MYOB Business – Changes to MYOB Essentials and AccountRight Products

MYOB have recently announced MYOB Business – a consolidation of the Essentials and AccountRight product lines on a single SaaS platform. MYOB Business will replace the MYOB Essentials and MYOB AccountRight product lines for new customers in Australia. There are now four subscription plans in the MYOB Business product suite:

  • MYOB Business Lite
  • MYOB Business Pro
  • MYOB Business AccountRight Plus
  • MYOB Business AccountRight Premier

The good news for anyone using our fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) or fmAccounting Link (MYOB Essentials Edition) integration solutions – they will continue to work as usual as this is essentially just a name change. The API has been renamed to the MYOB Business API but this is a name change only – there are no technical changes to the API itself. References to the AccountRight/new Essentials API will be phased out and replaced with references to the MYOB Business API.

We will also be updating our product names to align with the new MYOB Business name and are exploring whether to consolidate our existing AccountRight and Essentials solutions into a single solution that will work with all plans in the MYOB Business product suite.

You can read more about the launch of MYOB Business and what this means for existing customers of Essentials and AccountRight on the MYOB Blog.

Databuzz releases updates to fmAccounting Link for MYOB AccountRight and MYOB Essentials

Sydney, Australia – June 22, 2021 – Databuzz today announced updates to their fmAccounting Link solutions for integrating the Claris FileMaker Platform with MYOB AccountRight and MYOB Essentials (Australia and New Zealand versions).

fmAccounting Link (MYOB Essentials Edition) v2 works with the new upgraded version of MYOB Essentials. MYOB Essentials is an online accounting solution for small and medium sized businesses and an upgraded version was released last year powered by the AccountRight platform. Existing customers are being progressively upgraded to the new Essentials.

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) v2 runs natively on the FileMaker 16 or higher platforms, including FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Go and FileMaker Server without requiring a FileMaker plug-in. The Cloud authentication has been streamlined to make authenticating with the MYOB Cloud API easier and native FileMaker features are now being used for navigation, script parameters and Card windows.

fmAccounting Link for MYOB AccountRight and MYOB Essentials allows you to upload and download data between your Claris FileMaker solution and MYOB AccountRight and MYOB Essentials. fmAccounting Link removes double data entry and human errors saving your company significant time, money and hassle by automating the exchange of data between FileMaker and MYOB AccountRight and MYOB Essentials.

fmAccounting Link for MYOB AccountRight and MYOB Essentials are completely unlocked allowing you to integrate them into your existing FileMaker solution. You can copy and paste examples showing you how to authenticate with the MYOB AccountRight API and upload Contacts, Invoices, Payments and more at the click of a button.

fmAccounting Link for MYOB AccountRight and MYOB Essentials features include:

  • works with FileMaker v16 or later
  • completely unlocked for you to integrate into your own FileMaker solution
  • can be hosted by FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Server or FileMaker Cloud
  • works with Macintosh and Windows
  • MYOB AccountRight: supports AccountRight running in the Cloud or on the Desktop (onlineand offline)
  • MYOB Essentials: supports the new Essentials

“We’re excited to release updates to our MYOB accounting integration solutions for both AccountRight and the new Essentials in time for the start of a new financial year,” said Andrew Duncan, CEO of Databuzz. “We’ve incorporated a lot of the feedback we’ve received since we first released v1 back in 2016. Authenticating with the MYOB API is now simpler and can be refreshed automatically, and we can now handle duplicated MYOB numbers for Invoices, Bills, Purchase Orders and Payments when downloading from MYOB.”

Availability, Pricing, and Compatibility

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) is available in a number of licenses: Company, Vertical Solution and Developer. It is available now from the Databuzz website at https://www.databuzz.com.au. Company Licenses start at AUD $695.00 and include 12 months of updates. fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) requires FileMaker Pro v16 or later.

fmAccounting Link (MYOB Essentials Edition) is available in a number of licenses: Company, Vertical Solution and Developer. It is available now from the Databuzz website at https://www.databuzz.com.au. Company Licenses start at AUD $795.00 and include 12 months of updates. fmAccounting Link (MYOB Essentials Edition) requires FileMaker Pro v16 or later.

Upgrade Information

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) v2 is a free upgrade for owners of fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) v1 who purchased a license on or after January 01, 2020. All other owners of fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) v1 can upgrade for 40% off the current price. Please contact Databuzz to obtain your discount coupon.

fmAccounting Link (MYOB EssentialsEdition) v2 is a free upgrade for owners of fmAccounting Link (MYOB EssentialsEdition) v1 who purchased a license on or after January 01, 2020. All other owners of fmAccounting Link (MYOB EssentialsEdition) v1 can upgrade for 40% off the current price. Please contact Databuzz to obtain your discount coupon.

Media/Customer Contact:

Andrew Duncan
Phone: +61 418 468 103
sales@databuzz.com.au
https://www.databuzz.com.au

About Databuzz: Databuzz is a long-standing member of the FileMaker Business Alliance. We have been developing and deploying FileMaker solutions for clients in Australia and internationally since 1999. Our clients are individuals, small-medium businesses, government agencies and multi-national corporations. Databuzz was founded by Andrew Duncan, a Certified FileMaker 18 Developer. For more information please visit our website at https://www.databuzz.com.au.

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Claris and FileMaker are trademarks of Claris International Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Claris FileMaker WebDirect is a trademark of Claris International Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) Now Runs Natively on FileMaker 16 or Higher Platform

We’re pleased to announce that v1.4 of fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) is now available and includes a number of new features, including native support for FileMaker Pro v16 and later. This is a free update to all existing customers (simply download using the same link that was on your original order email).

With the release of the FileMaker 16 platform we got a number of new functions and script steps, including support for working with JSON data and being able to specify supported cURL options with the Insert From URL script step. These new features meant that we were no longer dependent on plug-in functions and we could replace these with native FileMaker features.

We’ve updated all the requests for downloading and uploading to the AccountRight API to use native FileMaker functions and script steps so you no longer need to use a FileMaker plug-in if you’re using FileMaker Pro v16 or higher. This means you can also use fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) on FileMaker Go natively (requires FileMaker Go 16 or higher).

Like our previous updates for native FileMaker functionality for our other products we’ve simply updated the scripts to check which version of FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Go or FileMaker Server is being used and if you’re using v15 or earlier we simply use the previous plug-in functionality, and if you’re using v16 or later we now use native functionality. Everything works exactly the same regardless of which version of FileMaker Pro you’re using, but we can now include support for FileMaker Go as well as having one less dependency to worry about.

This release also includes examples for downloading and uploading Timesheets as well as downloading Payroll Categories, and some example scripts for searching for Contacts in AccountRight by Company/Individual Name and Card ID.

You can get all the details on our version history page – if there are any additional features or examples you would like to see in fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) please get in touch and let us know. If you’re having any issues with downloading the new version please contact us if you need the link to be reset etc.

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) v1.3 Update

We’ve just released an update to fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition), our FileMaker solution for integrating with MYOB AccountRight in Australia and New Zealand. Version 1.3 is a big release packed with lots of new examples. Here’s some of the highlights:

  • added Sale Orders examples (download and upload Sale Orders)
  • added Supplier Payments examples (download and upload Supplier Payments)
  • added Inventory Adjustments examples (download and upload Inventory Adjustments)
  • added Inventory Item Price Matrix (Custom Price Levels) examples (download and update Custom Price Levels)
  • added new button/script to just get the Contact Balances from MYOB
  • added button to download current balance from MYOB for an Invoice
  • added button to download any Customer Payments from MYOB for an Invoice

Once again this is a free update for all existing customers. You can view the full release notes on our version history page.

MYOB Announces End of Support for MYOB AccountRight Classic v19

MYOB have recently announced that as of 30th September 2019 they will no longer provide features, patches, compliance updates or product support for AccountRight Classic (sometimes known as v19) in Australia and New Zealand. I’ve often wondered when MYOB would cease to support the Classic version of AccountRight. We get a lot of enquiries from customers in Australia and New Zealand still using v19 which lacks the API functionality that we use with our FileMaker MYOB Integration solutions, so we’re pleased to see that MYOB will be ceasing support for v19 and encouraging customers to upgrade to the modern versions of AccountRight or MYOB Essentials that have cloud support as well as API support.

For customers still using AccountRight Classic/v19 who upgrade to AccountRight 2018 or MYOB Essentials you will now be able to take advantage of many new features and you will also be able to integrate AccountRight or Essentials with your FileMaker solution in ways that were not previously possible. AccountRight Classic used ODBC to interact with AccountRight which had a number of limitations. For example you were limited to creating Windows-based applications that were primarily desktop bound. With the new AccountRight Live API, it’s easy to create applications using any programming language, for a variety of platforms, including Mac and Windows, as well as for devices runinng iOS, Android and Windows Mobile operating systems.

Databuzz has been integrating FileMaker solutions with AccountRight Live and Essentials since the APIs were first available a number of years ago. We’ve also created some products that show you how to integrate FileMaker with AccountRight Live or Essentials:



If you’re planning on upgrading from AccountRight Classic to either AccountRight 2018 or MYOB Essentials and you need to replace your existing ODBC integration or would like to discuss how you can integrate your FileMaker solution please get in touch to arrange a free consultation and discuss your requirements.

fmAccounting Link and Two-factor authentication with Xero and MYOB

 

As more IT services move to the cloud the risk of unauthorised access and security breaches becomes something that most small business owners need to manage in order to protect access to their critical business systems and sensitive data. The past few years has seen a significant increase in the number of online services coming under cyber attack and sustaining security breaches, as well as the rise in identify theft and online fraud. Security industry research shows that over 40% of cyber attacks last year targeted small businesses and this is increasing.

In additional to the traditional username and password login, many online services now offer an extra layer of protection in the form of two-factor authentication, also commonly referred to as 2FA. With two-step authentication enabled you need to provide two authentication “factors” to login alongside your username. The first factor is something you know – typically your account password.  The second factor is something you have – typically a unique code that’s generated by a separate app on your smartphone or sent via SMS to your registered mobile phone.

Some of the largest online services including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn now offer two-factor authentication – users will typically have to first login using their username/password, then immediately have to enter a 2nd level of authentication (typically a one time code that is sent via SMS or generated via an authenticator app like Google Authenticator).

Two-factor authentication is available for both Xero and MYOB, and in Australia the use of 2FA will be mandatory for accountants and bookkeepers by 30 June 2018 to meet new industry standards set out by the Australian Tax Office. We’ve been using two-factor authentication with Xero and MYOB and are pleased to report there are no issues with 2FA and the use of fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) or fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition).

With our fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) solution we connect to the Xero API via the use of a Private Application, so users are not required to authenticate each time they connect to the Xero API to upload or download data. With fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) if you are using the MYOB Cloud to host your AccountRight company file you will simply be presented with the additional login page to enter your 2FA code – here’s a screenshot showing this:

You can learn more about two-factor authentication for Xero and MYOB at the following links:

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) and AccountRight 2018.1.1

We’ve been testing fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) with AccountRight 2018.1.1 that was released this week and have not found any issues in our testing so far. We’ve been able to download data from AccountRight and upload data to AccountRight successfully so we don’t anticipate any issues with AccountRight 2018.1.1, but please let us know if you encounter any issues when working with AccountRight 2018.1.1.

MYOB have also recently added a new beta API endpoint for Quotes that will allow you to read, create, update and delete sales quotes via the API. This will work in a similar way to Invoices and Orders, and will be available for all quote layouts including Item, Miscellaneous, Professional, Service and Time Billing. Once the Quotes API endpoint is out of beta and available to all users we will add examples for working with Quotes to the fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) solution as a free update for all existing customers.

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) Updated for Bills

We’ve just released an update to fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition), our FileMaker solution for integrating with MYOB AccountRight in Australia and New Zealand, with examples for working with Bills in MYOB. With v1.25 of fmAccounting Link you can now use FileMaker to:

  • download Bills from AccountRight to FileMaker (either all Bills or filtered by Bill Date)
  • create Bills in FileMaker and upload them to MYOB
  • convert a Purchase Order to a Bill in FileMaker and upload the converted Bill to MYOB

This is a free update for all existing customers – you can view the full release notes on our version history page.

Eliminating Double Data Entry with eCommerce, FileMaker and Accounting Integration

Are you a small business that uses FileMaker to run your business (Contacts, Invoices, Suppliers, Leads etc) but also have an online store and use another accounting software? Do you find yourself re-entering online orders multiple times in your FileMaker CRM then once again in your accounting software?

There is a better way – we know as we once were in that situation ourselves. Over the past five years we’ve introduced a number of new systems into our business operations, including:

  • 2 online stores for our main Databuzz site as well as for our fmSMS product both running WooCommerce
  • switched from a  desktop accounting software to the Xero Cloud accounting platform

We also use the FileMaker platform internally to run our business and like many of our customers we suddenly found ourselves in the position where we had to enter a new sales order multiple times in different systems. The workflow for a new order became:

  1. receive notification via email of a new online order
  2. create a new order in our FileMaker CRM and copy/paste the customer and order details from the email
  3. logon to Xero and create a new Customer and Invoice and enter the Payment manually via copy/paste from FileMaker

The online order was being manually typed twice in FileMaker and our accounting software, leading to data entry errors and wasted time handling the same order multiple times. At Databuzz we like to “eat out own dogfood”  and most of our Products have been the result of a need to solve a problem within our own business that we suspected other businesses would also have. With the help of our fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) solution as well as fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) and the power of webhooks we’ve been able to completely eliminate all data entry for our online orders.

The new streamlined process looks like this:

  1. a new order is created in one of our online stores which triggers a WooCommerce webhook to push that new Order to our internal version of fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition).
  2. this calls a FileMaker script which then pushes the online order to our internal version of fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition). It checks to see if the customer already exists, otherwise it creates a new one.
  3. a staff member does a quick sanity check to make sure everything looks correct and then clicks a button to upload the new Invoice and Payment to Xero.

We’ve managed to reduce this business process from 5-10 minutes to 5-10 seconds –  this has freed up time to be spent on more productive tasks instead of mindless double data entry. Whether you’re using WooCommerce or Shopify for your online store and Xero or MYOB AccountRight/Essentials for your accounting it is possible to integrate all of these with FileMaker in the middle so that new online orders flow directly into FileMaker and then into your accounting software without any more double data entry.

If you would like to discuss integrating your FileMaker solution with your eCommerce system please contact us for a free initial consultation to discuss your requirements. We also have a number of FileMaker integration solutions available if you would prefer to do the integration in-house:

Downloading the Xero/MYOB Invoice PDF

Whether you’re using Xero or MYOB AccountRight for your business accounting software there are times when you would prefer to send your customer the Invoice that Xero and MYOB generate natively. For example if you have added an online Payment option to your Xero Organisation you might prefer to send the customer the Xero generated Invoice with the “View and pay online now” link in the PDF for customers to click and pay online with a credit card. Similarly if you’re using MYOB AccountRight you might to send your customer the invoice using one of the MYOB M-Powered layout forms.

For our fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) solution we’ve already given users the ability to:

  • get the Online URL for an Invoice and include that in an email etc that they send to clients so they can choose the “View and pay online now” option
  • download the Xero Invoice PDF into a FileMaker container field and then save that to the desktop etc or include that in an email to the customer in place of a FileMaker layout based Invoice

We’ve been working on creating a similar feature for our fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) solution and it will be included in the next update. Like the Xero solution it will allow users to click a button to download the MYOB PDF invoice into a FileMaker container field and then save that to the desktop or include that in an email to the customer. We currently have the ability to download all the Form Templates setup in your MYOB Company File:

and then specify the Printed Form for each Customer in the fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) file:

 

This is then used as the default when you request the MYOB Invoice PDF, however you can specify a different form template to be used by passing a parameter with the request for the Invoice PDF. Here’s a quick video that demonstrates creating an Invoice and then requesting the PDF from MYOB: