MYOB Advanced for Professional Services and Consulting Firms in Australia: Project Billing, Timesheets and WIP

Updated 20 October 2026: short answer and FAQ rewritten for the “MYOB Advanced for professional services” and “consulting firms” queries, the professional services edition answer corrected against MYOB’s current help, a billing-model table and the 2026.1.1 time and expense features added, licensing dollar figures removed, all product facts re-verified.

MYOB Advanced is now MYOB Acumatica, renamed in July 2024. Australian professional services and consulting firms run it on Plus or Enterprise with the Project user licence: timesheets and expenses post to project tasks, billing rules handle fixed-fee and time and materials work, and WIP is work performed but not yet invoiced. MYOB also documents a Professional Services Edition add-on with daily time cards and aged WIP reports.

At a glance

• Who it is for: Australian consultancies, engineering and architecture practices, IT services firms and accounting practices that bill time and projects. MYOB’s own customer profile puts its professional, scientific and technical services customers at 20 to 200 employees.
• Problem it solves: timesheets, billing and the general ledger living in three systems, so work in progress (WIP) and project margin are only known after the invoice goes out.
• Platforms: MYOB Acumatica (sold as MYOB Advanced until July 2024), Plus or Enterprise edition with the Project user licence type, per MYOB’s licensing page. The Professional Services Edition add-on sits on top where MYOB offers it.
• Typical cost: MYOB publishes no price list; licensing is per named user and quoted through partners. Our MYOB Acumatica cost guide gives the indicative implementation ranges.
• Typical timeline: 10 to 16 weeks from kick-off to go-live for financials plus project accounting, in our experience; longer with payroll, several entities or integrations.
• Last verified: 20 October 2026 against MYOB’s licensing page, MYOB’s project accounting help, the Professional Services Edition release notes and the 2026.1.1 release notes.

If you’ve been searching for “MYOB Advanced for professional services”, the product you’ll be quoted is MYOB Acumatica. MYOB renamed its ANZ version of Acumatica in July 2024, per Acumatica’s announcement of 18 July 2024, and the platform, data and partner channel did not change. Services firms track hours, contract types, utilisation and project margin, which most accounting tools were never designed for, so this guide covers what MYOB Acumatica does for a services or consulting firm, the edition question, and what an implementation looks like in Australia. Auboros is a MYOB Acumatica partner in Brisbane implementing it for services firms across Queensland and beyond.

How does MYOB Acumatica handle project billing, timesheets and WIP for professional services firms?

Project accounting is built into MYOB Acumatica. MYOB’s project accounting help defines a project as a one-time effort with a budget and expected revenue, and states that any document entered in the system can be associated with a project. A timesheet, an expense claim, a supplier bill and a purchase order all land on the same project task, next to the budget, without re-keying. Our MYOB Acumatica job costing guide walks through the labour, materials and committed cost view.

Project billing: fixed fee, time and materials, or both

Billing is driven by billing rules on the Billing Rules form (PM207000), and MYOB’s billing rules documentation names three cases. A progress billing rule invoices services under a fixed-price project. A time and material rule bills from the project transactions that record time and materials spent. A combined rule puts both step types in one rule, so the same engagement is billed differently at different stages. The rule is assigned on the Projects form (PM301000) and each task inherits it unless you give the task its own. The help also notes that “you can also run projects with a cap”, which MYOB’s project accounting page calls capping billing on cost-based projects.

The pro forma step is the one services firms underuse; MYOB’s pro forma invoices documentation describes a draft that “can be printed and sent to a customer as many times as is necessary until an agreement is reached”.

Timesheets and expenses

Employees report time on the Employee Time Cards form (EP305000). Each line carries an earning type that decides whether the time is billable, the project and task, the labour item that sets the rate, and the hours per day, per MYOB’s employee time billing documentation. Each duration becomes a time activity on the project, and the time and material billing step picks those activities up when the project is billed.

The 2026.1.1 release added three things a services firm will notice. Flexible time card periods align time cards with weekly, fortnightly, semi-monthly or monthly cycles, per employee if needed. Mobile time tracking for project tasks puts a start-and-stop timer against a project task in the mobile app. And the Employee Utilization inquiry (EP408000) reports project billable hours against available hours as a utilisation percentage, the number most practice managers still calculate in a spreadsheet. Our post on MYOB Acumatica timesheets covers the approval flow and the pay run link.

Work in progress and project profitability

MYOB’s help defines WIP as “the amount of work that was performed but not yet invoiced”, and the platform handles it two ways. For reporting, the Project WIP report (PM651500) carries earned revenue, percent complete and a gross profit percentage per project, per MYOB’s WIP report improvements note. For the ledger, an allocation rule on the Allocation Rules form (PM207500) can move labour costs on a long fixed-price project into a WIP account group and reverse them in the period the invoice is raised, which MYOB’s WIP labour costs documentation frames as the matching principle.

Revenue recognition on fixed-fee work can be automated too: revenue percentage calculation rules (PM206500) recommend a completion percentage from actual cost against budget or against projected cost at completion, and you can write your own formula.

Every services firm we’ve moved onto MYOB Acumatica had a WIP number somewhere. What none of them had was a WIP number the finance team and the project leads both believed on the same day.

Josh Craig, Director, Auboros

Is there a MYOB Advanced professional services edition?

Yes, and the answer has changed since we first wrote this post. MYOB’s help site now carries a section for MYOB Acumatica Professional Services Edition. It is a Practice Management customisation package installed on top of MYOB Acumatica: the CR13.2.1 release notes give the package version as PracticeManagment.2025.101.502.2970, tested on MYOB Acumatica 2025.1.5, and say an MYOB consultant updates your site to each release.

It adds the practice-management layer accounting firms expect. Daily Time Cards (MYPE4060) record time in six-minute units against customer, project and task, with a chargeable percentage per employee. WIP reporting adds eight aged WIP reports (MYPEG600 to MYPEG610) by project, client, partner and task. MYOB’s own example of a project in this edition is a quarterly BAS, a year-end BAS and an audit, which tells you who it was built for.

Two cautions. MYOB’s licensing page, updated 22 April 2026, still lists the editions as Standard, Plus and Enterprise (general) and Manufacturing and Construction (industry-specific), with the Project user licence on Plus, Enterprise, Manufacturing and Construction and not on Standard. The Professional Services Edition is not on that list and myob.com has no industry page for it, so ask MYOB or your partner whether it is offered for your site. And most consultancies don’t need it: the standard Projects module on Plus or Enterprise, with Project licences for project managers and Employee licences for staff who only enter time and expenses, covers billing, timesheets and WIP. Builders with progress claims and retentions license the Construction edition instead.

Does MYOB Advanced work for consulting firms?

Yes. A consulting firm is the simplest case for MYOB Acumatica’s project accounting, because there is no inventory and the cost side is almost entirely labour. A typical build is one project per client engagement, tasks for the phases in the statement of work, a time and material billing rule for advisory work and a progress billing rule for fixed-fee deliverables, with rate tables by employee class so a principal and an analyst bill at different rates on the same task.

Consulting firms also want utilisation and realisation, which is where the 2026.1.1 Employee Utilization inquiry and the Professional Services Edition’s chargeable percentage come in. If your partners quote fixed fees but staff record hours, the two together show which engagements run under or over the fee, a margin conversation most consultancies have once a year at best.

MYOB’s customer profile, updated 28 August 2026, lists professional, scientific and technical services at 20 to 200 employees among the industries that make up about 84% of its MYOB Acumatica base. The firms we work with are management consultancies, engineering and architecture practices, IT services firms and accounting practices with complex client billing; more than one has a second entity from an acquisition, which is where consolidation and intercompany matter.

When does a professional services firm actually need MYOB Acumatica?

Headcount is the wrong test. We’ve seen 12-person firms that badly needed project accounting and 80-person firms managing on AccountRight. The trigger is complexity.

• Your timesheets and billing don’t connect. Every billing cycle starts with reconciling two or more systems.
• Project managers can’t see profitability in real time. Knowing how an engagement is tracking means asking finance and waiting for a report.
• Different billing arrangements live in spreadsheets. Fixed-fee clients in one place, hourly clients in another, no single view.
• WIP isn’t tracked. You know roughly what is worked but unbilled, and couldn’t produce the figure on demand.
• You have more than one entity, or bill in more than one currency. Your current software handles one entity and needs workarounds for anything more.
• You lose money on engagements without knowing why. Cost and time data sit in different places, so post-project analysis is slow or skipped.

If two or more of those sound familiar, you’re past the point where better accounting software helps. Our MYOB Acumatica vs AccountRight post is that conversation in full, and MYOB’s own comparison page agrees: AccountRight suits small and mid-sized businesses with accounting, payroll and inventory requirements, MYOB Acumatica suits mid-sized and larger businesses with more complex financial, operational and reporting requirements. Weighing MYOB Acumatica against another mid-market ERP belongs on our Odoo vs MYOB Acumatica page.

What does implementation look like for a consulting firm?

Services implementations move faster than manufacturing or distribution projects, because there is no inventory to configure. A firm implementing core financials plus project accounting can expect 10 to 16 weeks from kick-off to go-live if scope is defined up front. MYOB’s implementation page sets out four stages, design, build, test readiness and go-live, after a planning conversation about priorities and budget.

The two areas that take longest are billing configuration and data migration. Billing takes time because your contract types and rate cards have to be mapped into billing rules, rate tables and project templates, and the first few invoices should run through the pro forma workflow so partners can check them. Migration takes time because client and project history is spread across systems, spreadsheets and inboxes. Clean that data before the project starts.

GST runs through tax codes on every project transaction and invoice line, and the Business Activity Statement (BAS) figures come from the ledger, so BAS lodgement is a report you review rather than a spreadsheet you build. If any of your services could be GST-free, settle the treatment with your accountant before the tax codes are finalised. Budget for support after go-live too: billing rules get adjusted and utilisation reporting gets tuned in the first months live.

Goes well with

• How much does MYOB Acumatica cost in Australia?
• How long does a MYOB Acumatica implementation take?
• MYOB Acumatica project accounting: budgets, revenue recognition and change orders

Considering MYOB Acumatica for your professional services or consulting firm?

Auboros is a MYOB Acumatica partner based in Brisbane, working with services firms across Queensland and beyond. We focus on getting billing rules and project accounting right from the start, so you’re not fixing them six months after go-live. If you want a plain conversation about whether MYOB Acumatica fits your firm and what implementation would involve, book a free consultation. No obligation, no pitch deck.