statements, cost control, invoice control, hour utilization, and cash flow.
Price	Enter and activate a cost record for a cost category with a specified costing version, start date, and site. Note This button is available only for categories that are enabled for use in production.

Fields

Field	Description
Category ID	Enter or view the unique identifier for the category.
Category name	Enter a more descriptive name for the category that is no more than 30 characters long.
Use in Expense	Select this check box to include this category in Expense management.
Use in Production	Select this check box to include this category in Production.
Category group	Select a category group. Category groups are specified in the Category groups form.
Transaction type	View the transaction type of the category. The transaction type is inherited from the transaction type of the category group. All categories in a category group have the same transaction type.
Item sales tax group	Optional: Select an item tax group. If you select an item sales tax group here, it will be available as a default for the item sales tax group property on transactions.
Worker	Determine whether the worker ID is required for journal transactions. Note Hour transactions always have a worker ID. Item transactions never have a worker ID. Expense and fee transactions can be defined if the worker ID entry is Optional or Mandatory on a fee or expense project journal line. If the worker ID entry is set to Never, you cannot select a worker for the transaction.
Estimate	Select this check box to use the category for estimates.
Subscription	Select this check box to use the category for subscription.
Indirect cost component	Select this check box to specify that the selected category is used to calculate indirect costs. An indirect cost is not directly attributable to the production of an item or the performance of a service for the project. When you assign a category for indirect costs to a project, the expenses that are associated with the category are allocated as indirect costs to the project. Note If you set up a category for indirect costs, you cannot associate the category with direct costs on a project.
Customer payment retention	Select this check box to set up a project category to add customer payment retention terms to a project. Your system administrator must create a customer payment retention category, and the category must be assigned a Fee transaction type. Note The Customer payment retention check box is displayed only if you select a customer retention category in the category list.
Absence	Select this check box to use the current project category for worker absences. This control is not available in versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 prior to cumulative update 7 for AX 2012 R2.
Active in journals	Select this check box to set the category as active.
Default	Select a default line property.