How to Get a MYOB API Key (AccountRight and MYOB Business)
How MYOB API access works, the difference between the AccountRight and MYOB Business APIs, and what a MYOB integration actually involves.
Best for: Business owners, finance managers, operations managersPractical guide for business decision-makers
Who this is for
Business owners and finance managers who need MYOB connected to another system and are trying to work out how MYOB API access works.
Question this answers
How do I get a MYOB API key, and which MYOB API do I actually need?
What you'll leave with
Which MYOB product you are on, and why it changes everything
How to register a developer app and get your key
Why an OAuth token alone will not open your company file
What the MYOB API exposes
When a MYOB integration is a development project
First, work out which MYOB you have
This is the step that saves the most wasted effort. MYOB is not one product, and the APIs are not interchangeable.
MYOB AccountRight, the long standing product, which can run on a local file or in the cloud. It has its own API and its own quirks, particularly around company file access.
MYOB Business, previously MYOB Essentials, the cloud first product. It uses a different API surface.
MYOB Acumatica, the enterprise product formerly known as MYOB Advanced. Different platform again, with its own integration model.
Before anyone writes code, confirm which of these the business is actually on. Enquiries regularly start with "we need a MYOB integration" and turn out to involve two different MYOB products across two entities.
Getting an API key, step by step
Register on the MYOB developer portal using an account you control long term, not a personal one belonging to whoever set it up.
Register an application. You provide a name and a redirect URI, and you receive an API key, which acts as the client id, and a secret.
Wait for approval. App registration is not always instant. Allow for this in the project timeline rather than discovering it the week of go-live.
Complete the OAuth 2.0 flow to authorise access to the business's MYOB data and receive an access token and refresh token.
Refresh tokens automatically. Access tokens are short lived, so the integration has to renew them without anyone logging in.
Confirm the current process with MYOB before planning around it. Developer portal requirements, product naming and plan eligibility all change. Use this as an orientation, not as documentation.
The company file login that catches people out
Here is the part that surprises almost everyone integrating AccountRight for the first time. Completing OAuth is not enough on its own. To read or write inside an AccountRight company file, the request also needs the company file credentials, the username and password used to open that file.
Two consequences follow from that, and both matter commercially:
Somebody has to hand over working company file credentials before the integration can function, which is a conversation worth having early rather than mid build.
If those credentials change, the integration stops. It needs to fail loudly and tell someone, not quietly stall.
What the MYOB API lets you do
Coverage varies between the AccountRight and MYOB Business APIs, but broadly you can reach:
Sales invoices and quotes, create and update from a job or order system
Purchases and supplier bills, including job costing where the product supports it
Contacts, customers and suppliers, kept in step with a CRM
Items and inventory, depending on product and plan
Accounts, tax codes and jobs, so transactions land in the right place
Payroll and timesheets, on the products that expose it, with tighter permissions
Do not assume a field exists because the equivalent exists in Xero. The data models differ in ways that matter, particularly around jobs, categories and tax handling. Confirm against the actual API for the product in question before promising a mapping.
When to bring in a developer
You probably do not need outside help if you are
✓
Connecting MYOB to a mainstream product with an official MYOB connector
✓
Pulling MYOB data into a spreadsheet or dashboard, read only
✓
Running a one-off export for reporting or an audit
✓
Testing whether the API exposes a field you need
You likely need specialist help if you are
⚠
Building two-way sync between MYOB and a CRM or job management system
Conflict handling when a record changes in both places is where these projects are won or lost.
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Working with AccountRight company files
The extra credential layer and file specific behaviour add real complexity.
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Handling multiple entities or company files
Each file behaves as its own dataset, and reporting across them is a separate problem.
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Pushing timesheets into MYOB payroll
Award rates, overtime and allowances have to be right, not approximately right.
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Migrating from MYOB to another platform
That is a data migration project with its own risks. See our MYOB to Xero guidance.
MYOB integrations are usually more involved than the equivalent Xero work, mostly because of the product fragmentation and the company file layer. That is manageable when it is understood at the start, and expensive when it is discovered halfway through.
Key takeaways
MYOB has more than one API, and the right one depends on whether you are on AccountRight or MYOB Business
You register an app in the MYOB developer portal to get a key and secret, then use OAuth 2.0
AccountRight company files often need their own credentials on top of the OAuth token
Approval to register an app is not instant, so allow time before a go-live date
Two-way sync with a CRM or job system is a build, not a configuration task
