MYOB Maintenance
Good morning,
Is anyone aware of the following? Both Desktop and Browser, since yesterday evening. I have not seen nor can find any correspondence.
and no scheduled maintenance - just t...
Forum Discussion
Thank you for your response. I appreciate the acknowledgement, however the explanation does not address the severity of the impact experienced.
To be clear, this was not a minor overrun or partial disruption.
We were unable to access a single file for approximately 11 hours. This represents a complete service outage, not a limited or “not all customers” scenario.
The key concerns remain:
- The maintenance window was exceeded by a material margin
- The Status Hub did not reflect the actual system availability
- No direct or targeted notification was issued in advance
- The communication referenced prior “blanket statements” (November / February), which are not a substitute for specific, timely outage notifications
- The impact was inconsistent with the messaging provided (described as disruption, experienced as full lockout)
The statement that direct email communication was “not possible” is particularly concerning. Given MYOB regularly distributes other communications, this suggests a process or prioritisation gap, rather than a technical limitation.
More importantly, the current approach assumes that:
- Users will not be impacted, or
- That generic prior communications are sufficient
Neither is appropriate for a system relied upon for payroll and compliance functions.
This is now a repeated pattern:
- Maintenance overruns
- Lack of clear, proactive notification
- Status reporting not aligned with actual system availability
Passing feedback to the team is noted, however this does not provide any assurance of change.
Accordingly, I request confirmation of the following:
- What specific process changes will be implemented to ensure advance, targeted notification of maintenance that may impact access
- How MYOB will ensure the Status Hub accurately reflects real-time system availability, particularly in overrun scenarios
- What service standards or internal controls exist to manage maintenance windows and prevent extended outages of this nature
An 11-hour inability to access client data is not operationally sustainable for a bookkeeping practice managing payroll and compliance obligations.
I would appreciate a response that clearly outlines what will change in practice, rather than general commentary on process as well as how to lodge a formal complaint. Thank you
Hi NikkiParsons ,
This was largely answered in my previous response.
But I will note some again for clarity
From your message: The key concerns remain:
- The maintenance window was exceeded by a material margin
- Agree, this has occurred twice for you now where we have noted a 6:30am end time for maintenance and we have exceeded this. The feedback is noted
- The Status Hub did not reflect the actual system availability
- Status hub was updated based on the maintenance window of 8pm 19/03 - 6:30am 20/03. As the system was still unavailable after 6:30, when you checked, it appeared as though there was no notification. You then found and have provided the screenshot for the scheduled maintenance but this was based on the 6:30am end time and you checked at 6:43am.
- No direct or targeted notification was issued in advance
- In product messaging and status hub updates were provided. Along with the messaging in November and February. It was not possible in this instance for us to provide direct messaging. You feedback is noted
- The communication referenced prior “blanket statements” (November / February), which are not a substitute for specific, timely outage notifications
- I understand this is frustrating, I agree with your position and we would not normally operate this way. As above, feedback is noted
- The impact was inconsistent with the messaging provided (described as disruption, experienced as full lockout)
- The scheduled maintenance message does state this would be a 'lockdown'
- The scheduled maintenance message does state this would be a 'lockdown'
There will be no direct process changes as a result of this.
I will work with the team performing this maintenance to feedback that maintenance occurring outside of the communicated window has occurred twice now and that we need to work to ensure this does not continue.
We make these changes in a way that aims to provide the least disruption to our customers, although everyone is different, it would be fair to say that most people work during business hours which is why we target maintenance overnight (8pm to 6:30am) - this also caters to our NZ customers (10pm - 8:30am for them)
