Description:
MYOB Plus offers the benefits of an integrated, all-in-one system without the steep learning curve of other business management packages on the market. MYOB focuses on keeping track of where your money is going and where it's coming from, without the hassles of knowing a debit from a credit (although this knowledge is helpful to any businessperson.) We test-drove MYOB Plus from start to finish, tackling as many tasks as possible, from initial company set-up to invoicing clients. Two approaches made us feel comfortable immediately: the New Company File and Set-Up Assistants were both typical wizard-like interfaces that walked us through selecting our company type, creating records for customers, and choosing our accounts. The second method, which we used for general sale and project entry, is a handsome graphical interface that presents the user with types of tasks in common language such as "Receive and Spend Money." Just about every type of business is represented; we set up a freelance writing company, but there were also countless options for other types of businesses as diverse as landscaping, pet grooming, copy centers, religious organizations, restaurants, and many more. Each company type comes equipped with a set of common accounts for that type of operation (ours included specific accounts for "Writing Income," "Editing," and "Consulting"). After setting up the initial company file, diving into sale and project descriptions was easy. Projects (or jobs) are stored with numeric references and can be tracked throughout their progress. Activity slips that are tied to specific employees made it easy to figure out billable hours and job completion. The integration between sales details, accounts, purchases, payroll, and jobs was truly seamless, which lent a comforting feeling of control to the entire process. The invoicing process was superb: an inviting screen with clear options helped us create a professional-looking invoice, complete with an automatically tracked invoice number, which we were able to export (to file, fax, or e-mail). The output is a clean PDF file that prints clearly. While MYOB Plus follows all standard Windows conventions for file management, copying, pasting, and other commands, we found certain portions of the interface to be confusing and awkward. When entering a new customer, the only text field present is one for the customer name. Other fields only appear after pressing Tab or Enter; clicking the mouse on the next field label has no effect. Despite certain UI inconsistencies, we found this package to be extremely accessible, even to novice accountants, sales managers, project leaders, or any combination of these. --Emilie Herbst
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