Should I learn MYOB or Xero?

MYOB listed on the stock exchange in May 2015 at a commanding 2 Billion dollar price tag! If there was ever a question about precisely how valuable this accounting software company was,  the share market debut confirmed it. MYOB is still the big daddy of accounting software in Australia.

So what is our opinion of MYOB now it is a listed company? Well business as usual. There are over 2 million small businesses in Australia so there remains a big opportunity for MYOB to expand. Of course it cuts both ways. MYOB’s existing dominant market share presents a delicious target for their main competitors, Xero and Quickbooks. To combat this, MYOB is making a big move into a comprehensive cloud-based accounting software offering. This is in contrast to their traditional desktop driven software.  While ‘cloud’ presents a natural opportunity (and cost saving over time), the first mover in this cloud space is undoubtedly MYOB’s nemesis …Xero.

Beautiful Accounting at Xero

Xero’s tagline is “beautiful accounting”. While beautiful is probably not the first ‘thought bubble’ people might relate accounting software to, we’ve got to say Xero’s product is pretty amazing. The fact Xero built their software in the cloud from day 1, with no legacy issues (unlike MYOB with desktop versions needing to sync with the cloud) means Xero have achieved their ‘beautiful’ goal in many ways. Nothing is ever perfect though. Xero’s inventory module gets a bit of negative stick from some users, in comparison to say MYOB which has a much more robust solution for firms that carry decent levels of inventory/stock.  Xero have created quite the cult following in the micro business segment – so watch this space. In fact, Monarch offers Xero as an alternative to MYOB for all its’ bookkeeping and accounting courses.

MYOB – learn it with Monarch

Monarch’s Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping has an entire module dedicated to learning MYOB! And for good reason. How can you go into a business and help manage their books without knowing how to process transactions and create financial reports? Well you can’t! Welcome to accounting software 101. So what do you get on your learning journey you might ask? Well, to start you receive a student edition of MYOB, and all assessments can be competed online (…in the cloud). Students consistently provide great feedback that our online learning system (LMS) re-calibrates making life easier when  it comes to assessments. How so? Well when you think about it, any time a student enters an incorrect answer using MYOB, it impacts all future answers (…everything is interconnected). Monarch’s online LMS is so intelligent (…if we may say so ourselves) that all errors will first be captured (both for the student’s sake and Monarch’s) BUT then the answer automatically re-calibrates so that future transactions are not affected and basically ‘balance’. In accounting it is all about balancing! And we are not clowns at a circus. If you want to know more about Monarch’s courses, call our friendly course consultants on 1300 738 955 🙂