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| MYOB AccountEdge Version 3 | |
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MYOB AccountEdge 3 is a comprehensive accounting package targeted to small businesses, but easily adaptable for many law office accounting needs. The sheer breadth of the package precludes a complete review of its every feature, although it’s fair to say most attorneys will find the modules, “Accounts,” “Banking,” “Time Billing,” “Purchases” and “Payroll,” useful and well-implemented. I experienced some initial issues with how to handle trust account deposits and payments, but MYOB’s excellent customer support pointed me in the right direction. Setting up AccountEdge for your law office is straightforward. Create a new company and then elect the pre-set chart of accounts designed for law offices. Enter your law office-specific information, and then create client accounts, vendors, activities, payroll, billing rates, receivables and other accounting-specific categories. AccountEdge uses eight “command centers” for various accounting modules. “Accounts” controls the chart of accounts pertinent to law offices and can be modified to meet your firm’s specific needs. Only the “Cost of Sales” tab doesn’t apply to law firms. Income categories can be edited to include other types of income. The “Banking” command center governs income and expenditures, check printing, accounts reconciliation and bank deposits. AccountEdge 3’s “Time Billing” module is similar to many dedicated timekeeping packages. Billing rates are assigned by client, attorney or paralegal, or the actual activity, such as preparing a simple will or articles of incorporation. The program doesn’t have a specific billing category for costs. To provide for this expense, assign specific dollar amounts for an activity such as photocopying at 15 cents per copy, or create an activity with a fixed cost such as “filing fee.” It would be useful if MYOB could allow custom fields for “Activities” so law offices could follow legal-specific naming conventions. Still, this shortcoming is minor. You can make and track the status of activities as chargeable and non-chargeable, and any charged activities can be viewed in the “Diary View,” which provides information about the activity, when it was charged and to whom. A more detailed report can be viewed by clicking on its tab in the “Activity log.” Activities are set up in the “Time Billing” module by establishing a series of billable or non-billable items and charges billed by either hour or activity. A timer is available to record actual time spent and controls are provided to round up or down increments less than an hour. The time billing invoice function uses various customizable billing templates. To bill clients with trust account funds, for example, an invoice or bill is generated and a check is written from the trust account and deposited into a general ledger account established as “Due To Trust Account Clients.” Job numbers then are entered, and the check is income when deposited into the general account. The program handles payments to vendors well. You can set up vendor accounts and pay by check, cash or credit card. Purchases are entered as quotes, orders or bills. Quotes and orders apply mostly to inventory-based businesses, but bills are treated like any other cost of acquisition including office supplies, consultant charges, professional dues or seminar charges. Various template reports are available to analyze the status of anything you have acquired for your firm. “Bank Register” or “Pay bills” can be used to pay bills while in the “Purchases” command center. Payroll is a crucial aspect of any accounting program and AccountEdge provides a sophisticated and versatile payroll system. It can mix salaried employees with hourly employees, calculate overtime rates, monthly deductions, track vacation or personal leave accruals, and calculate payroll taxes. A QuickBooks import utility is available at the MYOB Web site. It will import most, but not all, QuickBooks data. Check the Web site to learn exactly what is converted, and which versions of data can be converted. If you use Macintosh OS X’s Address Book, then you simply can drag a Vcard icon from it to the Card File command center and the client’s information is automatically entered — a real timesaver. A versatile reports feature permits the law office to fully format the appearance of a report by column, color, font size and column information. Custom reports can be saved. MYOB provides a forms package compatible with AccountEdge 3 including checks, invoices and other forms that can be customized for your law firm. It also offers an online payroll processing service for a fee. MYOB also cautions that the program is geared to offices with 20 or less employees, although it can be adapted to larger offices. Nevertheless, many law firms will find enough functionality in AccountingEdge to make it an attractive package. |
MYOB US Inc. Price: $249 Mac OS 8.6/9.x; Mac OS X 10.1 or later Reviewed by David A. Saraceno, a practicing attorney and owner of Pixelcraft Studios, a presentation graphics consulting firm in Spokane, Wash. PROS CONS VERDICT |
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