Aussies: Do you prefer Quickbooks or MYOB for BAS/GST?

e-Record has been discontinued by the ATO (, so i guess i'm in same situation as you now.


Both MYOB and QUICKBOOKS can autolodge.

MYOB Cons
- aweful to talk to
- they charge you for updates to the tax tables
- they charge you for a support plan then fail to deliver on it.

QUICKEN Cons
- support isn't much better than MYOB's but at least they acknowledge that issue you have is due to a bug and give you a eta on update. MYOB takes the MS approach to customer service they ignore you.

Quicken is currently running a promo page you can get free 6 months license key for Quickbooks 2010, Quickbooks Plus and Quickbooks Premier.



Roger

Found 2 online services to look at that might interest you

www.xero.com and www.saasu.com

Xero is based in NZ but has strong support for Australia. Craig Winkler, the founder and former CEO of MYOB is now a major investor in Xero

Saasu is based in Sydney and they're also getting high reviews (won last year at CeBIT)

Thanks for the links, Roger!

It sounds like you've had a bit to do with both MYOB and Quicken!

Heh, yep, I was loving e-Record - I only need basic accounting, and so I was enjoying using e-Records. It's a shame they've shut it down now.

cheers
Sam

I used to sell and support the full range of both quicken and myob products as well as sage.

Xero doesnt do payroll it seems they leaving that as a partner supported thing, inventory control is coming as a addon.

It does have a iphone app thou so you can check you dashboard, resend invoices etc.

It can autoload bank statements and handle reoccuring billings.

I don't need inv or payroll so xero will be what i use from now on.

Roger

I use MYOB and think it is great however I do my reporting monthly online.

Quentin

Thanks guys, that's definately something to think about!

I only need the basic accounting - mostly just for tracking tax and BAS stuff.

By the way, good to see you on here Quentin! I hope Thailand is treating you well!

cheers
Sam

I can't speak for specific things, and certainly not about australia, but I earlier thought about, and started, writing an accounting system. My goal was to have something with more flexibility and power than MCBA but be easier to use, etc... It was BETTER then! My last real job started supporting MCBA software, expanding on it, etc... I used to have it ALL, but I certainly didn't want to copy it, and didn't even use the DIBOL language for my version.

Anyway, accounting software cost a FORTUNE! The cheapest product cost like over $100 PER MODULE! So a BASIC real setup with employees would be like $600! AR, GL, AP, PR, IM, COP, SIX MODULES! OH, and MCBA software cost more like $3000($3 THOUSAND USD per module) My product was written in Pascal, and STILL text based, but I figured I could sell a complete package for $200-$300 EASY.

Anyway, I saw quickbooks, and figured WHY BOTHER!?!? It was decent, had several modules, was LOW PRICE, easy to use, and it just TOOK OFF! And I have been recommending it ever since. The OLD big names, like BPI and peachtree are essentially HAS BEENS!

So It would likely be a good product to use even in australia, especially since they have kind of opened up the API and even advertise people that use it.

Steve

I use a student version of MYOB the uni gave to me for BAS. It's so simple ANYONE can use it. I don't meet the requirements for GST reporting (revenue <50k) so I don't bother with anything GST related.

Thanks for the feedback, Scott!


Hi Steve! It's been awhile, good to see you around!

That's interesting that Quickbooks have an API - I don't actually have any reason for one right now, but it's nice to know there is one there for the future...

cheers
Sam