AccountRight 2020.2 is now available

Suja_P
5,976 Posts
Former Staff
Former Staff

5,976Posts

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Unsure about the new EOY Payroll process in AccountRight 2020? Find out more here

 

As part of the AccountRight 2020.2 release we’ve made the end of payroll year simpler, enhanced security on the backup process, and said goodbye to loading tax tables.

We’ve also made lot of small changes that we hope will save you and your team a lot of time.

 

Here’s what’s changed:

 

So long and farewell to loading tax tables—starting today, you’ll never have to upload another tax table again. AccountRight 2020.2 will automatically update tax tables each year and go that one step further and choose the right tax table for you.

 

No need to close a payroll year —the end of year task list can seem never-ending and time-consuming, that’s why we’ve simplified the end of payroll year process and have removed the need to close a payroll year. Now you can continue to make adjustments in the previous payroll year and process the first pay of the new payroll year.  We’ve also made some changes to rolling back the financial year.

 

More flexibility with your pay runs — not everyone does a weekly or monthly pay run, and that’s why we’ve introduced the option to do quarterly pay runs. This allows you more flexibility on how and when you pay your employees.  

 

Enhanced back up security — keeping your data safe is what we do best, and we want to make sure we’re on top of our game, so we’ve made some changes to how you back up and removed the check in and check out process.

 

Changes and performance improvements — We’ve also got a few more exciting things up our sleeve, because what’s a new release without a few bug fixes.

 

Simpler end of payroll year (Australia)

 

Tax table automation  

From AccountRight 2020.2 onwards, you’ll never have to load another tax table ever again. Now, all you’ll have to do is process your pay and the right tax table will be selected for you, based on the Payment Date.  

 

2020.2 Tax table revsion date shown when processing payroll.png

 

So, if you process a pay on June 30, the 2019-20 tax tables will be used. If you process a pay on July 1 and the 2020-21 tax tables will apply.

 

Close a Payroll Year is...closed 

Now that loading tax tables are a thing of the past, closing the payroll year is no longer required. We’ve removed this process, and have added the ability to continue to make adjustments in the previous payroll year.

 

That means you’ll no longer see Close a Payroll Year but we’ve kept Close a Financial Year. 

 

2020.2 Close Fin Yr.png

 

No more rolling back the financial year 

To tie in with removing the need to close a payroll year, it only made sense to get rid of the need to roll back the financial year. In AccountRight 2020.2, you can now make adjustments in other financial years without having to roll back the current year.

 

And because we don’t need it anymore, we’ve removed the Roll Back a Financial Year option in the File menu. 

This means: 

 

  • For new files created in 2020.2 and later you can create, reverse, edit and delete transactions in any prior year. ​ 
  • For existing files upgraded to 2020.2 you can create and reverse transactions in any prior year. Additionally, you can edit and delete transactions in the previous year. 

User access changes for end of year functions 

As we no longer need to close a payroll year or roll back a financial year, we:  

  • removed the Close A Payroll Year permission, and
  • replaced the Roll Back a Financial Year permission with Transact In Closed Financial Years 

2020.2 Transact in closed yrs.png

 

Please note, users who don’t have the permission to Transact In Closed Financial Years can now update Receive Payment transactions in the current financial year.

 

New quarterly pay runs (Australia) 

We’ve provided an additional pay frequency option. If you pay staff over calendar quarterly periods, now you can select Quarterly as the Pay Frequency in the employee’s card (Card information window > Payroll Details > Wages). 

 

 

2020.2 Quarterly pay.png

When you process pays, you can then choose Quarterly as the pay frequency: 

 

2020.2 Quarterly pay 1.png

 

Status now updates if a Pay Super payment is reversed (Australia)  

When you reverse a super payment that has a status of Reversal Required in the Manage Payments window, the Pay Super service will now update the status to Reversal Completed

 

Sort by employee name in the STP reporting centre (Australia) 

We know this was a long time coming, and it seems like a small change, but it is a good change. You can now sort by employee’s name in the STP reporting centre. This will now arrange the data in alphabetical order making the search process much more efficient. 

 

Changes to online files and backing up to keep you more secure  

As Microsoft is no longer supporting some of the backend technology (SQL Server CE 3.5) that AccountRight uses, we needed to make changes on our end to make sure your data remained secure, so:

  • we removed the ability to check in, check out or synchronise an online company file
  • when you back up an online company file, any other users that are signed on to the file will have to sign out. 

These changes ensure that your accounting software isn’t exposed to the risk of unsupported, obsolete technology.

 

Also, when you open an older file in AccountRight 2020.2, we can no longer auto detect the file version if it's 2020.1 or earlier. (A future release will make it possible to auto detect versions from 2020.2 onwards.) As a result, you can choose to upgrade the file, or if you have the older version installed, click Cancel and you can open the file in the previous version.  

 

2020.2 upgrade message.png

 

Changes to how you back up 

We know that creating a backup might be a hard habit to break, so you still have the option to back up your company file, if you want. 

However, a change we’ve had to make as a result of Microsoft’s announcement is to the way backing up works in online company files. In AccountRight 2020.2 and later, nobody will be able to work on the file during a backup. 

But don’t worry, when you start backing up, you’ll receive a message letting you know who else is signed in. 

 

This gives you a chance to let the other users know they need to save their work and sign out. Once you start the backup, anyone who is signed in will be signed out. 

The good news is our testing has shown large performance improvements in files of all sizes. In some cases we’ve seen over 50% speed improvement to complete a backup compared to older versions.  

Your data held through MYOB is highly secure in state-of-the-art data centres and cloud servers. These facilities automatically back up your data online weekly, retaining these for 6 months from the backup date. 

 

No more checking in and out... 

In previous versions of AccountRight, you could choose to temporarily work offline with your company file. In AccountRight, working offline means that you ‘check out’ the file to your computer—doing this locks the online file from being modified by others, although they can still view the file. 

In 2020.2, we’ve removed the ability to check out or check in your file. We’re doing this because Microsoft no longer supports the technology that enables you to do this. Your business data is too sensitive to be exposed to unsupported, obsolete technology. 

When you open AccountRight 2020.2, you’ll notice the options to check in and check out your file will no longer be available in the File menu or in the status bar menu. 

Working offline also means that you miss out on many features that are only available when you work online 

 

If you don’t mind missing out on the great benefits of working online, you can permanently take your file offline. You’ll need to back up your online file and restore it your AccountRight library on your computer 

Because of this change, we recommend that you check in any checked-out company files prior to updating to AccountRight 2020.2.  

 

...so no more syncing 

Now that there’s no check in or check out, there’s also no need to synchronise anything. 

 

This process relied on the same discontinued Microsoft technology as checking in and checking out, so we got rid of it. Besides, your online company file will still be accessible from anywhere, anytime, and will always be up to date. 

 

This means the sync option has been removed from the File menu and status bar menu. 

 

New online file statuses 

While we’ve made changes to backing up and removed check out and check in and sync, we’ve changed the messages you see when looking at your list of online company files.   

As there’s no more file synchronisation, the Last Sync column in the Library Browser window is now called Status: 

 

2020.2 company file online.png

 

We’ve also reviewed and added to the messages that appear in this column. Here are the different company file statuses you may see: 

 

Status 

This means the company file 

Active  

is available to open 

Error  

contains an issue 

Upgrading 

is being upgraded 

Restoring  

is being restored 

Backing up  

is being backed up 

Checked out 

is a pre-2020.2 file that is checked out 

 

Performance and usability improvements 

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. Here are a few of the small changes that are worth a mention:  

 

Removal of Prepare Payment Summaries (Australia) 

Updated: If you’ve registered for Single Touch Payroll (STP) through AccountRight, you’ll no longer need to prepare payment summaries (you’ll finalise your end of year instead). So we’ve removed the Prepare Payment Summaries button from the Payroll command centre for those businesses who have registered for STP.  

 

Multicurrency in reports 

Improvement: The Receivables Reconciliation Detail and Payables Reconciliation Detail reports now report in foreign currency. We gathered the feedback on what you needed and now you can choose to view these reports in their originating currency (the currency the transaction was recorded in), whether it be foreign or local currency. You can also filter these reports by currency. 

 

Categories Balance Sheet report  

Fixed: We changed the Categories Balance Sheet report, so that it shows categories data migrated from AccountRight v19. 

 

More space for text 

Improvement: We’ve increased the number of characters you can enter in these fields: 

  • Transaction number (increased to 13 characters) 
  • Line Description (increased to 1000 characters) 
  • Comments in sales and purchases (increased to 2000 characters) 

Now you can get creative with your comments – or not.

 

Emailing  

Fixed: Some Sent emails were incorrectly showing a status of Pending in the Sent Emails window.  

 

Even more memory 

Fixed: We’ve enabled windows to allocate more memory! We’ve doubled and have gone from 2GB to 4GB. Now you can load even more documents or use larger files — you just need to make sure you’ve got the latest windows version.  

 

New option for GST Reporting Period (New Zealand)  

Improvement: If your business isn’t registered for GST, you can now choose Not Registered as your GST Reporting Period in your GST & Provisional Tax settings. 

 

Maximised windows will be retained during a session

Fixed: Maximised windows were reverting to their original size. This has been fixed in the latest installers, so maximised windows will now retain their size during a session. If the windows are still reverting to the smaller size (after being maximised), reinstall AccountRight 2020.2.

 

App Updates  

 

New notes feature on the MYOB Capture app  

Improvement: Add receipt details or notes alongside a transaction, making coding easier. 

 

Coming soon!

 

MYOB Team. 

An easy-to-use employee time management feature is coming soon. Click the MYOB Team button in the Payroll command centre to learn more and register your interest.  

36 Comments
lrj17
1 Post
User

Im confused as to why MYOB didn't update the feature that is now disabled - to send  a pdf finvoice rom an email direct to the in tray...

H-TS
Trusted User
461 Posts
Trusted User

While I appreciate these payroll changes (thank you), could you PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE start fixing the things that "broke" in the change from classic desktop version so many years ago when we were assured we wouldn't lose any functionality? And enable emailing receipts as mentioned already by @doublet

Steven_M
45,180 Posts
Former Staff

Hi @doublet 

 

Backing up a company file via File>>Backup will keep the company file open. 

If you do have Setup>>Preferences>>Security>> Prompt for backing up when closing enabled and you take a backup through this method the company file will be closed down during that backup process.

H-TS
Trusted User
461 Posts
Trusted User

Perhaps you could edit the original blog post to mention the superannuation calcuation errors that your team are now aware of... Or stop my software from asking me to install the update until it's fixed.

Ann63
1 Post
Cover User

Thanks for the information.  Now that we can no longer "check out" a file, does that mean you have to be connected to the internet to use MYOB at all?  I travel a lot for work, and previously checked out the file (no one else needs to use the file) so I could continue working on MYOB whilst I was away in locations that didn't have access to the internet.  I then checked the file back in when I returned to the office.  If MYOB now requires full internet access to be used, that will be very inconvenient for people who travel a lot?  

seqtt
Trusted Cover User
130 Posts
Trusted Cover User

Interested in MYOB Team, but don't want to invest time in a free trial until I have an idea how much that service will ultimately cost

Tracey_H
12,172 Posts
Former Staff

Hi @Ann63 

 

You will still be able to use your AccountRight company file offline. You will need to take a backup of the online file (File>>Backup) and restore that file locally (File>>Restore and restore into a library on your computer). You can then restore the file online when you are in the office. This is opposed to the check in/out system that is being removed.

Steven_M
45,180 Posts
Former Staff

Hi @seqtt 

 

Great to hear that you are interested in MYOB Team. Currently, it's part of our Early Adopters Program with it coming soon to all clients.

 

In terms of pricing, it currently is a free service while being it is part of the Early Adopters Program. Once out that stage, we would be able to fully communicate how the system does work, any additional pricing for using that service (on top of an AccountRight Subscription) and what are the key benefits to users. 

audio1
Experienced Cover User
13 Posts
Experienced Cover User

New notes feature on the MYOB Capture app  

Improvement: Add receipt details or notes alongside a transaction, making coding easier. 

 

Tried out this feature but can't see the note I made on the receipt I captured anywhere. Where does this note attach itself to when you are viewing the receipt from the In Tray in MYOB

Steven_M
45,180 Posts
Former Staff

Hi @audio1

 

MYOB Capture notes will be added to Bills in the Comment section on the transaction (do need to start to add in a transactional line for it to show). For Spend Money transactions it will show up in the Memo section.

EJY
Experienced Cover User
70 Posts
Experienced Cover User

Are users aware there is a 'known error' with the 2020.2 update where some employees super guarantee is not calculating properly.  I stumbled across a post - there has been no widespread notification from MYOB even though in my view this is a very serious issue that we should all be aware of.  I have 2 employees out of 30 that are affected?  I've checked previous pays and all was ok but this week the calculations for these 2 are incorrect.  I think everyone should be made aware.

melbournian1
Experienced Cover User
29 Posts
Experienced Cover User

Hi @EJY 

 

We are aware of that, i came across that earlier this week too, 5/26 supers have been calculated incorrectly, and i understand that MYOB's developer are looking into this.

 

I also noticed that one of our staff members tax withheld was $10 more than previous pay. Haven't checked other employees' tax amount, this one had same gross salary amount as previous pay period. Hope they are looking into this too.

 

 

someone
Trusted Cover User
112 Posts
Trusted Cover User

Hi @Suja_P ,

 


So long and farewell to loading tax tables—starting today, you’ll never have to upload another tax table again. AccountRight 2020.2 will automatically update tax tables each year and go that one step further and choose the right tax table for you.

When or how often does the system check for this?

 

Will this work for those that have multiple company files running offline and only 1 subscription?

melbournian1
Experienced Cover User
29 Posts
Experienced Cover User

@DianneRaye I had the same problems last week, you may also want to check the superannuation amount. MYOB team mentioned they were going to look into the superannuation issue last week, but haven't heard anything further from them yet.

 

No one else mentioned about tax withheld amount, except for you and me. I hope MYOB team are looking into this as well.

 

 

Tracey_H
12,172 Posts
Former Staff

Hi @DianneRaye and @Emma1201 

 

We are not aware of any issues with PAYG calculating incorrectly in 2020.2. I have moved your comments to a new thread so that I can get further information and look into this for you.

 

 

H-TS
Trusted User
461 Posts
Trusted User

Aaargh. Another new thread for me to try and find so I can track it for confirmation the issue is no longer an issue before I install this update!!!!
Pretty sure @melbournian1 will be interested in that new thread too since they were first to mention it, last week. Could you please provide the link to the new post? I just searched for it and can't find it.

 

 

Edit 11/6: 
For anyone else looking to follow the "possible issues with PAYG thread", it's moved to here: https://community.myob.com/t5/AccountRight-Staffing-and/Re-AccountRight-2020-2-is-now-available/td-p... 

seqtt
Trusted Cover User
130 Posts
Trusted Cover User

Thanks @melbournian1 and @EJY  - checked my super,  1/14 calculated incorrectly week ending 07/06/20.  Now off to check the PAYG

H-TS
Trusted User
461 Posts
Trusted User

Ooooh! Yippee. [Read: Sarcasm]

I earned the "You're Back!" Badge. 

 

"You're back 3 days in a row! That deserves this shiny new badge to celebrate."

 

No, it means the software is not working like it should. 

MBLegADL
Experienced Cover User
115 Posts
Experienced Cover User

@Tracey_H are you going to let your clients know when all of these 2020.2..... issues are resolved.

Considering the atrocious rollout of this beta version you released, I don't want to update until these are fixed.

There is enough to do this time of year without now having to worry about incorrect super and payg calculations. 

Since MYOB also broke the sort order of electronic payments - suppliers and payroll to be in whatever random order MYOB feels like you have already added extra hours of work with this error, I am not about to want to add more issues to this frustrating program.

 

WILL YOU ACTUALLY LET CLIENTS KNOW WHEN THESE MAJOR ISSUES ARE FIXED OR DO WE KEEP GETTING NEW THREADS TO FIND????

EJY
Experienced Cover User
70 Posts
Experienced Cover User

It is so good to see I am not the only one totally frustrated by the way we get notification of issues and fixes from MYOB - I thought maybe I just didn't understand how it all works?   Personally I think this forum and having to post everything via individual posts is terrible but ringing MYOB is hopeless - if you can get through the hours of hold times.

 

In case you are interested - FYI I wrote this on another thread;

 

Can I ask another question - how I can best keep informed of posts like this as this is very useful and I genuinely don't know how to find relevant alerts to known issues/errors in MYOB in a timely manner?

I have over recent times had threee or four instances where I have stumbled across apparant 'bugs' i.e. things that appeared not to be working properly in MYOB only to find it's a known error or already reported.  I understand there must be lots of little glitches but how can I get to a point where I get advice on them so I am aware in advance?

As an example this issue of the superannuation calculating incorrectly I stumbled across completely by chance and otherwise would be completely unaware and I do have employee records affected.  I also would have had no idea about the post '2020.2.1: Things you should know' if you hadn't mentioned it in your reply?

I get release notes, etc from MYOB but is there a way that MYOB communicate to all users known errors/bugs, etc so we can all be aware?

While this community forum is useful I personally find it very hard to navigate and frankly I don't have time to just troll around in it trying to find  information - particularly when I don't really know what I should be looking for.

Can I please plead with MYOB (again!) - to streamline their communication somehow.  As an example - I believe ALL users using payroll functions should be made aware of the error in superannuation calculations as we propably need to apply manual recalculations.  At the moment it seems if you don't find the right post you wouldn't know?  Considering MYOB are only working on a fix i.e. we don't know how long this error will affect our payroll - why isn't there a universal message?

You send invoices to all users why can't you send important messages as well?  This is a genuine suggestion as it is to me a major frustration with MYOB customer service and support.  Some feedback on this would be appreciated or advice on what I am missing or how this can be put on MYOBs agenda at least?

 

I can't see why MYOB find it so hard - they have referred my suggestiont to the release team!

Steven_M
45,180 Posts
Former Staff

Hi @MBLegADL 

 

In-product messaging will be available to let clients know when the respective patch is available to resolve the issues that clients have been reported. This will be in addition to messages posted on the Forum.

AlanT
Partner
2,368 Posts
Partner

@Steven_M 

 

The in-product message needs to be there now warning the people who run payroll that they need to check the calculations of PAYG-W & Super.

 

Alan

MBLegADL
Experienced Cover User
115 Posts
Experienced Cover User

@Steven_M  - I agree with Alan T - why is there not large letter red messaging on the opening window warning clients about this.

The in-product messaging -= do you mean that yellow bar saying an update is available.  So will mine update from saying 2020.2 now available  - to something like "the final tested version of the update is finally available"????

 

LIke many others why should we have to log in to community each day to see what part of myob is broken today???

Incidentally - regarding the PAYG issue it may not be confined to the disastrous update.

 

Out of curiosity I exported to excel and ran formulas checking the super calcs.  I am using 2020.1.23.5508 and the super calcs are not correct for some employees.  Guess I'm now spending the morning checking PAYG in case, and fixing the payroll.  

 

doublet
Trusted Cover User
120 Posts
Trusted Cover User

If MYOB do put banners up warning people about the super not calculating correctly, can you please only do it for those who have the payroll, or whatever is applicable? It doesn't apply to me, so I would be pretty annoyed by a dirty great banner sitting on top of my window taking real estate away from my forms that I have made fit my screen.

Or at least put up a "never show me this banner again" option that I can click on to get rid of the thing.

 

I must say I am rather amazed that major changes are being implemented this close to the end of financial year!

 

Thank you.

Teresa

AlanT
Partner
2,368 Posts
Partner

Hi @doublet 

 

Yes, it should only show when a user accesses the Payroll Command Centre. And yes, the users should be able to dismiss the message just as they should be able to dismiss the update message.

 

Alan

Obergius
2 Posts
Cover User

New Delete Pay Superannuation Feature Doesn't Seem to Be Working

 

I've just upgraded to Build 2020.2.23.9038 because I was very keen to delete some old super transactions.

 

I highlighted the offending transaction went to the Edit menu and clicked on Delete Pay Superannuation and nothing happened.

 

Is there a trick to this?

 

Steven_M
45,180 Posts
Former Staff

Hi Everyone

A new update, AR 2020.2.2 (full installer), with fixes to several issues in AccountRight 2020.2, including an issue with Super and Expense calculations, is now available from my.MYOB. A patch update for those already on a previous version of AR 2020.2. is available through In-Product messaging.
 
We strongly encourage all users to install the patch.
AlanT
Partner
2,368 Posts
Partner

Hi @Steven_M 

 

Can I just say that the descriptions on the down load screen are both wrong and very misleading.

 

Firstly, you are referring to the build as version 2020.2.2, but that is not how it is described in the file names on the download page.

 

Secondly, the heading says version 2020.1

 

And finally, the date of the build in the heading suggests that these are older builds - perhaps the original builds from a month ago that contained the errors.

 

It would be good if these details were more accurate as it does not give a lot of confidence that much care has been taken in preparing the release of this build.

 

AlanT

 

Screen.jpg

FultonGood
Experienced Cover User
51 Posts
Experienced Cover User

Has anyone else had their dictionary in invoices deleted? 

BookkeepingWA
2 Posts
User

Are we still able to produce a payroll summary if we have registered for STP. I understand that we don't need to, and they are automatically uploaded to myGov, but not everybody is able to or likes to use myGov. How ddo we access the option?

AlanT
Partner
2,368 Posts
Partner

Hi @BookkeepingWA 

 

I have also requested the ability to efficiently generate these reports again.  You might like to vote for their return here:

 

https://community.myob.com/t5/AccountRight-Idea-Exchange/Please-return-the-Prepare-Payment-Summaries...

 

AlanT

 

TanyaAAA
1 Post
Cover User

Can you advise how you enter reportable FBT for employees for upload to the ATO via STP?

YT2
2 Posts
User

In the Payroll reporting centre under EOFY Finalisation the figures in the Gross payments(YTD) column do not include allowances.

Subsequently this does not reflect the correct value in the Payment Summary. How do i rectify this.

AlanT
Partner
2,368 Posts
Partner

Hello AccountRight Development Team,

 

With the release of AR 2020.2 you have removed the ability to roll back a financial year because your release notes say it is no longer needed:

 

"To tie in with removing the need to close a payroll year, it only made sense to get rid of the need to roll back the financial year. In AccountRight 2020.2, you can now make adjustments in other financial years without having to roll back the current year.

 

And because we don’t need it anymore, we’ve removed the Roll Back a Financial Year option in the File menu. "

 

While I am sure this seemed like a good idea at the time, unfortunately you have not completely eliminated the need to roll back a financial year.

 

Once you have rolled forward a year, you can now post entires to prior years but you cannot print all the reports relevant to those prior years.

 

The Last Year Analysis reports for the balance sheet and Profit and Loss accounts cannot be generated for any year other than the current year, so if  you do make a change to a prior year, you are unable to re-generate these reports.

 

The Profit and Loss statement and Balance Sheet can be generated without comparatives for last year, this year and next year, but that is all. 

 

What is the point of being able to post to a prior year without being able to generate the reports for it?

 

The same applies to all the GST reports. 

 

Could you please either fix all the reports so they can be generated for all years, or bring back the ability to roll back a financial year.

 

Thank you,

 

AlanT

kym1
2 Posts
User

"As Microsoft is no longer supporting some of the backend technology (SQL Server CE 3.5) that AccountRight uses, we needed to make changes " .... Please explain! I see on the Microsoft web site that they released Service Pack 2 on April 22 this year - hardly amounts to no support for SQL Server Compact 3.5!

Steven_M
45,180 Posts
Former Staff

Hi @kym1 

 

We would recommend reviewing Microsoft's Lifecycle Policy if you have information relating to Microsoft no longer supporting a product. As to Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 directly, the following made be of assistance: Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5

 

My understanding is that the Service Pack 2 of Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 was released in 2018. Microsoft updated their website in April 2020, so it may appear that the update was released at that time rather than in 2018.