Execute with success: Project accounting in 2019 with MYOB Advanced

Project accounting is a must-have for project-based industries, or any business that manages projects. Get an up-to-date overview of project accounting functionality in MYOB Advanced.

There are many advantages of project work when it comes to running a successful business—you can dedicate the right mix of talent and resources to achieve a defined outcome for your customer within a set timeframe.

However, there are also drawbacks. When work and teams are isolated, you run the risk of poor communication and knowledge transfer. Juggling people or resources between projects while expanding your services or securing more jobs can be tricky—how do you keep track of costs, set good margins, maintain continuity and engage customers effectively?

When project work is an important component of your operation, project accounting management software is a necessity. MYOB Advanced enables you to easily track project costs and budgets within an enterprise-wide system for managing your financials, customers, and supply chain.

Projects are critical to business management in all kinds of industries

Some organisations are structured specifically around delivering projects. Prime examples of project-based industries include construction, engineering, entertainment, ICT, non-profits, and professional services such as marketing and design agencies, law firms, and consultants.

But increasingly, the capacity to manage a body of work separately or complete one-off jobs is an effective tactic when it comes to running all kinds of businesses.

In late 2018, the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) joined forces with KPMG to deliver a report on the current state of play in project management. It revealed an increased focus on project delivery to tackle business challenges and increase revenue including infrastructure projects, business improvement, IT, and projects to introduce new products and services.  

Many of these projects are managed through a portfolio approach—centralised management of multiple projects to ensure that projects are collectively achieving strategic goals and delivering returns. It makes sense, given that many of these projects represent a significant investment or are critical to a company’s growth.

Project accounting functionality is therefore likely to be extremely useful going forward, to help you keep track of the progress and profitability of initiatives that sit outside of ‘business as usual’.

Project accounting features in MYOB Advanced

MYOB Advanced offers a complete view of project progress and related costs, even across a large portfolio of complex projects. You can track and report on projects easily, including comparing actuals against your budget to continuously monitor execution. You can also predict future revenue during the course of the project based on various pricing models.

Here are three important ways the solution will benefit your business:

1.Overarching control of projects at a strategic level:

Because project accounting occurs within an integrated solution, you can allocate transaction, costs, and data from other business functions managed in the ERP directly to a project, such as invoices from suppliers, invoices to customers, journals from the GL, and receipts from purchasing. Populate specific projects with employees, resources, equipment and link documents to specific projects. Individual project costs and budgets are perfectly tracked in a scalable system that isn’t limited by project scope, currency or languages—with information available in real-time. Project data also rolls-up seamlessly into company-wide financial management and reporting, including business intelligence dashboards so executives can assess performance and guide decision-making.

2.Complete control of costs, billing, and rates:

Whether you want to bill clients at a fixed rate, based on a contract, cost plus, at the completion of milestones, or on the basis of time and materials—it’s possible with project accounting functionality in MYOB Advanced. You can modify rates by employee, account group, customer types, task and more. That’s flexible! You can also automate project billing by setting up pre-defined allocation and billing rules. You can even use project-specific attributes to calculate project revenue. Plus: choose how to recognise your revenue, cap billing for cost-based projects, and invoice clients a number of ways.

3.Make it easy for project teams to get on with the job:

MYOB Advanced is a robust, cloud-based platform that’s easy-to-use via any device. Give your team access anytime to enter data, track time and expenses, submit timesheets and work orders, and submit expense claims with attached receipts. That all adds up to more efficient and productive project teams, and more accurate client billing.

Do you have the right-sized ERP to improve performance and ace projects?

Projects are becoming a key aspect of business management, regardless of the kind of business you operate or the industry you’re in.

MYOB Advanced is aimed squarely at small to medium businesses that need enterprise-wide visibility, project management and payroll functionality in one platform. A cloud-based, customisable solution at a convenient monthly price gives you more freedom and flexibility.

Project accounting is a core module within MYOB Advanced, but it’s also possible to expand the solution’s functionality with seamless add-ons like Workbench, which is tailored to the construction and engineering industries.

Contact the Leverage Technologies team to discover how you can harness MYOB Advanced to improve overall business management and the success of your projects.