MYOB Accounting review

MYOB Accounting functions like the other business accounting packages here.

You input your basic company details during a mercifully coherent initial setup wizard. The accounts templates offered are limited: agriculture, service, retail and ‘other’. Fortunately, the standard set of accounts is comprehensive (around 25 accounts with roughly 80 sub- accounts) and can be customised.

The home screen consists of five icons for each of the program’s main command centres: Accounts, Banking, Sales, Purchases, Stock Control and Card File. ‘Cards’ are what the program calls customer and supplier records. It’s a good idea to create these before you enter any transactions. This will allow transactions to be assigned to the correct customer or supplier account. The other command centres provide access to the tools you need to manage specific financial transactions and relationships. In the Sales command centre, for example, you can enter quotes, convert these into invoices, and receive payments and so on. Anyone familiar with Sage or QuickBooks should feel instantly at home.

If you want to bypass the flowchart, you can enter transactions directly into an account. As with the other business programs, you enter each transaction only once, and Accounting makes the necessary changes to the Chart of Accounts for you.

As you’d expect of a business accounting program, MYOB Accounting allows you to assign VAT codes to supplier cards and particular products. It has a list of pre-created codes (although this didn’t include the current 15 per cent rate), but you can create an unlimited number of custom VAT codes. The software lets you track VAT so you know how much to pay and reclaim. Reconciling your accounts is simple and can be done manually or by downloading and importing your bank account statement.

MYOB Accounting comes with a massive 177 pre-created reports. The detail available from these is impressive and you can quickly find out all about your company’s financial health.

MYOB Accounting isn’t the prettiest program but it’s well organised and, with the exception of a payroll feature, has everything you need to run your small business. This package will be discontinued at the end of 2010, when customers will be offered an upgrade to Mamut’s Office range.