Quick Poll - MYOB or Quickbooks

[ActiveCounselling]

From my experience quickbooks handles inventory better but MYOB is far more well known and most accountants are happier to deal with MYOB.

I use MYOB now but I don't have any inventory to worry about and it does the job great. Just had to get used to terms like "Spend Money", when I kept trying to find the Accounts Payable module. Once you understand the terminology it is ridiculously easy to use. If you don't have any accounting background you will warm to it quickly.

Regards,

David

[tildavirtual]

Unless you know accounting terms and you are a trained bookkeeping like moi, MYOB can quickly get confusing. I've used MYOB for the last 12 years (since version 4 I think) and QuickBooks for the last 3 years. I decided to become a Professional Partner of both as I need to buy both software packages to work on files for my clients.

I LOVE QuickBooks. I've since cancelled my MYOB partner subscription and only work on QuickBook files. I can tell you some horror stories of people with little to no knowledge of bookkeeping and the mistakes they've made on my client's files. I shudder at the thought of those mistakes and unless you know how to search for them you won't find them.

QuickBooks win's hands down.

[tildavirtual]

From murmurs online yes the online component is stuffed but I don't use it so I wasn't aware of that issue. Log the issue with QuickBooks.

Try turning off your anti-virus software when you are installing the update. Norton's in particular plays funny buggers with QuickBooks when installing or updating.

Kylie

Originally Posted by Adam Randall

Its a Claytons spam:)

After the day I had yesterday with Quickbooks, I think someone from there needs to be taken out an flogged.

Is it just me or is the online banking component STUFFED on Quickbooks?

I can download one out of 3 bank statements directly into quickbooks, the other two try and communicate with the bank and fail with errors.

The real kicker of it all is that I cannot even import a local csv or iff file into quickbooks even after the account is set to not be an online account.

Its driving me insane, so much so that I may in actual fact ring their support line.

Ah to top it all off I cannot install a quickbooks update, it just fails.

I changed my mind, MYOB wins hands down every category apart from ease of use.

[MYOB]

This has certainly made for interesting reading & I guess I should make a comment :)

So what would I recommend...I know you are probably thinking MYOB.

I would NEVER recommend MYOB...

I would ask you the question - what does your accountant use? What does your accountant want you to use?

If you are planning to grow using a system that your accountant uses, is going to make your accounting bills a lot cheaper.

Now if your accountant comes along and says - he doesn't care - I am a bit concerned.

There are massive cost and time savings for accountants who specialise in a product, and have the back end specific software, to LINK UP with the software the business is using.

I have seen clients go from a $10 000 bill to a $2000 bill, when they move to a MYOB specialist accountant.

You can go to the MYOB or QUICKEN website to find these accountants - this is NOT the sort of accountant I am - I can not do your end of year company taxes - I just train in MYOB & accounting concepts.

(NOTE : There are also QUICKBOOKS and other accounting product specialist accountants out there)

On another note it continues to flabberghast me that there are many accountants operating today who don't have a basic or elementary grasp of small business accounting software. This is like a heart surgeon not knowing how to give a injection - yes we realise they don't do it every day - but we expect that they can don't we?


Ask your accountant if he knows how to use the package he has recommened to you...

Another factor to consider is - are there staff available in your location who know the product - when you grow and want to employ a bookkeeper are you going to have to train them in the product?


e.g. Brisbane hade a 90%MYOB saturation in small business market when I started...not sure what it is now.

[eclipse]

Some really good points from both sides it seems.

For me, I'm a bit jaded about them all. I only run a husband & wife graphic design firm and don't track any inventory.

I'm just over paying $450 a year or whatever for MYOB's tax tables! So I didn't subscribe again. I was planning to just send my accountant the end-of-year files in the old 2007 Software for the next 5 years or so, and guess what? I can't figure out how to manually change the tax on our 2 paycheques per month. It doesn't seem to let me.

I'm over it. I can't wait for someone like Apple to add an MYOB thing to iWorks or iLife. Call it iBooks if you wish. They could have an international core double entry book-keeping system that then has national tax and accounts plans to download and add-on.

Or when is Open Source finally going to take over this genre and we get the software for free? The tax department could then issue some basic open source book-keeping software updates. It's not like replacing Photoshop with it's 60 million lines of code... it's just book-keeping! Makes me fairly cranky.

MYOB seems to be just too expensive for what I'm getting.

[TheTrish]

Originally Posted by eclipse

Some really good points from both sides it seems.

Or when is Open Source finally going to take over this genre and we get the software for free? The tax department could then issue some basic open source book-keeping software updates. It's not like replacing Photoshop with it's 60 million lines of code... it's just book-keeping! Makes me fairly cranky.

MYOB seems to be just too expensive for what I'm getting.

Not sure if this will help anyone but I now use MYOB but previously I used the free software from ATO, e-Record. It served my purpose for the first year of business but I outgrew it.

It is quite basic and easy to use but may not have the features you need.

[tildavirtual]

Sorry to disagree but it's not just bookkeeping. There's a reason why you need training and further personal development to be a bookkeeper. It's really important to have the right software and if your software isn't meeting your needs then it's time to change and try something else.

Originally Posted by eclipse

Some really good points from both sides it seems.

For me, I'm a bit jaded about them all. I only run a husband & wife graphic design firm and don't track any inventory.

I'm just over paying $450 a year or whatever for MYOB's tax tables! So I didn't subscribe again. I was planning to just send my accountant the end-of-year files in the old 2007 Software for the next 5 years or so, and guess what? I can't figure out how to manually change the tax on our 2 paycheques per month. It doesn't seem to let me.

I'm over it. I can't wait for someone like Apple to add an MYOB thing to iWorks or iLife. Call it iBooks if you wish. They could have an international core double entry book-keeping system that then has national tax and accounts plans to download and add-on.

Or when is Open Source finally going to take over this genre and we get the software for free? The tax department could then issue some basic open source book-keeping software updates. It's not like replacing Photoshop with it's 60 million lines of code... it's just book-keeping! Makes me fairly cranky.

MYOB seems to be just too expensive for what I'm getting.

[MYOB]

Originally Posted by eclipse

Some really good points from both sides it seems.

For me, I'm a bit jaded about them all. I only run a husband & wife graphic design firm and don't track any inventory.

I'm just over paying $450 a year or whatever for MYOB's tax tables! So I didn't subscribe again. I was planning to just send my accountant the end-of-year files in the old 2007 Software for the next 5 years or so, and guess what? I can't figure out how to manually change the tax on our 2 paycheques per month. It doesn't seem to let me.

I'm over it. I can't wait for someone like Apple to add an MYOB thing to iWorks or iLife. Call it iBooks if you wish. They could have an international core double entry book-keeping system that then has national tax and accounts plans to download and add-on.

Or when is Open Source finally going to take over this genre and we get the software for free? The tax department could then issue some basic open source book-keeping software updates. It's not like replacing Photoshop with it's 60 million lines of code... it's just book-keeping! Makes me fairly cranky.

MYOB seems to be just too expensive for what I'm getting.

Hi Eclipse,

It sounds like you are using the wrong MYOB software - you probably should be using simply MYOB Accounting.

This is however based on the very limited information that you have left on your post.

If there is only two of you I would not bother with the tax tables and would manually calculate it from the ATO PAYG Withholding calculator (that you can download for free)

I would continue to use the software that you have - you can still use all the other timesaving features, bank recs, importing bank statements, exporting payments, BAS Link, company data auditor etc.

I have clients like you who have not upgraded payroll for the last 5 years, never pay MYOB any more money, and still get many of the great features that come with the software.

If you are not using it (but I think you should) de-register it and sell it on ebay!

[matrixtransform]

Originally Posted by divapromotions

Ok, for those who have used either of those systems, which one do you prefer for your business and why?

I have found MYOB to be the most painful, archaic and counter-intuitive piece of junk I have ever encountered....plain and simple...I used it 10 years go and it really hasn't changed one little bit since then. The same old frustrations...complete lack of help either from the help files or from what they like to believe is ...'support'. Still cannot even find the serial number from the 'About" menu like you would in NORMAL software....noooo....have to ring 'support' just to find the serial number....and to cap it all off, the first question they ask when you do is...yep, you guessed it...."what is the serial number?"

If you wanna use MYOB then get used to:
* not being able to adjust column widths in any table views.
* not having enough characters to describe your inventory.
* not being able adjust the columns to read the descriptions anyway
* Jobs and time billing having no connection to anything else in the system
* adding items to Item invoices from a list that isnt alphabetically sorted or filtered.
*...not being able to change or alter any settings like column widths, sort order etc
*inventory items that appear on invoices at weird prices....and not being able to change it. (makes no sense)
*items from inventory that dont appear on Supplier Orders because they persist in using the other code, on the other tab, that you forgot to order....but you didnt know existed....
*oh yeah...get used to lots and lots of double entry(is this why they call it double entry accounting?)

....what a piece of crap....I want my money back.

...here's a clue: You CANNOT sort inventory by supplier, category or any other method in MYOB...and so after 3 hours of frustration at trying to add 3 items to the inventory list and create an order I decided to prefix every inventory item with a supplier code....thats when I discovered that MYOB will NOT order a list.

I decided to try reinstalling the Quickbooks demo and trying to export all my MYOB entries. Anyway, I export the inventory from MYOB into Quickbooks and IMMEDIATELY when I try to create an order in QB, I am presented with a sorted and alphabetized list....I was sold there and then.

People, do not listen to the book-keepers....if you need inventory or job or time keeping then AVOID MYOB like the plague....it is useless. You're better off with the free cashbook from the ATO.

I have purchased a CRM software from the US that interfaces to QB....and it is inexpensive and robust and thorough....whereas every package that interfaced with MYOB was painful and expensive and lacking in features. Couldnt test any interface with MYOB....of course you'd have to pay for that first.

I despise MYOB with a rare passion and I will be junking it at the end of this financial year and paying for Quickbooks.

Oh...I do understand this accounting process....it isnt just a lack of "training"....myob is really, truly just rubbish.....do yourself a favour. Buy QB and persevere, you'll be much happier in the long run.

[beanydc]

It is a myth that a bookkeeping package will save you accounting fees. You need the package, you need the training, you need the understanding of deductibility, you need the time to feed and water it each and every week.
When it comes to tax time, we need to check what the user has done - this is what can add hours and hours to the job. Different packages have different degrees of idiotproofness. The worst excesses are in those integrated inventory/accounting packages, and MYOB is hands down one of the worst to successfully navigate and get right - even so called bookkeepers can have issues with it. And everytime I think I have a handle on the weirdities that users can perpetuate, I find a new one.

So, before you buy software, check with your accountant - what do they recommend. It should be a discussion about what you need, what you want, and what you can make do with. SOHO people need to work very hard to convince me that computerised inventory is a cost efficient solution.

Originally Posted by matrixtransform

I despise MYOB with a rare passion and I will be junking it at the end of this financial year and paying for Quickbooks.

Oh...I do understand this accounting process....it isnt just a lack of "training"....myob is really, truly just rubbish.....do yourself a favour. Buy QB and persevere, you'll be much happier in the long run.