AccountRight Classic v19 and earlier versions decommissioning

Ok I don't really belong here - I'm a small business owner, not an accountant or book keeper or any sort of whiz at MYOB.  I'm going to chime in on this one as I just found out my old version of MYOB is going to be discontinued.

I understand this day and age every provider wants an ongoing piece of their customer - it seems like par for the course .  To be honest I like the idea of upgrading to use the new easier interface HOWEVER - I paid for a product and I am currently using it to a reasonable amount of satisfaction and don't see the value in paying for a subscription service.  I don't even claim any tech support - so I don't see why I should have to pay.

I could wax lyrical about my theories on how this is not moral/ethical, likely illegal etc etc (to be cut off from a product that was legally purchased), however I'm not a lawyer and I'm not a philosopher.  

I'd like to propose a solution, then I'll propose what I'm going to do if I get cut off from my product.

1.  MYOB - here's an idea - Don't cut people off from their products that they paid for.  Unlike NETFLIX, you aren't giving anyone anything on an ongoing basis to justify it.

2.  Instead, switch your brains into customer service mode and try to think how you can service your customers, make money and also keep your subscription service...

3. Allow people to update to the most current standalone version prior to MYOB going to a subscription service - then those customers pay for it as a once off licence fee.  This will allow income for next to no work at all, and I'm sure most people would upgrade.
4.  Develop small upgrades or package upgrades that contain SOME of the modern features of the subscription service that people can opt into with a one time payment fee and choose the features they want.  Obviously, you never make it quite as nice as the subscription service, but close (remembering the people who are disenfrancsied like me are small business owners and don't need all the flashy stuff that big business does).

5.  Offer tech support for a limited time only after purchase.

6.  Here's the good bit - You'll be the ONLY one doing it and you will be the ONLY one listening to what customers want.

Now the unpleasant bit

If you don't at the very least decist from damaging my property that I purchased:

1. I'll use an Excel spreadsheet if I have to, just on principle (I've been offered an auto- calculating and multi page integrated one from a business friend that took him years to develop so that will do just fine)
2. I'll go to the ends of the earth to find a standalone product and tell ALL my contacts and do it with extra energy because I'll be motivated to do so.
3. I'm going to tell everyone I know in small business not to bother with any of the business subscription services and then share the excel spreadsheet with them, or the product I find.
4. And most importantly - if you do cut me off, then wake up some time in the next decade after you either were forced to by some person taking you to court, or have a sudden wake up to business ethics - I'll NEVER come back to you because you don't deserve it - I'm sure many others will feel the same.

What I find most interesting about this whole thing is that all your comments on this post are negative (unless I missed a positive one) and you don't understand one of the most basic rules of marketing:

News of bad service travels ten times faster than good service.

Happy new year.

PS - Don't even bother to respond to this unless you intend to action anything I suggested.  If you do, and try to placate me - I'll double down harder.

This appears to be the only option i.e. report to the ACCC for unconscionable conduct.

Your rights as a perpetual license holder

• You are entitled to confirmation: If you have a perpetual license and are using the software according to the agreement, MYOB is obliged to provide confirmation codes.
• Activation and confirmation is for anti-piracy: The confirmation process is an anti-piracy measure to ensure you have a legitimate license, not a way to force upgrades.
• What to do if denied a code: Ask the MYOB representative for a written statement that they will not provide a code.Report the conduct to the ACCC for unconscionable conduct.

This appears disingenuous (and patronising) to me. The perpetual licence means the user owns the product and to disable the confirmations means that legitimate users can no longer use a product they own. The original purpose was to prevent piracy so why not just make the next confirmation a final one which would prevent any piracy anyway as a non-activated file would no longer be able to be confirmed? In respect to security, MYOB's track record for online product has had some security issues including sending the wrong pay information to the wrong employees so a Desktop version on a well defended system, including those that aren't connected to the internet such as in regional areas where I live, are no more vulnerable than an online system anyway. Besides which, we are not children who need to be "looked after" by a big corporation.

Regards

Liz

Hi Grace2020​ ,

I’m a longstanding MYOB’er who has worked with the business for 7 years, with two of those as Community Manager here (which is why you’ll see my name pop up a lot!). 

At the time of the post you’ve found from a couple of years ago, while we were making some changes to MYOB Partner Program assets, no decision had been made regarding changes to confirmations.

We announced the end of life of AccountRight V19 in 2019 and allowed customers to continue to use it since then, with a view that they would move to more secure and modern programs as it suited them based on their needs and the evolving landscape. We feel that we have allowed enough time for this transition.

Please be assured that this wasn’t a decision we took lightly. The reality is that continuing to run old desktop software exposes customers to security and compliance risks we couldn’t ignore.  

Dear Mike,

Below is a post you made 2 years ago (although I suspect a generic name).

Obviously MYOB just plainly lied here.

Quote:

"But when it comes to the files themselves (V19) or any of our desktop, perpetual products, I want to be sure to say that MYOB is not stopping confirmation and we are not forcing our customers online."

Mike_MYOB

Community Manager

to Beach

2 years ago

Hi Liz, there has been no communication around stopping confirmation for any unsupported desktop perpetual products. 
This year we have extended the timeframe where confirmation will be requested and we have actually provided a convenient self-service tool for our customers to get their confirmation code without needing to contact MYOB.
Check out this post here

It sounds like there may again be confusion with MYOB partners being contacted about their files associated with an older referral program being closed.
If you have any questions about the changes to Partners, please contact your partner manager for any further clarification.

But when it comes to the files themselves (V19) or any of our desktop, perpetual products, I want to be sure to say that MYOB is not stopping confirmation and we are not forcing our customers online. 
We do encourage our customers to upgrade their software and take advantage of the benefits of being online, but as per the above, for those who choose to stay offline in their perpetual software, they can continue to do this and we have even taken steps to make it easier.

Hi Grace2020​ 

I have v13 working on my system as well (Windows 11) and many of my clients are very small businesses so it would work perfectly well for them. Great tip.

Cheers

Liz

Dear Mike,

Absolute disgraceful act by MYOB.

A decision purely to make businesses pay a monthly subscription when they legitimately purchased software that had no expiry date.

After 30 odd years of using MYOB, about time I suggested clients have the option to use Xero which is far more cost effective than MYOB.

Your argument why the change is necessary is absolute BS.

FYI Mike, like V19, V13 works absolutely fine and there has not been an update for 20+ years.

Thank goodness you can't stop us using that software that we legitimately purchased !!.

If fact if you don't use payroll, V13 is perfect for accounting and GST.

I would suggest MYOB review this decision.

Hi Phil_mtc​ 

MYOB have tried this twice before and reversed their decision after a lot of protests on here. There are fewer Classic users now so a Class Action is less likely but you could still report this to the ACCC to see where you stand. I think a lot are just paying the third party to save themselves the stress of going through this drama again which is why there really doesn't seem to be as much of a reaction on here as before. It could also be that they aren't aware of it yet - I haven't received an email about my 40 files but another Forum user had been notified and emailed me so I looked on here.

Cheers

Liz

Hi,

is this actually legal ? By making the files read only as of Feb 2026, you are ACTIVELY disabling perfectly functioning software effectively terminating the perpetual license which we paid for.

Why do you have to make it read only ? No one is asking you to provide any support/fixes etc, simply do NOT make it read only & allow the activation server to continue to confirm files & you can leave this alone for the next 20 years with any issues being the users problem for continuing to use outdated software (a choice - remember those ?)

I have a massive suite of excel macros which we use in our production & payroll systems, the current versions of your software after more than 8 years still do NOT offer the same degree of data access via ODBC or similar (your API is severely limited) so you are going to impact our ability to run our business at all.

This pretty much amounts to extortion, you are forcing us to goto a new piece of software at a huge cost & redevelop all of our integrations when we have a perfectly working piece of software that we paid a perpetual license for, your ONLY cost is to maintain the activation service so this smacks of a strategy to force the hand of people like myself to upgrade. 

Please reconsider the read only stance, I'm happy to run the activation server on my network if that is a problem for you.

Cheers,

Phil Webster

Hi Lynne LFW02​ ,
Yes that's correct, all versions of V19 software are included in the decomission.
AccountRight Classic has been unsupported since 2019.
You can read up more on why this change is happening and see some prepared 'frequently asked questions' via the more information link in post