Learning About the MYOB Advanced UI: General Information

In the following sections, you will find information about the user interface (UI) and the navigation options of the MYOB Advanced website.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn how to do the following:

  • Identify the basic elements of the MYOB Advanced UI
  • Describe the main functions of the basic UI elements
  • List the content that can be displayed in the working area
  • Describe the elements of a workspace
  • Search for needed information in the system
  • Navigate the Help menu
  • Explore the MYOB Advanced online Help
  • Use the built-in infotips

Applicable Scenarios

You need to learn about the MYOB Advanced UI if you are new to MYOB Advanced and need to become familiar with the UI.

Basic Elements of the MYOB Advanced User Interface

Every screen of MYOB Advanced has basic UI elements that help users navigate the system, input data into the system, and view, modify, and share information. The following screenshot shows the basic UI elements of the system, which are described in the next several sections.

Figure 1. Basic UI elements


  1. Home button
  2. Search box
  3. Recently Viewed button
  4. Company and Branch Selection menu button
  5. Business Date menu button
  6. Open Help button
  7. User menu button
  8. Main menu
  9. Working area
  10. Side panel
  11. Icon for the infotip

Home Button

The Home button, located in the upper left corner of the MYOB Advanced screen, has your company logo on it. Initially, when you click the Home button, the home page of your MYOB Advanced instance opens.

You can specify a custom home page instead of the default home page. For details, see Managing Your Basic Working Environment: Process Activity.

Search Box

The Search box is located in the top pane of the MYOB Advanced screen. When you search by a keyword or phrase in the system, the results may include any of the following:

  • A text string in menu items, such as forms, reports, dashboards, pivot tables, and generic inquiries
  • Help topics
  • Files and notes attached to system records
  • Transactions
  • Documents
  • Entities, such as vendors, customers, prospects, employees, leads, and cases.

Additionally, you can search for a form by the form title and by the form ID.

Tip: You can find a form or report by using the Search box, if the link to this particular form or report has been added to any of the workspaces. If you cannot find a form or report that you need for your work, contact a system administrator.

Recently Viewed Workspace

The Recently Viewed button is located in the top pane of the MYOB Advanced screen right of the Search box. The button opens the Recently Viewed workspace over the working area of the screen. Each time you click the button, the system uses the data it has collected and refreshes the workspace to show the most recently used records that have been created and opened on data entry forms, as well as key information about these records, including their reference numbers or identifiers.

Tip: In MYOB Advanced, each record of a particular type is identified by a string of numbers only or numbers and letters—that is, a reference number or ID—that is unique to the record type.

The following screenshot shows the elements of the Recently Viewed workspace.

Figure 2. Recently Viewed workspace


  1. Record Types: This list can be used to filter records by their type. By default, the system displays all records (the All record type). If needed, a user can select another record type to view records of only the selected type in the Records and Favorite Records lists. Record types are predefined, and the system adds the appropriate record types to the Recently Viewed workspace automatically each time a user opens the workspace.
  2. Records: This list displays the last 500 records the user has interacted with. If the user has selected a record type other than All, the system filters the records and displays in this list only records of the selected record type.
  3. Favorite Records: This list displays the records the user has marked as favorites for easy access to them, regardless of when they were last accessed. For details, see Managing Favorites: General Information.

You can use the standard Search functionality to search among the recently viewed records. When the Recently Viewed workspace is open, the system runs the search only among the last 500 records you have interacted with. If this workspace is closed, then the system runs the system-wide search and displays all records that correspond to the user search request. For details, see Searching in MYOB Advanced: General Information.

Company and Branch Selection Menu

The Company and Branch Selection menu button is located in the top pane of the MYOB Advanced screen. The button displays the name of the company or company—branch combination (for a company with branches) to which you are currently signed in. You click the button to view the Company and Branch Selection menu.

The following screenshot shows the elements of the Company and Branch Selection menu.

Figure 3. Company and Branch Selection menu


  1. The current company or company—branch combination (for a company with branches).
  2. The Search box. You use the box to search for a particular company or branch by its name or identifier.
  3. The hierarchical list of companies or branches (or both), which contains the identifier and name of each company or branch. The companies and branches are listed alphabetically by their identifiers. In the list, a company or branch is displayed only if it is active and your user account has access to it.
  4. The current branch. The current branch, which is indicated by a check mark, is inserted by default into any documents or entities you create while you are signed in.
    Tip: If you are signed in to a company with no branches, the check mark is instead used to indicate the current company, which is inserted by the system into any created records.
  5. The total numbers of active companies and branches that you have access to.

Business Date Menu

The Business Date menu button is located in the top pane of the MYOB Advanced screen; the button shows the current business date and time (in the time zone defined for your user account) in the system. The following screenshot shows the elements of the Business Date menu.

Figure 4. Business Date menu


  1. Business Date menu button
  2. Calendar
  3. Action buttons

The business date, which is the current date that is set in the system, is automatically inserted in the records such as sales orders and invoices that you add to the system.

If the Secure Business Date feature is disabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form in MYOB Advanced, any user can change their business date by opening the Business Date menu and then selecting the needed date. If the Secure Business Date feature is enabled, only users with the BusinessDateOverride role assigned to them can change the business date.

This menu also displays a calendar, which can be used to find the needed business date (and select it, if the system settings allow this), and the OK and Cancel buttons.

Built-In Help System

You click the Open Help button, located in the top pane of the MYOB Advanced screen, to access the Help menu. The menu provides quick access to Help topics that are relevant to the content you are currently viewing in the working area. The following screenshot shows the elements of the Help menu.

When you click the Open Help button, one of the following occurs:

  • For most menu items, the Help menu opens, offering a collection of relevant links, as shown in the following screenshot.
  • For a custom form, report, or dashboard, the Educational Resources Help dashboard opens in a new browser tab.
  • In some cases, a reference Help topic related to the form opens in a new browser tab.
Tip: If you want to open a Help topic in the working area, you should press Ctrl and click the link to the Help topic.
Figure 5. Help menu


In the Help Dashboard section of the Help menu, you can click Acumatica Educational Resources to open the Educational Resources Help dashboard.

By using the Help dashboard, you can access the Help system of your MYOB Advanced version and view a complete list of the available guides and reference collections. You can navigate among these guides and the included topics to find more information on a particular subject or just to learn more about MYOB Advanced.

User Menu

The User menu button is located in the top pane (upper right) of the MYOB Advanced screen; you click the button to view the User menu. The following screenshot shows the elements of the User menu.

Figure 6. User menu


  1. Tenants section. In this section of the User menu, you can view the tenant to which you are signed in, indicated by a check mark.
  2. My Profile section. This section shows your name and your email address as defined in the system; you click My Profile to view the User Profile (SM203010) form, where you can change the settings of your user account.
  3. Sign-In section. In this section of the User menu, you can view the date and time of your last sign-in, and click Sign Out if you are ready to sign out of the system.

Main Menu

The main menu, which is initially shown in the expanded view, is located on the left side of the MYOB Advanced screen. You can collapse the main menu so that the names of the menu items are displayed in the compact view or minimize the main menu so that it is displayed as the Menu button in the upper left corner of the screen instead of the Home button. The following screenshot shows the elements of the main menu in the expanded view.

Figure 7. Main menu


  1. Favorites menu item. You click the Favorites menu item to view your favorite forms, reports, and dashboards. For details, see Managing Favorites.
  2. Menu items that represent workspaces. When you click a menu item on the main menu, the quick view or full view of the workspace, depending on the configuration of the workspace, opens over the working area. In the workspace, you can see the links to the forms, reports, and dashboards for a particular functional area in MYOB Advanced.
  3. More Items menu item. The main menu displays the workspaces (except for Recently Viewed) that are used most commonly by MYOB Advanced users. By clicking the More Items menu item, you can access some workspaces that are used less frequently but are important to some users. If you do not see a menu item corresponding to the functional area you want to use, click the More Items menu item. This opens in the working area a menu with tiles for each of the workspaces in the system. These workspaces are grouped by broader functional areas.
  4. Open Configuration Menu button. You click this button to view a menu with additional commands that you can click to change the location of the main menu (and to edit the menu items for the whole system, if you are signed in to an account with the Administrator role assigned).
  5. Collapse Main Menu Panel (or Expand Main Menu Panel) button. By clicking the Collapse Main Menu Panel button, you can collapse the main menu panel to display the compact view of the icons and workspace names, and by clicking the Expand Main Menu Panel button (which appears on the collapsed menu panel), you can display the expanded view of the menu.

Working Area

The working area is the main area of the MYOB Advanced screen. Depending on what you are doing in the system, the working area may display any of the following:

  • A form: MYOB Advanced has forms of multiple types. For details, see Forms.
  • A report: A report is a type of a form specifically designed to organize data in a ready-to-print format. For details, see Reports.
  • A dashboard: A dashboard is a collection of widgets, displayed on a single page, that provide at-a-glance information on your business-specific processes. For details, see Designing Dashboard Contents.
  • A Help topic.

Side Panel

A side panel is a panel on the right side of the screen that you can use to see details about any record you select from a list of records. Some data entry forms also provide a side panel that you can use to view additional information about the selected record.

A side panel may have only one tab with a form related to the selected record, or it may have multiple tabs, each showing a different type of information related to the record. You can view a tab by clicking its icon. The set of icons on the side panel of a list of records can be different from the set of icons shown on the data entry form (see the screenshots below). Thus, you can view additional information related to a record at various points in your work with the record.

Figure 8. A side panel on a list of records


Figure 9. A side panel on a data entry form


Built-In Infotips

In MYOB Advanced, you can view infotips, which give you a brief explanation of a UI element while you are still viewing a form. You can view infotips for boxes, check boxes, and option buttons that appear in the areas and on the tabs of most forms, as well as the columns of tables on these forms. You access infotips slightly differently for table columns than you do for other elements, but in both cases, you access the infotip for an element by clicking a small question mark icon.

When you hover over the label of a box, check box, or option button, the question mark icon appears next to the UI element (see the following screenshot).

Tip: The question mark icon appears when you hover over the element name for 1.5 seconds.
Figure 10. The question mark icon next to the box

To view the infotip of a column in a table that appears directly on a form, you first click the header of the table column. The question mark icon is displayed in the bottom left corner of the Sorting and Filtering Settings dialog box, which opens for the column, as the following screenshot shows.

Figure 11. The question mark icon in the Sorting and Filtering Settings dialog box

When you click the question mark icon, the system opens the infotip: a pane that partially overlaps the working area of the screen and contains the element's complete description. (See the following screenshot, which shows the infotip for the Customer box.)

Figure 12. The infotip for the Customer box


If you click the arrow in upper left corner of the pane (see Item 1 in the previous screenshot), the system opens the Help menu for the form, which has links to the Help topics that contain information about the form's functionality. For details about the Help menu, see Help.

Below the description, the pane includes a link (Item 2) to the complete reference topic for the form. If you click the link, the system opens the corresponding wiki topic in a new browser tab.

To close the pane (or the Help menu, if you have switched to the menu), you click anywhere on the form.

Infotips are not supported for generic inquiry forms, report forms, or ARM reports. Also, they are not shown for the following elements:

  • The names of tabs on a form
  • Elements on the form title bar, form toolbar, and table toolbar
  • Commands on the More menu
  • Dialog boxes or elements within them

Workspaces

In MYOB Advanced, a workspace is a menu that displays links to forms, reports and dashboards of a particular functional area. The following screenshot shows the basic elements of a workspace.

Figure 13. Workspace elements


  1. Workspace title bar. The workspace title bar has the title of the workspace, and buttons you can use to click various workspace-specific actions.
  2. Tiles. A tile is a shortcut in a workspace that you click to open a form, report, or other workspace item (possibly with predefined settings, depending on how the workspace has been configured). A predefined workspace contains tiles with the most commonly used workspace items for the functional area.
  3. Category. In each workspace, categories—such as Transactions, Processes, Inquiries, Profiles, Printed Form, and Reports in the Sales Orders workspace shown in the previous screenshot—are used to group these links by type, to make items easier to find. For example, the Transactions category displays links to items that you can use to create and work with individual transactions. Depending on the workspace, the set of categories may vary. The system provides a number of predefined categories. A category is displayed in a workspace if at least one link to a menu item has been added to the category in this workspace.
  4. Links to workspace items, such as forms, reports, dashboards, generic inquiries, or pivot tables. You can click any link to go to the particular item.
  5. The New button, which you can click to open a data entry form that you use to create a new record. To see this button, you point at the name of the data entry form (that is, the link to the list of records created on the form).
  6. The Unpin from Main Menu Panel button, which you can click to remove the workspace from the main menu. If the workspace is not displayed on the main menu, you can instead see the Pin to Main Menu Panel button, which you can click to add the workspace to the main menu.
  7. The Configure Quick Menu button, which you can click to open the workspace in configuration mode and select the links to workspace items to be displayed in the quick view of the workspace.
  8. The Close Workspace button, which you can click to close the workspace.
  9. The Show All (or Show Less, if the workspace is displayed in the full view) button, which is on the workspace footer. You use these buttons to toggle between the workspace views, which are described in the next section.

Views of the Workspace

A workspace in MYOB Advanced can have the following views (except for Recently Viewed):

  • Full view (the Show Less button is displayed in the workspace footer)
  • Quick view (the Show All button is displayed in the workspace footer)

The full menu view of the workspace contains all the tiles and links to menu items defined for the workspace, with the links grouped by categories.

The quick menu view of the workspace contains the most commonly used tiles of the particular workspace, as well as the links to menu items, which are grouped by categories.

The Form Toolbar and the More Menu

The form toolbar in MYOB Advanced contains standard buttons that you can use to save or cancel changes you have made to the record, or to add or delete a record. Depending on the particular form, the form toolbar may contain navigation buttons (buttons to go to different records), processing buttons, and the More menu consisting of commands related to the selected record or records. The following screenshot shows the basic elements of the form toolbar on the Opportunities (CR304000) form. The form toolbar contains the More menu with categories and menu commands on it.

Figure 14. Form toolbar with the More menu


  1. The standard form toolbar buttons, all or some of which appear on most of the forms in MYOB Advanced.
  2. A highlighted button for the command that represents the next logical step to be performed on the record selected on the form.
  3. Another button for a common command that a user can perform on the form.
  4. The More button, which you click to open the More menu.
  5. The More menu with all form-specific menu commands on it.
  6. The non-clickable informational category, which is used to organize commands.
  7. The command that has the green dot, represents the next logical step to be performed on the record, and is displayed on the form toolbar as a highlighted button.
  8. An available command. It may be displayed as another button on the form toolbar if it is a common command that a user can perform on the form.
  9. The star icon, which is used to mark the individual user's favorite menu commands on the form. For more details, see Managing Favorites: General Information.
  10. An unavailable command. By default, on the More menu, the system displays all commands that could be available for the form. Some of these commands may be unavailable (that is, they cannot be clicked). These are the commands that are not applicable to the record based on its current status.

The form toolbar has a responsive layout, meaning that it dynamically adjusts to different screen sizes. When there is enough space, buttons for highlighted and favorite commands are displayed on the form toolbar. When the screen size decreases, the system moves the commands off the form toolbar one by one, but keeps them on the More menu.

If there are multiple categories on the More menu, the categories and menu commands can be displayed in several columns on the More menu depending on the screen size and the number of categories. When the screen size decreases, the system moves some categories and menu commands to the left to decrease the number of columns, and in the screens of the smallest size, all categories are displayed in one column.

The expected next command (the command most likely to be clicked on the form) is typically shown both on the form toolbar as a button and on the More menu as a menu command. On the form toolbar, the button is highlighted in green, and on the More menu, the command is indicated with a green dot after its name.