Tuesday, September 23, 2008

M.Y.O.B.

What do people use accounting software for, like MYOB? I've never used anything like it in my life, not even spreadsheets, and I've run my own business for 10 years. I just ship my receipts off to my accountant once a year, and that's that, pretty much. Don't people know if they can afford, er, whatever, without typing everything into windows?
I'm not stating any opinion, I'm just curious, there may be something I don't know here.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did not use it or anything like it. I found it took too much time away from my business doing something I was good at and required me to spend too much time doing something I wasn't good at.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

So did you find it was something that didn't need doing anyway, or did you get help?

Anonymous said...

Sending your accountant a box load of receipts can take your accountant a while to sort through. Time is money and for small companies every penny counts. With using accounting software, you can enter all the data in yourself and just get your accountant to check over it. Most accounting packages produce all the necessary reports for your accountant as well as producing a VAT return.

I wouldn't however recommend using MYOB. MYOB is not easy to use and not suitable for a small company, sole trader who wishes to concentrate on their business rather than reading a software manual.
I use KashFlow, an online company based in the UK. All accounting software seems to be going online now. Its very easy to use and my accountant is happy with me using it. They also offer a 60 day free trial and thier support is extreamly fast.

Anonymous said...

Bennyboy is right MYOB is too full featured for a small company. I use MYOB at my business and have since 1999, it is a fabulous program. It calculates all the payroll deductions and taxes, as well as generated P&L and Balance Sheets, which are necessary for a corporation at tax time. I pay my accountants much less than I would have to do if I didn't have this software.

Anonymous said...

ah, that was me up above eolake, I forgot my password, so published as anonymous. Beth

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

(Beth, you don't need to login, you can select the "name" radio button.)

Yes, it all makes sense.
In my situation, though, the accountant is costing less per hour than I earn. And he does not want to slit his throat rather than working with papers, like I do. (I sure hope.)

Monsieur Beep! said...

The tax system is the interface where socialism sucks capitalism.
This statement has been manifested in my mind during the last few days.

Put it as you will: Tax IS theft, of the serious kind, I might even add!
I'm not alone with my opinion.

And what is your opinion?
Imagine, Eo, you just keep getting a fixed sum of money every year, no matter how hard you work, even if you don't work at all.......aahh, I'm repeating missen, already blog=commented on this here a while ago.

OK, just give me one good reason for a tax rate of more than 10%(at most).
I think this can be rectified only by a revolution.

Anonymous said...

I've used MYOB. There aren't a lot of accounting programs out there for Macs. Once I had the hang of it, it worked like a dream. I printed off reports that I brought to my tax accountant and they were so thorough, that it took her no more than 10 minutes to do up my taxes. I now live with a tax accountant and I can tell you that receiving boxes of receipts drive him crazy! He suggests QuickBooks for his clients who are self-employed. Unfortunately, I don't believe that has been updated for Mac in years.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Maybe my boxes drive my accountant nuts, but he has lackeys for that kind of work, and he gets a nice chunk for it, so everybody's happy.
If I was on a tight budget, I might take a different view on it. But I would have to be hard pressed to do paperwork.

Alex said...

If your accountant is cheaper per hour than you are, then I'd use him.

Heck, I've been consulting for 2 years, and hate the distraction of invoicing. Not that it involves any form of Bistromathics,or more than an hour every few weeks, but it is a distraction from just doing the job I need to do, and enjoy doing.

For home finances, I used to just keep track on the end of the bank statement, that worked fine for about 15 years.

I do use Quicken for end of year taxes - makes it easier to fix mistakes, and has a built in calculator. I wish the only taxing was pay at source on income, that worked fine for me, never had to keep a reserve for taxes, or pay too much through the year because I didn't realize having another kid reduced my liability.

Dibutil said...

First thing to check out is Wikipedia, of course: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_budget

The Dissonance said...

That's why I've always worked for big corporations. They do the boring stuff like legal, accounting, and the like and I do what I'm good at.