Key updates 2025 for Dynamics 365 Project Operations
Since the Dynamics 365 Project Operations launch almost five years ago Microsoft has been constantly improving it. They listen to what users need in their daily business processes, develop and add features accordingly. Only in real-world use becomes clear what functionality is useful or how certain capabilities need to be extended or changed.
This article sheds light on seven highlight features of Project Operations that are already available or will be later this year.
1) Close tasks directly from the task plan
| Feature: Mark tasks as complete in the grid view regardless of any remaining planned time. | Availability: Available since March 2025 |
It is now possible to close tasks directly in the grid view and mark them as completed even when the estimated time effort is not fully utilized.
Before, you could only close a task when the time entries matched the estimated duration. In practice, this turned out to be impractical at times. Therefore, a task marked as done is now shown as 100% complete in the tracking view, independently of actual time efforts.
2) Add a custom column in project task
| Feature: Add custom columns from the project tasks table to the grid view in Project for the web. | Availability: Available since December 2024 |
Most of you have used (or are still using) Excel or MS Project. Thus, you are accustomed to manually adding columns as needed. It provides flexibility. Since the end of last year, you have been able to add columns to the grid view in Project for the web.
Before you can add custom columns to the task grid though, you need to define them in Microsoft Dataverse on the Project task table. Once you have done that, you can click “Add column” in the command bar in the task grid view and choose “more” at the bottom. Then, you will see all your predefined columns to choose from. Note that this functionality is restricted to a maximum of ten extra columns.
3) Progress-based billing
| Feature: Invoice customers based on project progress. | Availability: Available since February 2025 |
This feature is particularly useful for project managers and the billing team. It allows to bill customers an arranged percentage of the fixed price when a certain milestone of a project is hit.
When you want to make use of that functionality, you need to consider it already when setting up a customer contract. First, you agree on a final sum for the whole project. Second, you define milestones together with your customer and decide how much of the total price they will pay when each milestone is reached. For example, if the total costs are $ 10,000 and you define five milestones, you and your customer could negotiate that every time a milestone is reached, they pay 20% of the total sum, ergo $ 2,000.
The billing then is oriented on the actual progress, not the estimated timeline or how much time has passed since the start.
The system in the background also makes sure you cannot bill more than what is agreed in the contract with the client and set in the billing hub in Project Operations.
4) What-if analysis on estimates
| Feature: Simulate and compare different financial strategies. | Availability: Public preview in August 2025 Generally available in October 2025 |
This feature gives sales managers the possibility to play around with factors such as price, discount rates, and different resourcing units. The last ones, for example, have a slider that you can move left and right to decrease or increase the amount each unit contributes to the target income.
Once you have set all factors to your liking you can click on “What if analysis” at the top to receive a graph comparing different options. Project Operations even recommends the option with the best outcome, i.e., the highest gross margin in percentage. You can choose your preferred what-if scenario and apply it to the original quote.
5) Add support for WBS and project templates
| Feature: Import tasks from former projects to new ones. | Availability: Public preview in September 2025 Generally available in March 2026 |
There are times when you work on projects and the tasks are similar to ones your team has completed in the past. If you wanted to reuse these tasks, formerly, you could only do so by copying the project entirely. You then had to remove the items you did not need.
With the new feature you will be able to import single tasks from past projects. Click “Add tasks” in the command bar of the grid view to select one or more tasks you want to add. You can choose from multiple projects, too. Furthermore, you see the number of remaining tasks for the respective project. The limit has been increased from 1,500 to 3,000 tasks per project.
6) Import projects in MPP files into existing projects
| Feature: Import project data from MPP files to new projects. | Availability: Public preview in September 2025 Generally available in March 2026 |
This feature works similarly to number 5). Only this time, you import project data, like tasks, resources, or timelines from an MPP file to an existing project in Project Operations. This makes sense when, for instance, the overall project planning is done in Project Operations, but individual plans are made in Microsoft Project. Now, you can easily copy the necessary items into the big project plan.
7) Customizable task details view
| Feature: Customize the task details pane to your needs. | Availability: Public preview in September 2025 Generally available in March 2026 |
Users often requested this functionality. Especially project managers wanted to customize task views in Project Operations, complement certain information and hide other. Microsoft heard the request and will make it possible by next year. You then can double-click on a task to open a quick-create form where you can change and organize what you want to see on a task.
Activate the features
As you can see, Dynamics 365 Project Operations adapts more to real-world business requirements with every upgrade. One of proMX’s favorite features is the What-if analysis for estimates. You can explore different financial paths without risking profits or project success.
For you, it might be another functionality you’ve been waiting for. In any case, make sure to update your Project Operations environment so you can use the features that are already available and stay tuned for the ones to come soon!
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