MYOB accounting revolution to increase productivity by 40%

MYOB says accountants will be able to improve their production by at least 40% by using the latest accounting revolution, the common general ledger, developed for implementation in MYOB's Accountants Office (AO), AccountRight and Live Accounts software.

MYOB chief executive Tim Reed says the common ledger is an idea MYOB has been working towards for many years and it is very close to delivering it to the market.

The common general ledger records all the work clients do on business accounts and when the accountant does work it also gets recorded on the same ledger. The client uses tools designed for SME's at their end and the accountant uses separate tools as a professional from their end with all the work recorded on the same database.

This means accountants have real-time access to their client's data whenever it suits them, from anywhere. Files do not need to be transferred back and forth with clients and accountants can also work on more complete and accurate data because the client it's working with can link its bank accounts and credit cards to the ledger.

Data provided by MYOB's strategic supply partner BankLink provides transaction data from 70 financial institutions in Australia and more than 30 in New Zealand and client's transactions are automatically transferred into the system, matched and coded.

MYOB New Zealand general manager Julian Smith says MYOB is able to provide such technology because it provides 80% of accountants in practice with professional GL and tax solutions and around 150,000 kiwi businesses with SME products and services.

Being the leading player in the market delivering accounting solutions to both accountants and businesses means it can bring them together to create the common general ledger.

Smith says MYOB is investing more than NZD$10 million in updating and revamping AO with the common general ledger and other features due to be released in mid-2011.

It will also be implementing the common general ledger in two of its new products for client accounting, MYOB LiveAccounts, which is an online accounting solution and in MYOB AccountRight which is the next generation of MYOB's SME accounting range with an interface on the desktop but database and business logic on the internet.

"We know that 60% of businesses like to combine desktop and internet services so we've provided that option with MYOB AccountRight as well as the option of the online accounting solution, MYOB LiveAccounts."

The Live Accounts product is expected to be launched in June this year, as it is currently in its beta format, and is being tested by a range of accountants, bookkeepers and businesses.

MYOB says LiveAccounts will appeal to businesses starting out and to business owners who are comfortable working online , with little accounting knowledge who want something easy to use and understand.

The initial release of Live Accounts will include invoicing (debtors), expense tracking (creditors), customers, contacts and suppliers, GST management/reporting and general reporting.

However MYOB has received strong feedback to include a payroll module and inventory which are now planned for inclusion in the second half of 2010.

Comments from our readers

On 19 May 2010 at 4:43 am Mark Lawton said:

I think that this may be too little too late for MYOB. Xero are now so far ahead in the on-line accounting space that it will be difficult for others to catch up. Xero has pioneered so many major advances such as full multi-currency linked to the internet. They are now probably 2 years ahead of their competitors which will struggle to change old technology into new web based applications

On 19 May 2010 at 8:24 pm Peter Thorby said:

I note the inventory module with interest. I hope this is NOT a Min/Max system. why, because this is the major flaw in inventory systems, and creates the symptom, "how come we have everything we do not want and nothing that we do want". It has to be based on "pull" logic, or "consumption" logic. Read "Isn't It Obvious" by Eliyahu Goldratt to find out more.

On 19 May 2010 at 8:34 pm Peter Thorby said:

If productivity increases by 40%, how is that a win for CA's who use Time Sheet logic? Doesn't that mean less time therefore less fees? or does it mean "over recovery"? And the win for the client is? maybe less CA fees? maybe more speed? What is the obstacle that this technology removes, to have a client or the CA firm get to their goal faster?

On 4 May 2011 at 7:36 pm James said:

I think MYOB will kill Xero - a lot of accountants are resistant to change (as are clients!). almost all of our substantial client base use MYOB and are very unlikely to want to change. I feel the same to be honest, Xero took an age to even have a payroll function!

MYOB accounting revolution to increase productivity by 40%

Comments from our readers

Add your comment: