Interactive guide - Setting up Dynaway EAM for Business Central

Welcome to the Interactive Guide!

First, you will need to have access to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

The integration between Microsoft ERPs and our EAM/CMMS systems is a crucial advantage for Dynaway's customers. (Video about why here)

You can get a free trial of Business Central from Microsoft here.

Refer to Microsoft documentation for information on how to install and set up a D365BC environment:

• Install Business Central Using Setup - Business Central | Microsoft Docs
• Trials and Subscriptions - Business Central | Microsoft Docs
• Production and Sandbox Environments - Business Central | Microsoft Docs
• Create a Sandbox Environment - Business Central | Microsoft Docs

Is Dynaway EAM installed into your Business Central environment?

You can install Dynaway EAM into your Business Central here. 

You cou can get the EAM on AppSource.

In the wizard, choose a "Production" environment if you want to use the EAM with your Maintenance team

or

a Sandbox environment if you're going to try the Dynaway EAM out.

You can also install Dynaway EAM (and all the other Dynaway Extensions for the EAM) from Extension Marketplace directly in Business Central:

To see if the Dynaway EAM is installed...

in your Business Central, search for "Extension Management". Here, look for Dynaway EAM.

You can click "Manage/Deployment Status" to check if Dynaway EAM is installed.

Keep in mind that the installation might take a couple of (2-5) minutes.

Introduction video

Before we start installing the EAM, it is crucial that you understand the basic workflow of the Dynaway EAM. This video will explain it to you:

Would you like to get a free, or a premium license for your EAM?

You need to get a license for the EAM to work.

To get a free license...

 open EAM License information in your Business Central:

and click on the associated link.

Here, you will have to click Register next to "I'd like to get a free STARTER pack license:"

After you fill in a short form and click on Register free license, you will receive a free license immediately.

You can read more about the available licenses here.

To get a premium license for the EAM...

Visit our Pricing page: https://www.dynaway.com/eam-bc/pricing.

Choose a plan and click "Start now" on the bottom of one of the plans.

After you fill in the following form, we will send you an email with the next instructions.

To have a look at your Dynaway EAM license...

Search for EAM license information and click the associated link:

Here you should see a "Current License" tab, where you should see the details about your license, including the number of users that can use the license, how many Work Orders you can create per month, and which functionality is included in your license.

Do you have one of the Dynaway EAM role centers open?

There are two role centers in Dynway EAM for BC - "Asset Manager" and "Asset Technician".

To open a Dynaway EAM Role Center...

Click the gear icon in the top right and "My Settings"

...role...

And choose the role as an Asset Manager or as an Asset Technician.

User Permission Sets (in standard Business Central)

Before we start the installation of the EAM for BC, please make sure that you and your maintenance team have adequate permissions to access the relevant parts of Business Central.

To give all maintenance employees access to the Dynaway EAM, they have to be entered in "Maintenance Employees" (this will be shown later in this guide)

AND

they have to have adequate User Permission Sets assigned to them in standard Business Central:

Asset Managers require at least these Permission Sets

and Asset Technicians these:

(picture above) An Example of a User Card with Maintenance Technicians Permissions

To learn more about user permissions, visit our documentation or Business Central Documentation to learn about Permission Sets.

Have you finished the first two Assisted setups wizards?

(Set up Assets and Set up Work Orders?)

You can check if there is a tick mark ✅ next to them in Assisted Setup:

Open Assisted Setup

The best way to set Dynaway EAM up is through Assisted Setup. Assisted Setup is a series of setup wizards, that will help you get started.

You can find these wizards by clicking on the gear icon in the top right of your Business Central,

then "Assisted Setup" and scrolling down to "Get Started with Dynaway EAM".

Before starting with any Assisted Setup from Dynaway, we recommend watching associated videos or reading documentation about an assisted setup. Links to these can be found next to each of the assisted setup wizards (Can't see videos in Assisted setup?):

If videos are not showing in your Assisted Setup

Go to Personalize

Add field

Grab "video" from the list and drop it somewhere on the Assisted setup columns

And select done.

Refresh the page and now you should be able to see them:

To be able to utilize the basic functionality of the Dynaway EAM,

you should go through "Set up Assets" and "Setup Work Orders".

(optional) After that, you can use use the Advanced Setup, where you can set up how documents are uploaded into the EAM and which information is tracked on the Audit Trail:

Other wizards will appear in your Assisted Setup as you install other Dynaway extensions for the EAM like Dynaway Requests or Safe Work. (Check out all currently available extensions for the EAM here)

Table of Contents - Set up Assets

You don't have to follow this guide step by step.

There should be enough information in the Assisted Setup itself for you to understand it. You can keep this guide open in a separate tab and come back to it if you don't understand a step.

When you are done with "Set up Assets," click the related button below. 

If you want to follow the guide while completing "Set up assets," click on "1. Predefined Packages".

1. Predefined Packages

When you click "Set up Assets" for the first time, Business Central might ask you to "allow access to an external service":

You will have to accept this request to use Dynaway Predefined packages in the Assisted Setup.

Predefined packages give you the option to import suggested values for different parameters. When you choose one of these packages, you will start with data in later steps (you will always be able to edit it).

You can also choose to leave the Predefined Packages field empty and start from scratch later on.

"General" predefined package from Dynaway:

No predefined package:

2. Maintenance Employees setup

In the second step of the Assisted Setup, you will be able to choose which of your Business Central users will be connected to your Dynaway EAM license.

You can fill your Business Central users into the table above. These Users will be assigned to your Dynaway EAM license.

Do not forget to add yourself first to the list! If you don't, you won't be able to add resources to users, and you won't be able to do much in the EAM!

If you then assign a Resource assigned to a Dynaway EAM license to a Work Order, Business Central will notify the worker about it.

If workers are joining/leaving your maintenance team, you can always search for "Maintenance Employees in the search bar to edit this table.

3. No. Series and Dimensions

On the third slide, you will have to set up No. Series for Assets, and you will be able to set up Asset Dimensions as well. Number series is standard Business Central functionality that will allow you to assign unique identification codes to Assets.

Video: Setup No. Series for Assets

To find out more about No. Series, visit Business Central documentation.

Asset Dimensions

Dimensions are not mandatory. A Finance Manager will most likely need to create an Asset Dimension if you want to use it within your Maintenance Organisation.

For more information about Dimensions, visit our documentation or Business Central Documentation.

4-7. Parameters tracked on Assets

We already mentioned parameters tracked on Assets. These are very similar to each other. So after setting up No. Series, in the next couple of steps you will be able to set up:

• Statuses
• Conditions
• Attributes
• Categories

All these following steps will be different depending on if you chose a predefined package on the first step of this assisted setup or if you left the fields on the first step empty. 

How to work with predefined Dynaway data?

To set up, on each of the parameters tracked on Assets, you will have to:

1. Read the instructions on each step and choose your preferences for the setup, if they are available
2. When you finish with 1), click on "Set... (Statuses, Conditions, Attributes...)."
3. You will only be able to edit and delete entries from the predefined packages.
4. Click "OK" and "Yes" to apply the data.
5. Only then can you click on "Set... (Statuses, Conditions, Attributes...)" and not only edit and delete entries but also add new ones.

How to set up parameters tracked on Assets from scratch? (with no predefined packages)

After you are done setting up Statuses, all the following steps of the "Set up Assets" wizard are very similar. You always click the "Set..." button and you fill in your data. Some slides have extra options, so please read them carefully.

8. Asset Locations

The following two steps - Downtime Priorities and Asset Locations - are more specific than the previous steps.

There is most likely no predefined data available for you in the setup of Asset Locations. The Asset Locations are used to consume items from the correct warehouse. 

To connect standard Business Central Locations with Dynaway EAM Asset Locations, add a location to the "Asset Location" setup, and then click "Edit."

On the Asset Location Card, you will be able to choose the warehouse you want your items to be consumed from:

and where the item is (you can fill in an Address or GPS coordinates):

9. Downtime Priorities (Last step!)

Downtime Registration is only available with premium plans.

This step comes after Asset Locations and is very similar to the previous parameters tracked on Assets. But Downtime Priorities are not mandatory. To set up Downtime Priorities, you can either click on "Set Priorities" and apply the Dynaway predefined data as previously or insert your own data, if you did not choose to use the Dynaway predefined data.

Congratulations! Your Assets and Maintenance Employees should now be set up!

We recommend continuing by setting up Work Orders with the "Set up work orders" Assisted Setup wizard.

Assisted setup - Set up Work Orders

In this Assisted Setup, you will be able to set up:

• No. Series for
  • Work Orders
  • Work Order Plans
  • Rounds
  • Round Orders
  • and Form Templates
• How do Work Orders and Work Order Plans behave
• Work Order Priorities
• Work Order Categories
• Waiting Reasons on Work Orders
• Counter Categories
• Units of Measurement for Measurements

Table of Contents - Set up Work Orders

You don't have to follow this guide step by step.

There should be enough information in the Assisted Setup itself for you to understand it.

You can keep this guide open in a separate tab and come back to it if you don't understand a step.

Or when you are done with "Set up work orders," click the related button below. 

If you want to follow the guide while completing "Set up work orders," click on "1. Predefined Packages".

1. Predefined Packages

Same as with Assisted Setup - Set up Assets - you can first choose a predefined package on the first step:

This will import the data for the next steps of the Assisted Setup if you choose to use one of them.

In case you leave the field empty, you will start with empty tables on the next steps.

2. WO/WOP settings

In this step, you can set up how to do Work Orders and Work Order Plans work. 

"Do you want to plan additional Expenses on Work Orders?"

Turning this toggle on will add Expenses to your Work Order Plans. If it's off, Expenses will be only visible on Work Orders.

The "Set Work Order parameters" Tab

All these settings influence

what is required from

or

available to

the person who is posting a Work Order:

The window above is the last window shown before a Work Order is closed.o

"When registering measurement readings, work orders are automatically created?"

When this toogle is on, Work Orders are created by measurement registrations immediately when the set threshold on a Work Order Plan is reached. When off, the Work Order Plan with a measurement on it will trigger, but to create a Work Order, you will still have to accept action messages on the Planning Worksheets (more on the creation of Work Order from Work Order Plans in the second Interactive Guide)

3. Number Series - Work Orders and Rounds

On the next step, you will be able to set up the No Series for Work Orders, Work Order Plans, Rounds, Round Orders, and Form Templates.

No Series is standard Business Central functionality. You can read more about it in Business Central documentation.

What are Rounds?

This might be the first time you hear about Rounds - Rounds are similar to Work Orders - You can use Rounds to create Work Orders (Round Orders) that include several Assets. This is useful if you want to carry out regular inspection of a number of Assets located in the same building and/or Assets with the same category.

Read more about Rounds in our documentation.

4. Work Order Priorities

A Work Order Priority defines the importance of the Work Order or Round Order relative to other Work Orders or Round Orders, for example, 'High', 'Medium', or 'Low'.

(optional) Work Order reporting based on Priorities 

You can set up thresholds on Work Order Priorities, which are used to generate reports for Work Orders and Posted Work Orders.

In the case of Work Orders by Priority, you will see: Work Orders sorted in a table based on how many days it has been from the planned date until today. This report gives maintenance managers an overview of delayed Work Orders based on much their execution is delayed from the plan, while also taking into consideration their priority.

And in the case of Posted Work Orders by Priority, you will see: Work Orders sorted based on how many days it has been open between the planned date and the closing date. This report is a powerful tool for looking back at executed Work Orders and reviewing the time Work Orders took to complete with priority being taken into consideration.

The above-mentioned reports can be found by searching for "(Posted) Work Order by Priority":

Below you can see an example of one of these reports. Notice that the "Large_deviation" Threshold is green on LOW Priority and Red on Critical Priority:

To set up reporting based on Priority, click on "set Thresholds" on the slide with Priorities in Assisted setup (or search for "Work Order Priority Thresholds" and click the associated link).

Here you need to set up at least three thresholds, based on which you want to divide your Work Orders and your Posted Work Orders.

For example like this:

These are then assigned to priorities by opening Work Order Priorities, choosing an individual priority, and clicking "Threshold Setup":

Here, depending on the severity of each Priority, GREEN, YELLOW, or RED Alert types can be connected to Thresholds. 

Low Priority might have GREEN Allert type for all Thresholds (no matter how many days Work Orders/Posted Work Orders are or have been delayed):

And Critical Priority might have a RED alert type for all Thresholds:

Normal Priority might have some GREEN, some YELLOW, and some RED:

5. Work Order Categories Setup

Use Work Order Categories to divide Work Orders into different job types such as inspection, cleaning, lubrication, and replacement.

After you enter Categories into the Assisted setup, make sure to try and click the "Edit" button at the top of the table:

Here you will be able to add default:

• Frequencies
• Items
• Resources
• Checklists
• Priority
• Instructions

this Category. When a Category is then assigned to a Work Order Plan, the defaults will be automatically assigned.

6. Work Order Waiting Reasons Setup

Waiting Reasons on Work Orders are needed when work cannot be done because of something. Then the Status of a Work Order can be changed to "Waiting" and a reason is provided:

(above) An example of Waiting Reasons on a Work Order

What does "Change Waiting Work Order Status" mean?

That is explained in the next step slide

👇

"Change Waiting Work Order Status" dropdown in Work Order Setup

What does this dropdown do?

This dropdown toggles between two ways Waiting Reasons work:

Waiting Reasons set to "manual"

When set to Manually, there is a list of Waiting Reasons available, and an EAM user can only choose a waiting reason from there:

When the waiting is done, someone has to change the Status of the Work Order manually from "Waiting" back to either "Open," "Ready," or "In Progress."

Waiting Reasons set to "Automatically"

When set to Automatically, EAM users can assign multiple Waiting Reasons to a Work Order. Assigning an automatic Waiting reason is done by setting the status of a Work Order to "Waiting" and choosing "_" in Waiting Reason on a Work Order:

After changing the Status of a Work Order to "Waiting" and clicking "_" next to "Waiting Reasons," EAM users can add several reasons of three types to a Work Order.

These three Waiting Reason Types are:

• Date - waits for a specified date and then automatically changes the Work Order status to "Ready."
• Item - waits until out-of-stock maintenance items entered on a Work Order are back in stock and then changes the Work Order's status automatically to "Ready."
• Other - works the same as manual Waiting Reasons. Waiting Reasons of type "Other" have to be ticked manually by an EAM user.

7. Counter Categories Setup

Counters are only available with one of our premium plans.

Set up Counter Categories to be used when you set up Counters on Assets. (Counters are used for condition-based maintenance. They help you plan when future Work Orders should be created.) 

8. Measurements Setup

Measurements are only available with one of our premium plans.

Set up Measurement Units to be used when you create registrations on Measurement Equipment in your production facility.

Congratulations! You finished setting up Assets and Work Orders!

You can always access the setup for the EAM by searching for "Asset Management Setup" and clicking the associated link:

Here, you will have access to the setup of your EAM in one place.

You can also edit/add/remove Maintenance Employees and assign Resource numbers to them on the "Maintenance Employees" page:

You can find more information through these links:

Interactive Guide 2: Learn to work with the basic workflow of the EAM (from Assets to Posted Work Orders): https://www.dynaway.com/eam-bc/interactive-guide/part-2

On our website: dynaway.com/eam-bc

17-minute demo of the basic workflow for Managers and Technicians

Read our in-depth documentation: help.dynaway.com/eam-bc

Send us an email to help@dynaway.com

How to access Setup of the EAM Fast?

You can always access the setup for the EAM by searching for "Asset Management Setup" and clicking the associated link:

Here, you will have access to the setup of your EAM in one place.

You can also edit/add/remove Maintenance Employees and assign Resource numbers to them on the "Maintenance Employees" page:

To see your license, search for "Dynaway EAM License Information":