During a previous training on Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 - Service Management, a student asked me if "resource ledger entries" are created when shipping (posting the shipment) a "service line" containing resource hours.

[I made a small video about this including a quizz :-). I needed to optimize this video for the blog. Because of this you will see that the buttons on the  "quizz screen" have dissapeared a bit. There are 3 buttons below, once you have selected your answer select the second one. After that you receive your result from the quizz and you need to press the last button to the right (or the small part you see of it :-) ). I know, a little bit inconvenient but all begin is difficult. Next time I make a video, I will resolve this.]

Back to the service management reality ...

When you post the shipment of a "service line" with sparepart usage (items), item ledger entries are created because of the posting of the shipment.

For resource usage this is completely different. Resource ledger entries are also created but not when posting the shipment, only when posting the invoice.

What to think about this?

This is in line with the standard. When you post the shipment of a sales order including resources, no resource ledger entries are created untill you post the invoice.

The logic behind this, or the philisopy of NAV, is that you can only ship physical things. Resource time is a service, so not a physical thing.

So this seems to be ok.

For service companies however , this means that when a service engineer reports his hours (resource usage) on the item worksheet (or on paper, then entered by an administrative user) for service hours, that his/her hours will only result in resource hour after invoicing these hours. This does not result in any problems within NAV (even not with the availabilty for the resource) but can be inconvenient when for istance a payroll module or other HR extended functionalities are connected to the resource ledger entries.

However, making sure that resource ledger entries are generated when posting the shipment of a service line can be created easily by referring the booking routine at the right moment to the resource posting part.