When Business Central Is Not Enough: A Guide for Project-Based Companies

This is what that looks like in practice, and what to do about it.

The numbers behind the problem

• Billable utilization across professional services has dropped to 68.9%  well below the 75% target. Every recovered percentage point is direct revenue, with no additional headcount.
• Average revenue leakage sits at 4.3%. For a €5M firm, that is €215,000 in earned but unbilled revenue lost every year.
• A 30-person team loses up to 100 hours of unbilled time per month  not because people aren't working, but because manual tracking fails to capture it.
• Project overruns increased by 11.3% in 2024, driven by lack of real-time visibility and weak resource planning. 

What companies tell us before they make the change

These aren't hypothetical concerns. They're the exact phrases we hear in discovery calls with IT services firms, engineering companies, and consulting businesses across the region often from organizations that have been running Business Central for years:

• "Resource planning is basic and reactive."
• "There's too much manual work between delivery and finance."
• "We have no real-time visibility into project margins."
• "Billing is slow and we regularly miss billable entries."

If any of these sound familiar, the problem isn't your team it's the tools they're working with. 

Before and after a real example

A 50-person IT consulting firm runs Business Central for finance but manages delivery in spreadsheets and email.

Before: Every Friday, the project manager spends half a day building a margin report from three sources. By Monday, some numbers are already outdated. Invoices go out two weeks after project completion. Clients dispute line items because time entries lack detail.

After: Project timelines flow automatically when a deal is won. Resources are assigned based on skills and availability. The margin report is live in Power BI before the weekly meeting. Invoices go out within days of milestone completion.

The work did not change. The visibility and control around it did. 

What each platform brings

Business Central is a strong financial backbone project accounting, invoicing, financial reporting, cost management. What it doesn't do well is manage delivery complexity: resource optimization, structured execution, operational visibility.

Project Operations fills exactly that gap planning, resource assignment, time and expense capture, and connecting delivery to billing. Deep accounting and multi-entity financial reporting are not its strength.

Together, they cover the full project lifecycle: from opportunity won to revenue recognized. 

Where the real value is

• End-to-end project lifecycle  handoffs between sales, delivery, and finance happen automatically. Spreadsheets and email chains between departments disappear.
• Resource optimization  skill-based assignment, capacity planning, forward-looking utilization. Bench time goes down. Billable utilization goes up.
• Faster, more accurate billing  structured time capture with approvals creates a direct link between what is delivered and what is invoiced. Revenue leakage decreases.
• Real-time profitability  project margin is visible at any point in the delivery cycle, not just at close. Risks surface early, when there is still time to act. 

When is Business Central not enough?

Business Central works well for project accounting, basic time tracking, financial reporting, and invoicing. For many organizations, that is sufficient.

It becomes limiting when:

• Projects grow in complexity
• Resource planning needs to span a larger workforce
• Sales and delivery need tighter integration
• Management requires real-time operational insight beyond financial reporting

The distinction is simple: Business Central manages the financials of projects. Project Operations manages the success of project delivery. For a serious project business, both matter. 

Who this is for

• IT services and consulting companies
• Engineering and project-based businesses
• Agencies and professional services firms
• Organizations scaling project delivery across multiple regions or legal entities

Frequently asked questions

• Do we need to replace Business Central to add Project Operations? No. Project Operations is designed to work alongside Business Central through Microsoft's native Dataverse integration. Business Central continues to handle all financial processes.
• How long does implementation typically take? 3 to 6 months for a mid-market firm, depending on complexity and integrations. A phased approach financial foundation first, then Project Operations is usually the most effective path.
• Is this suitable for smaller teams? If you have fewer than 20–30 project-based staff with simple, short-cycle projects, Business Central alone may be sufficient. Project Operations adds the most value when resource planning across multiple concurrent projects becomes complex.
• What happens to our existing data and processes? Migration is part of the implementation scope. Historical data can be migrated, and existing processes are mapped during the design phase many manual steps are eliminated entirely.
• Does it integrate with our CRM or other Microsoft tools? Yes. The solution connects natively to Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft Teams, Power BI, and Power Platform  no third-party middleware required. 

The bottom line

The gap between where most project businesses operate today and where they could operate is measurable in utilization points, billing cycle days, and revenue leakage. Closing that gap doesn't require a different team or a bigger budget. It requires connected systems that give the right people the right information at the right time.

Most of the companies we work with didn't realize how much they were losing until they could finally see it clearly. That visibility alone changes how leadership makes decisions.

Ready to see what this looks like for your business? Talk to a BE-terna specialist about how Business Central and Project Operations can work together in your organization without disrupting what's already working.