- Feature
- Restrict web app to assigned projects (Expense Agent)
- Availability
- Preview from October 2026; Microsoft's roadmap lists general availability for December 2026
- Industry focus
- Architecture, engineering and design consultancies
In architecture and engineering firms, expenses aren't just overheads. They're often project costs that must be coded correctly and, in many cases, recharged to clients. When a site visit, a model print or a survey fee lands on the wrong project, the firm either loses the recharge or bills the wrong client. The Business Central Expense Agent now helps staff pick the right project from the start.
The industry challenge
A typical architecture or engineering practice might run hundreds of live projects at once. When staff enter expenses, they face a long list of project codes. Common problems include:
- Choosing a similarly named project by mistake
- Coding to an old or closed phase of a job
- Coding to a project they're not actually working on
These errors flow through to project accounts, work-in-progress reports and client invoices. Project managers spend time at month-end moving costs between jobs, and some recoverable expenses are never billed.
What Microsoft is delivering
According to Microsoft, the Expense Agent web app now uses project resource assignments to decide which projects each user can see when they create or manage expenses:
- Dedicated resources (employees) can be assigned to a whole project or to a specific task
- The app shows only projects and tasks where the user is assigned as a resource
- Project lists are filtered automatically based on project-resource relationships
- This reduces the risk of users selecting projects that aren't relevant to their role or assignments
The feature is in preview, with general availability planned for December 2026 according to Microsoft's roadmap.
Where the value shows up
| Business area | Impact for an architecture or engineering firm |
|---|---|
| Project accounting | Fewer expenses coded to the wrong job |
| Client recharges | More recoverable expenses billed to the right client |
| Month-end effort | Less time spent moving costs between projects |
| User experience | Short, relevant project lists instead of hundreds of codes |
| Data governance | Staff only see projects they're involved in |
The benefit compounds at month-end. Every expense coded correctly at source is one less journal for a project accountant and one less query from a client.
A worked scenario
Consider a structural engineering consultancy with 120 staff and around 300 live projects (an illustrative example). An engineer visits a site for a school extension and submits mileage and parking expenses.
Before, the project list in the expense app showed every live project. The engineer chose a similarly named project for a different school, and the cost wasn't spotted until the client invoice was prepared. With assigned-project filtering, the engineer sees only the five projects and tasks they're assigned to. They pick the correct one in seconds, and the expense flows to the right job and the right client invoice.
Adoption considerations
- Keep resource assignments current. Filtering only works if project teams are set up accurately.
- Decide project or task level. Assign at task level where you need detailed cost tracking, and at project level where you don't.
- Handle support staff. People who work across many projects, such as administrators, need appropriate assignments.
- Pilot first. Test with one office or team during the preview.
- Link to recharge policy. Make sure recoverable expenses are flagged and billed through your project invoicing process.
The bottom line
For architecture and engineering firms, correct project coding is the difference between recovered and lost costs. Assigned-project filtering in the Business Central Expense Agent web app makes the right choice the easy choice for staff. The result is cleaner project accounts, fewer month-end corrections and more expenses billed to the right client.
If miscoded project expenses are costing your firm time or revenue, it's worth exploring this preview with an experienced Business Central adviser.
Source: Microsoft roadmap 573259