Is MYOB Essentials finally essential?

In this article, Renae Peterson of bookkeeping firm 2 Peas Pty Ltd shares her experience working with the new MYOB Essentials.

In almost seven years working for 2 Peas Pty Ltd, Renae has done everything from office management to bookkeeping, to internal staff training and best practice bookkeeping education.

MYOB’s Bookkeeper of the year in 2018, and an active MYOB Certified Consultant, Renae’s combination of experience and expertise have made her one of the most prominent and authoritative voices within MYOB’s beta programs.

“I love doing the testing, the quality assurance and diving in and seeing what is or isn’t working”

But despite the close relationship she enjoys with MYOB, there is one thing Renae is unashamedly critical of…. The original MYOB Essentials.

Renae’s complaints may sound familiar:

“My issue with old Essentials started with it not being browser based and having to be in front of my computer to do payroll. Then the payroll itself was clunky, the reports weren’t customisable, there were limited options to filter reports, the dashboards weren’t particularly useful… using it just wasn’t a particularly great experience.”

Fortunately for Renae, and us, her position on our beta and early adopter programs gave her the perfect outlet for her concerns:

“I am involved with a lot of MYOB betas and actually have input into how the products are going to be designed.

“I’m encouraged to give both positive and sometimes negative feedback so things can continually improve.”

And that’s exactly what’s happened with the new MYOB Essentials.

Showcased for the first time earlier this year at INCITE, this isn’t an update to the previous product, it’s a complete reimagining of how business software should work. It’s been rebuilt from the ground up, and its available now.

So, what does Renae make of the new, browser based, work anytime, anywhere from any internet-connected device MYOB Essentials?

“It’s awesome, not having to deal with the desktop is a real highlight. I can just go onto the browser and do things on my phone like paying my husband’s staff. I can be on the road or in a café and not stress about the time to meet the pay run.”

MYOB Essentials going browser based isn’t the only highlight though.

Reporting has been completely rebuilt to accommodate a huge amount of customisation. Changing column headers, re-ordering columns, removing unnecessary columns, the introduction of additional filters – you now have the ability to tailor reports to your exact preferences. And once you have, save and share those with all the other users in the business, or apply them across multiple businesses.

“The reporting is amazing, a real standout piece of work. The fact that you can do a lot of the filtering all in the one screen, it’s so much better,” said Renae. “You can have favourite reports, and the report pack builder – I can do BAS and have the same set of reports and apply it across all clients.

“This makes reporting much more consistent and efficient.”

A lot of development work also went in to adding value to the dashboard view to ensure it provides clear, easy to understand insights that help users make better business decisions… insights that are only available to the users that you choose.

“I like the new dashboard; the design is very good. I’ve seen a lot of dashboards in my time and usually skip past them, but this one is really useable.

“There are a lot of insights on there that the others don’t have, like bank feeds and what you need to allocate. PDF styling and the way you can brand it your own way is awesome. I think the reports are better than what’s available in AccountRight Live”

While that’s all great to hear, what about Renae’s other major complaint with old Essentials: payroll? Well, that’s been completely reimagined, too, to simplify the workflow.

Clients can now manage their employees and have access easy to use time management, integrated Super and flexible pay entitlements.

“The payroll is now as good as AccountRight Live,” said Renae.

“I can put various payroll categories in and pay items which is much more flexible than the old MYOB Essentials. It just flows nicely. That makes it faster too.

“I’ve been doing pay runs for the last four weeks and haven’t had any problems. The flow is really good.”

And for Renae, the flexibility and mobility are two huge wins.

“For me the biggest benefit is being able to do it on my phone. I had a client the other day who wanted to move to Xero — I said, ‘Just wait, there’s a browser option coming,’ and that deterred them from switching.

Read: MYOB vs Xero: More than just beautiful business. Compare for yourself.

“I would say you can move to the new product now – the payroll is now up to scratch. Comparing to AccountRight Live, it’s twice as fast. That’s a big time saving.”

Not content with huge advancements in payroll and reporting, the team at MYOB have further enhanced the MYOB Essentials experience with the addition of the free MYOB Capture app.

The app captures transaction data at the source by scanning and reading relevant information from your client’s receipts that can be sent direct to your In Tray.

Far from just a simple image capture though, the app uses advanced machine-learning to suggest matches between your transactions and bank feeds, then populates the bill automatically, drastically reducing your admin.

Receipts are digitally and securely stored, keeping them organised and free from ink fade.

Pushed to name a single new feature that she couldn’t live without, Renae’s praise for the MYOB Capture app couldn’t be higher.

“My husband uses it. He’s a tradie and leaves receipts all over the place. Now, he can be in the car and I get a snapshot from him.

“If the picture isn’t perfect, I can crop it, send it straight to the In tray and allocate it – it’s definitely more efficient. Now we don’t have to chase people, we can see things clearly on the screen from the source document – don’t have to chase people up to see if they are items with GST, particularly for the hospitality industry as they deal with GST free items as well as GST items.

“Now you don’t need to rely on the client, as you have the source.”

But it’s not just Renae that benefits.

“From a client’s perspective, they are going to be a lot more paperless, which they want to be, and it’s a lot easier – they used to scan documents.

“Imagine being a business owner and coming home and having to scan your receipts.”

A huge amount of work has gone into developing the new MYOB Essentials rebuilding it from the ground up through direct consultation with experienced MYOB clients like Renae.

If you think you know MYOB Essentials, it’s time to think again. This browser-based incarnation with improved reporting and payroll differs from its predecessor in virtually all but name – but don’t take our word for it.

“I would encourage anyone to take another look at MYOB Essentials,” said Renae. “The software is robust, you can do a lot of things in product without the need for add-ons, something that MYOB does very well.

“The new MYOB Essentials is a huge leap forward.”

Powerful new features, consistent workflows, extensive reporting and more. The new MYOB Essentials is simply powerful business management software. Find out more here.