This is an interesting one. I use MYOB Business Basics for my invoicing needs. It keeps things all nicely organised, and I’ve been using it for many, many years. However MYOB pulled out of the UK market a while back. First I heard of this was when I started getting emails from an outfit called Mamut who had apparently bought MYOB. Anyway, this year the version of MYOB I have been using has been retired and Mamut have the next version, and they want me to upgrade.

The upgrade price sounds good - £29 at the moment (it’s a special deal) - usually it’s £108. Even that’s not bad for an upgrade which is long over due. However, what puts it on the back foot is the mandatory, annually recurring service support fee - another £108. I’ve never required support for MYOB, and if the updated software is as simple to use, then I’d have no problems. The £108 per year would be payment for nothing.

I put this to the salesman who phoned me today to try to and get me to buy the upgrade. I also pointed out that none of the software I use on my Mac has such a support subscription service - going from Photoshop right down to the smaller, cheaper apps like ScreenFlow or Graphic Converter. As some know here, I do work for Softpress (The Freeway people), and their support is free for all customers (I’ve been on the support desk from time to time helping out). All these outfits manage to keep afloat. Anyway, salesman had little to say about this, other than they needed a revenue stream from the software . I get that, but I don’t think that this is quite the way to do this.

So, I’m starting to sniff around for invoicing/accounting software. Really, what I need is something that will generate invoices, will let me track them, let me log payments in and out of a bank account. Obviously has to be useable in the UK. That’s what I was using MYOB for.

Suggestions? The only thing I’ve seen that may do the job is Mac Freelance - but I guess that there may be others which are better.

What I think they've missed is that MYOB is generally only used by small businesses who don't operate in an "enterprise" way.

Absolutely. Salesman told me that a lot of business software does come with some kind of rolling support fee. I can imagine that being the case where the software has to do a lot of heavy lifting - stock billing/invoicing, payrolls, etc. etc.. That would probably require a dedicated case manager who may even be on site from time to time. However, as he conceded, the support fee is the turn off for people who have chosen not to upgrade.

Anyway, I am exploring Billings - which seems to do what I need - just need to familiarise myself with the UI which is very different MYOB, partly because it’s a modern proper Mac looking app

It is common to all the accounting software I've ever seen, here in Germany, most of the tax software as well - I use Elster, which allows you to fill in the electronic forms, but it won't do the calculations for you, to work out how much you should put in each field.

The on-going support cost is generally for keeping the software up-to-date with the changes in tax and accounting law...

Currently, our customers can either take out a monthly support contract (a couple of hundred a month, on average), or they can pay on a time and materials basis. Until now, we've provided bug fixes etc. free of charge to support customers, and they have also received enhancements for changes in the law. Those who don't have a support contract have to pay for the updates.

Enhancements have to be paid for by both types of customer. Although our new boss is trying to argue that changing the system to work with changes in the law is an enhancement, not support...

That's fairly standard in with 'proper' business software yes. I don't think as a business model it's going to work in the freelancer/single person business area. And from what I remember of MYOB, it's very much aimed at the small business/single operator/freelance market. Strikes me they've just decided to apply the model they normally use for their 'enterprise' products, without actually considering if it's the best way to sell the software. Especially when there are viable alternatives (and there are a few, from the quick google I did) that aren't going down the yearly licensing model.

I also notice they're spending a (presumably) large sum of money sponsoring Daring Fireball this week. That's not exactly a good idea, just after you've asked a load of your customers to stump up a charge they've never had to pay before. I don't know what their support & etc is like, but their PR isn't really impressing me all that much.

Jon

If it prepares your accounts to a certain level and can be audited adequately by an accountant for tax returns, then do you really need to upgrade the software? It would be foolish to rely solely on a accounts package for all your tax reports. An accountant can be much cheaper if much of the paperwork has been done to a high level. The basic accounts rules do not change that much so you could quite easily stick with your existing software till you can find an alternative to switch to.