Speech given at “CIMA/ ACCA Full Day CPD” 2nd December 2006
Good Morning,
My name is Heather Smith I run a small business called ANISE Consulting, and I am here today to talk about MYOB software.
Topics to be covered : –
An overview of MYOB software in Australia, and the range of products available.
An general outline of how to use the latest release MYOB Accounting Plus v16.
Company Data Auditor – a high level integrity check of the data contained in your MYOB Company File.
BASLink a timesaving feature to assist in the preparation of BAS returns
The common mistakes I see Accountant make when using MYOB software.
The common mistakes I see businesses make when using MYOB software.
If time permits there will be a Question & Answer session at the end of this talk, and Heather will be available throughout the day to answer any questions you may have about MYOB software.
An overview of MYOB software in Australia, and the range of products available.
MYOB Australia was founded in 1991 by Craig Winkler in Australia.
The acronym MYOB stands for Mind Your Own Business.
MYOB Australia provides a wide range of accounting software suitable for start-ups through to medium sized businesses.
Business Basics
MYOB Accounting
MYOB Accounting Plus
Premier
Enterprise
MYOB Retail Manager
Typically when someone start a business, they may initially record transactions in Microsoft Excel, and as their business grows, they may move to MYOB Basics which retails for $149 and as the business grows in complexity, there are a full range of MYOB products available that your MYOB data file can upgrade to.
So I have given you a thumb nail sketch about MYOB products, I would like to ask you a few questions.
How many people here today use a MYOB product on a regular basis?
How many people used MYOB at sometime in their career, and have a general understanding of it?
How many people have NEVER used MYOB?
Thanks for answering those questions.
Why am I here talking about MYOB software?
I am an MYOB Certified Consultant. To achieve this accreditation, I had to undertake annual exams, and continually upskilling myself on MYOB software. I attend seminars (in fact I attended one last night), read updates, monitor forums, and currently have around 100 clients all using MYOB. In my work life, I live and breather MYOB software. I have been using it since 2000, and I probably only know about 65% of what the product is capable of. It is a very powerful product, and if set-up correctly can streamline your administrative functions, and assist your business in complying with PAYG withholding commitments, producing BAS statements, your end of year payment summaries and management information. But it is important to understand that it is basically a General Ledger package. If you business has unusual complexities, you may need to look into add-on solutions, to meet your particular unique needs.
~ An general outline of how to use the latest release MYOB Accounting Plus v16.
~ Company Data Auditor – a high level integrity check of the data contained in your MYOB Company File.
~ BASLink a timesaving feature to assist in the preparation of BAS returns
MYOB Certified Consultant
Now I have told you that I am an MYOB Certified Consultant, there are 600 consultants across Australia. We are listed on the MYOB website at www.myob.com.au. What do I do? I help people set-up their software, I provide training, I come in and do fix-ups, and I help find solutions, to meet the businesses reporting needs.
Section251L of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 1936)
Does anyone know the relevance of this piece of legislation?
If you look up this piece of legislation, you will see that ACCA and CIMA are both recognised as professional accounting bodies in Australia, and as such can charge for BAS services. You can complete a BAS statement and charge your client for it. This is a great accreditation and recognition for our bodies here in Australia.
There has been a lot of discussion of the accreditation of bookkeepers in the media over the last year. I will let you know now there are a lot of people, charging for producing BAS statements, and they are not qualified under this legislation. In some cases they will say that they are doing it under the guidance of a qualified accountant, and thus can charge for it. Fortunately for my business there are a lot of businesses using bookkeepers with no training or qualifications, and who are not checking anything they do with an accountant, and for what ever reason, I will get called in and am paid to fix up their mistakes.
One of my first clients was an importer/exporter, whose friend was doing their books for them, on the cheap. Their friend found a full-time job and the wife took over the work, as is frequently the case in small businesses, and muddled through. I was called in to assist them with their next BAS. I came in sat down, looked through a few things. Within the first hour a queried the input of one of the import invoices. Within 48 hours, several phone calls to customs and the ATO, we established the business had several thousand dollars in unclaimed GST credits over the last 2 years.
I don’t think there is such a thing as a good cheap bookkeeper. You should be looking to pay a bookkeeper at least $65 an hour, you should check they are qualified, and of course you should get references. The introduction of GST has brought with it a lot of complications, and bookkeeping is more challenging than a lot of people give it credit for. I should point out that an MYOB Certified Consultant accreditation does not a not mean you are qualified to operate as a bookkeeper.
MYOB advertises itself as a very easy piece of software to use, and most of the time it is straight forward. So why am I talking to you about mistakes?
If you know what to avoid, and what to look out for, you will feel empowered and be confident with the integrity of your data, and you won’t need to call out me or another MYOB Certified Consultant.
Though saying that I strongly recommend that if you have MYOB, or you purchase it, you get an MYOB Consultant to assist you with the set-up, to check the first BAS, and then to check what you are doing intermittently.
Common Mistakes Businesses make when using MYOB.
DATES for MYOB to produce useful and correct information, you need to enter correct dates. If you paid the invoice last week, but are processing it now, you need to use last weeks date, when you enter the transaction.
IMPORT/EXPORT invoices from custom agents are complicated but there are detailed notes on the MYOB website www.myob.com.au/supportnotes on how to enter them. These notes are very easy to follow.
CHART OF ACCOUNTS
–Changing the chart of accounts
–Creating new and unnecessary accounts
-Not setting up default GST codes
LOCKED PERIODS – Once BAS/IAS has been posted, the period it reflects should be locked down and not changed.
BANK RECONCILIATIONS should be performed on all accounts that you receive statements for, and once the bank reconciliation has been completed, the statement should be printed off. Do not force a bank reconciliation with a miscellaneous entry.
LINKED ACCOUNTS – Accounting software works quickly and efficiently through the use of linked accounts which allows lots of transactions or journal entries to happen behind the scenes. They need to be set-up correctly on day one, and then they should be left alone.
BACK-UP It is important to have a regular system for backing up your data file, and keeping a copy of site.
I went to a seminar last week and Mark Lillicrap a solicitor with O’Reilly Lillicrap was talking about what he thought the difference between his successful clients and his not so successful clients.
His successful clients were prepared to take good advice.
I shall repeat that.
His successful clients were prepared to take good advice.
I personally find that when I am dealing with my highly educated professional clients, they pay, but they don’t want to hear my advice. They want the data file set up in a shall we say “unique” fashion.
This is a quote from Ross Vile of Pitcher Partners who was also speakiung at the seminar “It will cost about $1000 to review accounts and provide financial statements of a well set up and maintained MYOB data file. A unique or inadequate MYOB data file can cost any where up to $5000 to review.
As an accountant or business advisor it is in your interest to ensure your business or your clients business MYOB data file is set up properly and the users are using it in an efficient and effective manner.
So you have listened to my preamble, before I go on to the topic “Common mistakes that Accountants make when using MYOB”
Common Mistakes Accountants make when using MYOB.
SET-UP It is important to get any MYOB data file set up properly by someone who knows what they are doing, a small investment for a large return.
CASHBOOK Accountants frequently treat MYOB like a simple cashbook. MYOB software is powerful General Ledger Accounting software, use it as such.
JOURNAL ENTRIES Posting journal entries directly to control accounts without reflecting the effect on subsidiary ledgers. In order for this to work efficiently journal entries should never be posted to control accounts : – Trade Debtors, Trade Creditors, Inventory, GST Collected or GST Paid.
LIMIT THE USE OF GENERAL JOURNAL ENTRIES. MYOB has lots of features, and can produce useful management reports, but if you post things as journals, you are going to avoid this. In a typical business, I would expect only to see a couple of journal entries at the end of the year – EOY adjustments and Recording Annual Depreciation.
COMMUNICATION Lack of communication between the accountant and the bookkeeper. It is important to keep open channels of communication with the bookkeeper. Encourage them to ask questions and clarify situations. Provide them with the information that they need to complete their job.
OPENING BALANCES – When a file is set up, it requires opening balances, and is some cases, such as the valuing of Assets, the bookkeeper will rely on you giving them the figure. If the file does not have correct opening balances, it is likely that you are going to end up with a figure in historical balancing. We always want historical balancing to be zero. If there is indeed a figure there it suggests that somewhere along the process, someone did not know how to treat something and lumped it in historical balancing. Once it is there, it is very difficult to remove.
WORK CHOICES – Work Choices have changed the set-up for a lot of business, but I am still coming across payrolls that are not reflecting these changes. I am not in a position to advise business on their individual situation but in brief sick days should now be called personal leave, and the number of days accruing should be 10 days, not 8 day. The standard work week, should also be reduced from 40 hours to 38 hours. www.workchoices.gov.au They came into effect at the end of March 2006.
Questions & Answers