Projects and Construction: Default Account Groups for Budget Tracking

When your company uses multiple income or expense account groups, it’s not always obvious which one to select for each line. That’s where MYOB Acumatica 2025.2.1 comes in—by intelligently inserting the default account groups in:

  • The budget lines of projects, project templates, and change orders
  • The estimation lines of change requests

This streamlines budgeting and change management by reducing line-by-line clicks, speeding up entry, and improving accuracy and consistency.

Tip:
By using multiple income or expense account groups, we mean that you have more than one active account group of the Income or Expense type on the Account Groups (PM201000) form.

Here’s how this works in different use cases.

Account Groups in Revenue Budget Lines of Projects and Project Templates

Use case: Your company has multiple income account groups and tracks a project's revenue budget at the item level. You’re entering the revenue budget lines of a project or project template.

The system now fills in the account group based on the item's sales account.

When you add a line and select an item on the Revenue Budget tab of the Projects (PM301000) or Project Templates (PM208000) form, the system automatically fills in the Account Group column. It inserts the account group of the sales account of the item that you've selected (see below). If needed, you can select a different account group than the default one.

Attention:
The system inserts the default account group—which you can change, if needed—only when the Account Group column is empty.
Figure 1. Account group of the item's sales account in a project's revenue budget line


Tip:
In the cost budget lines of projects and project templates, account group population based on the item's sales account was already supported in previous versions.

Account Groups in Revenue Budget Lines of Change Orders

Use case: Your company has multiple income account groups, tracks the project's revenue budget at the item level, and uses change orders. Now you’re entering the revenue budget lines of a change order.

When you add a line on the Revenue Budget tab of the Change Orders (PM308000) form, the system uses the line’s task or the item as the source of the default account group. That is, it populates the Account Group column based on the first applicable source:

  • If you select a project task first and its default sales account has an account group, the system inserts this account group.
  • If you select an item first and its sales account has an account group, the system inserts this account group (see below).
Figure 2. Account group of the item's sales account in a revenue budget line


Use case: Your company has multiple income account groups, tracks the project's revenue budget on the task level, and uses change orders. You are entering the revenue budget lines of a change order.

When you add a revenue budget line and fill in the Project Task column, the system inserts the account group of the default sales account of the selected project task (see below).

Attention:
The system inserts the default account group—which you can change, if needed—only when the Account Group column is empty.
Figure 3. Account group of the task's sales account in a revenue budget line


Account Groups in Cost Budget Lines of Change Orders

Use case: Your company has multiple expense account groups, tracks the project's cost budget at the item level, and uses change orders. You’re entering the cost budget lines of a change order.

While entering a change order, you can use a task or an item as the source of the account group.

When you add a line and select an item on the Cost Budget tab of the Change Orders (PM308000) form, the system populates the Account Group column based on the first applicable source:

  • If you select a project task first and its default expense account has an account group, this account group is inserted.
  • If you select an item first and its COGS account has an account group, this account group is inserted (see below).
Figure 4. Account group of the item's COGS account in a cost budget line


Use case: Your company has multiple expense account groups, tracks the project's cost budget at the task level, and uses change orders. You’re again entering the cost budget lines of a change order.

When you add a cost budget line to a change order and select a task in the Project Task column, the system inserts the account group associated with the task’s default expense account (see below).

Figure 5. Account group from a project task in a cost budget line


Attention:
As with revenue budget lines, the system inserts the default account group—which you can override—only when the Account Group column is empty.

Account Groups in Budget Lines of Change Requests

When you're creating a change request, the system uses either the item or the project task to determine which account group to insert in a budget line.

Use case: Your company has multiple expense and income account groups, tracks the project's budget at the item level and uses change requests. Now you’re adding estimation lines to a change request.

When you add a line on the Estimation tab of the Change Requests (PM308500) form, the system uses the line's task or the item as the source of the default account group. That is, it inserts an account group in both of these columns based on the first applicable source (see below):

  • Account Group:
    • If you select a project task first and its default expense account has an account group, this account group is inserted.
    • If you select an item first and its COGS account has an account group, this account group is inserted.
  • Revenue Account Group:
    • If you select a revenue task first and its default sales account has an account group, this account group is inserted.
    • If you select a revenue item first and its sales account has an account group, this account group is inserted.
Attention:
The system inserts the default account groups—which you can change, if needed—only when the columns are empty.
Figure 6. Account groups of the item's COGS and sales accounts


Use case: Your company has multiple expense and income account groups, tracks the project's budget at the task level and uses change requests. You’re again entering the estimation lines of a change request.

If you add a line on the Estimation tab of the Change Requests form and select a project task, the system inserts account groups in the following columns (shown below):

  • Account Group: The account group of the default expense account of the project task
  • Revenue Account Group: The account group of the default sales account of the revenue project task
Figure 7. Account groups from the project task


Attention:
Here, too, the system inserts the default account group only when the Account Group column is empty. You can override the default settings.

When Account Group Population Applies

If you have multiple income and expense account groups, automatic account group population applies if:

  • You track a project’s cost or revenue budget at the item level: The Cost Budget or Revenue Budget box has Task and Item or Task, Item, and Cost Code selected on the Projects (PM301000) and Project Templates (PM208000) forms.
  • You track a project’s cost or revenue budget at the task level: The Cost Budget or Revenue Budget box has Task and Item or Task and Cost Code selected on the Projects and Project Templates forms.