Should I Use MYOB Or Xero To Keep My Books?
As usual the answer depends on your circumstances.
“I am just starting a small business”:
Xero is perfect to get you going and to keep your accounting records.
It has a low monthly fee that includes bank feeds for most bank accounts and credit cards. If you are new to record keeping it is easy to use and setup. It takes away the tedious work of entering bank statements by using bank feeds to download your entries. By setting up rules, it will recognize repeating transactions to make record keeping almost “fun”.
As your business grows you will be able to pay employees and create invoices to email to customers.
“I have an existing business and software”:
If you are happy with your current software then there is no need to change, as most of the programs have an online version that will get you the benefits of direct bank fees and be able to back up into the cloud/ offsite.
MYOB online versions are improving after early problems with their software, so it would be worth waiting to see if the improvements make it as easy to use as Xero.
“I use MYOB for a couple of business entities?”:
With both MYOB Live and Xero you will need to pay a subscription for each entity that you setup. This can include your business, your own personal records, a super fund etc.
The advantage of MYOB in the past, is that you could buy the one program and use that for a number of different entities. If you did not employ anybody you did not need to pay the annual subscription as you did not need the annual update in tax rates for employees.
To get the benefit of the bank feeds then you will need to start paying for the benefit for each entity. If you have a number of transactions, the cost will be greatly offset by the time saving of having to enter transactions from your bank statements.
Summary:
The industry is rapidly changing and as more people start using the online programs, the added benefits will keep increasing. Both programs have a number of add on programs that can help your business be more efficient and profitable. The time savings will help your accountant and tax agent be more efficient so that they can spend more time with you, building your business and to be more profitable.
