Investment Project to Fixed Asset in Ax 2012

One of the best features of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is the integration between the various modules.  Some of these integrations are obvious, like accounts receivable and cash and bank management.  However, there are integrations between modules that you may not be aware of.  Capitalizing a project to a fixed asset is a great example of how multiple modules can interact with each other.  In this blog, we will walk through an example of how to do this by utilizing multiple modules in AX.

The first step you want to do is create the project in the project management and accounting module.  Please make sure that the project created is an investment project type.

Next, change the status of the project to In process so you can start making transactions against it.

Now, I’m going to head over to the accounts payable module and post an invoice for this project.  Please notice that I could designate the offset account type as project and selected the specific project I just created in the offset account field.

In the Project tab of the AP invoice journal, I selected my user-defined project category as construction in progress (this can be setup in the project management and accounting module).

Once the AP invoice is posted, you can see in the voucher transactions that the CIP account (180050) was debited and the AP account (200100) was credited.  This allows you to keep track of your expenses of your project as it progresses.

Now that we have posted an AP invoice against the project, let’s say that we are ready to capitalize the project.  We need to create a fixed asset record initially so the project can be eliminated to. 

Go to the Fixed assets> Common> Fixed Assets> Fixed assets and click New fixed asset to create the shell of the asset.

I am only concerned with filling out the fixed asset group and the name of the asset.  The rest of the information on the asset will flow over from the project.

Now that I have completed creating the asset record, I’ll head back to my project to create an estimate.  At the top of the project, click the Estimate button in the Managetab.  Click New to create the estimate.  Ensure that your estimate date is the most recent date to pick up all the transactions posted against the project.  Click OK when complete.

Now that the estimate has been created, be sure to click on the General tab to determine the asset you will eventually eliminate the project to.  Choose Fixed assetin the Eliminate to field, then select your fixed asset number and value model.

If you click on the WIP tab, you will see the transactions that have been posted against the project (including the $750k invoice I posted earlier).  As you can see, the created estimate generates a total for all the transactions posted against the project including hours, expenses (invoices), and item costs.  Next, click Post and select the appropriate parameters. Click OK to post the estimate for the project.

The final step is to eliminate the project to your newly created fixed asset.  Simply, click the Eliminate button (which is now available since you posted the estimate) at the top of the form and click OK when complete.

Now that the project has been eliminated to the fixed asset, we can look at that voucher and see that the CIP account (180050) was credited and the asset account for buildings (180115) was debited.  As you can see in the fixed asset record, the asset has been capitalized.

This is a great demonstration of how powerful the integration between modules in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 can be.  We utilized accounts payable, project management and accounting, and fixed assets to accurately record transactions to eventually capitalize a project to a fixed asset.