AccountEdge 2007 – Business Management and Automated Accounting
Reviewed by Robert Pritchett
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MYOB US 300 Roundhill Drive, Suite #2 Rockaway, NJ 07866 800-322-MYOB (6962) 1-973-586-0075 sales@getmyob.com Released: November 28, 2006 Universal Binary $299 USD, Upgrade $159 USD, Additional licenses, $149 USD. Multi-user, $249 USD. Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later; Mac OS X 10.4 or later for syncing with Address Book; 40 MB Hard drive space, 35 MB of space per company file; Internet access; QuickTime 5.0 or later. Features: http://www.myob-us.com/products/2006_accountedge/new_features.htm Training Guides: http://www.myob-us.com/moreproducts/training_manuals.htm Services: http://www.myob-us.com/business_services/ Support: http://www.myob-us.com/service/ Payroll: http://www.myob-us.com/service/payroll/ Compare to QuickBooks: http://www.myob-us.com/products/dare_compare_ae.htm
Strengths: Synching. Internet business services. Conversion programs. Great documentation. Good training programs.
Weaknesses: Apparently US-centric. If you want to use the Internet services, it will cost you. Past history of sub-optimal customer support (see Other). Multi-user functionality may require tweaking.
Other: Annual fee-based support. Online validation? Still somewhat buggy?
Other Reviews: http://www.macworld.com/2006/03/reviews/accounting/index.php |
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What They Say
“MYOB AccountEdge is small business accounting and management software for Mac which automates, organizes, and processes all your business tasks and financial information – so you can focus on your business.
Create and track sales and purchases, handle all your banking, process payroll, inventory and jobs, track and bill time, actively manage your customers and access over 200 financial reports to start and maintain a well-organized, successful small business.
AccountEdge for Mac integrates fully with MYOB Business Services, allowing your small business to accept credit cards from your MYOB invoice, offer direct deposit to your employees, pay your vendors electronically, print certified payroll forms, or elect to eFile, and/or sign up for full-service payroll.
Is it time to share the work? For optimal efficiency over a Mac OS X network, choose AccountEdge Network Edition. The Network Edition has all the features and functionality of AccountEdge, and takes advantage of some key Mac OS X technologies which make it easy and efficient for multiple computers to connect to your company file across a network. AccountEdge Network Edition is OS X compatible only (minimum 10.2.8).”
Card Synching
Reconciliation Management
Purchase Registration
Read the Brochures
¨ Accounting 101 – about 14 pages, succinct and to-the-point. “You don’t need to be an accountant to do this.”
¨ Getting Started Guide – 38 pages of getting up-to-speed.
¨ Support and Services Guide – another 14-pager covering additional services to make you feel professional.
¨ Certified Consultant Directory – Need additional training or business setup? Perhaps there is an MYOB certified CPA near you.
¨ Order MYOB-friendly stationary – http://www.myobchecksandforms.com
Watch the Videos
Synchronizing - http://www.myob-us.com/products/movies/ae/ShowMe/card_sync_mac.htm
Creating a PO - http://www.myob-us.com/products/movies/ae/ShowMe/sales_to_purchase.htm
What I Say
I just came from
an Insurance Management application firm that has an Accounting module intended
for non-Mac environments. It has payroll, etc. AccountEdge 2007 touches all the
bases and from my point of view, does a better job overall. Why? Probably
because it uses a relational database intelligently. I was told MYOB uses Ctrieve.
Would you like to get going in business without a lot of hassle on the “finance” side of things? MYOB made it easy. Almost too easy! Have you been hobbling along using QuickBooks to run a business? Is MyBooks too much to handle? Why not migrate from QuickBooks to AccountEdge 2007? Do you want to “keep score” and have fun in business? Do you have a handle on your Known Financial Position? Have you listened to the Bare Bones Biz podcasts? http://www.barebonesbiz.com/teleconference_series.html
http://web.mac.com/jonnyg24/iWeb/Site/Podcast/04BE7D4B-0F41-49CC-B515-A4F2123F3656.html
OfficeLink
And I probably can assume that if you are in business, you no doubt are running MS Office. MYOB has added a few OfficeLink templates for MS Word, such as credit applications, a couple of collection notices, “Special Offer” letters, Seven Avery mailing and shipping labels, a Rolodex Avery label, a #10 envelope template and a file folder label.
Accounting
Do you find
budgeting to be a challenge? The Accounts Command Center is designed to make
that less painful by putting balance sheets in one window and profit and loss
accounts in another. Multi-year planning can occur and there is a transaction
history that can span seven years.
There is the ability to switch between either cash-based or accrual-method reports. Accounts can be combined. There is also a Bank Register and a Company Data Auditor.
Sales and Purchases
This is how you
“keep score” by using the sales process for entering quotes, orders and
invoices. There is even a handy one-button “Create PO” button.
There is also the
Purchases Command Center for processing quotes, orders and bills that can also
manage 1099 forms.
If customers would like to go “paperless” there is a Batch Email function for delivering invoices and statements or if they still prefer, they can get a regular paper-based copy sent to them, via regular mail.
Forms
AccountEdge 2007 does fill in the fields on forms such as invoices and purchase orders and includes item price level, billing rate, credit terms, income account, shipping method, sales tax
percentage, comments, early payment, volume discount or late penalty and the payment method.
Instead of ordering from the MYOB website for business stationary and you would rather use your own logos, etc., there is a Creative Forms Developer that can include such things as watermarks, background images logos and borders.
Contact
Management
Remember that this app is also touted as a business management tool so it has a contact management module as part of the Card File Command Center. Card designations can contain more than the usual information you perhaps have seen in other contact manger apps. It can include five ship-to addresses with each having three phone numbers, Email address, Web address, and FAX number. And these lists are customizable and searchable.
Inventory
I can remember recently hearing someone from the former software firm I worked for, that offering backorder functionality was “too difficult to implement”. He wasn’t using AccountEdge 2007.
The Inventory modules can provide up to 30 different prices for items, follow build from scratch to finished product, and can even provide visual queues per item with digitized photos. And it automates the backorder process!
To make life even easier using the Inventory Command Center, there is an import inventory journal adjustment to handle counts, opening balances, quantities, transfers between locations and warehouses and auto building adjustments.
What They Say About Inventory
The Items Register creates a backward path showing exactly how current inventory quantities and values originate, and provides running balances for each. This information is invaluable to those businesses dependent on item sales. AccountEdge tracks cash and non-cash inventory movement, letting the user view the details of the transaction. It recaps and reconciles inventory value as of past dates, allows editing and modifying of inventory transfers and adjustments, and includes an Item History report and an Inventory Reconciliation Report.
Receive Inventory
When a shipment of inventory arrives, not all of the goods necessarily come in at once.
AccountEdge is ready for this inevitability with the new Receive Inventory function.
AccountEdge lets the user place an order, receive inventory against the order, track what inventory is still outstanding to be received and create a bill for the outstanding goods, all while maintaining a connection with the original purchase order.
AccountEdge also allows a negative item count so that items not yet received can still be sold. Items can also be received into inventory before the user knows the item costs.
To create purchase orders faster and more accurately, AccountEdge allows the option to use a standard cost for items rather than the last purchase price to ensure an order is being placed at the correct cost.
Inventory Locations
Whether inventory items are organized by bin, on shelves, or in different warehouses,
AccountEdge can keep track of their location. There’s no need to create different item codes for each warehouse, and no need to fret over maintaining enough stock; AccountEdge will tell the user how many of each item is in what location. Selling those items from different warehouses or locations is as simple as selecting the origin location on the invoice.
Auto-Build
AccountEdge makes it easy to take one or more inventory items and combine them to make a finished item with the Auto-Build feature.
With Auto-Build, you can have AccountEdge not only combine items to make a finished item, but you can be alerted when the inventory on any part of the whole begins to run low by setting a minimum level. When the inventory level hits the preset minimum, a pop-up warning alerts the user that whatever items have fallen to the minimum need to be replenished.
Payroll
Others work for
you because they need to feed themselves and their families. You mess with
their paychecks and revolutions take place.
Any accounting package an business management apps worth its salt has a payroll process and AccountEdge 2007 has improved on its legacy with two ways to pay for services; DIY (Do It Yourself) and Full Service Payroll. DIY can either run the entire payroll or do individual checks as well as W-2 and W-3 forms, accrue vacation and sick time, do Direct Deposit, use a Payroll Forms service and tax updates. Full Service Payroll is a part of the Business Services.
If an existing HR service is used, those files can be imported.
There is a payroll preview function either on-screen or in print form.
The Payroll module can set up automatic income, deductions, accruals, employer expense tracking, hourly, salary or commission and other information such as taxes, retirement funds, union fees and can even generate electronic timesheets.
Professional Time Billing
For those who bill
by the minute, there is a Time Billing component that is flexible for hourly,
non-hourly, chargeable and non-chargeable per
activity, client, employee or activity rate with single or multiple time slips and can be tied to an “Include in Employee’s Pay” checkbox. Billable time can be by units of time or measurement. Invoicing can be set up on a time and material basis and activities can be either viewed in detail or as a diary. Jobs can be tracked using the Job Transactions report and there is an Allocation Memo function that can be tied to transactions.
There is also a Recurring Transactions List for handling scheduled bills, invoices, depreciation entries, etc.
Online Transactions
We had an Internet ACH account with a local bank for a while. The bank manager did not know about ACH and we learned together. It cost me quite a bit to get the dongle to use for access and it took over 2 months to get it up and running. It took much less time to take it down – and you can see my discussion of that experience in the “Credit Checks and Stargates” elsewhere in this issue of macCompanion.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that AccountEdge 2007 has ACH capability as one of the MYOB Business Services and is known as Merchant Account Services!
What is ACH? Think online Automated Clearing House transactions spearheaded via NACHA - http://www.nacha.org/ for doing electronic payments. MYOB has bought into this service and jumped in with both feet.
Again, Back to What They Say
“Fully integrated with MYOB AccountEdge, MYOB Business Services save time and money, increase the accuracy of transactions, assist in following government regulations, strengthen vendor and employee relationships, and make it easier to keep control of daily business operations. They include MYOB Merchant Account Service, MYOB Direct Deposit, MYOB Vendor Payments, MYOB Payroll Forms Service, and MYOB Full Service Payroll.
MYOB Merchant Account Service
Fully integrated and powered by ACH, the cost-competitive MYOB Merchant Account Service makes it easy to process credit card sales directly from the Receive Money and Receive Payments windows, as well as from an MYOB Invoice. AccountEdge will authorize customer credit cards, track authorization history and record the transaction, with no need to re-enter data.
Customers can directly link to the Payments Gateway from any Internet access point. By entering their User ID and password, the user can check if a payment went through, as well as run reports to see which transactions were sent for a specific day, a handy tool to prevent double-billing an account.
The Payments Gateway also allows for remote credit card processing, a boon for those who work on-site or sell products at trade shows. Phone authorization is also supported with Merchant Accounts, so if a customer’s card is declined or there are problems with a businesses’ Internet connection, a phone call to the credit card company will provide an authorization number, which can then be manually entered into AccountEdge. Declined transactions can also be retried, deleted, or edited before recording.
MYOB Direct Deposit!
Employees appreciate the choice of having their paychecks deposited directly into their bank accounts, while employers will value the time and effort saved by processing direct deposit transactions directly from AccountEdge.
MYOB Direct Deposit is fully integrated with AccountEdge, and all direct deposit transactions are processed through the software and automatically tracked and allocated. After running payroll, a click of the “I Pay this Employee Electronically” button will call up a list of all electronically paid employees. Check off the employees you wish to pay, and an “Approved” window will confirm transactions.
MYOB Direct Deposit is competitively priced, and payroll no longer needs to be outsourced just to gain the benefit of direct deposit. Direct deposit also eliminates employees’ hassle of waiting in line at the bank to deposit a paycheck, and also offers them immediate availability of their funds on the date of pay.
MYOB Vendor Payments
Sure to build better relationships with vendors, MYOB Vendor Payments provides electronic payments to vendors and direct commission payments to a small business owner’s sales force, and are automatically included with MYOB Direct Deposit enrollment. The efficiency of paying vendors electronically can help a small business to negotiate better credit terms and discounts, not to mention save time and money spent on writing and mailing checks – just pay the vendor electronically, directly from an MYOB purchase order.”
Is this service free? No. Is it worth it? Put an instant “professional” look to your business and your relationships with employees, banks and vendors and what a great way to check credit cards and for customers to do the same with the Payments Gateway. How much is that worth to you?
http://www.myob-us.com/business_services/
Payroll Forms Service - $79 Single, $149 Multi-company and $1.49 per employee for
W-2 E-filing. Credit Card Processing – Setup, $99 USD, Monthly fee, $14.95 USD,
Transaction fee, .25 cents. Direct Deposit – Setup fee , $79 USD, Application fee, $50
USD, Transaction fee, .99 cents, Monthly Access fee $14.95 USD, Rejected Item Rate, $2.50. Vendor Payments – same as Direct Deposit.
Full Service Payroll - https://myob.surepayroll.com/quote/price_quote.asp
A large part of
the Financial Headache is in creating reports so that business regulations at
the city, county, state and federal levels are addressed. There are around 200
reports that can be created via the Command Center and Index to Reports. These can either go to MS Excel or Emailed as PDFs.
And how can we
know our financial data is correct? MYOB has a tool called the Company Data
Auditor. It can be used to troubleshoot
problem areas and imbalances and there also is an Audit Trail Tracker. Transactions can be turned off and there are a
number of other security features designed for your-eyes-only.
The Network version is designed for an Apple network using Bonjour, but the machines need to be using Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. They recommend Mac OS X 10.4 or later so that the Address Book synching can be utilized.
One service MYOB provides to help migrate to the Mac is that they provide a free copy of either AccountEdge or Premier Accounting for Windows, if an accountant uses that platform to generate end-of-period or end-of-year reporting activities. MYOB software is cross-platform compatible.
I personally think MYOB can safely say that they indeed today have the “Premium” small business management and accounting package for Mac-based businesses.
Let the app do the busy work, so you can go do what you like to do best – have fun making money and doing business!
Dig Deeper – Other Apps and Comments
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