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Service Accounts vs. Billing Accounts in Dynamics 365 for Field Service

Post Author: Joe D365 | January 28th, 2020

As your organization begins to set up the data necessary to run your Dynamics 365 Field Service system, you’re told that you need to designate Service Accounts and Billing Accounts. Seems clear enough: Service Accounts determine where the work is performed, while Billing Accounts pay for the work. No problem. And yet… there are a few little details that aren’t totally clear. This blog will look at the difference between Service Accounts and Billing Accounts, what information each of them send to the Work Order, and when information from one overrides information on the other. It’s a head-to-head battle no one wants to miss!

In general, Service Accounts hold information about:

  • WHERE work will take place
  • WHEN the work should be performed
  • WHY we need to do the work
  • HOW the work should be billed

Billing Accounts, on the other hand, control:

  • WHO is paying for the work
  • WHAT they’re paying for (Price List)

It probably won’t surprise you to know that Service Location information comes from the Service Account. After all, it’s right there in the title! And everyone knows that Customer Assets (often where work occurs) are attached to Service Accounts.

But what about Service Agreements – did you know those are attached to Service Accounts? Even though Service Agreements are often related to payments (and rightly so), they are often associated with Customer Assets in maintenance contracts. Therefore, they get attached to Service Accounts.

Here’s another tricky one: Travel Charge Type. Again, seems to be related to payments, right? But this information actually comes from the Service Account. Let’s look at all the Field Service fields on the Account record for more details.

FIELD NAME WHERE IT COMES FROM NOTES
Billing Account Service Account When a Work Order is created and the Service Account record is chosen, this field is queried to see if it has data. If it does, this info is put into the Billing Account field on the Work Order. If this field is blank, then the name of the Service Account is put into the Billing Account field.
Tax Exempt Service Account Determines whether or not taxes will be charged.
Service Territory Service Account If this field contains data, it will copy to the Work Order. If not, the Service Territory field on the Work Order will remain blank unless filled in manually.
Work Hour Template Service Account Determines when work is allowed to be performed at this site.
Travel Charge Type Service Account This determines if (and how) travel will be added to the invoice.
Work Order Instructions Service Account This information gets copied to the Instructions field on the Work Order.
Invoice Account Billing Account The Account listed on the Invoice will match the Billing Account field on the Work Order.
Price List Billing Account The Work Order always looks at the Billing Account to get the Price List. If this price list doesn’t have everything that’s needed, then the Work Order will use the List Price from the Product itself.

So, bottom line is that almost all information comes from the Service Account. The only information that comes from the Billing Account is the invoicing information and the Price List. And that’s it – maybe it’s time for an early lunch. Be sure to subscribe to our blog!

Happy Field Servicing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

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