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

Updated 29 September 2026: rebuilt to the 12 post rules. Short answer and At a glance block added, “MYOB Advanced” naming and the edition question answered, competitor platform comparisons removed in favour of the compare page, unsourced claims removed, FAQ moved to the live FAQPage schema, sources re-verified.

MYOB Acumatica (sold as MYOB Advanced until 16 July 2024) tracks projects and job costs in its native Projects module: time, expenses and purchases post to project tasks against a budget, billing runs as fixed price, cost-plus or time and materials, and work in progress reports in real time. Australian professional services firms get it on the Plus and Enterprise editions; construction firms on the Construction edition.

At a glance

• Who it is for: Australian professional services firms, typically 20 to 200 staff, that bill time and projects: consultancies, engineering and architecture practices, IT services firms, project-based contractors and accounting firms with complex client billing.
• Problem it solves: timesheets, billing and the general ledger living in separate systems, so work in progress (WIP) and project profitability are only known after the invoice goes out.
• Platforms: MYOB Acumatica (formerly MYOB Advanced), Plus or Enterprise edition with the Project user licence type, per MYOB’s licensing documentation.
• Typical cost: MYOB does not publish prices; partners quote per named user. Our MYOB Acumatica cost guide puts most Australian sites at roughly A$131 to A$215 per user per month ex GST, with implementation from about A$20,000 for finance only.
• Typical timeline: 10 to 16 weeks from kick-off to go-live for financials plus project accounting, in our experience; longer with payroll, multiple entities or integrations.
• Last verified: 29 September 2026 against MYOB’s project accounting page, MYOB’s licensing documentation and Acumatica’s July 2024 press release.

Most accounting software was built for businesses that sell things. Professional services firms sell time, expertise and outcomes, which is a different operating model, and it creates a specific set of problems on general-purpose accounting software. Timesheets that don’t talk to billing. Project profitability you can’t see until after the fact. WIP tracked in someone’s spreadsheet, or not tracked at all.

MYOB Acumatica’s project accounting is native to the platform rather than bolted on, so time entries, expenses, billing and financial reporting all work from one data set. This guide covers what the platform does for professional services businesses, who it suits, and what an implementation looks like in Australia. Auboros is a MYOB Acumatica partner in Brisbane that implements it for services firms across Queensland and the rest of the country.

Why professional services firms are different as ERP users

Product businesses track inventory, purchase orders and sales margins. Services businesses track hours, contract types, resource availability and project profitability. Most entry-level accounting tools are designed for the first problem, not the second.

The practical result is that services firms often run two or three systems in parallel: an accounting package, a separate timesheet platform, and spreadsheets to fill the gaps. That works at small scale. It breaks down as project volume grows, billing arrangements multiply, or the business adds entities. If you’re spending real time at month end reconciling data between systems before you can invoice, that’s a system design problem, and it won’t improve by working harder at it.

How does MYOB Acumatica handle project tracking and job costing for professional services firms?

Every project in MYOB Acumatica carries a budget by task and cost code. Timesheets, expense claims, supplier bills and purchase orders post to those tasks as they happen, so actual and committed cost sit next to budget without anyone re-keying. Revenue can be recognised by percent complete at project or task level, and the project accounting module tracks change orders with the contract and budget documents attached. Our MYOB Acumatica job costing guide walks through the labour, materials and committed cost view in more detail.

Project billing: fixed price, cost-plus and time and materials

MYOB Acumatica supports more than one billing arrangement in the same system, and within the same project if needed. MYOB’s page describes invoices set up from the project and contract terms, with fixed price or cost-plus options and a cap on cost-based billing; time and materials billing runs from the same billing rules. For firms with a mixed client base, that removes the separate tracking most practices keep for each contract type.

Invoices generate from project data, so time and expense information isn’t re-entered at billing time. That is one whole reconciliation step gone from the monthly cycle.

Timesheets and expenses

Staff, contractors and partners log timesheets from any device, and expense claims attach to the project they belong to, so cost data lands in the right place without manual allocation later. Our posts on MYOB Acumatica timesheets and expense claims cover the approval flows and the pay run link.

Work in progress and project profitability

WIP is where many services firms either have a real problem or are managing one without realising it. MYOB Acumatica reports unbilled work, progress against budget and financial performance at task level, not just project level. The 2024.2 release added clearer WIP reporting for the current progress of a project and the performance of individual tasks, per MYOB’s release notes. Project managers can compare budget and expected revenue with actuals mid-project rather than discovering a margin problem after close.

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?

No. There is no separately named professional services edition of MYOB Advanced or MYOB Acumatica. Project accounting is licensed through the Project user type, which MYOB’s licensing documentation makes available on the Plus, Enterprise, Manufacturing and Construction editions, not on Standard. A consultancy or engineering practice normally licenses Plus or Enterprise; a builder or contractor with progress claims and retentions licenses the Construction edition, which our MYOB Acumatica for construction in Queensland post covers.

If you’re reading older material that says MYOB Advanced, it describes the same product. MYOB renamed it MYOB Acumatica on 16 July 2024, per Acumatica’s announcement, and the platform, data and partner channel did not change.

Which professional services industries use MYOB Acumatica in Australia?

The firms we see most often are management and business consultancies, engineering and architecture practices, IT services and technology consultancies, project-based contractors, and accounting or financial services firms with complex client billing. MYOB’s own customer profile, published 28 August 2026, lists professional services among the industries that make up most of its base, alongside wholesale, manufacturing and construction.

MYOB Acumatica also has specific functionality for not-for-profit organisations, construction and field services, which overlap with professional services depending on how the business is structured. If your firm spans more than one of these, one platform tends to serve you better than a specialist tool for each. For groups with more than one entity, our multi-entity and intercompany accounting post explains how consolidation works.

When does a professional services firm actually need MYOB Acumatica?

The question isn’t headcount. We’ve seen 12-person firms that badly needed proper project accounting and 80-person firms managing on AccountRight. The trigger is complexity, not size.

• Your timesheets and billing don’t connect. Every billing cycle involves manual reconciliation between two or more systems before invoices go out.
• Project managers can’t see profitability in real time. A read on how a project is tracking needs a request to finance and a wait for a report.
• Different billing arrangements live in spreadsheets. Fixed-price clients in one place, time and materials in another, no single view.
• WIP isn’t properly tracked. You know roughly what’s been worked but not billed, but couldn’t produce an accurate 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 projects without knowing why. Cost and time data are in different places, so post-project analysis is slow or incomplete.

If two or more of those sound familiar, you’re likely past the point where better accounting software helps. Our MYOB Acumatica vs AccountRight post is the honest version of that conversation, and MYOB’s own comparison says the same: AccountRight suits small to medium businesses with simpler needs, Acumatica suits mid-market organisations with more complex ones. If you’re weighing MYOB Acumatica against another mid-market ERP, that comparison belongs on our Odoo vs MYOB Acumatica page rather than here.

What does implementation look like for a professional services firm?

Services implementations tend to move faster than manufacturing or distribution projects, because there’s no inventory to configure and less supply chain complexity. 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; our implementation timeline guide breaks that down by scope. MYOB’s implementation page lays out the six stages every partner follows: requirements, design, build, testing readiness, go-live and change management.

The two areas that take longest are billing configuration and data migration. Billing takes time because your contract types, rate cards and billing rules have to be mapped into the system. Migration takes time because client and project history is usually spread across systems, spreadsheets and inboxes. Cleaning that data before migration starts is worth it; doing it under project pressure is not.

GST is handled through tax codes on every 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 may be GST-free, confirm the treatment with your accountant before the tax codes are finalised.

Budget for support after go-live too. Billing configurations get adjusted, project templates get built out and reporting gets refined in the months after launch, not before it. Our hidden costs post lists what the licence quote leaves out.

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 firm?

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