Blog Post
Hi everyone,
I have just posted an update on our community guidelines and how to make your feedback count.
You might notice that I will be taking a much firmer stance on comments that breach out guidelines and you can read about why in my post here
I absolutely believe its important to provide a space for customers to give feedback. Tell us what's great (and what's not great). I'm proud to be able to offer such a space through this Community Forum. But feedback also needs to be constructive, and the forum needs to be a helpful space for all members.
I encourage you to share your experiences with the secure invoicing changes using this Facts-Impact-Resolution format described in my post linked above.
Your specific examples help to build a stronger case for improvement.
Hi Mike
As a small business in the construction industry, we only send out 10-12 invoices per year, but these are generally for large amounts. Most builders would not be paid via any of the methods you offer secure invoicing for as this is generally handled by a bank/financial institution. Even if there was a few customers who paid lower amounts, there is no way any builder can afford to add on, or absorb, the 1.8% surcharge for each of the 7 invoices for one job; especially when margins are generally between 9.5-10% (that would be a net loss of over 20% of our business margin to these fees). There is also no way a client or their bank will be signing on to pay an additional 1.8% to make the payment, when the bank will handle the transfer as a general rule (they'll use their own protocols). While I can appreciate the need for secure invoice payment options, I also don't think you have comprehensively addressed the impact of making this mandatory on the wide variety of industries you service to assess the impact on their bottom line.
Surely MYOB could have approached a provider such as Quickfee who charge a flat fee per month to secure their client's transactions regardless of volume (my accountant's firm pay about $75 per month for this). You can't tell me that it costs less to secure a payment for $300, than it does to secure a payment for $300,000 so surely there was a fairer option than a percentage fee. We could lose business by including those costs into our quotes. And while I have read that the client can pay via bank transfer directly without the surcharge being applied, I still shouldn't have to go through the process for something I won't and don't want to use.
Anyway, I won't be verifying our desktop version of AccountRight and will resort to emailing our downloaded invoices to our clients (who we have advised to call us if they receive an invoice with changed bank details); thankfully our low volume of invoices makes this possible. If this proves problematic, I'll be converting to Xero at the end of the FY which is regretful after using MYOB for over 25 years.