MYOB Advanced User Groups
- September 2020 -
There were over 80 registered attendants for the MYOB Advanced User Groups, held over 2 days this September. They benefitted from a thorough and comprehensive exploration of the features of MYOB Advanced. Expert panellists representing MYOB, as well as sponsors; Kilimanjaro Consulting and Enprise Solutions took part. The panellists gave insights into current and future market trends, looked at the future of cloud-based software, and held an engaging Q&A session all about MYOB Advanced.
Did you miss out on the sessions, or do you just want to refresh yourself on what was covered? Here are the five key takeaways from the MYOB Advanced User Groups from September 2020.
1. Cash is Dead
Enprise Group CEO Ronnie Baskind spoke about the impact of COVID-19 on business practices, predicting 5 likely technological trends in 2021. Of the most significant note to MYOB Advanced users was how the virus has necessitated and facilitated the near abandonment of cash payments. This will further the rise of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in order to help electronically communicate purchase orders, invoices and payments. Furthermore, it is predicted that by the year 2025, 30% of all the data created, captured, and replicated across the world will be done in real-time. Speaking to the recent industry developments, the Australian and New Zealand Governments have already announced e-invoicing initiatives based on the PEPPOL standard. E-invoicing allows for one-touch payments and better cash flow control, especially when debtors can be set up with lines of credit integrated into your system. MYOB Advanced is well-positioned to take advantage of this new system with EDI solution and e-invoicing support already live in the newest versions.
2. MYOB and the Connected Business
We were very lucky to be joined by MYOB’s Senior Partner Manager Simone Leslie, and MYOB’s Head of Enterprise Sales Stuart Roberts, who spoke about the strategic direction of MYOB. Their focus is on delivering intelligent and intuitive tools to help make business life easier. The key for MYOB is that people and businesses are moving more and more towards the cloud. MYOB’s response is to develop safe, secure, Connected Business software to take their customers from the turbulence of COVID through to prosperity. This strengthens the support for cloud-based platforms such as MYOB Advanced, highlighting that it is a future-proof ERP solution, that your business can depend on in the long run.
3. Experiences that Matter, and a deep insight into the functionality of MYOB Advanced
Becoming a Connected Business is the next stage of the customer technology journey for modern companies. Being able to move from the disconnected, to the connected necessitates providing meaningful links between systems, data, and people. This helps to do business more effectively with good insights, especially away from the office. MYOB Advanced is at the forefront of helping businesses, customers, and employees connect in a way that is safe and beneficial to all.
The disconnected business typically takes the form of isolated islands of data. Systems are not connected and there are multiple sources of truth. You need to manually connect the independent elements to get any useful outcomes and this leads to redundant and manual processes, inefficiencies, and errors. However, the power of MYOB Advanced can be leveraged to integrate to a single source of truth, with distribution across multiple applications working seamlessly with clients and employees. You can transform the sales and service experience by improving the way you work with your suppliers and partners. Elements of this can be done automatically through MYOB Advanced: automatic emails, follow ups, shipping notifications etc.
We were then treated to a demonstation of a connected system in MYOB Advanced. A range of features were explored from the CRM to the MYOB Advanced mobile app. Each facet of MYOB Advanced worked together in order to capture details of any interaction with the customer, assign and ship stock to them, and keep them updated with automatic emails. Through the demonstration it was clear that higher levels of communication would lead to better overall customer service and distinguishes you from your competitors.
4. Looking at the future of MYOB Advanced
While the major upgrade of 2020.3 brought a whole host of changes the planned updates to 2020.4 are relatively slight. The big standout of 2020.4 is the addition of support for Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) that had previously only been available for the construction industry. The 2020.4 update is only a minor one, so an upgrade from 2020.3 should come with little inconvenience.
Looking forward to the progress of Acumatica (the software infrastructure that powers MYOB Advanced) we can get a good look at planned features for 2021 and beyond. Update 2020r2 is the next planned update for Acumatica and looks to implement features such as:
modifying workflows using a sophisticated visual automation engine,
recently visited records list for instant access, and
the prevention of overpayment by validating bills against purchase orders
These features add extra power to the connected facilities of the software. Acumatica continues to be recognised internationally as the mid-market leader in ERP software, a powerful position to be in as the race to the cloud reignites in the fallout from COVID-19.
5. Q&A with the Panellists
Our audiences are always very interactive in our User Groups, and despite the physical distances, and technological challenges, an informative Q&A was held at the conclusion of the session. We have picked out a handful of the best questions and responses, in case they apply to your business.
Question: Can staff with company credit cards enter their transactions through the MYOB Advanced mobile app, into banking?
Answer: (Susanna) Yes. So I will have to verify whether that option is exposed already on the mobile app, but if it’s not you can certainly have that appearing in the mobile app for staff to enter their receipts, and that goes against their corporate credit cards.
(Stephen) Just to potentially expand upon that as well. There were some features released in 2020.3 with functionality around corporate cards. We do find that some clients have started to use a connected service called Expense Manager. One of the benefits of ExpenseManager is that it provides the integration to a corporate card download facility and the automatic matching of that against the expenses that are recorded. The other benefit that they do provide is for digital receipts through travel partners and organisations such as Uber, where you do not even need to get a physical receipt. The digital receipt is pushed through automatically and then matched against your corporate card so if you do have a large requirement around travel, you are arranging a lot of travel on behalf of employees, or those sorts of facilities, you may find it to be worthwhile to consider ExpenseManager as a potential option.
Question: Can you give us a bit more info about the new Employee Self Service features in MYOB Advanced, as well as the app?
Answer: In Advance People (which is essentially a fully-featured payroll application that provides Employee Self Service features) those Employee Self Service features can be extended to employees so that they can both have the browser experience or MYOB Advanced App experience. And they can look at that to see their leave that is available, update details, look at payslips, apply for leave, and undertake all those transactions without bothering the usually very busy payroll officer. So, some good features there that provide some significant benefits. If you are not using Advanced People and are interested in exploring that in more detail or exploring Employee Self Service in more detail, then reach out to us offline to discuss further.
Question: We operate a number of different businesses and entities through MYOB Advanced, including issuing invoices to other entities in the group. Is there a way for invoices issued by one entity to be entered as payable in another entity seamlessly?
Answer: As alluded to in the information around Acumatica, there is some functionality coming to automate that process around cross-entity transactions. We have built some customisations to support that though for some clients previously. So, if there is a specific requirement you have, please do not hesitate to reach out and we can discuss that in more detail if that is something you need in the shorter term as well.
Question: How simple is it to design your own profit and loss reports.
Answer: Within MYOB Advanced, we have the ARM Analytical Report Manager tool to assist you with creating your own profit and loss and other financial reports that you might need. Some of our clients tend to find that using MS Excel is an easier space for that. Of course, all the accountants in the room love MS Excel and it can be one of our favourite tools. Within MS Excel there is an integrated reporting module call Velixo that is available. Think of Velixo as an MS Excel-based Connected Service that provides real-time access to your MYOB Advanced data, and a set of extended functions within MS Excel to give you access to that data through your Advanced tenant. So, with Velixo we can do not only financial type reporting around your general and statistical ledgers for example, but there is additional functionality coming out that extends into any other formal reporting where there is an available generic enquiry. A great module if you are trying to provide standard template-based reports, specifically around board packs where Excel is the tool of choice.
Alternatively, we do leverage a product call Phocas Analytics, which is a Business Intelligence (BI) tool that provides real-time (predominantly operational). BI but also has a strong financial reporting suite behind it. That is more around real-time BI and dashboarding with the drill through capabilities and the abilities that allow you to slice and dice the data, quite different to the Advance dashboards, which are a point in time view of data. Phocas Analytics introduces the ability to ask questions of your data. Really useful for sales type requirements where you want to enable a sales team to understand customer purchasing behaviour. The things they are buying, the things they are not buying, and the exceptions in terms of where clients are no longer purchasing from you. So, there are a couple of great tools there to satisfy that requirement.
Thanks to all our participants for their excellent questions, and to the panellists for their detailed responses. There were many more that we have not included.
Above all, the MYOB Advanced User Groups are a chance for the users and experts to share their insights and keep you informed about updates, features, and Business Process Improvement news. We thank our two sponsors Kilimanjaro Consulting and Enprise Solutions for their support in making these events happen, as well as acknowledge the input from MYOB. Kilimanjaro Consulting is the leading implementer of ERP solutions in Australia, and Enprise Solutions is the leading implementer of ERP solutions in New Zealand. Do not miss out on any of these valuable, free events in the future and make sure to check our event calendar. Make sure you receive our exclusive early invitations by subscribing to our newsletter. For any other queries contact us here.
If your business is evolving and you a looking for a more sophisticated ERP solution; consider engaging with our partners for a Business Process Improvement project. Their industry best practice methodology begins with a COVID-safe, on-site visit to collaborate and identify your own goals and objectives. They can advise the appropriate ERP solution for your business as well as recommend any Connected Services that can be integrated with your system to ensure your processes are being completed efficiently. If you wish to get in touch with Kilimanjaro Consulting, you can call 1300 857 464, or email support@k-c.com.au. If you wish to get in touch with Enprise Solutions, you can call 0800 436 774 (in New Zealand) or 1800 436 774 (in Australia), or email support@enprise.com.
