Frequently asked questions about MYOB

Yes, most definitely.

While you enter transactions on invoice, purchase and cheque screens which look just like their real world equivalents, MYOB is keeping a balanced set of double-entry books at all times.

Because MYOB is designed to be used by people who don't necessarily understand the world of double-entry accounting, we've ensured that the debits and credits take place automatically behind the scenes.

There is no need to 'post' transactions as this happens automatically when the user presses record.

All reports are therefore always completely up-to-date no matter where they were entered. This includes the General Ledger reports.

If at any time you wish to see the debits and credits, simply begin entering a new transaction, or call up a previously entered one, and before clicking OK or Record, select Recap Transaction from the Edit menu.

There is one particular transaction type which does require an understanding of debits and credits and is accordingly usually reserved for you to make special entries such as accruals and depreciation provisions.

It's called the General Journal and it's found in the General Ledger command centre.

Any time.

MYOB has been designed in such a way that it really doesn't matter when you start using it.

The opening balances can be entered at any time so you are not forced to enter them before you can start using any of MYOB's features, for example invoicing or stock control.

Obviously the more information you enter at the outset the more you'll get from MYOB.

We do recommend that you enter the opening bank account balances so that bank reconciliations can be done from the outset.

To print customer statements you'll need to at least enter opening debtor balances.

Yes you can.

For example, you only want to initially use MYOB to produce invoices and track receivables.

Complete the MYOB Startup Questionnaire, select the starter template you want and begin entering invoices.

You can start using the other sections of MYOB when you're ready.

No.

The developers of MYOB designed it to make it work as much the way you work as possible.

At year-end you can just keep entering transactions as if nothing had happened.

As long as they are dated correctly they will be allocated to the correct year.

MYOB allows you to print financial statements such as the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss for both the old and new year.

You can finalise your accounts when it suits you and then close the year.

With MYOB, closing a financial year  and starting a new one is easy.  See our guide to Starting a new financial year in MYOB.

MYOB is referred to as a horizontal package, meaning it is suited to many types of businesses and organisations.

It caters for service, trading, manufacturing, investment and non-profit businesses, and is used by a very wide cross section of business sizes and types.

In designing MYOB, the developers tried to provide the best of both worlds.

There is a preference setting which, with the appropriate password, allows the user to either amend existing transactions, or alternatively requires the entry of a reversing transaction.

It's up to you to choose which way you want it to work.

The beauty of the system is that it includes details of all amendments in its audit trail.

If you choose to configure the system so that reversals are required, MYOB helps prepare the reversals without an understanding of debits and credits.

Simply recall the original invoice or cheque to the screen and select Reverse from the Edit menu.

MYOB prepares the required reversing transaction and all the user does is confirm it.

Yes.

All of MYOB's reports can be saved to tab or comma delimited files.

These can be read by any spreadsheet or database program which accepts these formats.

You can also export underlying data such as customer and supplier names and addresses, inventory items and most transaction journals.

For more information on exporting MYOB data, please see Export MYOB reports.

MYOB has similar import facilities.

Yes.

There is a General Journal facility in the General Ledger.

All MYOB accounting software lets you customise reports.

The report customiser allows the user to take many of the standard reports and edit them by re-arranging, removing or adding fields and saving custom reports.

There are a number of options, or "Filters", available for most reports.

For example, filters let you select a range of accounts or customers.

If you need even more flexibility you can export all reports to a spreadsheet program and massage them further there.

Yes.

It has comprehensive password system giving you total flexibility.

You can specify exactly what functions or reports are available to any number of users at any number of different levels.

You can even lock access to an individual section.

See Creating a user account in MYOB

MYOB has developed the company file activation process to protect against potential piracy and provide you with the reassurance that you are using an authentic product that can be trusted with your valuable business data.

Company file activation is a simple process that authenticates you as the registered user of the software.

This process will also take you through registering your MYOB software, if it's not already registered.

You can choose to activate your company file either online or via the MYOB automated telephone process.

Single user and multi user simply means how many users can open an MYOB company file at one time to enter transactions.

For single user licences like with MYOB Accounting, only one person can open a company file and create invoices, receive payments from customers, etc. This is only suitable for smaller companies that have one person managing all the day to day transactions for the business.

With the multi user versions like MYOB Premier, multiple persons can access the company file. The advantage to this is that you can distribute the workload rather than depend on one person to ensure that your accounts are up to date.

For example, sales persons could create invoices for customers while whoever is in charge of accounts would be responsible for receiving payments from customers and matching those payments against invoices.

Besides being able to add additonal user licences, MYOB Premier has the following features not found in MYOB Accounting:

Multi-location inventory

track inventory in multiple locations

Multi-currency

If you do business with overseas customers or suppliers, you can track your receivables or payables in their currency.

Multiple pricing levels

You can have mulitple pricing levels, both for customer type (cash customers/agents/etc) as well as for quantities, for example, price for 1 to 10 units, 11 to 20 units, etc. Quantities are defined by you.

Time billing

If you are a professional firm and bill your customers based on time, this feature helps you track and invoice billable time