Accounts: Set a default Bank Account

It would be helpful if MYOB Basics/AccountRight included the ability to set a default bank account for entering 'spend money" transactions without the need to change of account numbers.

*Edited by Steven_M - Changed name to make it relevant to all programs and expanded on idea based on comments by AlanT

Hi Ian

Perhaps as an interim move the overdraft to a -ve Asset and put it with the other bank account - positioning it in a position where it is defaulted to.

Most clients I have leave bank accounts in Assets - even if it is an overdraft - accountants move it to liabilities in the financials - heck set MYOB to make it easy to work with not easy for the accountant.

The Doc

Even though you set the default bank accounts in the settings, you still need to have the main operating account at the top of the list in Assets (negative asset if necessary), otherwise you will always need to change the account number when processing. Maybe this is something MYOB could look at - whats the point of setting the default accounts when it still looks to the top of the accounts list.

I have clients who pay suppliers from a variety of A/c's, both bank and various credit cards. Once a supplier is paid a certain way it doesn't tend to change, however each time a payment is made the payment a/c has to be changed if it's not the default a/c.

It would be great if an option to pay that supplier from a specific bank/credit card account could be added to the supplier card similar to the 'Purchase Layout' option

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Ian_Plambeck wrote:

We currently have two bank accounts, one with without an overdraft that is an asset in MYOB chart of accounts and a second with an overdraft that is a liability account in MYOB. The overdraft is our primary account.

 

The problem I have is that MYOB defaults to the bank account with the lowest account number, so that whenever you start to enter data you need to manually change the bank account to the overdraft.

 

My suggestion is that you should be able to tick a box to allow any of the "bank accounts" to become the default bank for data entry. This would avoid the problem when you forget and entry data to the wrong bank account and then have to make the changes.

 

Could you please consider this function or if anyone knows a way around this problem let me know.

 

Regards,

Ian Plambeck.

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This is my exact problem. 

Hello Ian

When I have a client whose main operating bank account os an overdraft account i will always set it up as an Asset Bank A/c & not a Liability account.

I suggest that you do the following -

Create a new Asset bank account for the o/d a/c. Make it the first bank account in the list. You may need to reallocate some account numbers first to do this.

Reconcile the current O/D Liability Account. If there are any unreconciled payments create a Gen Journal to Cr the old liability a/c and CR the new Asset a/c. If there are uncleared deposits do the opposite.

Re-reconcile the liability account which should now have a zero balance.

Mark this account as Inactive.

Use the new a/c for your transactions on the O/D account. it will now show as the default bank account. Do not wory about the fact that it has a credit or -ve balance. Your accountant will not have a problem.

Cheers

David

Hello StephenM,

I would add my support for your suggestion. I am a one person business and mostly do my business through my credit card. It drives me nuts to have to change the purchase accounts details and the cheque number from the next cheque to "v" for visa card every time I make a purchase when it would be trivial to introduce a default option for purchases to be paid from a credit card.

I have been a MYOB user for 15 years and from time to time have suggested that an option be included to allow the default purchases account to be a credit card account. It would save time and reduce data entry mistakes for when I have forgotten to switch from the MYOB imposed default cheque account to the credit card for purchases.

The response from MYOB has been deafening silence. Yet I would think that many of its customers, those in the real world, would operate their small businesses through their credit cards.

Cheers, Paul

Hello Paul,

I do not understand why you want to change the Cheque number field to 'V' for all your visa payments, rather than just letting the number increment.

Many MYOB users make life hard for themselves, by changing the Cheque #  field to EFT etc. This means that you have to change the entry in perhaps 99% of transactions that you do.

I always get my clients to ignore the fact that the field name says 'Cheque No" and instead consider that it is a transaction reference number, and just let the number increment as it wants to.

When there is an actual physical cheque to be entered then instead of the auto number manually enter CH12345 with 12345 as the actual cheque #. The prefix CH will stop the system from incrementing. In this way you only need to make a change for perhaps 1% of your transactions.

If you do want to have a note that it was EFT or BPay then add this to the memo line instead, but actually I would not worry.

The other great benefit in doing this is that each transaction has a different and unique reference #. Would you want all your invoices to not have a distinctive invoice # and for them all to have "INV" ?

I find it very frustrating when reviewing a client file and trying to find a single transaction when they all have a reference EFT (or BS - bank statement or PAY - payroll payments, or V - Visa or BP - Bpay) when there are a number with the same amount or memo etc. It makes it difficult to find the right transaction to review or edit without having to open them all. This is the real time looser! I usually manually change the first transaction to something like 10001, away from the current cheque series and let the system go from there. Try it - it will save you a lot of time & effort. Perhaps in a future release MYOB will change the designation of this field from'Cheque No' to something like 'Payment Ref' so that users do not feel the need to always change it, after all I agree that cheques are a dying means of paying others, and the banks are discouraging it. I hope that this helps.

Cheers

David  

I agree with you David_Cree 

There is a feature already existing for recording how the payment was received, i.e. visa, cheque etc.

Are you not using this feature Ian_Plambeck  ?