Back up offline is not available v2026.5

This is just rediculous.....come on MYOB....get your act together. Surely it's a simple tweak on your back end to reinstate this feature! You're just creating more stress for everyone already struggling with end of year processes.  Nearly everyone will tell you that, although you back up to servers and/or cloud, you also ALWAYS back up your end of year reports on a thumb drive - nobody relies purely on cloud or server back ups alone.  Please put this feature back where it belongs - in our own hands. 

This post relates to clients who were storing their data offline. We have been storing our data online for years but we back up to a secure location that isn't MYOB, for security purposes (having been let down by MYOB in the past). This post doesn't mention that you are going to remove manual backup access for clients whose data is stored online (which is what you have done). This needs to be rectified. We don't want automatic back ups because we want to be able to have a restore point for important milestones (like EOFY, etc). We also want to be able to store that backup on a different server to MYOB, so that our back up isn't lost if the MYOB server crashes or is hacked. Taking away this facility was not advised to clients who were already online and there will be a large number who are just as unhappy as us.

I had phoned MYOB about the offline use of a file that doesn't need to use payroll, bank feed etc.  I was told to download 2026.4 SE and that I could use this version and not to upgrade and it will be OK.  I works.

NOW TO THE ISSUE OF BACKING UP OFFLINE -  We require ONLINE files to be BACKED UP OFFLINE to our own/CLIENT'S computer systems.  These are our/clients DATA files and I can't find legally where you can withhold our data files (and MYOB holds it is for only 90 days).  We are paying for MYOB subscription to use your accounting package only. Clients who have their OWN CLOUD BACK UP SYSTEM for their computers require their files to be backed up onto their own computer NOT MYOB.  This needs to be RECTIFIED or else everyone will start to look elsewhere.  Amanda, you need to listen to the people and get this rectified.  The way I read it was only about using MYOB offline not eliminating OFFLINE BACK UPS for online files.  I have spent so much time on the phone trying to find a way to change the files that I have upgrade to 2026.5 so I can use the BACKUP OFFLINE.  I can't finalise financial years and close, as I am not prepared to proceed until I have a local back up to our/their computer.  Your online chat assistant is USELESS as it just kept directing the process to Set up, preference, security and guess what it's not there????  Many people work on weekends, as I do and the online chat assistant is NO HELP.  On Monday, I spent 1.5 hours on the phone with one of your assistants who said I could downgrade back to 2026.4, I was sceptical, as I had never known that files can be downgraded and 1.5 hours later be told it can't be done!  We pay good money for our subscriptions to MYOB and need OFFLINE BACKUPS TO BE REINSTATED.

100%.... it's ridiculous.  It's our data, we should be able to store it anywhere we want to. I don't think Amanda is reading the room and I'm not even sure she understands what has happened. The link goes to information about stopping support of offline usage but this is online users that have now lost functionality, that is vital to data storage for audit, etc.

URGENT ATTENTION  REQUIRED

It is now the End of Financial Year and the urgency is Payroll FY2026 and finalising previous financial year/s.  MYOB is now hindering this process too, as we can't back up offline.  MYOB needs to URGENTLY action this request to reinstate OFFLINE BACKUP.

QUESTIONS FOR MYOB:

Are there any Australian representative that can action this?  Overseas people use Western names so I don't know where Amanda is located?  Where are the programmers located, Australia, Philipines, USA etc?

Hi Mike,

I hope your day is going better than all the MYOB subscribers.

1. Records for ATO is required for 7 years; not 90 days as proposed by myob. How do people supply info to the ATO if the file has been purged.
2. Who instigated the update 7 days before end of financial year. Seems ludicrous to me, and myob needs to reverse the update and enable people to be able to backup using usb,etc.
3. I don't think you know, but to be an ISO member you have to be running a backup and taking it of the premises. This is mandatory if you want to supply big corporate companies. MYOB is actually hindering companies from doing business. 
4. I shouldn't have to request a server backup
5. Now we know why?,  $49.95 fee.  Very disappointing.

Regards

Jaci

Hi Veejays​ 

I would agree totally with you and I have made points in numerous posts to this forum - this is a decision that will create unintended consequences or years down the track.

The over-riding point here is that businesses do not want someone else looking after their back ups - and MYOB cannot guarantee data, backups cannot be lost for clients - cannot.

Australian businesses take care of their own backups to protect their business requirements - it seems odd that MYOB seems to believe that simply backing up on line covers all those contingencies - that do not and you have covered a big swath of requirements.

Yes, ATO do not dictate that you should 'backup your data and retain information for up to 7 years - they merely dictate that an audit can go back 7 years and so the requirements is - you must keep records for up to 7 years ( how you do that is your business) but if an audit comes you want to be able to 'get at this information' - so if you or a client has a current MYOB subscription - yes, if the online MYOB file has been running for 7 years or more - then that data is accessible....... but things get really sticky trying to extract data with reports.

Or - you need to do things with this file but need to isolate it from the current online - how can we do that - businesses do this all the time - open old files and do data extract, manipulation etc - can't now.

Or if after a year this client or a client decide after being with MYOB they wish to go to a another package - they extract the data - and fire up a competitors file - it may be disk based, it may be internet based but they decided to move - and they cancel there MYOB subscription - do a backup but they cannot store it locally - even if they could there is no MYOB app that will open it. 

They write to MYOB and get a copy of the file backup - now what - it is useless - how do they open it. ATO a year later do an audit - the new file with the new accounting software providor has only 1 -2 years of entries - how now does this client open this backup - AR SE 2026.5 can't open it - the backup is 2027.1 - take out another subscription with MYOB online and upload it - no way of doing that - you can only restore I believe from the online MYOB repository. .. Houston we have a problem.

This is not an unreasonable scenario - and it will happen. ....... Reading between the lines the inability to then actually not open this backup unless you subscribe to MYOB seems to be problematic (legally).

There are a huge number of scenarios that just do not float for us businesses needing to maintain our existing business rules be it for ISO, ATO or otherwise, if local backups are removed and the ability to open these backups are removed.

The Doc

Thank you for the information.

However, we should not have to pay for an additional subscription or service simply to back up our own data on our devices or pay another fee just to obtain a copy of data that already belongs to us. We believe users should have reasonable access to back up and retrieve their own data without incurring extra costs.

MYOB should reconsider its decision to eliminate the offline backup option. Maintaining the ability for customers to create and store their own local backups provides greater control over their data, supports business continuity, and offers an important safeguard independent of cloud services.

Mike_MYOB​

ATO require records for 7 years, not 90 days

We don't use the browser ever.  The interface is awful, if you are a hardened Desktop user. On the desktop, you cannot get reports outside 2 years for some critical reports, including:

Entitlements (necessary if somebody queries their LSL accrual- 10+ years data required)

GST Reconciliation Reports

Trial Balance

Cashflow

Job Profit & Loss

Many of the Analysis reports and several reports under the Accounts tab

Perhaps you better check the browser version for these reports and the ability to backtrack 7 years (10 for personnel reports).

Otherwise, it is 100% necessary to go to backups to get this information. On a post back in April, one of your staff (Amanda) said that backups that were restored from your Cloud are not reversible... so they would be useless to us, if we can't restore a current version, once we've sourced the data we need. 

Timing for end of financial year.

We are using Desktop version online, and have been for years, not the SE offline version that you have dumped, so we got no prior notice that you were stopping the facility to take an offline backup of Cloud based information. A week before EOFY is ridiculous. It's the time we take/need the most time sensitive manual backups.

Big companies need to have a running backup taken off premises

MYOB holding both an online version of the original data and an online backup of that data... is not a backup. If the server is hacked, is destroyed (eg: fire) or dies completely, both sets of data are lost.  That's why there is a requirement that the backup data is held in a completely different location, preferably at another site (in the case of fire, etc). That's just good business. Anyone that has ever lost their data, will tell you they do regular backups and keep them off site. It will cost you a fortune, if you lose all your client's data and their backup too. To be honest, I think this is an incredibly poor and high risk decision that MYOB has made. We've experienced a hack of our online data held by MYOB and lost all of our payroll/staff information to the hacker. Every one of our staff are now permanently flagged by the ATO. You can't guarantee that the data is 100% secure or free from ransom. 

You shouldn't have to request a server backup

You are 100% correct.  We should NEVER have to request or pay for a server backup. We should have control of OUR data Ourselves and our own backup available any time we need it, stored in whatever secure location/facility that we choose. If you are going to take away the facility, which I think is the wrong decision, for all of the reasons listed above, you should at least offer unlimited free server backups.  Good luck with handling the volume and frequency of requests!  At least then you might actually appreciate how important it is to your customers to have this facility and how often it's used.

Mike, with regards to your response to Dylemma....

YOU don't see the need for thumb drives with modern solutions available as an alternative but that doesn't mean your customers want to use those modern solutions. Say you are a bookkeeper with 30 clients... you might not want 30 accountants and their many staff, having access to the accounts online and having to manage all of those accesses. You may prefer to give them a thumb drive instead and each of those 30 clients may also like a thumb drive because you don't want to have to arrange access for each of them too.  Don't assume that we use a function, just because you provide it and think it's the best solution. For many businesses, the old ways work better.  

I never use your on line browser (and I'm sure there are thousands of others like me). Everything is in different places. The familiar reports are not there or they are sorted differently or called different things. I don't want to have to waste my time figuring all of that out, when the PC Desktop version works perfectly well... until you took away the Offline backup option.