Mike_James's avatar
Mike_James
Ultimate Partner
13 years ago
Status:
Done

Setup: Speed improvement

Before replacing my laptop recently, I was experiencing delays of up to 60 seconds while an item invoice screen opened, and similar delays on other events. The program fell into a 'not responding' state after about 5 seconds. Note that this did not happen with orders or quotes. Since my hardware upgrade, the program responds quickly, but there are clearly 000's of users being severely hampered.  

 

Why is speed so important? I quote from a response I received to a (UK) forum posting of mine in 2003 concerning the future of accounting software:

 

"As far as SME's are concerned, the future of accounting software, in a word, is speed.

The speed at which you process, operate, report on, act upon, share and manage your business processes.

This will be due to not one single event or technology, more a continuation of the trend that began around 10 years ago when the first second generation systems began to appear.

The Web will certainly play a big part in this by connecting businesses together with each other and with their employees".

 

Prophetic words indeed! And as an MYOB user remarked this week, "we are all time-constrained".

 

Many users have made comments about the program being slow. Fine, but if the speed issues are to be addressed, MYOB needs to know more than that. Anyone posting comments about speed should include:

- hardware summary (at least: memory, processor speed, operating system)

- software version and file location (local, network or cloud)

- the exact step/s which are slow, eg opening a register or list, recording a transaction, etc., with time taken.

 

Regards

Mike

DataWise Limited

Setup
  • Mark_Smith's avatar
    Mark_Smith
    Former Staff
    13 years ago
    Status changed:
    New
    to
    Coming Soon
    Mike thanks for the wise words. We are working on a round of performance improvements, and these will be made available with the release of AccountRight Live.
  • Mark_Smith's avatar
    Mark_Smith
    Former Staff
    13 years ago

    We are learning that performance is a number of things:

    • raw data read/write: We need to make more of the screens save and load their data faster. We have seen improvements since AR2011 first came out, and we are continuing to find ways to make this faster.
    •  workflow. Sometimes it is the validations or useability getting in the way of data entry, and this is 'bad performance'. Screen design can also be a factor.
    •  navigation. Sometimes just opening and closing could be faster by the way we are handling calls. Moving between fields.

    We've selected a range of improvements in the next release along these lines.

  • Gaz's avatar
    Gaz
    Experienced User
    13 years ago

    Hi Mark,

     

    Should we inturpret from you comments that the performance improvements to AR2011/12/?? will only be implimented in the "Cloud Version" of MYOB?

     

    In other words has MYOB now abandoned the desktop version of MYOB?

     

    Cheers

     
  • JasonHill's avatar
    JasonHill
    Former Staff
    13 years ago

    Hi Garry,

     

    I can answer that one for Mark. MYOB definitely has not and will not be abandoning the desktop. The performance improvements will be available to all AccountRight users that upgrade their software to the new version whether they choose to utilise Cloud functionality or remain with their file on their computer's hard drive or network. More details about a release date will be coming soon.

     

    All the best,

    Jason Hill
    Community Manager

  • TonyLane's avatar
    TonyLane
    Ultimate Cover User
    13 years ago

    Hi Jason,

     

    When you said "...The performance improvements will be available to all AccountRight users that upgrade their software to the new version ...", does that mean a new version of AccountRight 2011 is imminent and that only those users that upgrade to the new version will get the performance improvements whilst existing AR2011 users who do not upgrade will not receive the performance improvements?

     

    Please explain.

  • JasonHill's avatar
    JasonHill
    Former Staff
    13 years ago

    Hi Tony,

     

    Apologies for not making myself clearer. The new version coming soon is AccountRight Live. As in the past with updates like Service Pack 4, users will need to upgrade their software to get the performance improvements. But I do want to stress that users will not be compelled to use the cloud features of AccountRight Live after upgrading. We will have more information about the upgrade process for all clients soon.

     

    Hope this helps,

     

    Jason Hill
    Community Manager

  • Kerry_Hunt's avatar
    Kerry_Hunt
    Trusted Cover User
    12 years ago

    Hi, I was pleased to come across notes regarding speed.  I work on a laptop at both home and work. 

     

    The speed of MYOB has been excruciatingly slow when processing sales and purchases and switching between the forms and the registers online.  The slow speed has driven me to prefer offline to online and I recently lost heaps of work.  I had forgotten to check out so the outdated online file over-rode my up-to-date local file and I lost several weeks of work, my customised forms, etc. 

     

    My laptop is a fairly top of the range model Acer, 12 months old, Windows 7 (64-bit), 2 ghz processor with a turbo boost to 2.9 when required, 8 GB RAM, dual processors, and only 79 GB used of 689 GB. 

     

    It would be great if this could be reviewed.  Thanks, Kerry

  • JasonHill's avatar
    JasonHill
    Former Staff
    12 years ago
    Status changed:
    Coming Soon
    to
    Done
    Thanks again for the feedback. We understand many users want faster performance. We've targeted many areas clients have identified to improve speed and performance, with the improvements available in the next update for AccountRight 2012 available on November 8. We will also be doing more work in future updates.
  • Mike_James's avatar
    Mike_James
    Ultimate Partner
    12 years ago

    Thanks Jason, but I think a status of implemented, pre-release, is premature. I'm sure every user who has experienced a lack of speed is looking forward to testing the new version.

  • Kirstenb's avatar
    Kirstenb
    Partner
    12 years ago

    Sorry but speed is still most definitely a broad based issue and inherent to the database structure and logic behind the programming.

    I know significant improvements have been made since the earlier releases but the latest release still presents major speed and efficiency issues regardless of whether you are working on or offline, regardless of individual computer resources, virus programs and any other diversionary 'work around' solutions that have been suggested.

    MYOB you really need to address this issue from the ground up (which I'm sure you are aware of and doing already). Suggesting that the speed issues are due to external factors is like suggesting that cancer is due to things in our local community. Yes we can change our exposure to these influences but at the end of the day the cancer is within us and that is what must be treated.

    As numerous others have mentioned, speed of data entry is PARAMOUNT for bookkeepers. Clients just won't tolerate the increased costs due to unavoidable increases in processing time...