MYOB offline being phased out

Hi BronwynHamster​ Mike_MYOB​ 

Bronwyn makes some important points here, all relevant to ' a feature removal' and I am wondering ' what groups are you asking for feedback' - it would seem your surveys are missing some really important power users of your software.

My title is ' Ultimate Cover User' , Bronwyn's is ' Trusted Cover User' - we earned these titles from our help we give on this forum ...... yet we never heard a thing about this - and I dare say, from how long MYOB has been making software, there is a huge army of power users out there that use your software to its limits and more. Yet it seems this ' end-of-life'  feature removal snook up on us.... something is missing in this argument.

Mike, your mention of a sandbox feature - interesting, I am all ears.

However, another example of the importance of being open offline files, whenever, for whatever reason we, 'the user', wishes. This story is not made up or in any way added to give it effect - it happened yesterday afternoon.

My biggest client has 20 online operating MYOB files, premier and AR plus - 3 business files, 17 - 18 franchise files - all synched and up to date and managed by a bevy of staff in the accounts team. My software integrates the 3 websites that feeds orders to this business - it is all done through 3 24/7/365 integration software using the API access of ALL 20 files.

The client (CEO) sent me an email saying ' one of the older franchises 

file is a mess, need you to spin up, urgently, a new file if the old one cannot be recovered' - my reply ' send me what your accountant thinks are the problems - ' I will take a backup offline and see if I can sort it' .......... CEO ' prefer you fix vs rebuild, go for it'.

Lucky was I; the file is still 2026.5 and my AR SE 2026.5 I have rolled back to version .10015 so it could still access online.

A quick backup of the online file - hmm the CEO was using - backup booted him ... oh well. had dinner, big cuppa tea opened the backup on my power laptop and went to work with my forensic book-keeping nose ....... the accountant words ' this is a mess, the 24/25 balance sheet all over the place, totals are wrong let us rebuild .....  ' all I want is the balance sheet from 24/25 to be correct!'

3 - 4 hours later I had the answer - and the problems went back to someone fiddling to try and clear a $32000 difference on equity ..... and simply going around in circles with GJ to see if they could make it disappear....... not the first time I have found that type of meanderings.

I then started the cleaning process - but made a few guesses on fixes; but knowing I was offline and I could start again, some deletions quick GJ, etc .... does this work, no, roll back....- easy on your laptop and local opening. By about 2230 I had a list of ' how to fix' - took multiple screen shots of before and after fixes - opened the current online file and applied them to end, with a nice clean 24/25 balance sheet - and 1 extra account in equity called ' suspense' now with a credit of $xxxxxxx  , a collection of the fiddling going back to 2017. Notably, everything was all there in the file, back to 30/6/2015 opening day for the file.

Online file was ready to go for users the next day - and an email was sent to the CEO and accountant by 2300 outlining everything I had done suggesting a rebuild was unnecessary if the accountant (respectfully) can somehow reconcile the suspense differences from the 24/25 balance sheet, he could move forward

Done and dusted - had this been 2026.6 and AR SE 2026.5 on my laptop wouldn't have been able to open it ...... sure I could have worked on the ' online file' but Mike, by now it should be obvious that the task would have been far more complicated without the offline feature.

Mike, this is not a thing I do occasionally, or ' a few deep power users out there somewhere need occasionally' , this is a default power feature used for a 100 reasons by 1000s of users who just cannot function without it....... please!

The Doc

Hi Liz_A​ 

Totally agree with you - this is a normal day of events when you rely on the big or small telcos that the internet is not a given - and it is taken offline quite regularly isolating the user from their business file - as professionals we have to advise our clients on the best options for handling most scenarios and in the science of ' unintended consequences', removal of this feature will hurt MYOB only because the reason we stayed and or clients use it was because of that feature.

Tired I am of making this point - MYOB, please listen, this is not an impassioned cry by a few die-hard oldies use to using old and tired software and cannot move into the modern age of ' everything on the internet' - not, not not.

The Doc

We lost 2 years of bank reconcillation and nothing else, my retired but on staff ex accountant did hsi magic in 1916 and we are at end of year, and I can now send my file to my tax accountant, with an image of 1916 and he can acutally do it properly where as last year he couldnt due to all the stupid changes.

My end of year submission for my company, my self and Mum ( 80 with lots of interest and a few shares) costs $400 to submit with my tax accountant.  Happy days.

Hi Cappuccino​ 

I have an announcement posted here that I updated yesterday with some FAQs which you will find helpful.

To answer your immediate concern about 7 year access for audits, you can still view an offline backup by downloading a previous version of AccountRight from our downloads page.

If you have any further questions, Please can you ask under my linked post above so that we can have everything in one place which will help the community find the answers they need.

Regards, Mike

Hi swervyn​ 

I may have some information that will assist you if you would like to contact me at mailto:[email protected]

Cheers

Liz

How long do I have to do this fix?? Time poor. I had a quick look at suggested file location and nothing there called update.exe. woop woop tas here. Come for a holiday lol

Hi Mike, thanks for replying, I have watched the video, but when I do the same step File - Go Online (upload this file) I get a message box saying I have to have a subscription first, then I click on "subscribe" and I end up on the generic front page of MYOB website to buy a subscription. Is this correct?  This is not shown in the instruction video

Thanks for confirming, no if you already pay a monthly subscription for your file but have had it offline previously, then you wont need to buy anything from our website.
I would recommend getting in touch with our support team so that they can troubleshoot this with you and review your account to understand how to get everything up and running for you.
Options for getting in touch are available on myob.com/contactus

Hi Wombat-69​ , there are options to remaining offline which I have referred to in my announcements  and many of my replies.

We are ceasing offline capability in the products that we still sell today, but not forcing customers to take a subscription if they are happy to remain in their offline perpetual software that was purchased years prior.

You can install server edition to continue offline, or look for the replies from Liz that provide unofficial advice on how to stop your version from updating.

I have Account Right Basics 2026 4.0 build

Original version 2011

I presume this affects my version too?????

They tried to upgrade me years back with this online gear but I said "it's not broken, no thanks"

I feel like it's my arm being held behind my back....

John