Product Reviews

Evolution, not revolution is a mantra that has served MYOB Accounting well in the past. Even though the feature list of this new release doesn't instantly appear to offer groundbreaking changes, its well thought-out improvements could end up changing the way many small Mac-based businesses do their accounts.

With time-billing, payroll, multiple currency and network support, MYOB's Accounting Plus is the premium product in a suite of accounting applications that also includes the sub-£100 Business Basics and the mid-range MYOB Accounting, both of which have also been updated.

The program's near-universal accessibility is personified by a setup assistant that lets you create an impressive-looking accounts framework in minutes by offering templates from a choice of industry classifications or a variety of specific business types.

MYOB Accounting's main window is also welcoming, if rather dated-looking. It divides the program's functions into command centres, comprising Accounts, Sales, Banking, Purchases, Payroll, Time billing, Stock Control and a surprisingly powerful contacts database.

A flow chart beneath each command centre shows a simplified path of money through the business and gives single-click access to financial transactions. This approach hides much of the dark art of double-entry bookkeeping from the user, although you can still enter standard 'debit' and 'credit' double entries if required.

Accounting Plus 14 extends this hand-holding approach to newly beefed-up payroll functions. An End of Year Tax Forms assistant steps you through an electronic filing of P35, P14 and P60 returns over the Internet. The Government is so keen to encourage online returns that it is offering £250 cashback

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for e-filing this year alone, with a possible £850 up for grabs over five years. This should more than offset the program's purchase price.

Another payroll assistant looks after employee payment, whether they are paid by cash or cheque. Four different pay periods, from weekly to monthly, are supported and the assistant even prints out the necessary cheques and reports at the end of it. These two assistants, as logical and concise as they need to be, are worth the program's purchase price on their own.

MYOB hasn't lost sight of the security of your data. A new Audit trail tracker diligently records changes made to a file as well as who made them, and displays the results as a report. Just as importantly, a three-step Company Data Auditor window provides an instant overview of the security of your database. Although Accounting Plus has always offered database backup and verification, the Auditor window, accessible through a single keystroke combination, now holds this critical information in one place, together with details such as whether important accounts are reconciled.

Many changes to Accounting 14 are either timely safeguards - such as the ability to block a sale or warn the user when a customer goes over their credit limit - or useful timesavers. One of the best examples is the way you can now batch email invoices, statements or purchase orders rather than send them individually. You can also automatically record recurring transactions and be notified when they have occurred. Recurring schedules can now run a set number of times or until a specified date, so it's easier to deal with transactions such as short-term loan repayments.

MYOB Accounting has an impressive feature count but the program still isn't perfect: network performance can lag and although it comes with a well-written printed manual, its clunky browser-based online help, which demands Internet Explorer, is in need of updating. And although Plus links well with Microsoft Office, the lack of AppleScript support is a continuing disappointment.

The improvements in Accounting 14 are enough to ensure this is a recommended buy for small companies. Self-employed and freelance users, who don't need Accounting Plus's multi-currency or multi-user support, may do better to examine the cheaper standard Accounting option.