Getting Started Tutorial

Welcome — 2

Welcome
Welcome! This tutorial will give you a quick introduction to your Viewing this tutorial Use the navigation buttons at the
MYOB accounting software and help you understand a few bottom of every page to move through the tutorial. Use the
accounting concepts along the way. Front button to move to the next page, the Back button to
You can use this tutorial with the most recent versions of MYOB move to the previous page and the Home button to go to the
Accounting, MYOB Accounting Plus, and MYOB Premier; these beginning of the tutorial. You can also go directly to an exercise
products will be referred to as ‘your MYOB software’ throughout or topic by using the contents panel in Acrobat Reader located
this tutorial. on the left-hand side of the screen.
If the screenshots are not clear, try selecting 200% as the zoom in
Working through this tutorial We encourage you to set aside the toolbar.
some time to complete this tutorial. You don’t need to complete
Your monitor’s screen resolution and colour settings determine
all the exercises in one go. However, keep in mind that most
how the screenshots will appear.
exercises in this tutorial build on the ones before them, and
therefore must be completed sequentially. For example, you
Printing this tutorial While this tutorial has been designed to
need to complete Exercise 1 (Receive Money) before completing
be viewed on screen, you can also print it. You should be able to
Exercise 3 (Reconcile your bank account). You can stop the
fit two tutorial pages on an A4 page (portrait orientation) if your
tutorial at any time and return to it later. The changes you make
printer has this feature.
to the company file will be saved automatically.
 The Company File — 3

The Company File

The first step to using your MYOB software is to create a Back up your company file Use the Backup command to
company file, give it a name and save it on your computer. regularly make copies of your company file to a CD or zip disk. If
Your company file contains all the information that you enter in your company file gets corrupted or is stolen, you will have a
your MYOB software. While some information is stored in other recent copy of your file to continue from.
folders on your hard drive (for example, customised reports are
Check your company file for errors You should routinely
saved in the Custom sub-folder on your hard drive), the actual
check your company file for data corruption. Depending on your
records and transactions are stored in your company file.
preference setting, you will be prompted to run the Verify
Company File command each time you open your company file
Protecting your company file and also before backing up data.
As your company file contains your important accounting
information, it is vital that you protect it accordingly. Optimise your company file Use the Optimisation Assistant
Unfortunately, hard disk failure, data corruption and theft can to remove the unused areas in your company file and keep your
and does happen. software running in top form.

Use the tools in your MYOB software to ensure your company

file is protected and that it is running in peak form.
 The Company File — 4

The tutorial company file When you open your company file, you will be prompted to
enter a User ID. This will identify you and ‘tag’ the transactions
For the purpose of this tutorial, we have already created a
you enter in the company file with your User ID. Some reports
company file. This file is called tutorial.dat, tutorial.pls or
tutorial.prm (depending on the MYOB product you are using). allow you to view the User ID of the person who entered the
transaction. Enter your name and then click OK to close the
Open the tutorial file To open the tutorial company file, in Sign-on window and the confirmation message that appears.
your MYOB software go to the File menu and choose Open, or Click Yes to the data verification message that appears, and then
click the Open button in the Welcome window. Open the click OK to proceed with the data verification process. This
Tutorial folder and double-click the tutorial company file. process may take a few minutes. When the verification process is
complete click OK. The command centre appears.
The exercises in this tutorial refer to account names, not account
numbers.
To ensure account names appear in the tutorial company file:
1 Go to the Setup menu and choose Preferences. The
Preferences window appears.
2 Click the Windows tab.
3 Click the Select and Display Account Name, Not Account
Number checkbox.
4 Click OK to close the Preferences window.
 Navigating your MYOB software — 5

Navigating your MYOB software

Using your MYOB software is easy, but you should be familiar
with the icons and keyboard commands that can help you
complete tasks quickly.

The command centre The command centre is the central

location for MYOB functions, such as sales, purchases, banking
and accounts.
The icons at the top of the window represent the various
command centres in your MYOB software. You can move from
one command centre to another by clicking these icons. The
Sales command centre is shown here.
Notice when you click an icon, the functions of that particular
command centre appear in the flowchart below the icons.
The command centre also gives you quick access to the To Do
List, reports, and analysis and transaction locating tools.
 Navigating your MYOB software — 6

The Lists menu As you set up your MYOB accounting Zoom arrows These are displayed next to various fields
software, you will be entering details in many lists, for example, throughout your MYOB software and allow you to see more
the Cards List, the Accounts List and the Jobs List. detail about a transaction or record.
These lists are all located in the Lists menu, accessible from the zoom arrow
main menu bar at the top of the your MYOB accounting software
window.

A white zoom arrow indicates that you can make changes to the
detail of the transaction or record.
A grey zoom arrow indicates that either it is not possible to edit
the details or you do not allow editing of transactions once
recorded. (You can change this preference in the Security view of
the Preferences window.)
 Navigating your MYOB software — 7

Search icons These allow you to open a search list window Tab keys Pressing the TAB key will move you from one field to
that contains records you have previously entered in your MYOB the next in a window. Pressing SHIFT+TAB will move you back a
accounting software, such as customers or shipping methods. field.
You can then select a record from the search list.
Shortcut keys There are shortcut keys for most windows in
your MYOB accounting software. For example, to access the
Cards List, press CTRL+F on your keyboard. To view the available
search icon
shortcut keys, have a look through the menus in the main menu
bar and each window or function that has a shortcut key will
Calendar Selecting the dates to enter in the Date fields is easy display the keys to press.
with the your MYOB accounting software calendar. Press SPACE, +
or - in any Date field and a calendar will appear from which you Enter key You can customise the way you use the ENTER key in
can select the date to use. You can use the + and - keys on your your MYOB accounting software in the Preferences window (go
keyboard’s number pad to scroll through the days and then press to the Setup menu, choose Preferences and then click the
ENTER to select the date. Windows tab).
 Setting up Accounts — 8

Setting up Accounts
The Accounts List Your company file contains the Accounts To access the Accounts List of your tutorial company file,
List, which is a group of classifications used for organising the 1 Go to the Accounts command centre.
accounting entries of your business.
2 Click Accounts List. The Accounts List window appears.
When you create the company file, you have the option of
importing an accounts list from your accountant, building one
from scratch or starting off with one of the many preset accounts
lists provided. You can then customise it to suit your business,
adding the accounts you need and deleting the ones you are not
likely to use.
 Setting up Accounts — 9

Account types Your Accounts List contains eight types of Click the zoom arrow next to the Cheque Account. A window
accounts: similar to the one shown below appears.
• Assets (1-)
• Liabilities (2-)
• Equity (3-)
• Income (4-)
• Cost of Sales (5-)
• Expenses (6-)
• Other Income (8-)
• Other Expense (9-)
The Cheque Account is an example of an asset account. The
Cheque Account is where your business keeps its operating
money. This money is owned by the business and, in accounting
terms, this type of account is classified as an asset.
While you can choose to search for and select accounts based on
their account name, when setting up accounts, you also need to
provide an account number. In the tutorial company file, the
Cheque Account has an account number of 1-1110. The prefix 1-
indicates it is an asset and 1110 determines the position of this
account in your Accounts List.
 Setting up Accounts — 10

Linked accounts When viewing the Accounts List, you may

have noticed that some accounts have an asterisk in the Linked
column. This indicates that the account is used by your MYOB
accounting software as a default account for a particular
function.
For example, notice that the Cheque Account is the linked
account for customer receipts. This means that when entering
customer payments, the Cheque Account will be the default
account used for receiving the payments. You can change this by
clicking the zoom arrow next to the linked account description.
You can also view and edit the linked accounts by going to the
Setup menu, choosing Linked Accounts and choosing either
Accounts & Banking Accounts, Sales Accounts, Purchases
Accounts, or Payroll Accounts.
Note that changing linked accounts will not affect any
transactions that have already been recorded - the change will
apply to any new transactions you enter.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 11

Spending and Receiving Money

Introduction
It’s simple to track the money you spend and receive in your
MYOB software. The Spend Money and Receive Money
functions can be found in the Banking command centre.
You can use the Spend Money window to record cheques for
purchases or expenses you won’t be entering purchase orders for
(using the Purchases command centre), such as postage, rent
and owner drawings.
You can use the Receive Money window to transfer money
between your bank accounts, record interest or record the
miscellaneous cash receipts you receive.
To ensure you have accurately entered your transactions, you
can reconcile MYOB’s accounts with your bank statement using
the Reconcile Accounts function also found in the Banking
command centre.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 12

The Bank Register The Bank Register is a central location

from which you can spend or receive money, add cash sales and
1
enter payments for invoices made using the Sales feature.
To display the Bank Register window go to the Banking
command centre and click Bank Register. 2
There are three main sections in the Bank Register window:
1 Account Selection: Use the top part of the Bank Register to 3
select the appropriate account, to select the date range to use
when displaying transactions in the middle section of the
window, and to import an electronic bank statement.
2 Account Details: The middle section of the Bank Register
displays all the transactions made in the selected account for
the selected period. Each transaction has a zoom arrow that
you can click to see the original transaction window.
3 Transaction Details: Create a new transaction by selecting the
appropriate transaction type and then entering the details of
the transaction. To enter a complex or detailed transaction,
click the Split button.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 13

Exercise 1— Receive money 4 Tab to the Amount Received field and enter $30,000 (simply
enter 30000 and the amount will be formatted correctly).
Let’s assume you need to deposit $30,000 cash in the business
The Payor field is where you can record the writer of the
cheque account to fund the initial activities of the company.
cheque. We will leave it blank in our example.
To record the entry:
5 Tab to the Payment Method field and type Cash.
1 Go to the Banking command centre and click Receive
Money. The Receive Money window appears.
2 Click the Deposit to Account radio button. The Cheque
Account appears automatically in the adjacent field.
NOTE
Display account names, not account numbers If the field
only accepts account numbers, you need to go to the Preferences
window and mark the Select and Display Account Name, Not
Account Number checkbox. See ‘To ensure account names appear
in the tutorial company file:’ on page 4.

3 Enter 7/7/03 in the Date field and press TAB.

Note: If you are completing this tutorial before July 7, 2003
and receive a date warning, click OK to ignore the message.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 14

6 Tab to the Memo field and type Initial funding of the company.
7 Tab to the Account Name field. Here you specify an account
that can explain the increase in the cheque account selected
at the top of the window.
In our example, we can explain the increase as a deposit by
you, the owner, into the business. In accounting terms, you
are increasing the equity or your share of the business;
therefore, the appropriate account to use would be the
Partner A Capital account.

NOTE
If you cannot recall the account name If you cannot recall
the account name you need to enter, press TAB to display the Select
from List window. Double-click the Equity account named Partner
A Capital.

9 Click Record. The entry is saved and the window cleared.

8 Tab to the Amount field. The amount of $30,000 appears
automatically. 10 Click Cancel to return to the Banking command centre.
Congratulations! You have just completed the first entry in this
tutorial.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 15

Review Let’s see how this transaction affects your Accounts

List:
• The Cheque Account has increased by $30,000.
• The Partner A Capital account has increased by $30,000.
In other words, your company now has $30,000 worth of assets,
and your contribution to the company (equity) has increased by
$30,000.
Notice that there are two entries for this transaction. You could
explain these entries by saying, ‘As a result of increasing the
Cheque Account balance, my share of the company (Partner A
Capital) has increased’. Accountants call this double-entry
accounting.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 16

Exercise 2—Spend money

We now have money to buy furniture and equipment. We buy a
desk, chair and computer for $5,500 from Acme Business
Supplies.
We could record this purchase using the Purchases command
centre, but since this is a one-time purchase, we will use the
Spend Money window instead.
To record the purchase:
1 Go to the Banking command centre and click Spend
Money.
2 Enter 7/7/03 in the Date field and press TAB.
3 Enter 5500 in the Amount field and press TAB.

4 Type Acme Business Supplies in the Card field and press TAB.
Since you don’t have a record for Acme Business Supplies,
the Select from List window appears.
5 Click the New button. The Card Information window
appears.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 17

6 Complete the Profile view of the Card Information window 7 Click the Buying Details tab and enter 12345678000 in the
as shown below. Make sure the card type is set to Supplier. ABN field, which is Acme Business Supplies’ ABN.
8 Click OK to close this window and then press TAB in the
Spend Money window. Note that the Payee field now
displays the name and address of Acme Business Supplies.
9 Enter the purchase of a desk:
a Tab to the Account Name field and press TAB once
more. Since an account is required in this field, the
Select from List window appears. Double-click the
Office Equipment at Cost account. You will return to
the Spend Money window.
b Tab to the Amount field and enter 1500.
c Tab to the Memo field and enter Desk.
d Tab to the Tax column. As the amount of $1,500
includes GST, we need to replace the default N-T tax
By creating a card for Acme Business Supplies, we can track code with GST. Type GST in the Tax column.
payments made to them and easily enter another payment e Press ENTER to position the cursor in the Account
for them in the future. Name field on the next line.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 18

10 Enter the purchase of a chair:

a Enter the Office Equipment at Cost account.
b Tab to the Amount field and enter 500.
c Tab to the Memo field and enter Chair.
d Tab to the Tax column. As the amount of $500
includes GST, we need to replace the default N-T tax
code with GST. Type GST in the Tax column.
e Press ENTER to position the cursor in the Account
Name field on the next line.
11 Enter the purchase of a computer:
a Enter the Office Equipment at Cost account.
b Tab to the Amount field and enter 3500.
c Tab to the Memo field and enter Computer.
d Tab to the Tax column. As the amount of $3,500
includes GST, we need to replace the default N-T tax 12 Click Record. The cheque is saved in your company file.
code with GST. Type GST in the Tax column and press
13 Click Cancel to close the Spend Money window.
ENTER.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 19

Exercise 3—Reconcile your bank account

Note In this tutorial, assume that the opening balance of the bank
It is good business practice to reconcile your bank statement account is zero, and that there are no unpresented cheques or
with your accounts in your MYOB accounting software at least deposits that haven’t been credited. If this were not the case, you
monthly. The frequency with which you need to do this depends would have to set up the bank account before completing the
on the volume of transactions that go through the accounts. first month’s reconciliation. See your User Guide’s Setting Up
chapter for more information.
Reconciling simply means ensuring that the transactions
entered in your MYOB accounting software match the bank
statement; reconciling can help you pick up any errors made Let’s reconcile the cheque account used so far in this tutorial.
either by the bank or by the person entering the data in your Although you have entered only two transactions, this will serve
MYOB accounting software. as an example of how spending and receiving cash relate to
You can reconcile bank accounts in your MYOB accounting account reconciliation.
software by either importing a bank statement into your In this example, assume that you are registered with your bank’s
company file using the Get Statement feature, or by manually online banking service and you are able to download electronic
reconciling each recorded transaction with those on a paper bank statements from the website.
statement.
An electronic bank statement is provided with this tutorial — the
The Get Statement feature, which enables the importing and file name is anz.qif — and you will use this file in this exercise.
automatic matching of transactions, is especially useful when
you have a long list of transactions in your statement that need
to be matched with your company file records.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 20

The statement covers the period from 1/7/2003 to 31/7/2003, 4 Tab to the Bank Statement Date field and enter 31/7/03. Press
the closing balance is $24,495 and the statement includes the TAB.
following three transactions:
• A deposit of $30,000
• A cheque for $5,500 Notice that the out of balance amount is –$24,495 and that
• A bank charge of $5. the two transactions you have entered appear in the scrolling
list. (Only transactions dated on or before the Bank
To reconcile your cheque account:
Statement Date will appear.)
1 Display the Reconcile Accounts window. To do this, go to
the Banking command centre and click Reconcile 5 Click Get Statement. The Open window appears.
Accounts. 6 Select the anz.qif file that has been installed in the Tutorial
2 Type Cheque Account in the Account field. folder. Click Open.
7 The Get Statement window appears. Click OK.
8 The Unmatched Statement Transactions window appears.
3 Tab to the New Statement Balance field and enter 24495.
You need to know this closing balance in order to reconcile
the account and you can determine this from your online
banking website or the paper copy of the statement.
 Spending and Receiving Money — 21

$5.00. To correct this, you need to add the bank charge to

your records.
9 With the Bank Charge line highlighted, click Add
Transaction. The Spend Money window appears.

Notice that most of the details — the date, amount and

This window shows that the statement has three
memo have been filled in automatically. You only need to
transactions, two of which were automatically matched with
provide the account details that explain the transaction.
the transactions recorded in your company file (the $30,000
deposit and the cheque for $5,500). 10 Click in the first row of the Account Name column and click
The window also shows that one transaction in the the search icon. The Select from List window appears.
statement could not be matched — a bank charge of $5.00. Highlight the Bank Charges expense account and click Use
Account. The Spend Money window reappears.
This indicates that the bank’s records differ from yours by
 Spending and Receiving Money — 22

11 Tab to the Amount column, and $5.00 appears Notice also that the out of balance amount is $0.00. This
automatically. means that your account now reconciles with the bank’s
12 Tab to the Tax column and replace N-T with FRE (GST-free). records— Congratulations!
14 Click Reconcile to complete the reconciliation process for
this account. A dialog box appears.
Bank Charges Note that bank charges that are charged by
the bank, such as account keeping fees are GST-free (use the FRE
code), while government charges, such as BAD, are not
reportable on the activity statements (use the N-T code).

13 Click Record. The Unmatched Statement Transactions

window appears and it now reads, “All of your transactions
match!”. Click Done.
Notice that three transactions now appear in the Reconcile
Accounts window and that they have been marked as
Cleared (a tick appears for each transaction).

You can print the Reconciliation report for your records or

just click Reconcile again to finish.
15 Click Cancel to return to the Banking command centre.
 Purchasing Items and Services — 23

Purchasing Items and Services

Introduction
Purchases and the payments you make to suppliers are handled
in the Purchases command centre.
Although you can enter some of your purchases using the Spend
Money window in the Banking command centre, creating a
purchase through the Purchases command centre gives you the
ability to track your payables or trade creditors, your discount
expiry dates, and the ageing of your outstanding purchases.
The Purchases Register is located in the Purchases command
centre and gives you quick access to all your purchase
transactions, including closed bills and any debit notes you may
have received for returned or damaged goods and refunds.
 Purchasing Items and Services — 24

Purchasing Items and Services

Purchase types
When you click the Enter Purchases function in the Purchases
command centre, a new Purchases window appears, ready for
you to record your purchase.
You can record a purchase transaction as a Quote, Order or Bill.
You can enter a quote in your MYOB software to easily store an
estimate or quote you received from one of your suppliers.
Then, when you are ready to make the purchase, you can simply
change the quote to an order with a click of a button.
The order can then as easily be changed to a bill when you have
received the items or services you ordered and are required to
pay the supplier.
 Purchasing Items and Services — 25

Purchase layouts
Depending on the type of purchase you are making, you can
choose from four purchase layouts:
• Item—Use this layout for stock items you buy regularly
and for which you have created item records in your
MYOB software. You can choose to have your MYOB
software track the quantity on hand and the average cost
of the items you purchase.
• Service—Use this layout to purchase services (or items)
for which you don’t have a record in your MYOB
software. Examples of such services include repairs,
insurance and consultation.
• Professional—Use this layout for services you want to
track over a certain period. You can include the date each
individual service was provided, all on one purchase.
• Miscellaneous—Use this format for purchases that you
don’t need to print, for example, adjustments and debit
notes you receive.
To change the layout of a purchase, simply click the Layout
button before you start completing the Purchases window.
 Purchasing Items and Services — 26

Exercise 4—Order an item

Before we can purchase goods using the Item layout of the
Purchases window, we need to create item records for those
goods. An item record contains current and historical
information about the item, including sale and purchase prices
and sales history. Individual item records make up the Items List
in the Inventory command centre.
In this exercise, we will first create an item record for Widgets, a
stock item we purchase regularly. You don’t need to create the
item record before you enter the purchase; you can create it
while entering details in the Purchases window.
1 Go to the Purchases command centre and click Enter
Purchases. If the selected layout is not Item, click the Layout
button and select Item.
We need to purchase 100 Widgets from World of Gadgets at
$5.50 each. In this exercise we will be placing an order with
the supplier.
2 Click the down arrow in the upper left corner of the window
and choose Order.
 Purchasing Items and Services — 27

3 Type World of Gadgets Pty Ltd in the Supplier field and press
TAB. The name will be matched with the card set up for this
supplier in the Cards List.
4 Mark the Tax Inclusive checkbox (if it is not marked
already). Then tab to the Date field and type 8/8/03.
5 Tab to the Received column and type 100 because we are
purchasing 100 widgets. Press TAB.
6 Type 100-101A5 in the Item Number column. This is the item
code we want to use for Widgets.

7 Press TAB. As this item does not exist in our Items List, the
Select from List window appears.
8 Click New. The Item Information window appears with
100-101A5 appearing in the Item Number field. Press TAB.
9 Type Widgets in the Name field.
 Purchasing Items and Services — 28

10 Mark the I Buy This Item, I Sell This Item and I Inventory
This Item checkboxes.
11 Continue to complete the Profile, Buying Details and
Selling Details views as shown here.
We recommend that you read the Inventory chapter of your
MYOB User Guide before you set up item records in your
own company file. (If you are using MYOB Premier, check
out your advanced inventory options.)

12 Click OK to return to the Purchases window.

13 Tab to the Price column and type 5.50, which is the purchase
price of a widget.
 Purchasing Items and Services — 29

14 Press TAB and then the down arrow key on your keyboard to
move to the Comment field. Type Please deliver to warehouse.
In the Promised Date field, type 20/8/03 (the date we expect
to receive the goods).
As we are only placing an order, our inventory levels have
not changed. When we receive the goods (in the next
exercise), we can convert the order to a bill.
15 Click Record to record the order.
16 Click Cancel to return to the Purchases command centre.
 Purchasing Items and Services — 30

Exercise 5—Receive the item

Let’s assume that the 100 widgets arrive with an invoice from the
supplier some days later. You check that the widgets have arrived
in good condition and that the invoice matches your order.
Follow these steps to convert the order we created earlier to a bill.
1 Go to the Purchases command centre and click Purchases
Register.
2 Click the Orders tab.
3 Select Supplier from the Search By list and type World of
Gadgets Pty Ltd. Enter 8/8/03 in the Date fields and press TAB.
Any orders made to this supplier on this date will appear in
the scrolling list.
4 Highlight the order and click the Change to Bill button. 5 The Purchases window appears. Enter 20/8/03 in the Date
field. Enter 88943 as the supplier’s invoice number.
6 Click Record. Then close the windows and return to the
Purchases command centre.
You have completed your first purchase and now have 100
widgets in stock showing in the Items List (accessed from the
Inventory command centre).
 Purchasing Items and Services — 31

Exercise 6—Pay the bill

We now have a bill that is ‘payable’ or due. If we had paid this
bill immediately, we could have used the Paid Today field in the
Purchases window. However since we are paying it a week later,
we need to use the Pay Bills function. We are paying $550 by
cheque.
1 Go to the Purchases command centre and click Pay Bills.
2 Press TAB to display the Select from List window and double-
click World of Gadgets. The supplier details appear and the
outstanding payables for the supplier are listed.
3 Enter 27/8/03 in the Date field and 550 in the Amount field.
4 Tab to the Amount Applied column to allocate the payment
to the bill and then press TAB. (It is important that the figures
in the Amount field and the Amount Applied field match.)

5 Click Record. The bill is settled in full, and the cheque

account selected in the Pay Bills window is reduced by $550.
6 Click Cancel to return to the Purchases command centre.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 32

Entering Sales and Payments

Introduction Customer payments for invoices recorded in the Sales command
centre need to be entered through the Receive Payments
The Sales command centre has very flexible invoicing and
payment options available for your business needs. window and not through the Receive Money window.

Your sales can be entered in the Service, Item, Professional and The Sales Register gives you quick access to all your sales,
including closed sales and credits given to customers.
Miscellaneous layout windows (similar to the purchase layouts
described earlier), and if you are using MYOB Accounting Plus or
Premier, you can also bill customers using the Time Billing
layout. Time Billing is appropriate for service based businesses
that bill for time (and materials) and miscellaneous services
provided to clients.
As with purchases, you can enter a sale as a quote, order or
invoice. This way you can send a quote to a customer, change it
to an order when the customer decides to buy, and then change
the order to an invoice when the goods are sent—all with a few
clicks of the mouse.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 33

Exercise 7—Make a sale

We will make a sale to Widget Eaters Limited for 65 widgets. We
have already purchased 100 widgets, so we have enough in stock
to make this sale.
1 Go to the Sales command centre and click Enter Sales. The
Sales window appears.
2 Click the down arrow in the upper left corner of the window
and choose Invoice.
3 Type Widget Eaters Limited in the Customer field and press
TAB. The Select from List window appears. A record for this
customer does not exist so we need to create one.
4 Click the New button. The Card Information window
appears. Tab to complete the fields in the Profile view as
shown. 5 Click OK to return to the Sales window.
6 Press TAB to fill in the customer’s details automatically.
7 Click the Layout button and select the Item layout as we are
selling items from our inventory.
8 Mark the Tax Inclusive checkbox if it’s not already marked.
9 Enter 9/9/03 in the Date field.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 34

10 Tab to the Ship column and enter 65 (the number of widgets

we are selling).
11 Tab to the Item Number field and press TAB. As Widgets is
the only item on our Items List, it is selected automatically.
Press TAB. The Price, Total and Tax fields are completed.
12 To move out of the body of the invoice, press the down arrow
key on your keyboard. (We won’t complete the optional
fields below the body of the invoice, but these can be useful
if you need to show this information on the printed invoice.)
13 As we have all the information we need on the invoice, click
Record.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 35

Review Let’s have a quick look at the entries your MYOB

software has made for this sale.
Go to the Sales command centre and click Transaction Journal.
Enter 9/9/03 in both Date fields and press TAB. The debits and
credits of the sale we just entered are displayed.
The first two lines debit the Trade Debtors account for the sale
and GST amounts. This account keeps track of the money owed
to you by your customers.
The next entry reflects the proceeds of the sale, exclusive of GST.
The fourth entry is a credit to the account used to track GST
collected on sales that is now payable to the Australian Taxation
Office.
The final two entries reflect the purchase value of the widgets (65
Widgets x the purchase price of $5.50 = $325.00). This amount is
transferred from our Inventory account to the Cost of Sales
account (which keeps track of costs incurred in making sales).
The Profit and Loss statement will be updated at this point.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 36

Items Register
The Items Register gives you quick access to transactions relating
to items. When the register is filtered to show a single item, a
running balance of the item’s quantities and value is displayed.
In the following exercise, you will use the Items Register to view
the number of widgets you have on hand and to display the
transaction you entered in exercise 7.

Exercise 8—View item transaction

1 Go to the Inventory command centre and click Items
Register. The Items Register window appears.
Notice that you now have a total of 35 widgets left in stock at
2 Select Item from the Search By drop-down list.
a current value of $175.
3 Enter 100-101A5 in the adjacent field.
5 Click the zoom arrow to the left of the date to view the
4 Enter 9/9/03 in both Date fields. transaction in its original window. The invoice you created
to enter the sale of 65 widgets is displayed.
6 Click OK to return to the Items Register window.
7 Click Close to return to the Inventory command centre.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 37

Credit notes Exercise 9—Create a credit note

Let’s assume that the widgets were shipped to Widget Eaters 1 Go to the Sales command centre and click Enter Sales.
Limited, but five were damaged before they reached the 2 Select Widget Eaters Limited as the customer.
customer.
3 Click the Layout button and select the Miscellaneous layout.
You give the customer a credit note for the five damaged widgets
4 Enter the date as 15/9/03.
which will be applied against their outstanding invoice.
5 Tab to the Description column and type Credit note for five
Creating a credit note follows the same procedure as making a damaged Widgets.
sale, except that the values in the invoice are entered as negative
6 Tab to the Account Name column and press TAB to display
(-) amounts.
your Accounts List. Select the Sales Returns income account
If goods are returned and placed back in our inventory for and return to the Sales window.
reselling, we would need to use the Item layout so that our 7 Type -55 in the Amount column and change the tax code to
inventory is readjusted for the returns. GST.
In this case the goods were damaged, which means we won’t be
placing them back in our inventory. The cost of the damaged
goods will be allocated to an income account called Sales Returns
and the Miscellaneous layout will be used.
The Sales Returns account will offset the total sales value in the
Profit & Loss Statement.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 38

8 Click Record. You have just created a credit note.

You can choose how to settle it—by applying it against the
customer’s existing account or refunding the amount. We will
apply this credit against Widget Eaters’ outstanding balance in
the next exercise.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 39

Exercise 10—Settle a credit note

1 Go to the Sales command centre and click Sales Register.
2 Click the Returns & Credits tab.
3 Choose Customer from the Search By drop-down list, type
Widget Eaters Limited in the adjacent field and press TAB. The
credit we just created appears in the scrolling list.
4 Highlight the credit and click the Apply to Sale button to
apply this credit to the customer’s account balance. The
Settle Returns and Credits window appears with the
customer’s unpaid invoice.
5 Enter the date as 15/9/03. Press TAB until the $55.00 credit
amount appears in the Amount Applied column and then
press TAB again.
6 Click Record to apply the credit. The invoice balance is
This tells your MYOB software that the outstanding balance
reduced by $55.00.
for the invoice needs to be reduced by the credit amount
applied.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 40

Exercise 11—Receive customer payment

You receive a cheque for $670 from Widget Eaters Limited as
payment for the widgets.
1 Go to Sales command centre and click Receive Payments.
The Receive Payments window appears.
2 Enter Widget Eaters Limited in the Customer field and press
TAB. The customer’s unpaid invoice appears.
3 Make sure the Deposit to Account radio button is selected
and that the Cheque Account appears in the adjacent field.
We want to deposit the payment to our cheque account.
4 Enter 20/9/03 as the date.
5 Enter the amount of $670 in the Amount Received field.
6 Enter Cheque in the Payment Method field.

You notice that the customer has overpaid you by $10. You
need to apply the whole payment to their unpaid invoice.
7 Tab to the Amount Applied column. The amount $660.00
appears against the invoice.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 41

8 To handle the overpayment, simply delete the $660

appearing in the Amount Applied field and enter the full
amount received ($670) and press TAB. (The Out of Balance
field at the bottom of the window should now display $0.)
9 Click Record. Your MYOB software recognises that there has
been an overpayment for this invoice (the amount applied to
the invoice is greater than the amount outstanding). A credit
note will be created for the customer.
10 Click OK to close the message. A credit note of $10 is created.
We decide to refund the $10 to the customer.
 Entering Sales and Payments — 42

Exercise 12—Pay refund

1 Go to the Sales Register and click the Returns & Credits tab.
The credit note of $10 appears in the scrolling list.
If the credit note doesn’t appear here, enter Customer in the
Search By field and enter Widget Eaters Limited in the
adjacent field.
2 Select the credit note and click the Pay Refund button.
3 Change the date of the cheque to 20/9/03.
4 Click Record.
 Working with Jobs — 43

Working with Jobs

Introduction
You can use the Jobs feature in your MYOB software to keep
accurate and detailed records of your jobs and profit centres.
Let’s assume that Clearwater Pty Ltd, our tutorial company, is in
the process of installing 50 water filters at the Island Way Hotel.
This job has already been set up in our company file.
The Edit Job window shown here displays information about
the job, such as the start date, percentage completed, finish date
and so on.
You can use the Jobs feature to simply keep track of your various
jobs or to perform advanced functions such as set budgets by
account for each job, track job expenses for customer
reimbursables, analyse profit and loss for jobs, and much more. You can view your Jobs List by choosing Jobs from the Lists menu. View details of a job by
clicking the zoom arrow next to it.
 Working with Jobs — 44

Exercise 13—Record an expense for reimbursement

Let’s assume that in order to install the water filters in Island Way
Hotel, we had to purchase 50 wall brackets. We will assign this
purchase to the job so that we can keep track of expenses for
customer reimbursement when the job is complete.
1 Go to the Purchases command centre and click Enter
Purchases. The Purchases window appears.
2 Enter the supplier’s name and date as shown.
3 Enter 50 in the Received column.
4 Enter 200-897B5 in the Item Number field and enter 4 in the
Price field.
5 Tab to the Job column and click the search icon.
6 Double-click job 4980. The purchase is now allocated to this
job.
7 Complete the rest of the purchase as normal and click
Record.
 Working with Jobs — 45

Exercise 14—Analyse job activity

An important part of managing your job activity revolves
around reviewing the data that you’ve entered for your jobs and
understanding its effects on your overall financial picture.
Understanding the ‘big picture’ of your job activity will help you
identify income trends, recognise possible cost overruns and
anticipate your company’s future revenues. The Analyse Jobs
window will help you perform this important task by providing
lists of your job activity.
1 Display the Analyse Jobs window. To do this, from any
command centre, click the Analysis down arrow and choose
Jobs.
2 Enter 4980 in the Job Number field and press TAB. Detailed
information about this job appears in the Analyse Jobs
window.
You can view the progress of this job broken down by account.
You can also view any budgets you have entered for this job and
compare it with the actual expenses.
 Customising and Printing Forms — 46

Customising and Printing Forms

Introduction
Forms are the invoices, purchases, cheques, statements and
mailing labels that you print using your MYOB software. You can
customise the way your forms look, for example, by adding a
logo or adding and removing text.
If you have used simple drawing programs, you should be
comfortable using the Customise Forms window.
This section gives a brief introduction to how forms can be
customised and printed. For complete information on
customising forms, we recommend that you refer to your MYOB
User Guide or MYOB Help.
 Customising and Printing Forms — 47

Form ‘templates’ are saved on your hard drive in a folder called Exercise 15—Customise a form
Forms. This folder must always be located within the folder in
1 Click Print Invoices in the Sales command centre. Make the
which your MYOB accounting software has been installed. selections shown below in the Forms Selection window.
You can have a number of templates for each form type—for
example, you could have one invoice form template for quotes
and another for standard invoices.
You can access the templates from the Print functions in the
command centres. For example, to access your Invoice form
2 Click the Selected Form for Sale search icon. Select the Plain
templates, click Print Invoices in the Sales command centre and
Paper Invoice and click Use Form. This template has been
the Forms Selection window appears.
pre-customised to fit on plain A4 paper.
Let’s assume customer Widget Eaters Limited has requested an
invoice for their records showing that their previous sale has
been paid in full.
In the following exercises you will be customising the invoice 3 Click Customise. The Customise Item Sales window
form and then printing a ‘closed’ invoice for Widget Eaters. appears.
 Customising and Printing Forms — 48

field name. You can change the font, size and position of the
fields by double-clicking them.
Active and inactive fields—Active fields are printed on the
form; inactive fields are not printed and appear in dim text
in the Customise window. Data fields can be made active or
inactive. Text fields cannot be made inactive—they can only
be deleted.
Form size—You can change how many forms you want
printed per page and set the page size using the Forms Info
option in the Form menu that appears in the menu bar
during customisation.
The following procedures will show you how to:
This window contains a number of field types that you need • Resize, move and format the Company Address field
to be aware of before you begin customising the form: • Inactivate the Company Name field that currently
Text fields—These are fields that you can ‘create’ using the appears on the invoice
Text tool in the Tool palette. To edit existing text fields, • Add the Clearwater logo.
double-click them.
Data fields—These are preset fields on the invoice that are
automatically filled when the invoice is printed. At the
customising stage, data fields appear with brackets and the
 Customising and Printing Forms — 49

Exercise 15.1—Resize and move the Company Address

field
1 Click the [Company Address] data field once, and it is
outlined with a black rectangle. A handle (a small black box)
appears in the lower right-hand corner of the rectangle.
Using the mouse, drag the handle up to reduce the height of
the field by approximately half its original size.
2 Now click the [Company Address] data field and hold the
mouse button down. The pointer changes to a hand. Drag
the mouse down and release the mouse button when the
field is just above the ABN field.
The Customise window should now look like the second
screenshot shown here.

Tip Another, more precise way to change the size and location
of the field is to double-click it and change the coordinates in the
Field Information window.
 Customising and Printing Forms — 50

Exercise 15.2—Change the Font of the Company Exercise 15.3—Make the Company Name field inactive
Address field 1 Double-click the [Company Name] data field to display the
Field Information window.
1 Double-click the [Company Address] data field. The Field
Information window appears. 2 Click the Field is Active checkbox so that the tick is cleared.
Click OK.
2 Change the font size and styles to those shown in this
screenshot and then click OK. 3 Click on a blank part of the form. The form should now look
like the following screenshot.

Change the font and paragraph properties of the Company Address field and
make the Company Name field inactive.
 Customising and Printing Forms — 51

Exercise 15.4—Add the business logo

You will now place the business logo in the space above the
Company Address field.
1 Click the Picture tool in the Tool palette once.
2 Click on a blank area of the form. A new field is created with
a picture frame as the default graphic. Double-click the
graphic.
You will be importing a graphic into the form. (An alternative
would be to copy the logo to the clipboard using a graphics 5 Click OK. The form should now appear as shown.
program and then paste it in your form by clicking Paste
Picture.)
3 Click Load Picture. Select the clear.bmp file that has been
installed in the Tutorial folder. Click Open.
When you return to the Field Information window, you will
see a preview of the image you are importing.
4 Change the Field Location to 0.45 cm from the top and 1.50
cm from the left (or 0.18 and 0.6 inches) and set the Field
Size (the graphic’s size) to approximately 2.1 cm high by 5.9
cm wide (or 0.86 and 2.29 inches).
 Customising and Printing Forms — 52

Exercise 15.5—Save and print the form

You can now save this form to our Forms folder on the hard
drive (located within the program folder, eg c:\MYOB\Forms).
1 Click Save Form As in the Customise window. You will be
prompted to give the form template a name and description.
Choose names that make sense to you.
We have used ‘Test’ as the name and ‘Tutorial Exercise’ as the
description. The name will appear in the Selected Form for
Sale field in the Forms Selection window and will become
the default form for printing item invoices (unless you have
specified the form to use for each customer in the Selling
Details view of their card file).
2 Click OK, and then click Cancel to close the Customise Save the form on your hard drive. It will appear in the Selected Form for Sale list in the
window and to return to the Forms Selection window. Forms Selection window.

Note When you make a change to a form template, you

should back up or make a copy of the template file (stored in the
Forms folder) to avoid accidentally replacing it or losing it.
 Customising and Printing Forms — 53

Let’s print the item invoice you created earlier in the tutorial
using the form template you customised.
3 In the Forms Selection window, select Item from the Form
Layout drop-down list and select Closed from the Sale
Status drop-down list.
4 Make sure the Selected Form for Sale field shows the
template name you customised, which in your case is “Test”.
5 Click OK. The Review Sales Before Printing window
appears, with the Widget Eaters’ invoice listed. Notice that
you can select how many copies of the invoice you want to
print from this window.

6 Click Print to choose your printer options and print the

invoice using the customised form.
You’ll notice that the form you customised is still very plain
looking, so experiment with the other customisation tools
available in the Customise Sales window to get the look you
want.
 Viewing, Printing and Sending Reports — 54

Viewing, Printing and Sending Reports

Reports in your MYOB accounting software are easy to read and Exercise 16—Preparing and sending a report
easy to customise. From the simple Bank Register report to the
1 Go to the Reports menu and choose Index to Reports. The
more advanced GST reports, your MYOB accounting software Index to Reports window appears.
reports are able to provide you with the information you need in
2 Click the Banking tab to view a list of the bank-related
the format you need it.
reports.
Now that you’ve entered a few transactions into the tutorial file,
generate a report showing details of these transactions.
Assume that your accountant wants a report from you that
shows your cheque account transactions for the month of
September 2003.
 Viewing, Printing and Sending Reports — 55

3 Highlight the Bank Register report and click Customise. The

Report Customisation window appears.
4 Enter Cheque Account in the Selected field.

5 Enter 1/9/03 and 30/9/03 in the Date fields.

7 Click OK to display the Report Customisation window
again.
8 Click Design. The Report Design window appears. This
6 Click Format. The Report Format window appears. This window allows you to remove columns from the report.
window allows you to change the look of the report. Make
9 Click in the Display column next to the Src row to deselect
sure Report is selected in the Report Line drop-down list
this row.
and complete the other fields as shown.

The Scr field will not appear when you display the report.
 Viewing, Printing and Sending Reports — 56

10 Click OK to display the Report Customisation window

again.
Tip You can view the original transactions behind the report
11 Click Display and the report will appear on screen. The lines, by clicking on a transaction row. The original window for
report should display all transactions that affected the the transaction appears.
cheque account for the month of September. Notice that the
Src column is not displayed.
12 Position the cursor over the Memo/Payee heading. Notice
that the pointer changes to a hand. Click and drag the
Memo/Payee field to position the entire column after the
ID# column.

13 The accountant wants you to send the report via e-mail.

Click Send To in the Screen Report window and choose E-
mail from the list that appears.
 Viewing, Printing and Sending Reports — 57

Tip To save any report customisation that you do, click Save As
in the Screen Report window. Give the customised report a new
name and description. To re-use the customised report, access it
from the Custom view of the Index to Reports window.

14 The E-mail window appears, into which you can enter your
accountant’s e-mail address, the subject and message.
When you click Send, the report will be saved as a PDF file
(viewable using Adobe Acrobat Reader), and is automatically
attached to an e-mail message. This message will appear in
the Outbox folder of your e-mail software, ready to be sent
the next time you’re online.
For the purposes of this tutorial, press Cancel instead of
Send.
15 Click Close to return to the Index to Reports window and
click Close again to return to the command centre.
 Congratulations! — 58

Congratulations!
You have now completed this tutorial. By now you should be If you need further assistance, call MYOB’s expert Technical
able to find your way around the command centres and know Support team. See your Getting Started guide for more
where to enter your daily transactions. information on getting technical support.
Sometimes you may need assistance that cannot be reasonably
Where do you go from here? Start looking at your MYOB
completed on the phone with a support representative.
accounting software User Guide, which contains the basic
Remember that you can contact an MYOB Certified Consultant
information you need to set up and run your MYOB accounting
to help you onsite. We have included a Certified Consultants
software on a day-to-day basis.
directory with your software—contact them and find out more
For detailed information about every task you can perform using about how they can help you Mind Your Own Business!
your MYOB accounting software, use MYOB Help, the
comprehensive online help system. You can access MYOB Help
from the Help menu.