By Jason Clewley

Think for a moment about the accounting software you are currently using - is it over 3 years old? If you answered ‘yes’, it may be time to look at the upgrade options available for your accounting software.

Over the past couple of years, software vendors have made changes to their technical support and most have now shifted to primarily supporting only 2 versions prior to the current release or software versions less than 3 years old.

If it is time to upgrade your accounting software, here are some of the potential benefits:

• The ability to switch to software more suited to your needs (the software that you purchased 6 years ago may not fully serve the current record keeping requirements of your business).
• New accounting software is designed to run on the latest Windows operating system. Most accounting software released in the few years following the introduction of GST is no longer supported on the latest Windows operating systems, causing many headaches should your computer fail and you go to load your software on your new computer only to find it is no longer supported. We are currently upgrading our servers and have found many older accounting software packages will not operate on the new system. This is something that you may have already experienced, perhaps with other software packages, and the issue will become more common when Microsoft releases its next operating system.
• With Cloud accounting software offerings you have the flexibility to access your accounting software where and when you want using a tablet, laptop or other suitable internet connected device.
• Switching to a Cloud accounting software solution means no more completing accounting software updates, as all software updates are handled by the provider behind the scenes.
• The ability to take advantage of new time saving features such as automated transactions that can detect key words on imported bank transactions.
• The ability to more accurately track the cash flow of your business (many new Cloud-based accounting systems provide up-to-date cash flow information and even forecasting for your business).
• Upgrading your accounting software sooner rather than later takes advantage of any upgrade paths available, allowing you to transfer historical accounting transactions from an old software version to the latest edition.

Due to cutbacks in software that is being supported by the software vendors, we have revised our list of supported software to the list below. This more closely aligns our support with that of the software vendors.

From 30 June 2013 we will continue to support the following versions of accounting software:

Please note that MYOB First Accounts will no longer be supported as it is a discontinued product.

For more information on the upgrade options available for your accounting software please contact us.