Activity group (AC)
An activity group is a group of activities related by process or function. An activity group is the highest organizational component in Project Accounting. An activity is a phase, task, operation, or other break down within an activity group. See Activity overview.
Activity groups are required. They provide structure and processing rules for the activities associated with them. You can create multiple activity groups to track different kinds of business operations such as capital projects, promotions or events, activity-based costing initiatives, etc.
Activity groups are independent of the General Ledger company structure. You can collect data from multiple companies in activities. These examples show activity group structures:
Example 1
Moose Wood Outfitters is a retailer specializing in casual clothing and outdoor gear. They are experiencing rapid growth, adding multiple retail stores across the United States and Canada. Moose Wood Outfitters uses activity groups to track the new stores as capital projects.
Example 2
LGE Corporation is a health-care provider with a number of hospitals and clinics. Some of LGE's patients are participating in a drug trial funded by a major pharmaceutical company. LGE needs to track the various costs incurred by the hospitals and clinics that are part of the study.
Example 3
LGE Corporation wants to improve efficiency in their outpatient surgical units. They created an activity group to build the activity-based costing infrastructure they need to collect and analyze costs associated with specific processes in this unit.
