Create a project group

Project groups are a type of dimension. For more information on dimensions, watch the video: What are dimensions and how do they work?

The way that you set up a project group depends on how you plan to use the groups. For example, if your company performs services from multiple locations you can set up project groups that filter reports by location, customer, and employee.

Within each project group, you can define multiple groups for different purposes, such as groups that filter customers by type, amount due, country, or a combination of criteria.

This topic applies to standard dimensions. For user-defined dimensions, see Manage user-defined dimensions.
Subscription

Company

Projects
Regional availability

All regions

User type

Business

Project Manager

Employee (Viewing)
Permissions Dimension groups (varies by application): List, View, Add, Edit

Ways you can use project groups

The following are examples of the ways in which you might use project groups:

  • All active projects
  • By project type (for example, billing type = Time and materials)
  • With a budgeted billing amount greater than a certain amount
  • All billable projects (customer field is not empty) that are not complete (percentage complete is less than 100)
  • By project manager
  • Where the project manager is the current user

Add a project group

  1. Go to Projects > Setup > Projects > Groups

  2. Select Create in the upper left corner of the window.

  3. On the Project group information page, enter or select a Project group ID and Project name in the respective fields.

  4. Optionally, enter a project Description.

  5. From the Group type dropdown, select the type of group that you want to create.

    • Select All members if you want to set up filters that automatically select the group members from a pool of all dimension members.

      For example, you can create a Direct Customers group that filters customers to include only the ones with the Customer Type field set to Direct.

    • Select Specific members to select the dimension members manually. You can then apply filters to refine the group further.

      The group type and options that you select determine which members are included in report data when you filter on this dimension group.

      If you're creating financial reports that show dimensions in rows or columns, your selection also determines the column and row headings, and the order in which they're listed.

  6. Select a Sort order: Ascending or Descending

  7. Select a Sort field from the dropdown menu and then enter the desired Maximum matches.

  8. Optionally, select the check box to include a Dimension structure.
    Creating a dimension structure from a group allows you to add the group to the rows or columns of a financial report.

  9. Add filtering to the group:

    1. Select the field that you want to filter.

    2. Select the operation and value for the filter.
      The options depend on the field you selected. For more information, see filtering with field values.

  10. Save the group.

Specify what's in a group

The group type and options that you select determine which members are included in report data when you filter on this dimension group.

If you're creating financial reports that show dimensions in rows or columns, your selection also determines the column and row headings, and the order in which they're listed.

  1. Select All members as the group type.
  2. Change the sort order as needed.
  3. In the Filters list, filter for all Active members.
    1. For the Field, select Status.
    2. For the Operator, select equals.
    3. For the Value, select Active.
  1. Select All members as the group type.
  2. Change the sort order as needed.
  3. Use the Filters list to filter on specific fields (such as the department manager).
Do not select any specific members. If you select specific members (such as particular locations or suppliers), the filters will apply only to the members that you selected.
  1. Select Specific members as the group type.
  2. Use the Members list to add, delete, or reorder members.
  3. Do not apply any filters to the group.
  1. Select Specific members as the group type.
  2. Use the Members list to add, delete, or reorder members.
  3. Use the Filters list to narrow the members further based on specific fields.
Non-numeric fields are matched alphabetically.
  1. Select All members as the group type.
  2. Set the Sort order to Ascending or Descending and then select the field to use.
  3. Enter the number of matches in the Max matches field.
If you're planning to show top or bottom matches in a financial report, such as showing the top customers by revenue, do not use this option for the group.

Select specific dimension members and set their order

When you select specific members of a dimension, you’re picking the individual locations, departments, customers, suppliers, employees, items, projects, or classes that you want to include. For example, you might want to create an Employee group that contains certain employees.

  1. Set the Group type to Specific members.

  2. Use the Members list to select the members to include. The sort order that you select will be used in any reports that show dimensions in columns or rows.

If you're creating a dimension group at the top level, you cannot include members that belong to an entity. Try creating the dimension group from the entity itself.

Filter with field values

You can add filters that select dimension members based on the value of certain fields. For example, you can select customers of a certain type or suppliers that have a payment priority of urgent.

  1. Select the field that you want to filter on.

  2. Select the operation and value that you want to filter for.

    The options depend on the field that you select.

    If you add more than one filter, All (AND) is selected in the Filter conditions field by default. This means that members are included only if they match all criteria. However, you can change this behavior by selecting Or (Any) in the Filter conditions field.

Filter for projects, employees, locations, or departments managed by the current user

Dimension groups can automatically show managers just the information that's relevant to them. For example, you can set up a Project dimension group called "My projects," which dynamically filters for projects managed by the current user. Similarly, groups can be used to filter for employees, departments, or locations managed by the current user.

The current user is the user who is currently logged into Intacct.

Suppose that you have several project managers. Each project manager wants to see reports and dashboards filtered for their projects only.

  1. Create a Project group that filters for projects managed by the current user.

    • Project group named "My projects"
    • Select All members
    • Select Project manager ID as the filter field, then set the Operator to is current user

    Because Project manager ID is connected to an Intacct user, the group can filter for projects where the current user is the manager.

  2. Use the dimension group to filter reports and dashboards.

For example, you can create a financial report that shows revenue and expenses by project. This report can be prefiltered for the "My projects" group. Or you can prompt the user when the report is run so that they can easily switch between showing all projects or just their own projects.

When you set the filter to the current user, you limit the user to see only the group, such as projects, employees, or locations associated with the user. For example, the filter field is "Project Manager" and the operator is "current user. " When the project manager runs the report, they’ll only see their own projects.

To create a group that filters for the current user:

  1. Create a new group of type Project, Employee, Department, or Location.
  2. Define the group as usual, giving it a name that users will recognize, such as "My projects" or "My employees."

  3. In the Filters section, select a field that's connected to an employee who is a user in Intacct.

    • For Project dimension groups, you can select the Project manager ID field.
    • For Department, Location, or Employee dimension groups, you can select the Manager field.

    Not all contact fields are connected to a user. For this reason, filtering for the current user is restricted to the Project Manager ID and Manager fields.

  4. Set the Operator to is current user.

Combine multiple filters

If you have multiple filters, the default behavior is to match only members that meet all the criteria. However, you can change how this works using the Filter conditions dropdown menu.

Filter conditions
Filter condition Result

All (AND)

Include members that match all criteria (the default behavior).

Any (OR)

Include members that match any criteria.

Expression

Uses an expression that you define to apply the filters.

For example, the following expression matches members that either meet criteria 1 and 2, or that meet criteria 3.

(1 AND 2) OR 3

If you want to select "one of" something, such as departments where the manager is either Jim, Sue, or Terri, create several filters and use the Any (OR) filter condition.

Create a group filter for active and inactive members

There are times when you want to include dimensions that are inactive in reports. Create a dimension group that filters for both types of dimension member.

  1. Open or edit the dimension group for the dimension type, for example, departments, locations, or territories.
  2. In the filters section, create two filters:
    • Status equals active
    • Status equals inactive
  3. Make sure that the condition type is set to Any (OR).
  4. Save your changes.

You can use this group when you want to have both active and inactive members appear in a report.