The Hickensian

12.05.05

Looking for a MYOB replacement

I’m looking for an app, and I hope someone out there can help me! I’m fed up with the crappy carbonised MYOB for doing my accounting, and I can’t help but think there is a more native OS X app out there that would suit my needs better.

Ideally I’m looking for:

iCal integration
AddressBook integration
Ability to create invoices as pdfs, with a template thats fully customisable. MYOB is severely restricted when it comes to designing in invoice template. If it can then email the invoice at the end of it, that would be even better!
Basic reporting, but must include VAT Returns.
Import of MYOB accounts

iBiz has some of these features, but the current version just locks up on my G5. It also only handles invoicing, and needs iBank for the actual accounting features. Ideally, I’m looking for just one app to serve both needs. Let me know if I’m missing out on some great app here.

Update: Thanks for the recommendations so far, although Quickbooks isn’t an option, as the UK version is PC only. Using it via Virtual PC isn’t much better than what I’m using. Studiometry looks good, but lacks the accounting features I need – it can only do invoices as far as I can tell, and I need to track purchases and supplier payments as well.

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No.1

David M. said 1514 days ago:

I’ll be following responses to this post with great interest — I’ve been looking for something like this for ages with not a great deal of success, and I’d really love to ditch my home-grown, hacked-together Excel spreadsheet…

No.2

matt Carey said 1514 days ago:

I had exactly this problem a while ago! I downloaded trial copies of iBiz (iWork as it was then) and iBank and played with them. I actually bought a licence for iWork version 1 and still use it now for timekeeping, and tracking of projects, what has been paid, invoiced etc. It certainly has its limitations, and I never got on with iBank at all.

So, after speaking with my accountant and book-keeper (the best money I spend every quarter) I have ended up with Sage running under virtual PC. Yep, its pretty slow, has no Mac integration, does not link with my project management software. But its the accountants industry standard, my book-keeper and accountant share files, I get a copy so I can generate reports.

Not ideal but works—I’ll be watching this thread in case anyone recommends something else!

No.3

Warren said 1514 days ago:

Another message of ‘can’t really help but hope you find someone who can’.

This is a real frustration of mine. I use Quickbooks on Virtual PC – I had a look at MYOB, but it seemed pretty clunky. Probably the most annoying part is that they make Quickbooks for the Mac in the US, but have never created a UK version of it.

This really is an underserved area of Mac software. Maybe they figure that even in companies who mostly use Mac’s, there must still be an admin bod on a PC…

I guess with a basic PC box so cheap to pick up these days, the easiest solution is get one, hide it under the desk without screen, keyboard and mouse, and remote desktop to it. That way, you can use it for browser testing your sites too, and you have the pick of Sage, Quickbooks, etc.

It would still be nicer to have a native app though. :(

No.4

Manuela Hoffmann said 1514 days ago:

I am using Studiometry. It has quite an impressive feature list. What I really like is that I can use it on both, windows and OS X. It uses the Address Book of OS X and templates are all HTML and easily printed as PDF.

No.5

Cleay Perham said 1514 days ago:

A little company down the road form me develops ‘moneyworks’ – http://cognito.co.nz/index.php
I’ve used it a bit and it seems streets ahead of MYOB, but I’m not a regular user so I can’t say too much about it – they have a demo you could try…

No.6

John Oxton said 1514 days ago:

Never used MYOB I have to say but this is what me and the missus use on the iBook.

No.7

Harry Jones said 1514 days ago:

I’ve been using Studiometry for a while now and its pretty good, with lots of control for setting up VAT.

In terms of invoice templates, I get Studiometry to output a custom XML file for each invoice, and then import the XML into an InDesign template. A little bit clunky but it gives me the control over typography and layout I crave!

My only problem with it is the interface has a few quirks. However there’s great forums on the site and developer Tom fixes bugs fast and updates frequently.

No.8

Rutger said 1514 days ago:

I’ve been using Studiometry too. It has ToDo lists, project management, accounting, invoice, taxes, good client management. You can integrate with iCal, Address Book….

I like it a lot although sometimes the interface responds a bit weird. But as Harry said, the developer is really responsive and there’s plenty of updates and bug-fixes.

No.9

Kevin said 1514 days ago:

I have yet to dig into it, but the makers of the excellent oputlining app ‘process’ have another app called ‘money’, which looks promising. also 100% aqua, looks very nice with Tiger.

http://www.jumsoft.com/money/

No.10

Brent O'Connor said 1514 days ago:

I personally use QuickBooks Pro 2003. It has good invoice customization and you can email invoices as pdfs. It also does all your accounting. It does just about everything you could possibly want. They have an OSX version, Win XP and a web version. I haven’t looked into the OSX address book and iCal integration because I use it on my Win XP box. I started using QuickBooks before I bought my PowerBook.

Anyway, hope this helps!

No.11

Chris Jackson said 1514 days ago:

I am using Quickbooks Pro 2005 UK edition running on Windows Xp in Virtual PC7 which is one of the compromises I made when switching to Mac.

Its a bit slow but it works and I find Quickbooks very easy to work with and its of course fully compatible with my accountants PC’s.

I’ll be watching for better suggestions.

No.12

Leslie said 1513 days ago:

After a ton of research (I’m not kidding, I’m a researchoholic ), I went with Studiometry. It’s a good price for everything it does. It integrates well with both iCal and Address Book. I love to color code things and it has that feature as well. There are regular updates and you can tell that these folks care about creating a better product.

You can track you time easily (if you’re good at remembering to do so). It has running timers which somehow make keeping track of your time more fun. Just click the pause or play button. I like that you are able to search everything simultaneously… makes things easier.

Sometimes I feel like it is setup a little awkward, but it is the best that I have found. And it doesn’t bother me enough to stop using it or to do more research and try to find something else. It is pretty customizable. You can set up client and project categories that work with what you do specifically. You can also customize your project status. All very helpful when trying to keep everything organized.

Overall a very good product at a price that won’t break the bank.

No.13

Josh Williams said 1513 days ago:

For those of you who read the Firewheel Design Journal, we’re going to be addressing the subject of creative billing software in our next issue. I wish I could divulge more here, but you’ll just have to wait another week or so… I think you’ll be intrigued (if not ecstatic) with what we’ll be previewing.

No.14

Patrick Cote said 1513 days ago:

I just started using QuickBooks Pro 2005 on the Mac (OSX not virtualPC). It’s also my fist go at accounting. I can’t imagine there’s a programme out there that does more than QuickBooks. It seems to cover everything and I’m only getting started. The downside to this is that there’s a lot to get through and I think they could have made some of the terminology a little more intuitive. It covers most of your requests (though I can’t yet confirm all of them).And you just email the file to your accountant and he instantly has everything in front of him.

As for your VAT issue…I’m pretty confident that you could set this up properly with QuickBooks, but ask a more knowledgeable user first.

No.15

Neil said 1513 days ago:

Chalk up another Studiometry user. There is some weirdness, but overall it works better than anything else I’ve tried.

No.16

hifi said 1513 days ago:

http://www.liquidledger.com/
very cocoa/mac os x, I like it a lot

No.17

Josh Bryant said 1513 days ago:

hifi >

Do you really use Liquid Ledger or are you just mentioning it as an option.

The program seems to be great from all the claims they make, but the company itself seems completely borked. They used to promise a new version that was coming out soon, that never actually came out. The last update of the app was in January and that was a beta. Another beta has not been released since!!! On top of that, the last update before then was over a year if I remember right.

It seems like an abandoned product to me. I’d really like to try it out, and it sounds like it does an awesome job, especially since it’s one of the only apps out there that can handle multiple currencies, and being an American going to school in Canada, that would surely be an awesome feature for me.

Another thing that scares me, they have a link on their home page for a free trial. When you click it, it just says that the free trial is coming soon. However, what the hell does soon mean? That notice has been there for almost a year!!!!!!

No.18

Will Croft said 1513 days ago:

I use iCash for some basic financial tracking – you can track any account and produce a whole variety of reports, only thing I’ve found is that the graphical reports; graphs, pie charts, etc.; don’t seem to load on my Mac – maybe a feature still in development?

Apart from that, one or two bugs but very feature full and useful: you can easily add different ‘accounts’ for various companies or clients, and/or a colour. Not too sure if this ad-hoc method would stack up too well for you?

No.19

Angie said 1513 days ago:

I also use Studiometry. Recent convert, actually. It’s fast, sometimes clunky but I do love the way it’s organized. The ability to make invoices, estimates and other reports look the way I want is worth most of the price, which, by the way, isn’t much compared to most products like it. For accounting I use this great little app called Tiny Books(http://www.mv.com/ipusers/spacetime/). It’s not pretty at all. But it’s so incredibly simple and easy to use. Printing accounting reports is easy too. It’s very inexpensive and it does it’s job – accounting. Nothing more, nothing less. I love it.

No.20

Jeremy Koempel said 1513 days ago:

I recommend http://www.oranged.net/studiometry/. It should cover your needed functionality and then some. I have used it for roughly 8 months now and cannot imagine doing business without it!

No.21

M.e. said 1513 days ago:

I gave up a long time ago and just made my own filemaker thing. It sucks compared to most things out there now, but in its day I looked pretty good in front of all the accounting ladies.

Thanks for posting about this. It has been a huge help.

No.22

Marc Hauser said 1512 days ago:

One more for Studiometry.

No.23

Alex said 1512 days ago:

I am very interested in developing an account system for OSX. If anyone has any suggestions email me!

No.24

Scott McMillin said 1512 days ago:

On the advice of many above I downloaded Studiometry and have been using it for a couple hours now. It seems strong on features but the UI is very weak and non-intuitive—like it was designed by a programmer (no offense).

Also, the app seems very flakey with odd screen redraw problems, UI controls slow to catch up to window resize etc. Having developed in RealBasic in the past, it feels like that. And sure enough, a quick google later, I find it was developed in RB. Now I’m a fan of RB and have used it for a variety of tasks, but when there’s a noticeable performance issue and sloppy field layout (field names overlapping and cutting off letters etc) it just feel amatuer to me.

Just my $.02—if it works for you, great!

No.25

Leanda Ryan said 1511 days ago:

I’ve been using Studio Manager http://www.studio-manager.com for a few years now but I also can’t help but feel that there must be something better out there. It runs using FileMaker which I’ve always found a little annoying and it was very time consuming to set up.

I’ve also tried Sage Accounts on the advice of my then accountant and hated every second of it, I even bought a PC to run it on and had some training.

I downloaded the demo of Studiometry and I have to agree with Scott, I found it not very intuitive and producing an itemised estimate seems very long winded. Maybe I’m missing something?

So for now I’m stuck with Studio Manager for job tracking, invoicing and estimates and Excel for my accounts.

No.26

Mark said 1510 days ago:

Maybe you could get a copy of Studiometry in return for some Design Tips? Their website is horrible.

No.27

Nathan A Herald said 1509 days ago:

I just notice a program called Billings was released…

http://www.marketcircle.com/billings/

I don’t know anything about it, but I am gonna demo it.

No.28

douglas said 1506 days ago:

Thanks jon for putting this question out there. Like everyone else, I’ve been looking for something that can integrate with my other programs, and currently I’m using quickbookspro on a pc and everytime I have to create a client, etc. it’s duplication of work. There is nothing I hate more than doing something twice. After taking the advice of the posts, I downloaded studiometry and I am quite suprised at the sophistication of the program. It’s very comprehensive…it falls short of being a complete accounting solution, but I’m going to give it a spin. As for the quirks and awkwardness of the interface, yes..but it’s much better than most. If the customeer support holds to be true, then I may have found my solution.

No.29

Andy Budd said 1504 days ago:

I’ve just started using MYOB but I have to admit that I’m not very impressed. The UI is pretty poor and the invoice templating system is shocking. If you do find something better, please let me know.

No.30

Joe Beharriell said 1503 days ago:

I just happened across a small app called Konstruktor Pro (http://www.application.dk/) the other day.

It seems to be pretty detailed, and is available in both a single-user/freelance version, as well as a workgroup version that allows some customization using FileMaker. Best part in your case, it seems it’s built by a European developer.. VAT integrated throughout.

A quick quote from their website:

bq. “Konstruktor Pro is a business management solution geared for freelancers and small companies. It provides users with easy-to-use tools that are essential to running a business. Konstruktor Pro includes project/job management, customer, invoicing and staff modules.”

Anyways, just another option to take a peek at. Enjoy.