Blog Post
What is this BS?!?!?!?!
I saw the alert, but I thought this was going to be an opt in service, not lock me out of emailing invoices all together. Which is why I ignored the prompt. The worst part is that they say that if you don't take up secure invoicing, you'll need to download the invoice as a .pdf, then email it out manually...... which is FAR RISKIER THAN SENDING AN INVOICE DIRECT FROM SOFTWARE! That's literally the story you hear in the news. Emails intercepted by scammers, and the payment information is changed.
One of my files is for internal use only. I also use invoicing to shift costings between entities, rather than having to journal through the lead entity. You know, saves time. Also, we're a hospo company. 99% of our income for our goods and services is cash on delivery. We don't do Afterpay on a pint of beer.
This is clearly a money grab by MYOB. Pathetic really. They say it's about security and that there is no cost, but here is really how it works. You send an invoice for $100, then the customer pays a 1.8% fee [Stripe charge 1.7% btw]. So then we receive $101.80, then we just get charged a $1.80 from MYOB right? Nope, they charge 1.8% on the $101.80 which is $1.84. I know what you're thinking, it's only 4 cents. But here are the numbers on a grander scale......
Let's say that the average credit card payments through this system for each MYOB file per month is $5,000. An amount I think is pretty conservative. Google says that MYOB have 1.2M small business customers, not sure if these customers have multiple files like we do, but let's assume that this just means there are 1.2M files. That's $6B in turnover that generates $108M a month in merchant fees, that MYOB then oncharges us $110M a month in invoice surcharging. Which creates a net gain to MYOB for $1,940,000 per month, annualised to $23,328,000 per annum. This doesn't take into account the fact that this applies to all payments. BPAY doesn't charge fees in this way, and paying with a debit card is a considerably lower fee. So there you go, now you know. It's fun to learn.
So I surmise that that the MYOB C-Suite sat in a meeting and collectively said,
"durrrrh, how do we all get new ferwawis. durrrrh, I want a red one, go fast then."
And... they walked out with this absolute joke of a plan.
Anway, I'm ranted out. If someone wants to copy this post before it gets deleted, feel free. Might be worth sending it to the ACCC. I recommend looking up Card Surchages on the ACCC website. ASIC might even be keen to step in and dish out a juicy fine to MYOB. ASIC love juicy fines, makes them look good.
Mike_MYOB, don't bother replying. Anything you have to say is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. Your words mean nothing to me.
Hi Durkin ,
You said that I shouldnt bother replying, but you have made some incorrect statements that I need to address for others who will read your post.
I am addressing the misinformation and you can choose whether to read or not
Durkin mentioned:
"if you don't take up secure invoicing, you'll need to download the invoice as a .pdf, then email it out manually...... which is FAR RISKIER THAN SENDING AN INVOICE DIRECT FROM SOFTWARE!"
This is correct, we want our customers and the consumers who receive invoices from our software to be utilising a secure environment and that only verified businesses have access to these distribution methods. Businesses who do not verify, will not be able to take advantage of the benefits of secure invoicing offered by MYOB.
Durkin has also referenced how the fees are calculated, but this is also incorrect.
A $100 invoice, if surcharged to the consumer, would indeed be paid at $101.80 including the fee.
The $100 goes to the business who issued the invoice, and the $1.80 pays the fee.
There is no second calculation of fee against the $101.80
There is however also a 25c per transaction fee alongside the 1.8% fee
Edit, additional information*
I think it also worth addressing that Durkin mentioned this service is of no use to the account he uses internally or for his retail business.
The ability to change settings with the secure payments feature exists so that businesses can customise the features to their needs. If it is not required, such as a situation like this, then it can be disabled, or you might choose not to complete the upgrade and print to PDF.
Thanks, MikeWe have a client whose invoices may total approx 300,000 per month so the fee would be huge. Do you really think the client is going to pay an extra $5,400 plus 25c per invoice $75.00 for the invoices at 0.25c each. I really dont think the client would pay the sort of extortion. I started the verification process but I cant finish it due to the documents required. What happens. Can I still do the save to PDF and email???????
Hey Hjones1
If you need help throughout the verification process, you can lodge a support request from your My Account dashboard and our financial services team can reach out and assist accordingly. Once the verification is complete, online payments will be switched on however you will be able to toggle it on/off based on your preferences.
If you do not complete the verification process, you will be able to manually save and email out your invoices.
Hi Mike_MYOB
I'll admit, I was a bit hot headed the other day. I'm just getting a bit over it really. There are so many easy improvements that could be initiated in MYOB Business that would rocket the company to #1 in functionality. Yet, the Devs always seem to be focussed on improvements on areas that don’t need improvement. You know the old saying, ‘if it ain’t broke….’.
Albeit I do believe I owe you an apology. My words were terse, rude, and straight up uncalled for, and I would equate my rambling to those of a small child throwing a tantrum. So, I am sorry to you for what I said and in the manner to which I conveyed my concerns.
To that end, unfortunately your response to my original post is incorrect; and I can prove it in two points. Nevertheless, this time, I’ll try and communicate in a more professional tone.
1) I have the invoice history for when we used to use Secure Invoicing through MYOB a year ago, which shows that the full inclusive amount paid by the customer is debited to our account, then at the end of the month, MYOB would invoice the entire amount that was received through secure invoicing (aka Online Payments). That is, MYOB would charge a fee on the fee. I’ve even just gone back and reviewed the past transactions and ran the calculation on all funds received inclusive of fees and applied a 1.8% Fee, then matched that to what we were invoiced at EOM; and it was bang on. Plus, I think not too many people are aware that if the customer pays via BPAY, then the fee applies to us, but no surcharge is applied to the customer. This was also something that we couldn't turn off so it drove us to seek other software suppliers.
2) If the fee goes straight to the Merchant, i.e. the provider of the payment facility etc., then why do we have to nominate an expense account under Fees category in the Recording payment section of the application. If we don't see the fees as you mentioned, then why would we need to nominate an account?
Nevertheless, to be proactive rather than reactive, I want you to know that I am coming up with a solution that will hopefully put a stop to all the irksome posts on this board.
I’m working on an add-on solution that, per community guidelines will not drive people away from MYOB, but serve rather, as a fully integrated invoicing platform which will be free for most small businesses in Australia. The integration being crucial, so as people don’t have to sit down a re-enter all the generated invoices back into MYOB. People sending out 100 invoices a month will need to subscribe to a recurring integration fee. Although, anyone sending out over 100 will, in most cases, already be using additional external software.
The best part is that it will boast the same level of security that is currently being communicated by MYOB. In addition, it will have the ability to pay by card which will be opt in and have the addition of a secure customer portal, which will greatly reduce the risk of fraud.
So, in summation, my plan is to completely circumvent MYOB invoicing all together. MYOB will be happy, as customers will have low risk and secure invoicing, and customers will be happy as they will once again be able to send out invoicing via email that have the additioanly security measures, plus, they will have the choice as to whether they sign up for online payments that incur additional fees.
It will take me a few days to figure out the finer details and make sure it actually works, but once I do, I'll put together an action plan to post here for everybody to see. So hopefully... it'll be a win/win for everybody.
Kind regards
Durkin
Hi Durkin , I appreciate your post, thank you for the apology.
I think its great that you have found an opportunity to develop a solution.
Developers who create a 3rd party application will need to connect with our app marketplace team, you can reach them here: ecosystem@myob.com
Pleasingly, both of the points regarding fees (BPAY and calculating against the surcharge) have since been addressed and rectified by MYOB in the time that you have stopped using the service.
Specifically for BPAY, for a long time, there was no ability to enable or disable this, and as you mention, it cannot be surcharged to the person paying the invoice.Based on feedback from customers, MYOB has released the ability to enable or disable BPAY specifically in isolation. It is also disabled by default to ensure that customers aren't caught by any unexpected fees.
So a customer could have Online payments enabled (to accept Visa/Mastercard for example) but have BPAY disabled.
With the 1.8% calculated against the already higher amount including a customer surcharge. We did also get feedback on this and made some adjustments to the way this was calculated. I believe this was in December 2024.
The issue was related to net settlement and gst from surcharging.
You can check out the fees & charges as well as matching/reconciling
Good luck with the add-on solution. Please connect with the ecosystem team above before posting to other on the forum about this.
Kind regards, Mike
