Expert QuickBooks to MYOB Migration for Australian businesses

The biggest driver is the Intuit QuickBooks Australia exit around 2022 — many businesses were on a localised QuickBooks Online product with Australian payroll and BAS built in. When Intuit wound that down, they were moved to the global QBO product, which lacks Australian-specific payroll features including STP Phase 2. MYOB Business and AccountRight have full STP2, job costing, multi-entity and inventory that match what those businesses were used to. A second group is long-term QuickBooks Desktop (Reckon-branded) users on very old files who need to move to a supported, cloud-accessible platform.

Both options are available. A summary trial-balance migration brings opening balances only and is faster and cheaper. A full line-by-line migration moves every transaction, invoice, bill, payment and journal — your accountant can compare any prior year in MYOB. We scope both at the audit and advise which approach suits your file size, age and how your accountant works. Most businesses with up to 5 years of history choose full migration.

QuickBooks Online uses a different tax code structure from MYOB. GST, BAS-excluded, input-taxed and exempt codes have direct equivalents in MYOB but the naming and application rules differ. We map every tax code explicitly before migration and validate the mapping against a sample of your transactions. Mismatched tax codes are the most common source of BAS errors after a DIY migration.

Mid-year payroll migration is manageable but requires planning. The cleanest cutover dates are start-of-quarter or 1 July. If a mid-year date is unavoidable, we bring YTD pay history into MYOB correctly so STP Phase 2 filings stay accurate and employee leave balances reconcile. We always do a parallel pay run before the live cutover so your payroll officer is confident before flipping the switch.

MYOB uses a structured account-number system that differs significantly from QuickBooks flexible types. We do not apply a generic template. Your accountant reviews and signs off on the chart of accounts in the sandbox before any data moves. If they have a preferred account structure or a tax depreciation schedule already in use, we build to that.

QuickBooks stays as your live system for the entire duration of the migration. The parallel-run phase means both systems are reconciling the same transactions before cutover. If something does not match in the sandbox, we fix it there. Cutover does not happen until both the AR/AP tie-out and the payroll test pass. There is no point in the project where you are running blind.

Yes. Reckon QuickBooks Desktop files (QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Enterprise from the Reckon era) have a different export format from QBO, but the migration process is similar. We extract the chart of accounts, contacts, transaction history and payroll data and rebuild it in MYOB AccountRight or MYOB Business. Older files with 10-plus years of data are scoped at a summary trial-balance level unless full history is specifically required.

We will tell you. If the scoping call reveals that Xero better suits your workflow, reporting needs or industry, we say so. We are not tied to MYOB and we do not earn referral fees from either platform. If you do want MYOB and it is the right call, you get a team that knows MYOB Business, AccountRight and MYOB Advanced across many industries and migration scenarios.