Business Central 2024 Wave 2 brought several meaningful updates to project management. The module got a new name, new flexibility for billing, and better support for assembly and warehouse workflows.
The project management module in Business Central used the name Jobs for many years. In 2024 Wave 2, Microsoft renamed it to Projects. This is not just a visual change. It reflects a move toward standard project management terms across all pages, fields, and documents in BC. For teams who know other tools, this makes BC easier to learn. In short, Jobs are now Projects throughout the system.
Jobs Renamed to Projects in Business Central
Long-term BC users may feel the name change is overdue. However, the impact goes beyond a label swap. All the terms that used to say Jobs now say Projects. This covers menus, reports, and setup pages. So if you show BC to a new user, the words match what they know from other tools. Furthermore, any guides that use the word Projects will now match what users see on screen. As a result, this small change has a real effect on how easy it is to bring new team members up to speed.
Multiple Customers Per Project Management Task
Before this release, you could only assign one customer to a project. This was a real limit for businesses that run complex projects with more than one client. Now, BC supports multiple customers within a single project. Specifically, you can assign a different customer to each task line on the project.
At the project level, you still enter one primary customer. However, when you go into the task lines, each task can have its own customer number. So if part of a project is billed to one client and another part goes to a different client, you can handle that in one project. Also, when you create a sales invoice from the task line, BC uses the customer number on that task. Therefore, project management in BC now supports complex billing scenarios that used to require separate projects or custom work. This is a big gain for businesses that run large or multi-client projects.
Assembly Items Now Work in Project Management
Assembly in BC is a simple form of production. You use it when a finished item is made up of parts that must be put together before delivery. On a sales order, you can enter an assembly item and BC handles the build behind the scenes. In 2024 Wave 2, this is now also available in project management. You can use assembly items on project planning lines.
How Assembly Works on Project Planning Lines
On a project planning line, you enter an assembly item number and a quantity. BC knows what parts go into that finished item. It handles the build the same way it does on a sales order. So teams that use assembly as part of their work can now track it fully within the project. Moreover, warehouse management also works with this. You can create the proper warehouse documents to pick and put together the parts. In this way, project management in BC now supports assembly-based workflows end to end. This removes the need to step outside the project to handle the assembly side.
New Way to Create Invoices from Project Management
Before this release, the way to invoice from a project was to go into the planning lines and select the option to create a sales invoice. BC would then generate it from there. This worked, but it felt like a detour for teams that invoice often. Now, you can also start from the sales invoice side. You pull in the planning lines from there instead. This new path makes project management billing faster for teams that issue many invoices.
This new approach is useful for complex projects. For instance, if a project has many planning lines across several tasks, you can open a new invoice and pull in the lines you need. Furthermore, since task lines can now have different customer numbers, BC handles the routing correctly. As a result, the invoicing step is faster and more direct. Teams that invoice large projects often will find this change cuts the number of steps they take each time.
Wrapping Up: New Project Management Features in Business Central
The 2024 Wave 2 release made project management in BC more capable in several areas. The rename from Jobs to Projects is the most visible change. However, the functional updates – multiple customers per task, assembly on planning lines, and a new invoicing path – are what make this release stand out. In short, BC project management is now better aligned with how real-world projects are run and billed.
Additionally, these changes reduce the need for custom code in cases where businesses had built workarounds for multi-customer billing or assembly in projects. So if your team has been managing these cases outside of BC, it is worth checking what is now in the standard product. The goal of each update is to make project management in BC work for more use cases without extra development work. Furthermore, with each release, the gap between what BC offers out of the box and what teams need in practice gets smaller. Moreover, this makes BC a stronger choice for businesses that run service or delivery work alongside their finance and sales operations.
For more Business Central guides and tutorials, visit NAV SEAL Blog and watch more videos on our YouTube Channel.
