How to create a job in MYOB

Decide what a job means in your file. MYOB's jobs follow the income and expenses of any area or undertaking you want to see on its own, whether that's a project, a department, a division or a location. Because a job is chosen line by line, one invoice can cover several jobs, which is what lets MYOB report the profitability of each.

Choose how you'll number jobs. The job number is each job's unique identifier and can be made of letters or numbers. Have a name and a short description ready too, and know whether the job belongs to one customer, since you can link it to a customer when you set it up.

1. Go to the Accounting menu and choose Jobs.
2. Click Create job.
3. Enter a Job number. It must be unique, and it can be letters or numbers.
4. Enter a Job name and a Description.
5. If the job is for one customer, select them in the Linked customer field.
6. Click Save. The job now appears on the Jobs page.
7. When you record a transaction for the job, choose it in the Job column of each line that relates to it.

The job can be picked on quotes, invoices, bills, receive money and spend money transactions, and general journals. Only one job fits on each line, so if a bill covers two jobs, split it into a line for each. Bank transactions from bank feeds or imported statements can carry jobs as well: on the Bank transactions page under the Banking menu, expand the transaction, allocate it as usual, choose the job in the Job column and click Save. For an adjustment, open the Match transaction tab, click Add adjustment and choose the job there.

To see the results, go to the Reporting menu, choose Reports and click the Jobs tab. Click a report, then set its filters and Report options across the top; the report updates as you change them. Customise lets you select and reorder columns, and Export gives an Excel or PDF copy. Which jobs reports you can see depends on your MYOB plan.

Jobs can be changed later. Open one from the Jobs page to update its details and click Save, or click Delete and confirm. Deleting a job takes it off every transaction it was allocated to. For a job you no longer use, selecting Inactive job and clicking Save hides it from selection lists instead, and clearing the option brings it back.

If a job doesn't appear in a Job dropdown, check whether it's been made inactive, since inactive jobs are left out of selection lists. In the Job transactions (accrual) report, MYOB lists a known issue: memo text for spend money transactions doesn't show when the report is expanded. The Job activity report shows it.

If you use AccountRight on the desktop, jobs are set up from the Lists menu: choose Jobs, click New, then choose Header Job or Detail Job. Header jobs only total the detail jobs beneath them, and transactions can't be assigned to a header job. A desktop job number can be up to 30 characters, and the Sub Job Of field places a job under a header. Deleting a header job there also deletes its detail jobs.