Contents


Welcome
Welcome to FirstAccounts

Thank-you for choosing MYOB FirstAccounts - the ideal first accounting system that makes business bookkeeping easy. Whether you are just starting a business or have outgrown manual accounting systems, FirstAccounts makes real accounting easy for everyone.

Easy to get started

The FirstAccounts New Data File Assistant quickly steps you through automating your accounts. Choose from 50 pre-set data files - use them as they are, easily modify them to suit your business or create your own. You can also easily import data from Quicken, Microsoft Money, BestBooks and other systems.

The Easy Setup Assistant helps you set up your accounts, sales, purchases and preferences. You can start the Easy Setup Assistant by selecting it in the Setup menu in FirstAccounts.

Easy to use - no accounting knowledge needed

If you can use Microsoft Windows or MacOS you're well on your way. FirstAccounts combines plain-English and an award-winning design to make accounting easy for everyone. The entry screens look just like they do on paper - invoice windows look just like invoices, cheque windows look just like cheques. Just fill them in as you would on paper.

Real accounting, made real easy

FirstAccounts is a full-double entry accounting system. What sets it apart is that it maintains double-entry journals behind the scenes. Simply fill in familiar forms - FirstAccounts does the rest.

Award-winning flow chart interface

MYOB FirstAccounts uses the flow chart design pioneered by MYOB Accounting -- the most awarded accounting software ever! The flowchart organises information logically and makes it easy for novices to navigate their accounting systems.

Help right at your fingertips

With the built-in online help system you will quickly learn FirstAccounts and find solutions to common 'real world' problems such as how to handle a bounced cheque.

All the features you need today...

FirstAccounts is designed for small service businesses and includes all the features you need today...and a growth path for the future

Work faster and smarter

We spent a lot of time considering how businesses really work. That's why you'll find, for example, that entering invoices is so fast. All the fields you need are on the one screen. So entering discounts or deposits paid is just as quick as entering the rest of the invoice. The To-Do List gathers all outstanding actions into a single window. Review what needs to be done, then decide what to do. For example, pay some bills and tick them off. FirstAccounts follows through, writes the cheques and adjusts the accounts.


release notes contents
What’s New in this Release of FirstAccounts?

While these Release Notes are primarily for users who have upgraded from FirstAccounts version 2 to MYOB FirstAccounts version 3, all users should review the following notes:

Bank Account Reconciliations

Improved Graphics Handling

Printing Multiple Copies of Forms

Support for Multiple Customised Forms

Pre-conversion transactions and GST

Other features included in FirstAccounts


Printing Multiple Copies of Forms

FirstAccounts allows you to print multiple copies of invoices, statements and other commonly printed forms.

Here's a list of forms along with the windows you can use to indicate the number of copies you want printed. Each of these windows has a Print __ Copies field.

Form:	Window used to specify number of copies:

Invoices	Review Invoices Before Printing

Cheques	Review Cheques Before Printing

Statements	Review Statements Before Printing

Purchase orders	Review Orders Before Printing

Mailing labels	Review Labels Before Printing

Please note: If your operating system Print dialog box allows you to specify the number of copies you want to print, you generally should enter 1 if you've already specified the number of copies you want using FirstAccounts. If you specify multiple copies both in FirstAccounts and in the Print dialog box, you may end up with many more copies of the form than you'd planned. There are some cases, in which you may find it useful to enter amounts both in FirstAccounts and in the Print dialog box.

When you print multiple copies using FirstAccounts, all the copies for one form will be printed before the second form is printed; all copies of the second form will be printed, then all copies of the third form will be printed, and so on. If you print multiple copies using the Print dialog box, all the forms will be printed once, then a complete set of copies will be printed, followed by another full set of copies, and so on, until all the copies you requested have been printed.

This can be useful for printing groups of invoices, for example, if you print multiple invoices on a single page. By using FirstAccounts to print your multiple copies, you can print all the copies of each invoice on the same page. If you use the Print dialog box, the invoices won't be printed together.

You also can use this feature to your advantage when printing mailing labels. Say you're printing customer mailing labels, and you want three labels for each customer to be printed in succession in each set of labels, and you want two sets of labels to be printed. To do this, enter 3 in the Review Labels Before Printing window (to print three labels in a row for each customer), and enter 2 in the Print dialog box (to create two sets of labels). A total of six labels will be created for each customer.


Improved Bank Account Reconciliation
Bank Account Reconciliations

Reconcile Accounts window

A small change has been made to the Reconcile Accounts process. The transactions that appear to be reconciled will be only those dated on or before the bank statement date you enter. Therefore no transactions will appear until you enter a bank statement date.

Reconciliation Report

FirstAccounts 3 now tracks a reconciliation date for individual transactions, as well as for the accounts assigned to the transactions. If you've upgraded from FirstAccounts 2, any transactions you reconciled before upgrading will be assigned a reconciliation date automatically. The date used will be the Last Reconciled date for the account assigned to the transaction. This date will be assigned regardless of when the transactions actually were reconciled.

Any unreconciled transactions won't be affected when you upgrade; they'll be assigned a reconciliation date when you reconcile them using FirstAccounts.


Support for Multiple Customised Forms
Customised Forms

With FirstAccounts, you can create as many customised forms as you like for the following types of documents:

Invoices, packing slips and shipping labels

Cheques

Statements

Purchase orders

Mailing labels

When you print any of these forms using FirstAccounts, you can select the form you want to use in the Forms Selection window for the form you've selected.

To create multiple custom forms

As with BestBooks and FirstAccounts 2, you can use the Customise window to modify standard form layouts to suit your purposes. The Customise window has two new buttons, however - Save and Save As.

After you made changes to an existing form layout, choose Save As to display the Save As dialog box. You can use this dialog box to name your new form layout.

If you modify an existing custom form, click Save to save your changes without creating another custom form.

Forms folder

Your custom forms will be saved in a Forms folder within your FirstAccounts program folder. If you wish to delete one of your custom forms in the future, display the form in the Customise window and choose Delete Form from the Edit menu. Be sure to backup this folder (for example, by dragging a copy of the Forms folder to a floppy disk) to ensure you have a safe copy of the forms in case your computer is stolen, or you need to use your data file on another computer.


Improved Graphics Handling

FirstAccounts now allows you to include logos and other images with an unlimited number of colours on your invoices, statements and other forms. FirstAccounts 2 was capable of using only 16-colour images. In addition you can scale (resize) your images once they've been pasted into FirstAccounts’ Field Information/Picture window.

If you've pasted a multi-coloured logo or other image into your forms using FirstAccounts 2,  you may wish to reload your graphics to take advantage of FirstAccounts’ new graphics capabilities. To do this, complete the following steps.

1.	Open the window used to print the form you wish to change. For example, if you wish to change a logo on your customer statements, go to the Sales Command Centre and click Print Statements to open the Forms Selection/Print Statements window.

2.	Select the form you wish to modify and click the Customise button. The Customise window for the form you selected will appear.

3.	Locate the image you wish to change and double-click it. The Field Information/Picture window will open.

4.	Click Load Picture. A dialog box will appear; use the dialog box to locate the picture you want to use. Highlight the picture, then click OK.

5.	Click OK in the Customise window.

6.	A message will appear to alert you that changes you've made will replace the previous changes you've made. Click OK. The Forms Selection window will reappear.

7.	Click Cancel to return to the Command Centre.

8.	Choose Save from the File menu to save your changes.


Greater flexibility in printing statements

Using FirstAccounts., you now can print customer statements that include a range of activity dates. You can specify both a starting date and an ending date – effectively giving you a cutoff date. FirstAccounts 2 allowed you to enter a starting date but all activity from that date forward was printed on the statements.


Other features included in FirstAccounts

FirstAccounts contains many features that are relatively small in scope, but which may be of great use to you. They include:

Expandable invoice and purchase order description fields

When you enter line items on invoices and purchase orders, the Description field now expands so you can enter extended descriptions or comments of each item being bought or sold. Note that you can turn this option by going to the Preferences windows.

Click and drag capability in selection lists

In FirstAccounts' selection lists, you now can click and drag to select or de-select items on the list.

Improved context sensitivity in FirstAccounts' online help

Context-sensitive help has been expanded to provide more specific information for command centres, windows that contain tabs (such as the To Do List) and other windows that have multiple views. In FirstAccounts for Windows, you can press F1 to display context-sensitive help; in FirstAccounts for Macintosh, you can choose Contents from the help menu to display context-sensitive help for the window you're viewing.

User defined aging

In FirstAccounts 2, aging for sales and purchases transactions automatically occurred at 30-, 60- and 90-day intervals. With FirstAccounts Version 3, you can choose to use daily aging periods of any length you like; you also can use monthly aging periods. This change affects the way information will be displayed in the Analyse Receivables and Analyse Payables windows, on plain-paper statements and on the summary and detail versions of the following reports: Aged Receivables, Aged Payables, Receivables Reconciliation and Payables Reconciliation.

The Reports and Forms tab of the Preferences window has been changed to enable you to indicate the aging periods you want to use, as shown in the following illustration.

If you choose to use daily aging, you can use any number of days you like, up to 999 days. For example, if aging periods of 7, 14 and 21 days are common in your industry, enter 7 for the first aging period, 14 for the second aging period, and so on.

If you choose to use monthly aging, you can identify your aging periods by either month name or month number. If you choose month names, your FirstAccounts  reports and windows will include transactions in the months they came due. If you choose month numbers, FirstAccounts  reports and windows will categorise transactions by the number of months they are overdue.

If you don't select any aging options using the Preferences window, your transactions will be aged at 30-, 60- and 90-day intervals.

Verify, Backup and Restore

In FirstAccounts you can use the integrated backup system to make a copy of your data file onto removable media such as floppy disks. This should be done regularly to ensure you have a useable copy of your data if your computer is stolen or the data file becomes corrupt of damaged.

The Verify Data command checks your data for file structure errors, and should be performed regularly. You can access the Verify Data command from the File menu, and you will be prompted to verify your data before backing up.

The Backup command makes a compressed copy of your file, and you can choose to save it to floppy or zip disk for safe storing.  Preferably, you should keep a recent copy of your data file offsite. The Backup command can be accessed from the File menu and you will also be prompted to backup before closing your data file.

The Restore command allows you to de-compress a backup file made in FirstAccounts. You would need to restore your backup file if the data you normally work is damaged or stolen. You can access the Restore command from the File menu.

More new features in version 3!

•	Invoice and purchase order specific terms: You can now select specific terms per invoice or purchase as well as terms for the card.

•	HTML reports: You can now save your reports in HTML format by clicking the Disk button in the Reports window. This is great for quickly placing report information on your intranet.

•	New account types: As well as Income, Expenses, Other Income, Other Expenses, you now have the option of setting up Cost of Sales accounts (5-xxxx), which allows you to show Gross Profits on your Profit and Loss statement.

•	Elapsed time field in contact log: You can now track the time you spend on your customers by entering the hours and minutes in a contact log. When you print the Contact Log report, FirstAccounts will list all contacts with the total elapsed time.

•	Accountant Link: Easily export to other accounting systems by selecting Accountant Link in the File menu. You can export to CaseWare, CeeData, HandliLedger, Solution 6 MAS and Teletax.

•	Last and Next Year Reporting for Jobs: You can now print job profit and loss reports for last year, this year and next year.

•	Find Transactions by Customer PO# and Supplier Inv#: You can search for invoices or purchases by entering the Customer’s Purchase Order Number or Supplier Inv # in the Find Transaction windows.

•	Ability to Print Account Numbers on all General Ledger Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Statements: You can now show both the Account Number and Account name in these reports.

•	Analyse Sales reports (Item/Customer/Salesperson) can now be filtered for a range of items/customers/salespersons: The filters for these reports now let you select a range to print sales information for.

•	Ability to exclude 100% complete jobs from the Jobs List report: If you have entered 100% in the Percentage Complete field of the Job Information window, you have the option of excluding these jobs when printing the Jobs List report.

•	Ability have a date range for Activity Statement: You can now select a date range when printing Activity Statements compared to being able to enter only the Activity From date.

•	Allocation Account warnings: If you select an inappropriate account in a sales invoice or purchase order, you will receive a warning, but you can still record the transaction with that account.


Pre-conversion transactions and GST

You can now select a tax code that applies to a Historical Sale or Historical Purchase transaction.

When entering the Amount due in either of these windows, you should select a tax code, if GST applies to the transaction. FirstAccounts will determine the GST component based on the GST code selected in these windows.


FirstAccounts and Y2K

The media has brought attention to the Year 2000 (Y2K) issue which affects many technology, computer and software installations. Most of the problems are with mainframe systems run by large banks and insurance companies rather than personal computers; however, we'd like to assure our customers that FirstAccounts is fully Year 2000 compliant in accordance with the BSI-DISC PD2000-1 standard.

New: FirstAccounts now displays dates in the dd/mm/yyyy date format, that is, it now displays 4 digit years (2000) instead of 2 digit years (00).

Note: Even though MYOB products are "Y2K-savvy," some older Windows computers have systems (known as a BIOS) which may not be compatible with the year 2000. (To determine whether your computer is affected, see the official Year 2000 Information Centre Web site at http://www.year2000.com/.)

If your Windows computer isn't Year 2000-compliant and you record a transaction in MYOB on January 1, 2000, the transaction date might be displayed as 1/1/80. To fix this, you'll need to change your computer's system date to 1/1/00 manually; after you do this, your MYOB transactions should be recorded properly.


FirstAccounts and the GST

FirstAccounts has been designed to handle both the Wholesales Sales Tax system (WST) and the Goods & Services Tax (GST) for Australia. As a result, certain changes have been made to the way FirstAccounts handles sales tax.

Listed below are a summary of the changes made to FirstAccounts 3 as a result of GST. These changes and the steps to convert to the GST are covered in detail both in your FirstAccounts 3 User Guide’s GST chapter, and in FirstAccounts’ Online Help, accessible by clicking Contents in FirstAccounts’ Help menu.

Summary of GST Changes in FirstAccounts 3

•	A tax code can be selected in the Spend Money window

•	A tax code can be selected in the Receive Money window

•	A tax code can be selected in the Enter Historical Sales window

•	A tax code can be selected in the Enter Historical Purchases window

•	Your ABN can be entered in the Company Information window

•	GST Ready forms for Invoices and Purchases are stored in the Forms folder

•	“Tax Invoice” fields such as ABN have been added to customised forms.

•	A linked account for tracking Input Credits can be selected

Summary of steps required to move to the GST system

•	Enter your ABN into FirstAccounts

•	Setup new Control and Adjustment accounts to handle the Tax Collected and Paid

•	Customise your existing invoices, or use a new GST Ready form

•	Update your Linked Accounts for the GST

•	Update your Tax Codes list

The transition from WST to GST may seem daunting, but rest assured that we have and will continue to provide you with all the information and support you require to make the move. Remember, if you need more information about the GST in FirstAccounts, see the GST chapter in your FirstAccounts 3 User Guide, or click Contents in the FirstAccounts Help menu.


Upgrading Notes

Command Panel

The Command Centre has been made easier to use with the new command panel on the right hand side. From the command panel, you can access the To Do List, Analyse, Find Transaction and Reports windows, which were previously only accessible from the menus. The default selections in the command panels will depend on the command centre you are viewing.

Electronic Payments

You should also note that if you will be paying your suppliers electronically, you can now reach the Electronic Payments window by clicking the Electronic Payments button in the Chequebook command centre. Previously you would have gone to the Print Cheques window and clicked the Bank Disk button. Also, check out the new Electronic Payments Register report which lists the cheques paid electronically within a date range.

Vendors and Suppliers

You may have noticed that the word Vendor has been replaced with Supplier throughout the entire FirstAccounts system. So, be aware that any references to the Supplier Payments window refers to the previously named Vendor Payments window, and Supplier cards refer to what were known as Vendor cards.

GST

FirstAccounts 3 has been designed to handle the existing Wholesales Sales Tax and the coming GST. There have been a few changes to FirstAccounts as a result of the GST, and be aware that you will need to perform certain tasks to convert your system to GST. Click here to find out more.

Customised Forms

In FirstAccounts version 3, you can now have multiple customised forms for your invoices, purchases, cheques, and mailing labels. This is a great new feature for users who require more than one format for their printed invoices, purchases etc.

Also note that the way customised forms are saved has changed. Click here for more information.

Menu changes

Some functions, for example the Preferences window and the Linked Accounts windows,  that were previously selected from the Edit menu have now been moved to the Setup menu.

Tracking Sales History

Note that Sales History for your Customers and Employees is now tracked automatically, and the option to Track Sales History has been removed from these card types.


Register Online

If you are a new FirstAccounts user, and you have not yet registered with MYOB, you can do so by using our online registration system at http://register.myob.com.au

It’s easy, quick, available 24 hours a day, and once you register you are entitled to product support from our expert technical support team (see your FirstAccounts Priority Kit for more information). By registering you will receive a Registration Number that needs to be keyed into your FirstAccounts data file if you want to use it more than 25 times.

Have your serial number ready – its printed on your CD cover, and on your Registration Card which came with your software.

Ready? OK, click http://register.myob.com.au

If you don’t have internet access, you can still register by calling 1800 555 223 from 9.00am to 5.30pm Melbourne Time, Monday to Friday, quoting your 7 digit serial number, or alternatively, send in your Registration Card included with your software.