Unsure about the new EOY Payroll process in AccountRight 2020? Find out more here
As part of the AccountRight 2020.2 release we’ve made the end of payroll year simpler, enhanced security on the backup process, and said goodbye to loading tax tables.
We’ve also made lot of small changes that we hope will save you and your team a lot of time.
Here’s what’s changed:
So long and farewell to loading tax tables—starting today, you’ll never have to upload another tax table again. AccountRight 2020.2 will automatically update tax tables each year and go that one step further and choose the right tax table for you.
No need to close a payroll year —the end of year task list can seem never-ending and time-consuming, that’s why we’ve simplified the end of payroll year process and have removed the need to close a payroll year. Now you can continue to make adjustments in the previous payroll year and process the first pay of the new payroll year. We’ve also made some changes to rolling back the financial year.
More flexibility with your pay runs — not everyone does a weekly or monthly pay run, and that’s why we’ve introduced the option to do quarterly pay runs. This allows you more flexibility on how and when you pay your employees.
Enhanced back up security — keeping your data safe is what we do best, and we want to make sure we’re on top of our game, so we’ve made some changes to how you back up and removed the check in and check out process.
Changes and performance improvements — We’ve also got a few more exciting things up our sleeve, because what’s a new release without a few bug fixes.
Simpler end of payroll year (Australia)
Tax table automation
From AccountRight 2020.2 onwards, you’ll never have to load another tax table ever again. Now, all you’ll have to do is process your pay and the right tax table will be selected for you, based on the Payment Date.
So, if you process a pay on June 30, the 2019-20 tax tables will be used. If you process a pay on July 1 and the 2020-21 tax tables will apply.
Close a Payroll Year is...closed
Now that loading tax tables are a thing of the past, closing the payroll year is no longer required. We’ve removed this process, and have added the ability to continue to make adjustments in the previous payroll year.
That means you’ll no longer see Close a Payroll Year but we’ve kept Close a Financial Year.
No more rolling back the financial year
To tie in with removing the need to close a payroll year, it only made sense to get rid of the need to roll back the financial year. In AccountRight 2020.2, you can now make adjustments in other financial years without having to roll back the current year.
And because we don’t need it anymore, we’ve removed the Roll Back a Financial Year option in the File menu.
This means:
- For new files created in 2020.2 and later you can create, reverse, edit and delete transactions in any prior year.
- For existing files upgraded to 2020.2 you can create and reverse transactions in any prior year. Additionally, you can edit and delete transactions in the previous year.
User access changes for end of year functions
As we no longer need to close a payroll year or roll back a financial year, we:
- removed the Close A Payroll Year permission, and
- replaced the Roll Back a Financial Year permission with Transact In Closed Financial Years.
Please note, users who don’t have the permission to Transact In Closed Financial Years can now update Receive Payment transactions in the current financial year.
New quarterly pay runs (Australia)
We’ve provided an additional pay frequency option. If you pay staff over calendar quarterly periods, now you can select Quarterly as the Pay Frequency in the employee’s card (Card information window > Payroll Details > Wages).
When you process pays, you can then choose Quarterly as the pay frequency:
Status now updates if a Pay Super payment is reversed (Australia)
When you reverse a super payment that has a status of Reversal Required in the Manage Payments window, the Pay Super service will now update the status to Reversal Completed.
Sort by employee name in the STP reporting centre (Australia)
We know this was a long time coming, and it seems like a small change, but it is a good change. You can now sort by employee’s name in the STP reporting centre. This will now arrange the data in alphabetical order making the search process much more efficient.
Changes to online files and backing up to keep you more secure
As Microsoft is no longer supporting some of the backend technology (SQL Server CE 3.5) that AccountRight uses, we needed to make changes on our end to make sure your data remained secure, so:
- we removed the ability to check in, check out or synchronise an online company file
- when you back up an online company file, any other users that are signed on to the file will have to sign out.
These changes ensure that your accounting software isn’t exposed to the risk of unsupported, obsolete technology.
Also, when you open an older file in AccountRight 2020.2, we can no longer auto detect the file version if it's 2020.1 or earlier. (A future release will make it possible to auto detect versions from 2020.2 onwards.) As a result, you can choose to upgrade the file, or if you have the older version installed, click Cancel and you can open the file in the previous version.
Changes to how you back up
We know that creating a backup might be a hard habit to break, so you still have the option to back up your company file, if you want.
However, a change we’ve had to make as a result of Microsoft’s announcement is to the way backing up works in online company files. In AccountRight 2020.2 and later, nobody will be able to work on the file during a backup.
But don’t worry, when you start backing up, you’ll receive a message letting you know who else is signed in.
This gives you a chance to let the other users know they need to save their work and sign out. Once you start the backup, anyone who is signed in will be signed out.
The good news is our testing has shown large performance improvements in files of all sizes. In some cases we’ve seen over 50% speed improvement to complete a backup compared to older versions.
Your data held through MYOB is highly secure in state-of-the-art data centres and cloud servers. These facilities automatically back up your data online weekly, retaining these for 6 months from the backup date.
No more checking in and out...
In previous versions of AccountRight, you could choose to temporarily work offline with your company file. In AccountRight, working offline means that you ‘check out’ the file to your computer—doing this locks the online file from being modified by others, although they can still view the file.
In 2020.2, we’ve removed the ability to check out or check in your file. We’re doing this because Microsoft no longer supports the technology that enables you to do this. Your business data is too sensitive to be exposed to unsupported, obsolete technology.
When you open AccountRight 2020.2, you’ll notice the options to check in and check out your file will no longer be available in the File menu or in the status bar menu.
Working offline also means that you miss out on many features that are only available when you work online.
If you don’t mind missing out on the great benefits of working online, you can permanently take your file offline. You’ll need to back up your online file and restore it your AccountRight library on your computer.
Because of this change, we recommend that you check in any checked-out company files prior to updating to AccountRight 2020.2.
...so no more syncing
Now that there’s no check in or check out, there’s also no need to synchronise anything.
This process relied on the same discontinued Microsoft technology as checking in and checking out, so we got rid of it. Besides, your online company file will still be accessible from anywhere, anytime, and will always be up to date.
This means the sync option has been removed from the File menu and status bar menu.
New online file statuses
While we’ve made changes to backing up and removed check out and check in and sync, we’ve changed the messages you see when looking at your list of online company files.
As there’s no more file synchronisation, the Last Sync column in the Library Browser window is now called Status:
We’ve also reviewed and added to the messages that appear in this column. Here are the different company file statuses you may see:
|
Status |
This means the company file |
|
Active |
is available to open |
|
Error |
contains an issue |
|
Upgrading |
is being upgraded |
|
Restoring |
is being restored |
|
Backing up |
is being backed up |
|
Checked out |
is a pre-2020.2 file that is checked out |
Performance and usability improvements
Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. Here are a few of the small changes that are worth a mention:
Removal of Prepare Payment Summaries (Australia)
Updated: If you’ve registered for Single Touch Payroll (STP) through AccountRight, you’ll no longer need to prepare payment summaries (you’ll finalise your end of year instead). So we’ve removed the Prepare Payment Summaries button from the Payroll command centre for those businesses who have registered for STP.
Multicurrency in reports
Improvement: The Receivables Reconciliation Detail and Payables Reconciliation Detail reports now report in foreign currency. We gathered the feedback on what you needed and now you can choose to view these reports in their originating currency (the currency the transaction was recorded in), whether it be foreign or local currency. You can also filter these reports by currency.
Categories Balance Sheet report
Fixed: We changed the Categories Balance Sheet report, so that it shows categories data migrated from AccountRight v19.
More space for text
Improvement: We’ve increased the number of characters you can enter in these fields:
- Transaction number (increased to 13 characters)
- Line Description (increased to 1000 characters)
- Comments in sales and purchases (increased to 2000 characters)
Now you can get creative with your comments – or not.
Emailing
Fixed: Some Sent emails were incorrectly showing a status of Pending in the Sent Emails window.
Even more memory
Fixed: We’ve enabled windows to allocate more memory! We’ve doubled and have gone from 2GB to 4GB. Now you can load even more documents or use larger files — you just need to make sure you’ve got the latest windows version.
New option for GST Reporting Period (New Zealand)
Improvement: If your business isn’t registered for GST, you can now choose Not Registered as your GST Reporting Period in your GST & Provisional Tax settings.
Maximised windows will be retained during a session
Fixed: Maximised windows were reverting to their original size. This has been fixed in the latest installers, so maximised windows will now retain their size during a session. If the windows are still reverting to the smaller size (after being maximised), reinstall AccountRight 2020.2.
App Updates
New notes feature on the MYOB Capture app
Improvement: Add receipt details or notes alongside a transaction, making coding easier.
Coming soon!
MYOB Team.
An easy-to-use employee time management feature is coming soon. Click the MYOB Team button in the Payroll command centre to learn more and register your interest.
