Migrate from Bill4Time to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Bill4Time clients map directly to Dynamics 365 Accounts using clientName as Account Name, address fields as Address fields, and phone/email as telephone1 and emailaddress1. accountManagerId resolves to a Dynamics 365 User lookup; unresolvable managers flag for manual assignment before migration commits.

Clients flagged with clientType indicating an individual practitioner (rather than a company organization) map to Dynamics 365 Contacts rather than Accounts. The Contact's parentcustomerid field links to the associated Account, preserving the relationship hierarchy. Email, phone, address, and mobile fields migrate directly; billingName populates the Contact's full name field for display clarity.

Bill4Time projects (matters) map to Dynamics 365 Opportunities — projectName becomes Opportunity Name, amount migrates as Estimated Revenue, and closedate maps to Close Date. Project status (Open/Closed) controls whether the Opportunity state is Open or Won/Closed. Each project requires an Account lookup that must resolve before the Opportunity inserts.

Projects using billingMethod='Flat Fee' or 'Percentage' carry billing arrangements that don't fit Dynamics 365's standard Opportunity amount model. We create a custom 'b4t_Matter' Dataverse table with columns for b4t_BillingMethod, b4t_HourlyOverrideRate, b4t_OvertimeOverrideRate, and b4t_FlatFeeAmount — linked to the Opportunity via a lookup. This preserves the full billing structure for finance review.

Each Bill4Time time entry becomes a Dynamics 365 Task with Subject derived from projectName + descriptionPublic, and the entryDate maps to the Task's scheduledstart. BillableAmount and laborTime migrate as custom fields on the Task since Dynamics 365 Activities lack native billing fields. activityType translates via value mapping to a Task category option set.

Bill4Time records ABA litigation codes and descriptions per time entry for law firm compliance reporting. We map litigationCode and litigationCodeDesc to custom text columns on the Task entity (b4t_LitigationCode__c, b4t_LitigationCodeDesc__c). Values map directly since these are free-text compliance codes with no Dynamics 365 equivalent.

Bill4Time invoices map to the Dynamics 365 Invoice entity using invoiceDate as Invoice Date, invoiceAmount as Total Amount, laborAmount and expenseAmount as custom line-amount fields. Status mapping: 'prebill' → 'Draft', 'finalized' → 'Active', 'Paid' → 'Closed'. The invoiceId and customId are preserved as b4t_SourceInvoiceId__c for reconciliation.

Bill4Time expense entries migrate to a custom 'b4t_Expense' Dataverse table linked to the parent Project (Opportunity) and Client (Account). Fields include expenseDate, expenseAmount, description, and expenseType — with the original Bill4Time expense record ID preserved for audit trail and delta-sync verification.

Bill4Time users map to Dynamics 365 System Users resolved by email match. Billing rate fields (billingRate, overtimeRate, doubleRate, payableRate) migrate as custom columns on the SystemUser entity (b4t_BillingRate__c, b4t_OvertimeRate__c, b4t_DoubleRate__c, b4t_PayableRate__c). userType maps to a custom picklist for security-role reference during post-migration cleanup.

Bill4Time Enterprise custom fields on Client records create matching custom columns on the Dynamics 365 Account entity. Field types (text, number, date, list) translate to Dataverse column types. List-type custom fields create option sets in Dynamics 365 with values preserved from Bill4Time's list configuration.

Custom fields on Bill4Time projects migrate to the Opportunity entity for standard project mappings, or to the b4t_Matter custom table for flat-fee/contingency projects. The target depends on the billingMethod field value — determined during the scoping phase and locked before migration begins.

Enterprise custom fields on Bill4Time time entries (such as expense-code tags or matter-reference fields) migrate as custom columns on the Dynamics 365 Task entity. Non-searchable custom field data in Bill4Time's customFields JSON blob is flattened and mapped to named columns for reporting visibility.

Bill4Time attachments on clients, projects, or invoices re-upload to a SharePoint location linked from the Dynamics 365 Account or Opportunity. We document the SharePoint URL on the record's b4t_DocumentStore__c field. Direct Dynamics 365 Notes attachments are created where SharePoint integration is not configured.

Bill4Time workflow templates (Enterprise feature) do not migrate. We export workflow definitions as JSON metadata with rule logic described in plain language so your Dynamics 365 admin can reconstruct equivalent Power Automate flows. This is a manual rebuild — not automated migration.