Xero to MYOB Migration: The Steps and Where It Gets Complicated

The short answer

A Xero to MYOB migration follows the same path every time: choose the MYOB product and the conversion date, tidy Xero, design the MYOB accounts list and map Xero to it, map the tax rates, decide how much history to bring, move the balances and open items, then check MYOB against Xero before you switch. The move itself is the quick part. The time goes into the decisions and the checking.

Most migrations in this direction go smoothly. The ones that do not usually fail in the same few places: an accounts list copied from Xero without headers or linked accounts, tax rates that do not land on the right BAS labels, tracking categories forced into the wrong MYOB feature, apps that have no MYOB connection, or payroll moved mid-year. This guide walks through each of them so you know where to look.

Why businesses move from Xero to MYOB

Most moves go the other way, from MYOB to Xero. The businesses that move back to MYOB usually have a specific reason, and it is worth being clear about yours, because it decides which MYOB product you need.

• Payroll. Some businesses with complex awards, many employees or a payroll officer who knows MYOB prefer to run payroll there. On the AccountRight Plus and Premier plans, payroll is part of the plan rather than an add-on.
• Inventory and job costing. A business carrying stock, building assemblies or costing jobs line by line sometimes finds it needs several apps around Xero to do what one MYOB file does.
• The accountant or bookkeeper. A new accountant who works mainly in MYOB may ask for the move so the year end and tax work are done in one system.
• The number of apps. A Xero setup with separate apps for payroll, inventory, jobs and reporting can become hard to manage. Some businesses decide fewer moving parts is worth the change.
• Desktop software. AccountRight Plus and Premier come with software that runs on Windows computers, which some teams prefer to a browser.

If your reason is one specific feature, check that the MYOB plan you are looking at includes it before you start. It is much easier to change plans before the move than after it.

Six decisions to make before anything moves

1. Which MYOB product. MYOB Business on the Lite or Pro plan, or AccountRight Plus or Premier. Foreign currency and stock in more than one location are only on Premier. A much larger business may be looking at MYOB Acumatica (formerly MYOB Advanced), which is an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system and a different project altogether.
2. The conversion date. The start of the financial year is cleanest. The start of a BAS quarter is the next best, because each activity statement then comes from one system.
3. How much history. Opening balances only, balances plus open invoices and bills, or several years of transactions. Every year you bring has to reconcile in MYOB.
4. The accounts list you want in MYOB. Xero has no headers and no account numbers by default. Decide how you want accounts grouped and numbered before mapping starts, not halfway through.
5. How tracking will work. Whether each Xero tracking category becomes a MYOB job, a category, or something else.
6. Payroll now or at 1 July. Moving payroll mid-year is possible, but it is the riskiest part of the move. If you can wait for the new financial year, it is simpler.

The migration steps, in order

Here is the order a Xero to MYOB migration has to follow. Skipping ahead, for example connecting the bank feeds before the accounts are mapped, creates rework later.

1. Review the Xero organisation. How many organisations, which features are in use (tracking categories, projects, inventory items, foreign currency, payroll, fixed assets), which tax rates exist, and every app connected to Xero.
2. Tidy Xero up to the conversion date. Reconcile every bank and credit card account. Clear out invoices and bills that are not really owed. Archive the contacts and accounts nobody uses.
3. Design the MYOB accounts list and map Xero to it. Every Xero account needs a numbered home in MYOB under the right header, and Xero's system accounts have to land on the right MYOB linked accounts.
4. Map the tax rates. Each Xero tax rate to a MYOB tax code that reports to the same BAS labels.
5. Design tracking. Jobs, categories, or both, so the reports you rely on in Xero can still be produced.
6. Set up MYOB. Business details, financial year, GST basis (cash or accrual, the same as Xero), BAS frequency, linked accounts, jobs or categories, and users.
7. Bring across the data. Customers, suppliers and items, then the opening balances, the open invoices and bills, and any history you chose to keep.
8. Check MYOB against Xero. The trial balance at the conversion date, the aged receivables and payables, the bank balances, and a GST report for the same period should all agree. If they do not, find out why before going further.
9. Connect the rest. Bank feeds, payroll, and the apps that used to talk to Xero, or their replacements.
10. Switch, then close the first month in MYOB. Stop entering into Xero at the conversion date and keep access to it for the records. Treat the first month end and the first BAS in MYOB as part of the migration, not as business as usual.

Where it gets complicated: chart of accounts mapping in reverse

The chart of accounts is the backbone of the move, and going from Xero to MYOB is not simply the reverse of going the other way. Xero is loose about structure. MYOB is strict. The structure has to be added, and somebody has to decide what it is.

• MYOB accounts are numbered by type. Every MYOB account has a five digit number, and the first digit says what it is: 1 for assets, 2 for liabilities, 3 for equity, 4 for income, 5 for cost of sales, 6 for expenses, 8 for other income and 9 for other expenses. A Xero account has to be given a number in the right range, not just a name.
• MYOB has header accounts. Xero does not. MYOB groups detail accounts under headers, and its reports total by header. Xero groups by account type. If you want your profit and loss to read the way it did in Xero, or better, the headers have to be designed for it.
• Xero's system accounts become MYOB linked accounts. Xero has fixed accounts for things like accounts receivable, accounts payable, GST and retained earnings. In MYOB you choose which accounts do those jobs. Choose wrongly, or leave a default pointing at the wrong account, and the opening balances will not agree.
• Account types have to match what the account does. An account in the wrong classification still holds the right number, but it shows up in the wrong place on the reports and in the wrong part of the BAS.
• Bank and credit card accounts must be set up as bank accounts in MYOB. Otherwise there is no bank feed and nothing to reconcile against.

Here is what getting it wrong looks like. A business copies its Xero accounts into MYOB in alphabetical order and lets the numbers fall where they may. Freight income lands in the expenses range, and a loan from the director lands under current liabilities when it should not. The trial balance still adds up, so nobody notices. Three months later the bank asks for a profit and loss and a balance sheet, and both are wrong in ways that take an afternoon to explain.

Where it gets complicated: Xero tax rates into MYOB tax codes

Tax mapping is the part of a migration most likely to be wrong without anybody seeing it. A wrongly mapped code raises no error. The invoices look fine. The BAS is simply wrong, every quarter, until somebody checks.

Standard rates. Xero's GST on Income, GST on Expenses, GST Free, GST on Capital, Input Taxed and BAS Excluded rates all have MYOB equivalents, but they are named and coded differently. Each one has to report to the same BAS labels it did in Xero. Check that capital purchases still land in G10, that GST-free sales still go to G3, and that input-taxed sales still sit outside GST.

Rates somebody created. Many Xero organisations carry extra rates added over the years: one for imports, one for a private-use split, one created by an app. Each needs a decision: map it to a standard MYOB code, create a matching code in MYOB, or retire it.

Accounts and items carry default tax codes. In MYOB, accounts and items can carry a default tax code that is filled in on every new transaction. If those defaults are wrong after the move, every new invoice and bill is wrong from day one, even if the history came across perfectly.

Where it gets complicated: tracking categories, jobs and Xero Projects

Xero lets you tag transactions with up to two active tracking categories, such as region and department. MYOB does not work the same way. It has two separate features, and they behave differently.

• Jobs are chosen line by line, so one invoice can be split across several jobs. Jobs can sit under header jobs, which total them. Header jobs cannot take transactions themselves.
• Categories apply to a whole transaction. Each transaction gets one category, so an invoice that covers two branches has to be split into two invoices.

A Xero tracking category for a site, project or contract usually fits MYOB jobs. One for a branch or division may fit categories, but only if every transaction really belongs to a single branch. A business using both Xero tracking categories at once has to decide which one becomes which, and whether the second still earns its place.

Xero Projects is a separate feature again, with its own time entries, costs and quotes. That detail does not have a direct equivalent to land in, so decide which projects are still open, what the MYOB job needs to show for them, and where the time records will be kept.

Where it gets complicated: the apps around Xero

Xero businesses often run several apps alongside it: payroll, inventory, job management, point of sale, ecommerce, expense claims, receipt capture, debtor follow-up and reporting. Every one of them needs an answer before the move.

• Some connect to MYOB too. They need reconnecting, and their own settings (accounts, tax codes, tracking) need remapping to the new MYOB accounts.
• Some only connect to Xero. They need replacing, or their job needs to move into MYOB itself.
• Some are no longer needed. Part of the reason for moving may be that MYOB does what two or three apps did.

The timing matters as much as the list. An app left connected to Xero after the conversion date keeps posting sales there, and an app connected to MYOB too early posts the same sales twice. Each one has to be switched over on the conversion date, and its first sync checked. Where an app has no MYOB connection and nothing replaces it, a MYOB integration may be the answer.

Where it gets complicated: payroll and Single Touch Payroll

Payroll is the part of the move with the most direct effect on people. Year to date earnings, tax withheld, super and leave balances all have to carry across exactly, and every pay item in Xero has to be set up in MYOB to report to the same Single Touch Payroll (STP) categories.

STP reports to the ATO from each payroll system separately. When the software changes mid-year, the ATO sees a new source of reports. Unless the year to date amounts carry across correctly, employees can see two income statements for the same year, one from Xero and one from MYOB, and the totals may not add up.

If you can, change payroll at 1 July. If you cannot, plan the first MYOB pay run as part of the migration: check every employee's year to date figures before it is lodged, and decide what happens to Xero's payroll records for the part of the year already reported.

Where it gets complicated: several Xero organisations

Xero works on one organisation per entity, and many businesses have several: a trading company, a property trust, a second company for a new venture. Each normally becomes its own MYOB company file, because each has its own ABN and its own BAS.

• Loans between entities must still agree on both sides after the move, which means every organisation has to move on the same conversion date.
• Shared contacts and accounts should be set up the same way in each MYOB file, or group reporting becomes a manual job.
• Different entities may suit different products. A trading company with payroll and stock may need AccountRight, while a property trust may need far less.

If you report across the group, plan how that will work in MYOB before the move. Each company file reports on its own, so consolidated reports need a separate reporting tool or a reporting dashboard.

Other places a Xero to MYOB move goes wrong

• The conversion date and history. A conversion that starts partway through a quarter means the first BAS comes from two systems. History brought across has to reconcile in MYOB year by year, so bring only what you will actually use.
• Inventory. Tracked items in Xero, or stock held in an inventory app, have to come across with quantities and values that agree with the balance sheet at the conversion date. Stock in more than one location needs AccountRight Premier.
• Foreign currency. Open foreign currency invoices, bills and bank accounts have to come across at the right exchange rates. In MYOB, multi-currency is an AccountRight Premier feature.
• Unreconciled bank items. Anything left unreconciled in Xero at the conversion date has to be either cleared first or brought across as a known list, or the first MYOB bank reconciliation will not balance.
• Fixed assets. Xero's fixed asset register, with its cost, depreciation to date and methods, has to be rebuilt or kept elsewhere so depreciation carries on correctly.
• Documents and templates. Attached files, invoice templates and saved reports do not come across. Keep access to Xero for the records and rebuild the invoice layouts you actually use.

If any of these apply, our Xero to MYOB migration service covers the planning and the move at a fixed price, quoted before work starts. For ongoing MYOB setup and support, see our MYOB services, and if you are weighing up the opposite move, the MYOB to Xero migration page covers it. We work with businesses across Australia, from Perth to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Questions about moving from Xero to MYOB