For finance
For delivery
PMA to Project Operations migration: Transition to a modern platform foundation
The project management and accounting (PMA) module within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance tracks financial metrics, but it separates delivery teams from your business engine. evergreen, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations, anchors your multi-phase projects on Dataverse, replacing rigid accounting silos with deep operational visibility.
THE COMPOUNDING COSTS OF DISJOINTED DATA
What staying on PMA actually costs AEC firms
Whether you are already running PMA or still evaluating it during a platform selection, the operational limitations remain identical. PMA was designed as an accounting module rather than an integrated operational platform for running project-based businesses. In the architecture and engineering sectors, where projects are multi-phase, sub-consultant heavy, and highly sensitive to margin erosion, those technical limitations impact your bottom line even deeper.
Siloed coordination drops the ball
Project teams waste valuable, billable hours manually reconciling disjointed data across bid management, resource planning, and corporate finance instead of delivering client projects.
Month-end becomes a cleanup drill
Financial control remains isolated from daily execution, meaning your month-end becomes a frustrating data cleanup exercise. Because the platform cannot connect project delivery with financial management in real time, margin leaks go completely undetected until they are already baked into the project.
Missing out on intelligent tools
Every single quarter that passes, competing AEC firms already running Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations are making sharper resourcing and margin decisions using built-in AI capabilities that PMA simply does not have.
The penalty for customization
There is a heavy compounding cost that most firms underestimate upfront. Every single AEC-specific customization or patch built on top of PMA, whether to handle complex bid logic, sub-consultant tracking, or multi-phase billing, makes your eventual migration harder. The longer you stay on a legacy module, the more custom infrastructure there is to unpick.
Why continuing to build on PMA is a dead end
The hidden traps of legacy extensions and third-party workarounds. For AEC firms already running PMA, maintaining operational compliance usually means relying on a fragile web of custom-built extensions. Because the native module lacks specialized architectural and engineering workflows, firms are forced to develop custom code to bridge the gap. This structural approach introduces critical business vulnerabilities:
Platform updates break custom AEC logic
Microsoft deploys regular, mandatory cloud updates. In a customized PMA setup, these updates frequently clash with your custom billing and sub-consultant extensions, leading to broken workflows, broken tracking sheets, and costly emergency fixes.
Sinking capital into deprecating value
Funneling your IT resource budget into writing or fixing extensions for PMA means you are paying to maintain an outdated architecture. This is capital spent on deprecating value rather than driving operational efficiency.
The risk of legacy-aligned roadmaps
Some Dynamics 365 partners still build and promote industry extensions on top of the old PMA framework. While these proprietary tools may address immediate requirements, they rely on a foundational module that sits outside Microsoft’s primary engineering focus for project-driven businesses.
Bottomline: Sinking further capital into these legacy configurations risks creating custom infrastructure that grows increasingly complex to maintain and scale over time. A PMA to Project Operations migration is inevitable.
BUILT FOR FINANCES VERSUS ENGINEERED FOR AEC
Shifting from legacy accounting modules to a unified platform architecture
Microsoft’s development roadmap confirmed that legacy PMA customers will transition to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations as the standard modern architecture. Modern release waves feature continuous investment in specialized migration tooling to smooth this path. All ongoing innovation, predictive forecasting, and automated AI tools are being developed exclusively for this modern framework.
The difference between these two systems is structural, not cosmetic. PMA was bolted onto a finance system, whereas Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations was built from the ground up on Dataverse for project-based businesses, and evergreen extends it with over 150 enhancements designed specifically for AEC firms.
| AEC capability | The legacy PMA approach | Project operations + evergreen RECOMMENDED |
|---|---|---|
| System foundation | ✖ Embedded deeply within D365 F&O with an outdated, complex user experience and a rigid financial structure. | ✔ A standalone modern application built on Microsoft Project for the Web with intuitive, role-based views. |
| Operational reach | ✖ Restricted to core project accounting entries, basic ledger records, and standard timesheets only. | ✔ Unified control spanning sales opportunities, project delivery, resource management, automated invoicing, and financial management. |
| Data flow | ✖ High reliance on manual dual-writes and fragile, custom integration points between disconnected databases. | ✔ A single cohesive data platform on Dataverse with native evergreen dual-write integration, completely eliminating data sync errors. |
| AEC fee tracking | ✖ Hardcoded logic limited strictly to standard time and materials or rigid fixed-price billing structures. | ✔ Built-in support for complex, multi-phase structures, milestones, retainers, and unit-based contract variables out of the box. |
| Intelligent insights | ✖ Lacks native AI capabilities, automated predictive forecasting, or real-time margin alerts. | ✔ Built-in AI persona-based Copilot for predictive risk detection, automated approvals, and intelligent resource allocation. |
| Financial control | ✖ Prolonged, retroactive month-end closes and persistent margin leaks caught after the fact. | ✔ Real-time integrated view of project financials and resources with AI-driven predictive insights to stop revenue leakage. |
PURPOSE-BUILT AEC CAPABILITIES
What evergreen gives AEC firms
evergreen is sa.global’s specialized solution that delivers the capabilities of Dynamics 365 Project Operations for AEC firms. It connects the full prospect-to-cash process for architecture and engineering firms, uniting everything from initial pursuit and bid management through resource allocation, project delivery, and final complex invoicing with AEC-specific workflows built in from the start.
Billing that fits AEC contracts
Configure milestone, retainer, unit-based, and task-based billing models dynamically. Complex, multi-phase contract structures are easily handled within the data backbone without custom developer overhead.
Real-time project and financial control
Combine your work breakdown structures, estimate at completion, estimate to complete, and variance analysis into a single dashboard view. Get complete margin visibility on active projects while they are running, not weeks later.
Sub-consultant management built in
Track sub-consultant delivery compliance, streamline vendor milestone schedules, and manage complex cross-billing within the exact same system as your primary project financials.
AI across the project lifecycle
Leverage automated predictive risk detection, real-time margin forecasting, Copilot-assisted planning, and intelligent resource allocation built directly into your platform database.
Over 150 AEC enhancements
Benefit from features engineered around how AEC firms actually operate, including multi-phase project economics, industry-specific compliance workflows, and clear client reporting templates.
sa.go! for faster deployment
Take advantage of over 400 pre-built AEC business processes, fixed monthly pricing models, and an accelerated go-live timeline of around six months designed explicitly around architecture and engineering economics.
Automated data migration
The deployment framework
How the migration works
We reduce the risk of a Dynamics 365 Project Operations migration through a structured, transparent three-step transition methodology.
Proven partner capability
Why choose sa.global for AEC firms
Modernizing your business requires working with experts who understand the realities of architecture and engineering fee structures.
30 years in architecture and engineering
We thoroughly understand multi-phase projects, sub-consultant management compliance, and detailed client reporting. That long industry history is built into every part of how evergreen operates.
13-year Microsoft Inner Circle member
Fewer than 1% of Microsoft partners globally achieve this elite ranking. We have held this position for 13 consecutive years.
11-time Microsoft Dynamics Partner of the Year
Consistently recognized for high-tier delivery quality and successful customer outcomes across industries and regions.
Built for AEC, not adapted from somewhere else
evergreen and sa.go! were engineered completely around AEC project economics from the start, rather than being retrofitted from a generic ERP template.
FAQs
How long does the AEC migration take?
The timeline is dictated by your company scale, the number of legal entities, and your customization history. We scope your exact environment before work begins to establish a firm schedule. With our pre-configured sa.go! framework tailored for architecture and engineering, firms starting close to a clean configuration achieve a full go-live deployment in around six months.
Will our active multi-phase projects be disrupted during the transition?
No. We structure and sequence the data migration phases specifically to keep your active projects running normally without interruptions. Protecting your daily operations, phase milestones, and sub-consultant payment cycles is a core priority of our deployment methodology.
We have built significant custom AEC logic on PMA. Does that cause problems?
It is assessed thoroughly during our pre-migration scoping. We tell you exactly what carries across natively, what needs reconfiguring in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations, and what we handle through evergreen’s pre-built AEC capabilities so your team does not have to maintain custom code. Starting earlier almost always costs less than waiting.
What is sa.go! and how does it differ from a standard AEC implementation?
sa.go! is a pre-configured deployment of the Microsoft Industry Cloud for Architecture and Engineering, built natively on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations. It delivers over 400 pre-built AEC business processes, fixed monthly per-user pricing, and a fast go-live timeline of around six months. A standard implementation starts completely from scratch, whereas sa.go! starts from a proven, pre-configured AEC baseline.