M.Y.O.B.

for
Service Businesses
A series of guides
for specific industries

Includes M.Y.O.B. for Small Service Business

and M.Y.O.B. for Retail Service Business

© Data-Tech Software Pty Ltd

ISBN 1 876358 09 2
First Edition, March 1998
 F e e d b a c k

Can you help?

Every business is very different in what it requires from an accounting
system. At Data-Tech Software we realise this, which is why we have
written these special guides.

We are always glad to hear of new ways in which our users adapt
M.Y.O.B. to meet their needs. This can be anything – from a creative
use of a standard report to a specially customised form peculiar to
your business. If you use M.Y.O.B. in a special way for your business,
and we haven’t covered that in this guide, we’d love to hear from you.
This way we can share tips amongst our users and make ongoing
improvements to these guides.

Alternatively, if you would like to comment on any of the content in

this special business documentation, your feedback is always more than
welcome.

You can contact us in any of the following ways:

Email: [email protected]

Fax: 02 9770 9088

Mail: Data-Tech Software

PO BOX 6093
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2060

Thank-you!

Acknowledgement. This work is partly derived with Great care has been taken to ensure that the informa-
permission from the Woodslane Press publication: tion found in this guide is both accurate and helpful.
However, it remains your responsibility to verify the legal
Making the Most of M.Y.O.B.
and accounting impact of any information which
ISBN 1 875889 05 1
is used in your business. Data-Tech Software advise
Woodslane Press may be contacted on (02) 9970 5111. that changes to your accounting system should be
Case Studies. Please note that although the case discussed with your accountant prior to their implemen-
studies used in this guide are based on actual tation. In no event shall Data-Tech Software be liable
businesses which use M.Y.O.B., the names of the for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential
businesses have been fictionalised for publication. or similar damages arising from the use of this
publication.

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Service Business 2
C o n t e n t s

Introduction␣ ␣ 5

Which M.Y.O.B. program?␣ ␣ 6

The Essentials ␣ ␣ 7
Step One – Choose a Template␣ ␣ 7
Step Two – Review your Chart of Accounts␣ ␣ 7
Step Three – Check your Preferences␣ ␣ 8
Step Four – Set up Opening Balances ␣ ␣ 9
Step Five – Ready to Go ␣ ␣ 9
Three key concepts␣ ␣ 10
Adapting M.Y.O.B. to your business␣ ␣ 10
Understanding the difference between
general ledger accounts and job numbers␣ ␣ 11
Fitting the pieces together␣ ␣ 12
Sales, invoices and receipts␣ ␣ 13
Where do I record income in M.Y.O.B.? ␣ ␣ 13
How do I create a customer invoice? ␣ ␣ 13
Can I change the look and layout of my invoices?␣ ␣ 14
How do I issue receipts?␣ ␣ 14
I have the same sale I make to lots of people.
Can M.Y.O.B. speed this up?␣ ␣ 15
Some customers have sales that recur regularly.
What’s the quickest way to manage these? ␣ ␣ 16
I hire out equipment for a rental charge.
Can M.Y.O.B. help with this?␣ ␣ 17
Quoting␣ ␣ 19
How do I create quotations?␣ ␣ 19
How do I print “Quotation” at the top?␣ ␣ 19
Where can I find a list of all outstanding quotes?␣ ␣ 19
How do I turn a quote into an actual sale?␣ ␣ 19
Dealing with expenses ␣ ␣ 20
The essentials of recording expenses␣ ␣ 20
When should I use Purchases,
and when should I use Write Cheques? ␣ ␣ 20
How do I record credit card expenses?␣ ␣ 20
How can I see at a glance how much I owe?␣ ␣ 21
Case Study – Echidna Studios␣ ␣ 22

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Service Business 3
 Contents

Keeping track of time␣ ␣ 23

Where does all the time go? ␣ ␣ 23
Can I prepare an invoice bit by bit over several weeks?␣ ␣ 23
How do I use the Contact Log to track time?␣ ␣ 23
Can I enter timesheets into M.Y.O.B.?␣ ␣ 24
Case Study – Redback Pest Control␣ ␣ 26

Marketing with M.Y.O.B. ␣ ␣ 27

Can I use M.Y.O.B. for my customer database?␣ ␣ 27
Can I record phone calls and meetings in the Contact Log?␣ ␣ 27
Can I split my customers into groups? ␣ ␣ 27
Can M.Y.O.B. be used to create advertising mail outs? ␣ ␣ 28
I’d like to ‘map’ the location of my customers.
Can M.Y.O.B. help with this?␣ ␣ 29
Case Study – Dolphin Dating␣ ␣ 30

Superior customer service␣ ␣ 31

Can M.Y.O.B. create reminders for follow-up calls?␣ ␣ 31
How do I identify my best customers?␣ ␣ 31
Can M.Y.O.B. provide a listing of inactive customers?␣ ␣ 32
Can M.Y.O.B. help me track the performance
of individual salespeople? ␣ ␣ 32
Case Study – Hannah’s Hair␣ ␣ 34

Reports␣ ␣ 35
How do I calculate commission for my sales team?␣ ␣ 35
Can M.Y.O.B. help control my payroll costs?␣ ␣ 36
Designing your chart of accounts as a reporting tool ␣ ␣ 37
Can M.Y.O.B. calculate depreciation?␣ ␣ 37
What reports are most useful for service businesses?␣ ␣ 38
What reports should I print at end of year?␣ ␣ 38
Index␣ ␣ 40

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Service Business 4
Introduction
This M.Y.O.B. guide has been specifically written for service
businesses. It complements your M.Y.O.B. User Guide and
provides answers to the most common questions asked by this
type of business.
Is this guide for you? The term “service business”
encompasses a wide range of enterprises, everything from
artists to undertakers, from ballooning guides to security
guards. This guide is relevant to all these business types and
more, and focuses on the unique questions posed by
businesses whose income is comprised primarily of labour
charges. However, if you provide your service in a retail
environment (for example a hairdresser or a beauty therapist),
you might also like to refer to M.Y.O.B. for Retailers. If you are a
professional who charges for your time, you might also like to
refer to M.Y.O.B. for Professional Consultants.
This guide starts with a step by step guide to setting up
M.Y.O.B. This is followed by commonly asked questions and
answers, grouped under section headings.
You’ll find Case Studies throughout this guide where you can
read about how real businesses have set up M.Y.O.B. A
suggestion for new users is to read these Case Studies before
browsing through the rest of this guide. Alternatively, users
already familiar with M.Y.O.B. might refer to these case studies
to discover tips and new ideas.
If a topic is of particular importance, it is flagged with a
warning sign and the word IMPORTANT! If you see an
instruction such as “Choose Setup>Preferences” this means go
to the Setup menu, shown at the top of your display, and
choose the Preferences command.
One more thing. You’ll notice that for ease of writing, we refer
only to M.Y.O.B. Accounting, and not to M.Y.O.B. Premier.
However, this guide applies equally to M.Y.O.B. Premier which
has all the features of M.Y.O.B. Accounting plus more, as well
as providing multi-user access.
Have fun!

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Service Business 5
Which M.Y.O.B. ?
There are four members in the M.Y.O.B. range of Many service businesses require advanced cost
accounting software: M.Y.O.B. FirstAccounts, centre and job analysis; the ability to budget for
M.Y.O.B. Accounting, M.Y.O.B. Accounting with jobs or projects; and item-type invoices (great for
Payroll and M.Y.O.B. Premier Accounting. All can tracking employee time). You may also require a
all be used for service businesses. There are cost-of-sales account category (especially if you also
important differences between each program, and buy goods for resale). These features are found in
you should review these differences to ensure you M.Y.O.B. Accounting, Accounting with Payroll and
choose the one that’s right for your needs. M.Y.O.B. Premier Accounting.
M.Y.O.B. FirstAccounts is intended for small M.Y.O.B. Premier is recommended if you will be
ser vice businesses (such as consultants and using M.Y.O.B. as an extensive database of
businesses which invoice based on labour and time). customers and/or vendors; or if you require a long
Features include: historical record of transactions or multi-user
• Sales, Chequebook, General Ledger, access. Premier also has the most sophisticated
Purchases and Card File command centres range of commands and features of any M.Y.O.B.
• Standard Jobs System, enabling cost and/or software.
profit centre reporting. If you require payroll management (highly
recommended if you have three or more employees),
M.Y.O.B. Accounting has all these features, and then M.Y.O.B. Accounting with Payroll or Premier is
adds: recommended. Integrated payroll features plain
• Full inventory management – essential paper group certificates, comprehensive entitlement
if you plan to use M.Y.O.B. for purchasing and leave management and more.
and reselling.
Employees can be paid by direct bank transfer. A
• Enhanced (multi-level) Jobs System, paycheque can take less than a minute to process,
enabling advanced cost centre analysis. while an entire pay run may only take a few minutes.
• Advanced reporting (i.e. more reports, Your accounts and required payroll information are
custom report options and close always up-to-date.
integration with other applications No matter which software you are using or choose
such as spreadsheets) to start with, upgrading to another member of the
• Ability to budget for jobs, projects family is straightforward, cost effective and can be
or cost centres. made at any time.
M.Y.O.B. Accounting with Payroll adds: Asset Management. M.Y.O.B. AssetManager
• Fully integrated payroll, a vital time-saver provides powerful, easy-to-use management of fixed
if you have three or more employees. assets. This includes everything from buildings, to
computers, to office fittings. It includes service
M.Y.O.B. Premier Accounting adds to all these details, serial numbers, owner details, asset
features: groupings and component transfers. Calculation of
• Multi-user capability. This means that more depreciation is automated and AssetManager
than one user can operate M.Y.O.B. creates depreciation journal information which is a
simultaneously. For example, you could use snap to enter directly into your accounting system.
M.Y.O.B. at reception for receiving payments
and issuing receipts, and at the back desk
for bookkeeping and reporting. Further information on the M.Y.O.B. range of
• Unlimited transactions, cards, contact software can be obtained by calling Data-Tech
details (limited effectively by the size of your Software on 1800 555 007.
hard drive).
• Improved password security and audit
trails, complete with user log-in details for
every transaction.

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Service Business 6
The Essentials
The following five steps are a brief guide to getting started. Each step highlights important
information with service businesses specifically in mind. You should use this information in
conjunction with the Getting Started guide that comes with M.Y.O.B.

Step One – Choose a Template

You use the M.Y.O.B. Setup Interview to create a new data file for your business. Step 5 asks you
to Choose a Template. If listed, select your business type. Otherwise, choose the Service
Business – Other template. These templates provide a sample chart of accounts, and are a
good starting point. Don’t worry if this chart of accounts template isn’t perfect - you can add,
change or delete as many accounts as you like.

Step Two – Review your Chart of Accounts

Before entering your opening balances, you need to adapt the standard M.Y.O.B. chart of
accounts so that it suits the unique needs of your business.
What is the chart of accounts? The chart of accounts is a list of classifications to which you
will allocate transactions in your business. There are eight major account categories. It pays to
understand each one so you use the right ones at the right time. Refer to the User Guide that
comes with M.Y.O.B. for more information on creating new accounts, editing accounts, or
deleting accounts.
You can design your chart of accounts so that it provides detailed management reporting. See
Designing your chart of accounts as a reporting tool for more information.
Figure 1 (shown on the next page) illustrates the eight major account categories:

Step Three – Check your Preferences

You can customise M.Y.O.B. so that it works for your business the way you want it to. You can do
everything from changing the appearance of your M.Y.O.B. windows, to automatically
requesting a backup prompt each time you quit the program. It all happens via the
Preferences command.
To review your preferences, go to Setup> Preferences and explore the System, Reports &
Forms, Chequebook, Sales, Purchases and Security tabs. Remember—your choice of
preferences does not commit you to this for ever and ever, for you can change your preferences
at any time.
One preference setting is recommended, especially for new users. Make your data file
changeable. If you make mistakes, you can correct them, without needing to make complicated
reversing journals. To do this, go to the Security tab in Preferences. Remove the checkmark
from Data File Records CANNOT be Changed; Saved Entries Must be Reversed.
For more details on how each preference setting works and what it does, refer to the User Guide
that comes with M.Y.O.B.

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Service Business 7
Figure 1. Account categories used in the M.Y.O.B. Chart of Accounts
Account category What it means…
Assets Things you own, or that people owe you. Put your office equipment,
motor vehicles, or customer accounts here.
Asset account numbers start with 1.
Liabilities What you owe to other people. Includes loans, taxes payable and
outstanding supplier accounts.
Liability account numbers start with 2.
Equity This is your “interest” in the business, the profit or loss that your
business has made. Examples of equity accounts are retained profits,
partners’ drawings, or capital contributions.
Equity account numbers start with 3.
Income Money in! Everything you invoice or sell to your customers.
Income account numbers start with 4.
Cost of sales Cost of sales is the direct costs of providing your service. Might include
commissions paid, materials resold, royalties or subcontract labour.
Cost of sales account numbers start with 5.
Expenses Overheads. The day-to-day running costs of your business. Includes
advertising, bank charges, rent, telephone or wages.
Expense account numbers start with 6.
Other Income Extraordinary income that is not really part of your everyday business.
Could include capital gains.
Other income account numbers start with 8.
Other Expenses Extraordinary expenses that are not really part of your everyday
business. Could include lawsuit expenses, capital losses, or fire
damage costs.
Other expenses account numbers start with 9.

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Service Business 8
Step Four – Set up Opening Balances
Next you need to enter opening balances.
To enter opening general ledger account balances, click Setup>Balances>Account Opening
Balances. To enter opening balances for outstanding customer accounts, click
Setup>Balances>Receivables. To enter opening balances for outstanding supplier accounts,
click Setup>Balances>Payables.
To get up and running, you only need to enter opening balances for a few accounts. Bare
essentials will probably include your bank account, total customer accounts outstanding, and
the amount you owe to suppliers. Your opening account figures won’t balance, but M.Y.O.B. will
store this out of balance amount in the Historical Balancing account. You or your accountant
can fix this later.
If required, refer to Getting Started guide that comes with M.Y.O.B. for more information on
opening balances.

Step Five – Ready to Go

Some last comments before you launch into action…
1 Always remember to save as you go: press CTRL-S (Windows) or CMD-S
(Macintosh). Current M.Y.O.B. software also has an Autosave preference. All you need
to do is go to Setup>Preferences>Security and set the time interval between
saving to, say, 5 minutes. If you don’t save, and there is a power failure or computer
crash, you will lose all the work you’ve done that day.
2 Work out how to back up your data file onto floppy disk, or other removable media,
now. You might have been lucky so far, but nobody can guarantee continued
immunity to power surges, theft, fire or hard disk failure. If you don’t know how, read
the manual, or phone a friend. But don’t put it off! If you don’t work it out now, you’ll
probably forget about it until it’s too late—and then you’ll be sorry.

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Service Business 9
Adapting M.Y.O.B. to your business
Three key concepts
Every transaction that you record in M.Y.O.B. can include the following information:
1 The Name of the customer or supplier.
2 The Allocation Account. This is the general ledger account number from your chart
of accounts, and refers to the type of income, or type of expense.
3 The Job Number. This job number can be used for cost centres, such as different
locations, or different enterprises within your business.

Every transaction you record in M.Y.O.B.

can include the following information:
Customer Job number, Income type,
or Supplier Project number Cost of Sales type
NAME or Cost Centre or Expense Type

The Card File General Ledger, General Ledger,

Jobs List Chart of Accounts
Sales and deposits can Cheques, deposits, sales and All transactions ask for an
be grouped according purchases all include a Job Allocation Account, which
to customer name, e.g. column. If you wish, jobs can refers to income and
Customer A be grouped together to form expense types, e.g.
Customer B cost centres, track the profit 4-1000 Income – abseiling
from different locations, or adventures
Purchases and cheques can track income and expenses 4-2000 Income – climbing
be grouped according to from selected projects. tuition
supplier name, e.g. 4-3000 Income – ski camps
Job description Job # 4-3001 Income – ROPES
Supplier A
Brookvale Branch B courses
Supplier B Education dept jobs B1 etc.
Private jobs B2 5-1000 Cost of sales – food
Business jobs B3 5-2000 Cost of sales –
Monavale Branch C subcontract guides
Education dept jobs C1 etc.
Private jobs C2 6-1000 Advertising
Business jobs C3 6-2000 Bank charges
6-3000 Computer supplies
etc.

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Service Business 10
In the Write Cheques window shown below, you can see how this concept works in practice:
the Card field shows the name of the supplier; the Allocation Account field shows the type of
expense; and the Job column shows the cost centre.

You can use job numbers to track different projects, locations or cost
centres

Understanding the difference between general ledger accounts

and job numbers
General ledger accounts are the names that you choose in order to categorise your income and
expenses. For example, income accounts for a composer/musician might include Income from
Compositions, Income from Entertainment. These income accounts could even be Header
Accounts, so that under Income from Compositions, we might have Detail Accounts called
Income from Private Commissions, Income from Royalties, etc. It is good to try and divide your
income into several different categories, rather than lumping it all together as one income
account. This helps you to understand where your business is making money.
IMPORTANT! Job numbers provide an additional way
for you to categorise your income and expenses.

Here’s some ideas on how job numbers might be used:

• A tour guide runs several major overseas expeditions each year and uses a separate
job number for each expedition. All relevant income and expenses are coded so that
the tour guide can monitor ongoing profitability of each trip.
• An interior designer has two major groups of work: commercial consulting and
private residential, and uses a job number for each group. By coding all relevant
income and expenses with a job number, she can monitor the net profitability of each
type of work.

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Service Business 11
 • A hairdresser has several branches in a chain, and has created a job number for each
branch. She uses jobs to identify the income and expenses from each different
branch, and report on the profitability of each separate branch as well as all branches
combined.
• A security service business has a side-line of running martial arts courses for the
public, and gives each “arm” of their business a job number. This allows them to
assess the profitability of each part of their business independently of one another.

Fitting the pieces together

Customer names and supplier names are recorded in the Card File command centre. Click
Cards and then New, select your Card Type carefully, and complete the card details.
General ledger account numbers and names are recorded in the General Ledger command
centre. Click Chart of Accounts and then Edit or New, to change or to add new account
categories. Header Accounts will create headings within the body of your Balance Sheet or
Profit & Loss report. Detail Accounts will sit below these headings.
Job numbers and names are recorded in the General Ledger command centre. Click Jobs List
and then Edit or New to change or to add new jobs. Header Jobs will create headings within
the body of your Job Profit & Loss report. Detail Jobs will sit below these headings.

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Service Business 12
Sales, invoices and receipts
Where do I record income in M.Y.O.B.?
This will depend on the nature of your business. If you need to create a separate invoice for
every sale you make, then see the next question How do I create a customer invoice?
If you would rather record income as lump sums (without detailing each customer’s name)
then go to the Chequebook command centre and click Make a Deposit. (Businesses providing
a service in a retail environment may wish to refer to the guide M.Y.O.B. for Retailers for
additional information on recording sales in this way.)

How do I create a customer invoice?

Go to the Sale command centre and click Sales. Next, click Type to choose the most
appropriate invoice format.
There are three main invoice formats, referred to as Invoice Types in M.Y.O.B. : Service, Item
and Professional. If your invoices require many lines of description, and if the nature of your
fees and services vary, then a Service or Professional invoice will be best for you. Note that
Professional invoices include a Date column in each line of the invoice, but Service invoices
do not.
Sometimes service businesses prefer to bill their customers using Item invoices, even if their
bills consist entirely of services provided. This is because M.Y.O.B. allows you to set up your
hourly rates and other fees as items in the Items List. Item invoices speed up your billing, for
when you select an item from the Items List, M.Y.O.B. will print the name of the service, the
rate, the quantity, and then calculate the total.

An Item Type invoice from a marriage celebrant

Invoice details are only entered after you have selected the invoice type. Tab your way from one
field to the next, and when you’ve finished, click Record.

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Service Business 13
Can I change the look and layout of my invoices?
Yes. There is no limit to M.Y.O.B.’s invoice customisation. All you have to do is select Print
Invoices and then click Customise. You can create boxes, lines, insert your business logo, alter
fonts, add comments – whatever you like. You can also delete unwanted information and
columns: for example, if you are using Item invoices you can delete the sales tax totals and
backorder columns.

You can customise your invoice design extensively

Customising your invoice layout can be a fairly detailed and time-consuming process, so take
your time with it. For more information and tips on how to do this, refer to the User Guide that
comes with M.Y.O.B.

How do I issue receipts?

Receipts are essentially the same as invoices, but are smaller with less detail included on them.
In order to create a receipt, you need to customise your invoice format. If you require both
invoices and receipts, then customise an Item invoice for your invoices, and an Item [Packing
Slip] for your receipts.
To customise an invoice format, go to Print Invoices, select the Type of invoice you wish to
change, and click Customise. You will find that there are many extra fields that you don’t need
for a receipt. Delete these by going to Edit> Erase Selected Field.

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Service Business 14
If you like, you can customise your M.Y.O.B. invoice so that it prints 3 or 4 receipts per A4 page.
To do this, go to Forms>Forms Info and select the # of Invoices per Page and the Paper size.
You’ll need a dot matrix printer so that each docket can be torn off as required.
The User Guide that comes with M.Y.O.B. provides many practical tips on customising forms,
and it is certainly worth taking a little time to arrive at a layout which you are completely happy
with. The picture below shows you an example of what your receipt may look like.

Just one possible result from a customised invoice

Once you have customised your invoice format, you’re ready to produce receipts. All you need to
do is to create a Sale from the Sales command centre, recording brief details in the
Description and Journal Memo fields. (In the example above, the Comment field has also
been used to record the payment method). Record the amount paid in Paid Today, and select
Print.
In order to tell M.Y.O.B. that you want a receipt to print whenever you record a sale, you need to
change your preferences. Go to Setup>Preferences and place a checkmark against Print
Invoices When They’re Recorded.

I have the same sale I make to lots of people.

Can M.Y.O.B. speed this up?
Yes. Some service business will have certain services that they provide on a repeating basis. For
example, a dating agency might have a standard booking fee, or a security service might have a
standard monthly invoice. M.Y.O.B. can speed the processing of these orders by creating a
standard invoice template.
To do this, create a standard invoice (make it out to a “Dummy” customer if you wish), but
when you are ready to record it, click the Save as Recurring button. Name this recurring sale
so that you easily remember what it is, e.g. Booking Fee, Security Monthly, or whatever. Just
accept whatever frequency is offered — this doesn’t matter.

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Service Business 15
Click OK and you will be returned to the original invoice. Now you can click Record. For the
second and subsequent invoices, simply go to create an invoice, click Use Recurring and select
your recurring sale. Now all you need to do is change the customer’s name each time, clicking
Record (not Save As Recurring) once this is done. All other invoice details will be completed
automatically.

Some customers have sales that recur regularly. What’s the

quickest way to manage these?
The quickest way is to set these sales up as recurring, so that M.Y.O.B. will remember the
invoice detail. This works particularly well for customers that receive a regular monthly service,
for customers who subscribe annually or for customers who regularly place repeat orders.
Recurring sales mean that you don’t have to enter the invoice details from scratch each time.
This is what you have to do:
1 The first time you invoice this customer, create it in Sales as you normally would, but
before completing it, click Save as Recurring (one of the buttons at the bottom of
the invoice).
2 In the dialogue box that appears, enter the job name, e.g. “Moyla Primary School,
Security Patrol”, specify the Frequency and click Record.
3 Back on the invoice, click Record once more.

M.Y.O.B. can “remember” invoice details for jobs that occur regularly.

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Service Business 16
Next time you come to invoice this job, all you have to do is this:
• Go to Sales and click Use Recurring. Find the job name and click OK.
• If any account or pricing details have changed from the previous time, you can
change them. Once happy with the invoice, click Record to complete the sale.
If you have many sales that occur at the end of each week or month,
you can record them all in one go by setting them up as recurring and
processing them via your To Do List. All you have to do is click the
Recurring Sales tab and then click against customer names in the
Action column.

I hire out equipment for a rental charge.

Can M.Y.O.B. help with this?
Yes. M.Y.O.B. is ideal for billing equipment rentals. Create an inventory item for each unit of
equipment that you offer for sale, and click on I Sell This Item only in the Item Information.
Create Item Sales for each customer, showing the item being hired, how many days or hours
it’s being hired for, and day due back. (Use the Promised Date field as the due date.) Save the
invoice as Pending. Record the total amount received (including security deposit if relevant) in
Paid Today.

If you rent out equipment then Item Invoices are ideal

To see when equipment is due for return, hop to your To Do List, click the Pending tab and
check the Promised Date field. To finalise a sale, click the zoom arrow next to the customer
name, change details as required, and click Record.
One of the beauties of this system is the many item reports available. For example, go to the
M.Y.O.B. Analyst in the Sales command centre and click Sales. Click Filters to report on All
Items and click the pie chart button to view a report something like the following:

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Service Business 17
 Go to the M.Y.O.B. Analyst to discover a wealth of useful reports5
Hire businesses can use M.Y.O.B. accounting software in conjunction with M.Y.O.B.
AssetManager to monitor the value, location and serial numbers on all their assets. See Can
M.Y.O.B. calculate depreciation? for further details.

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Service Business 18
Quoting
How do I create quotations?
Go to the Sales command centre, click Sales and complete your quotation details as if you were
recording an actual sale. However, once complete, click Pending instead of Record.
Pending sales are equivalent to quotes, and will stay in your To Do List until you either delete
them or convert them to an actual sale. Pending sales will not affect your accounts receivable,
customer balances, or your Profit & Loss reports.

How do I print “Quotation” at the top?

It requires a little bit of trickery, but here’s what you do.
First, you need to customise your invoice format. Go to Print Invoices, and click Customise. In
the Customise Invoice window, drag the Comment field (found near the bottom) up to the
top where you wish the word “Quotation” to appear. You may wish to give this field a larger font
size.
This completes your customisation. All you need to do now is type “Quotation” in the
Comment field every time you create a quote, and the word “Quotation” will automatically
appear on your printed quote.
Note that if you wish to use the Comment field for comments, you can substitute any field that
you don’t normally use, such as the Journal Memo or Salesperson field. This will work
equally as well.

Where can I find a list of all outstanding quotes?

Go to the To Do List in the M.Y.O.B. Analyst, and click the Pending tab. Here you will see a list
of all outstanding quotes. Click the zoom arrow to view or edit the details of any quotation.

How do I turn a quote into an actual sale?

Go to Sales in the Sales command centre, type in the client’s name and press TAB. A dialogue
box listing the outstanding quotation will appear. Click Use Pending Sale to display it.
Make any required changes, and then click Record instead of Pending. This transaction is now
fully entered into M.Y.O.B. as a proper invoice.

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Service Business 19
Dealing with expenses
The essentials of recording expenses
Here are some basic tips that you should know when recording expenses:
1 Understand the difference between Write Cheques and Vendor Payments. Only use
Vendor Payments if you are recording your purchases in the Purchases command
centre, and if you are recording a payment for an outstanding account. In all other
situations, record cheques in the Chequebook command centre using Write
Cheques.
2 Don’t forget to enter bank charges and periodical payments from your bank
statement. Just go to Write Cheques and override the Cheque No. with a small
description, such as Fee, FID, or LEASE.
3 Reconcile your bank accounts.
IMPORTANT! Learn how to reconcile your bank accounts. It may seem an
awesome task at first, but it is actually quite easy once you get going.
Reconciling your bank accounts is the ONLY way to ensure that the
information you enter into M.Y.O.B. is correct.

When should I use Purchases,

and when should I use Write Cheques?
If you wish to record supplier accounts as they arrive, and to be able to see how much you owe
at any one time, then you should use Purchases to record all your outstanding accounts.
Certainly, the larger your business, the more important it will be for successful business
management to track your outstanding payables.
This means that when you receive an account, you record it using Purchases, and that when
you later settle this account, you record the payment using Vendor Payments.
If you don’t receive a great deal of goods on account, or if you tend to settle all accounts very
promptly, it is probably more efficient for you simply to record these bills at the time they are
paid. If so, you don’t need to use the Purchases command centre at all. All you need to do it to
go to Write Cheques, and record the account at the time it is paid.

How do I record credit card expenses?

The easiest way to deal with a credit card is to think of it as if it were just another bank account.
Create a new liability account in your Chart of Accounts, and make it a Detail Credit Card
Account (Postable).
If this is a personal credit card and has an outstanding balance, you need to record this balance
using a General Journal entry (in the General Ledger command centre). All you have to do is
Debit your directors’ loan or drawing account and Credit the credit card account for the
amount outstanding.

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Service Business 20
To record credit card debits, go to Write Cheques and select your credit card account as the
bank account in the drop box at the top. Write a description in the Memo, and choose the
appropriate expense account as the Allocation Account. If you like, enter the word “CHARGE”
in place of the Cheque No. Record a separate cheque for every debit that appears on your credit
card statement. If some of these debits are for personal purchases, choose a drawing account or
a director’s loan account as the Allocation Account.

When you pay your credit card, go to Write Cheques in the Chequebook command centre, as
normal. Choose your credit card liability account as your Allocation Account. Next, go to
Reconcile Accounts, and reconcile your credit card with the monthly statement in just the
same way as you would normally reconcile your cheque account. This way you know you’ve got
it right, and it’s impossible to forget to charge your business for expenses paid with your
personal credit card.

How can I see at a glance how much I owe?

M.Y.O.B. will only give you this information if you are recording your outstanding accounts
using Purchases. From the Purchases command centre, click Payables in the M.Y.O.B.
Analyst. You will see a summarised Analyse Payables report, aged as at the current date
(shown on the next page).
Click the white arrows to go straight to a detailed breakdown of any supplier’s totals, or click
Print to print the report.

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Service Business 21
 See how much you owe at a single glance.

Case Study – Echidna Studios

Business Owner: Echidna Studios
Business profile: Echidna Studios is the business name for Sally Smith, a cartoonist
and mural artist.
Overview: Sally uses M.Y.O.B. in a very simple way but the information she gains from
the system has helped her small business to prosper.
Description: Sally invoices all her customers using Service sales, and records the receipt
of money using Customer Payments. She issues monthly statements and can see how
much she is owed at any time by looking at Analyse Receivables.
Sally sits down once a month and records all expenses from her chequebook using Write
Cheques. All her living expenses are paid from her business account and she allocates
these cheques to Owners’ Drawings, a number 3 account. She pays for many incidental
expenses using her own cash, and so from time to time she journals petty cash expenses
using a General Journal Entry. She checks that everything balances by regularly
reconciling her bank account.
It’s hard to quote for jobs and Sally uses the Jobs List to track the profitability of large
murals and displays. The Job Profit & Loss reporting enabled Sally to see that she
consistently underquoted for jobs away from home, and these days she has adjusted her
pricing accordingly. She prints overall Profit & Loss reports every month and can see a
gradual improvement in her business success.
Summary:
• Sally uses Service Sales, customer statements and receivable reports to manage her
customer invoicing.
• She records expenses in Write Cheques and regularly reconciles her bank account.
• She uses jobs to monitor the profitability of large projects, and monthly Profit & Loss
reports to understand the overall health of her business.

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Service Business 22
Keeping track of time
Where does all the time go?
Time can be like water, the way it trickles through your fingers no matter how hard you try to
hold on to it. Finding out just where your time goes is a key to successful business
management.
M.Y.O.B. offers several ways you can track time, which are covered in detail in the questions
that follow. Here’s a summary of the choices available to you:
• You can prepare a Pending invoice bit by bit over several weeks, recording time spent
and expenses incurred as you go.
• You can track phone calls and small amounts of time using Contact Log entries
attached to your client’s card file.
• You can use Purchases to enter employee timesheets into M.Y.O.B., tracking
employee hours to particular clients, jobs or cost centres. You can access job reports
that include details of how many hours were worked by each employee, and how
much these hours cost.

Can I prepare an invoice bit by bit over several weeks?

Yes. Sometimes you may work on a job a few hours here and there over a period of time. You
may only want to bill for this job periodically, but you need to track the hours as you work
them.
To do this, click Sales and create a new invoice, just as if you were about to bill the client.
Record your hours worked, but instead of clicking Record when you have finished, click
Pending. This effectively puts the invoice into a “Not Quite Ready” basket so that it won’t show
up on the customer’s statement, or as an amount owing.
To find this pending invoice again, click the To Do List in the M.Y.O.B. Analyst and then go to
the Pending tab, where you will see a list of all outstanding quotes and pending invoices.
Locate the invoice in question and click the zoom arrow to the left to call the original quote
back up on the screen. Now you can add further hours by amending the invoice. When you are
ready to bill, make any final changes, but this time instead of clicking Pending when complete,
click Record.

How do I use the Contact Log to track time?

The Contact Log allows you to log time until you are ready to bill it. It is a little quicker than
creating a pending invoice, and is ideal for tracking small amounts of time, such as phone calls.
You can also track the amount of time you spend with a supplier. (Track the time you spend on
the phone with your lawyer, and see if your time log matches their time log!)

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Service Business 23
To use this feature, create a new Contact Log entry. Fill in the date and details of the contact,
and then fill in the time in the Elapsed Time field. Time must be filled in the format HH:MM
(that is, 15 minutes would be 00:15, and 2 hours 30 minutes would be 02:30).
When it’s time to bill, go to Reports>Index to Reports and select Contact Log from the Card
File tab. Click Filters to select a date range. The report will look something like the one shown
below. The total time to be billed appears in the Total column. Make sure you get the date range
right when using this report for billing purposes.

Can I enter timesheets into M.Y.O.B.?

Yes. Although you can record employee hours and allocate these hours to various jobs using
the Payroll command centre, some businesses find this is not appropriate. Possibly employees
work on many projects every week, or the business may want to charge employees out to jobs
at a higher rate than the hourly rate (so as to allow for holiday pay, sick pay, superannuation,
etc).
It’s possible to tweak the Purchases in M.Y.O.B. to provide a record of the hours your
employees worked, and which jobs they were working on. This is achieved by setting up each
employee as an inventory item with their hourly rate (or the charge-out rate) as the inventory
price, and then recording their hours worked as a purchase at the end of each pay period.
Follow this step-by-step guide to set up your employees ready for recording timesheets:
1 Go to the Inventory command centre. Click Items List and then New. Create a new
item for each employee, typing their name in the item Name field. Check on I Buy
This Item, and as the Expense Account for Tracking Costs choose the wages
expense account relevant for that employee.
2 Go to the General Ledger command centre, click Jobs List and then New. Create a
new job number for every client or project that you wish to track. In the Job
Information for each job, make sure you complete the Linked Customer field. (The
idea is that every job should be linked to a particular customer).

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Service Business 24
 3 Create a new job number called “Admin”, or something similar, so that you can track
non-billable time that does not relate directly to any particular job.
4 Go to the Card File command centre, click Cards and then New and create a new
vendor card in your name. For example, if your business name is IST Consulting,
create a new vendor card called IST Consulting.
All done? Now, all you have to do is complete a Purchase every time you wish to record a
timesheet. Do this in the following manner:
1 Go to the Purchases command centre and click Purchases. Type in your own
business name as the Vendor.
2 In the Received column type the number of hours worked; in the Item # column
type the employee name, in the Price column type their hourly rate (this will come
up automatically next time); and in the Job column type the relevant job number.
3 When the timesheet is complete, you need to add a line crediting the hours worked, so
that this purchase doesn’t actually appear as an outstanding amount in your
accounts. Simply purchase a negative quantity of hours equivalent to the total hours
on the timesheet, and omit the job number for this line.
4 Type employee’s name and pay period in the Memo field.
5 Click Record to complete.

You can use Purchases to record employee timesheets

Note that the above routine allocates employee hours worked to particular jobs, but does not
record their actual pays. Their pays would still be recorded (without job numbers this time)
using the Payroll command centre (if you have M.Y.O.B. Accounting with Payroll), or by using
Write Cheques (if you don’t have M.Y.O.B. Accounting with Payroll).
Once timesheets have been entered in this way, the hours worked will be listed as items due for
reimbursement; they can be automatically marked up and billed to customers, if desired.

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Service Business 25
Case Study
— Redback Pest Control
Business Name: Redback Pest Control
Business profile: Redback Pest Control is owned and operated by Simon,
who does pest inspections and home pest control in an outer suburb of Melbourne.
Overview: Simon invoices all his customers using a combination of Service and
Item sales, relying on recurring Item sales for easy billing of services that he
provides often, such as house inspections. He records the receipt of money using
Customer Payments, and offers early payment discounts for payment within 7 days.
Simon records all supplier accounts (for chemicals, fuel, telephone, etc) in
Purchases so that he can see how much he owes at any time using Analyse
Payables. All cash expenses are recorded using Write Cheques. He checks that
everything balances by regularly reconciling his bank account.
Simon spends a significant amount on advertising in newspapers, the Yellow Pages
and flyers. He asks every customer how they heard about his business and codes
this referral source using customer identifiers. This means that he can generate
sales reports showing total income generated by each advertising method.
In the past, Simon’s lifestyle was not always in keeping with his income and the
bank manager was all too familiar with his tales of woe. However, M.Y.O.B.’s regular
Profit & Loss reporting has helped keep a reality check on his spending, and has
assisted Simon in identifying where he can control his business costs.
Summary:
• Simon uses Service and Item Sales for customer billing.
• He records supplier accounts in Purchases, and expenses in Write Cheques.
• He monitors advertising success using customer identifiers.
• Regular Profit & Loss reporting moderates Simon’s more extravagant habits
and pacifies his bank manager.

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Service Business 26
Marketing with M.Y.O.B.
Can I use M.Y.O.B. for my customer database?
Certainly. Customer cards have room to record two addresses, two phone numbers, fax
number, contact name, and the name to whom mail merge letters should be addressed. There
is a Notes field which you can use for whatever purpose you wish: anything from noting a
customer’s birthday to noting how they initially heard about your business.
There is also an Identifier field, which allows you to group customers into any pre-defined
categories. (See Can I split my clients into groups? for more on identifiers.)
However, if you store a lot of very specific information about your customers, you may wish to
maintain an independent database. In this case, work out how you can best use M.Y.O.B. in
conjunction with this database. It’s a breeze both to export card information (such as name,
address, etc) from M.Y.O.B. into your database, or vice versa. Import and export options are
found under the M.Y.O.B. File menu.
However you structure it, don’t waste valuable time by typing customer
details once into M.Y.O.B. and once into a database. Either use M.Y.O.B.
as your database, or take advantage of M.Y.O.B.’s excellent import/
export routines to exchange information between your programs.

Can I record phone calls and meetings in the Contact Log?

Yes. Attached to each card you’ll find a Contact Log. This log records every invoice you have
ever raised to your customer, along with the date this invoice was paid. As well as this, you can
record non-financial transactions in the Contact Log, such as phone calls, meetings or letters.
The result is an impressive customer summary combining both financial and non-financial
transactions. M.Y.O.B. provides you with a complete picture of a client’s history.
Note that if you promise to contact a customer again by a certain date, you can record this in
the Recontact Date on their Contact Log. When this date arrives, M.Y.O.B. will pop up a
reminder in its To Do List, ensuring that you don’t forget.

Can I split my customers into groups?

Yes. Grouping customers often offers valuable insight into your business. For example, you
might wish to:
• Monitor how customers are referred to you, so that you can get an idea of how
effective your advertising strategy is.
• Track the type of business your customer base consists of, so that you can target
advertising at particular business types.
• Track information specific to your particular service. For example, a pet grooming
service may wish to group customers according to what pets they have.

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Service Business 27
Dividing customers into groups or categories is easy in M.Y.O.B., simply by using Identifiers.
Every card in the card file has a field in it called Identifiers. There is an alphabet of identifiers
to choose from; you can give any meaning you like to each identifier, and any card can have
more than one identifier.

Identifiers can help you group your customers.

Note that a customer can have more than one identifier. For example, using the identifiers from
the screenshot above, a 28 year old female who heard about this business from radio
promotions would have “FBS” as their identifiers.
The real beauty of identifiers is that they let you analyse sales information in more depth. Most
reports can be selected by identifier, so there is plenty of opportunities for obtaining very
specific reports grouped in categories important for your business.

Can M.Y.O.B. be used to create advertising mail outs?

Yes. Advertising mail outs are simple with M.Y.O.B.’s mail merge features. The idea of mail
merge is that you can save information from M.Y.O.B. in a special file called a “mail merge” file.
This file is then used by your favourite word processor or other program. For example, to send
every customer a personalised letter: write the letter using your word processor; then use the
word processor’s mail merge command to take name and address information from M.Y.O.B.
To use M.Y.O.B.’s mail merge features, click Personalised Letters in the Card File command
centre. From here, you go to the Forms Selection dialogue box where you can narrow down
your choice of mail merge file by selecting a certain card type, a single card, certain identifiers,
last contact dates, postcodes, etc. This choice can be quite powerful, depending on how you
have set up your identifiers (see What are identifiers?) For example, you could choose to send a
letter to all business people in Sydney area, or to all government clients who have not contacted
you in the last six months.

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Service Business 28
Once you have made your selection, click OK. M.Y.O.B. will display the cards that you have
selected. From here you can further narrow down your selection by placing or removing
checkmarks against entries in the Export column. Click Export to create your merge file. You
will have to tell M.Y.O.B. what you want to name this file, and where you want it to be stored.
M.Y.O.B. exports the following information in its mail merge, and you can select whatever
information from this that you require.
• All names, address and postcode details (17 fields)
• Phone and fax numbers (3 fields)
• Salutation and contact name (2 fields)
• Total balance owing (customers) or owed (vendors) and amount overdue
Note that if you open your mail merge file in your word processor, the first line of this file is a
‘header record’. This header records lists the names of each field in the merge file.

I’d like to ‘map’ the location of my customers.

Can M.Y.O.B. help with this?
It certainly can. M.Y.O.B. can be used in conjunction with Geographic Information Systems,
commonly referred to as GIS. GIS reporting is designed to map your sales information on to
computer generated maps, and through the use of shading highlights different levels of
activity.

The screenshot above shows sales across Melbourne for a firm with a wide range of phone
support services. The GIS report enables them to look at how the population in Melbourne is
distributed, and compare that with how the sales of their services are distributed. This report
highlights weaknesses in their market penetration, and enables them to target certain
geographic areas with their marketing. Similar data is generated for state and national areas.

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Service Business 29
To export a report from M.Y.O.B. in GIS format, go to Index to Reports>Sales and select the
GIS Customers or GIS Sales report. Click Disk and save the file as a Tab-Delimited Text File.
This report can now be read by most GIS software packages.
Note that M.Y.O.B. users are eligible for special pricing on a product called EasyMap for
Windows. For further information, contact the Data-Tech sales office (1800 555 007).

Case Study —
Dolphin Dating
Business Name: Dolphin Dating Agency
Business profile: A dating agency in northern NSW, run by two sisters (who are, as
yet, unmarried).
Overview: Dolphin Dating link M.Y.O.B. Accounting with Payroll with their client
database, and run all financial invoicing and reports through M.Y.O.B.
Description: Dolphin Dating use Item sales for all billing, and set up recurring
sales for all clients who pay a monthly agency fee. They export client address
details and sales details from M.Y.O.B. directly into their client database.
Dolphin Dating record all their expenses using Write Cheques, and all their pays
using Write Paycheques. They ensure that their records are correct by regularly
reconciling their bank account.
M.Y.O.B. provides valuable marketing information for the agency. Customers are
coded according to age and sex using identifiers and allow the agency to readily
ascertain what demographic group provides most income. Sales reports are then
exported to their Easy-Map geographical information system, which shows in
pictures the distribution of their client base and potential growth markets.
Disagreement between the sisters regarding their business finances has been
greatly mitigated by the implementation of monthly budgets and regular Profit &
Loss reports monitor the ongoing well-being of their enterprise.
Summary:
• Dolphin Dating use Item Sales and recurring sales for efficient customer billing.
• Data-entry duplication is avoided by exporting client data to their database.
• All expense are recorded in Write Cheques and their bank account
isregularlyreconciled.
• Identifiers and GIS reports provide valuable marketing information.
• Budgets and Profit & Loss reports assist with harmonious financial management.

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Service Business 30
Superior customer service
Can M.Y.O.B. create reminders for follow-up calls?
Follow-up calls are an essential ingredient of effective customer service. A follow-up call to
check that your customer was satisfied with your service might be appropriate 7 days after
every sale. Or possibly, recurring services might wish to schedule reminder calls at six month
or yearly intervals.
This is easy with M.Y.O.B. Attached to each customer’s card in the Card File you’ll find a
Contact Log. Highlight the customer’s name, click Log and the New. Record details of the
service required and then schedule the follow-up date in the Recontact Date field.
Every week, go to your To Do List and click the Contact Alert tab. All customers due for a
follow up call will be listed here. Alternatively, if you wish to mail reminders, click
Personalised Letters from the Card File command centre to create a mail merge file for all
overdue contacts.

How do I identify my best customers?

Go to the Sales command centre and click Sales from the M.Y.O.B. Analyst. Click Filters, then
All Customers and then highlight the month or period of months you wish to analyse. You
should see a report something like the following:

The M.Y.O.B. Analyst helps identify your best customers

Look carefully at which customers provide you with the bulk of your income. Are you providing
these customers with the best possible service? Look at the customers who make up a small
proportion of your income. Why is this? Can you improve the service you provide to them?

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Can M.Y.O.B. provide a listing of inactive customers?
Yes. First, check that M.Y.O.B. has been creating a contact log for every sale made. Go to
Setup>Preferences and click the Sales tab. Ensure that Make a Contact Log Entry for Every
Sale is checked.
Next, go to the Card File command centre and click Cards. Decide what constitutes an
“inactive” customer, e.g. no contact since September 1997, and enter this date in the Last
Contact Before field. Click Print for a hard copy record of this listing.

Can M.Y.O.B. help track

the performance of individual salespeople?
Yes! In order to create salesperson reports in M.Y.O.B. there are three things to remember:
1 Go to the Card File command centre and create a new card for every salesperson.
Select Employee as the Card Type.
2 Make sure that the box marked Track Sales History is checked in every salesperson’s
card.
3 When recording a sale, always type the salesperson’s name in the Salesperson field.
If some of your sales are made directly by head office, telephone or mail order, you can create
cards to track these sale categories too. Just create new employee cards called “Head Office”,
“Head Office Phone Sales”, “Head Office Mail Order Sales”, etc.
The easiest way to find out who sold how much is to click Sales in the M.Y.O.B. Analyst (while
you’re in the Sales command centre) and then go to the Filters tab. Select the year and the
period that you want to analyse. Select All Salespeople and then click OK.

One of the M.Y.O.B. salesperson reports.

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Service Business 32
You should see a report similar to the one above. Clicking Sales will display a bar graph
comparing the total sales in dollars for each selected month. Clicking Ledger will display the
total sales in dollar terms for each salesperson over the selected period, as well as each
salesperson’s sales expressed as a percentage of the total sales.
Further sales team reports can be found by going to Reports>Index to Reports and clicking
the Sales tab. The Sales [Salesperson Summary] report lists every sale for each salesperson
for a specified date range. The Sales [Salesperson Detail] report lists every item sold,
including quantity and dollar amount, for each salesperson.

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Service Business 33
Case Study —
Hannah’s Hair
Business Name: Hannah’s Hair
Business profile: A highly successful chain of five hairdressing salons, run by a
young entrepreneur called Hannah.
Overview: Hannah maintains the accounts for all five salons, recording every
financial transaction in a single M.Y.O.B. data file.
Description: Every Friday each salon faxes through a summary of weekly takings
and banking to Hannah’s office. Hannah records these takings using Make a
Deposit. Every salon is assigned a unique job number, and all income is coded
according to its source.
Hannah relies on Purchases to record all suppliers’ accounts, and can see at any
time how much she owes by looking at Analyse Payables. She speeds monthly
payment of accounts by using printed cheques and printed remittance advices.
Hannah records purchases of hairdressing supplies as a cost of sales, and codes
them with a job number to indicate which salon they belong to. This allows Hannah
to compare the gross profit margin from each salon, an immediate and accurate
indicator if ever any income goes ‘missing’ from weekly takings.
With a large payroll of up to 30 staff, M.Y.O.B. Accounting with Payroll is an
essential time-saver. Pays are processed each Thursday and Hannah modems the
pay summary directly from M.Y.O.B. to her bank. Staff bank accounts are credited
by Friday morning. All pays are coded with salon job numbers.
Hannah sets annual budgets for each salon and monitors performance carefully
throughout the year. Job Profit & Loss reports enable Hannah to assess the
profitability of each salon independently of one another, as well as all salons
combined.
Summary
• All takings are recorded using Make a Deposit.
• Purchases, printed cheques and remittance advices combine to make supplier
payments as efficient as possible.
• M.Y.O.B. Accounting with Payroll is an essential timesaver.
• Each salon and every transaction is assigned a job number so that Hannah can
monitor the profitability of each salon separately.

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Service Business 34
Reports
How do I calculate commission for my sales team?
Although M.Y.O.B. does not include a report that calculates commission, it’s easy to export a
salesperson report to a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet can then calculate the commission for
you.
This is what you need to do:
1 Go to Reports>Index to Reports and select the Sales tab.
2 Select the Analyse Sales [Salesperson Spreadsheet] report. Click Filters and select the
date range that you want to analyse.
3 Click Disk (instead of Print) and in the dialogue box, select Tab Delimited Text File.
Click Save and name the file something like “COMM.TXT” (Windows) or
“Commission Report” (Macintosh) and click OK.
4 Next, go to your spreadsheet program and ask to open this file. Depending on the
program that you use, you may need to specify that the File Type is a “text file”, or
that you wish to open this file as a Spreadsheet.

Use a spreadsheet to calculate your salesperson commissions

5 At this point, you should see your salesperson report in a spreadsheet format. All you
have to do now is create additional columns that specify the commission rate and
show the calculation. Set this up using formulae so that you don’t need to make these
calculations manually.
6 When complete, remember to save this file as a spreadsheet and not as a text file. This
way your formatting changes will be saved.
Once you have set up your spreadsheet formulae, you can save this file as a master template
and copy only the figures that change each month (i.e. Column B) into the template. That way
you don’t have to set up the formulae and rates each time you do a commission report.

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Service Business 35
Can M.Y.O.B. help control my payroll costs?
Yes. This is crucial for service businesses as payroll costs are often the largest overhead of all.
Start by creating separate expense accounts in your Chart of Accounts for important wages
categories. For example, you might create separate wages accounts for admin wages, marketing
wages, service consultants wages and reception wages. Remember that M.Y.O.B. will let you
create Header Accounts and Detail Accounts in your Chart of Accounts. “Wages” can be a
Header Account, and the different types of wages can be Detail Accounts underneath. Lastly,
if you have M.Y.O.B. Accounting with Payroll, change the linked Wages Expense Account in
each employee’s card file to reflect these new expense categories.

Set up detailed wages categories - this will help control payroll costs
One big advantage of setting up wages in this way is that you will be able to analyse each
category of wages costs as a percentage of your income. Percentages can be more meaningful
than dollar figures, for it is easy to know in your head that your income rose last year and so
did your wages bill, but it is not so easy to know in your head whether the wages rose in
proportion to your income!
In order to see these percentages, print the Profit & Loss [% Sales Analysis] report and the
Profit & Loss [with Year to Date] report. If desired, print a Profit & Loss [Budget Analysis]
report also to monitor whether your total wages costs are falling within budgets each month.

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Service Business 36
Designing your chart of accounts as a reporting tool
At the beginning of this guide (see Step Two - Review your Chart of Accounts) we talked about
customising a standard chart of accounts to adapt your business. This is a crucial stage, as a
well-designed chart of accounts allows you to take full advantage of M.Y.O.B.’s financial
reporting.
Start by pinning down all the direct costs of providing your service, and itemise these as
separate cost of sales accounts. These might be materials you buy for resale, subcontract
labour, materials essential for providing your service, etc.

Next scrutinise your expenses, and identify three or four of the highest overheads. Then
itemise these in a similar way as you did for cost of sales. For example, if interest is a significant
expense for your business, create a Header Account called Interest. Under this header account,
create detailed accounts such as: Interest – Overdraft; Interest – Term Loan; Interest – Hire
Purchase, etc. Or if motor vehicles is a significant expense, then create separate expense
accounts for registration, repairs, fuel, etc.
You can gain a greater understanding of your business by designing your accounts in this way,
Take this further, and by comparing totals and percentages for these expenses from one year to
the next, you can see the direction in which your business is heading.

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Service Business 37
Can M.Y.O.B. calculate depreciation?
Depreciation is an important factor for most businesses – you’re likely to find it is a major
annual expense with a big impact on your tax situation. M.Y.O.B. Accounting works with a
special program called M.Y.O.B. AssetManager. AssetManager maintains an asset register of
all the plant and machinery, vehicles, and office equipment that you own.
AssetManager tracks the cost price and written down value of every asset and can record
locations, depreciation rates, serial numbers and other important information. It automatically
calculates depreciation, and it’s a snap to enter depreciation journals into your accounting
system from AssetManager. Assetmanager uses a familiar flow-chart interface similar to other
M.Y.O.B. software.
Contact Data-Tech Software on 1800 555 007 for further information about M.Y.O.B. Asset
Manager.

What reports are most useful for service businesses?

M.Y.O.B. Accounting has over 115 standard reports that you can customise to fit your needs.
This is a lot of reports, and you certainly won’t wish to print them all every month! To help,
here’s a short list of reports, drawn up with service businesses particularly in mind.
Key financial reports
• Profit & Loss report, including This Year/Last Year comparisons.
• Balance Sheet. This report provides a financial ‘snapshot’ of your business at any
given time.
Job/Project reports
• Job Profit & Loss report for any large projects, contracts or cost centres.
• Job [Budget Analysis] (includes budget variances based on percentage complete)
Sales reports
• The Analyse Sales [Customer] report. Shows how much was billed for each
customer, and what percentage of total income this amount comprised.
• The Analyse Sales [Customer Spreadsheet] report. Shows sales according to
customer type, assuming you have categorised your customers using identifiers.
Payroll reports
• Payroll Activity [Summary]. Shows total payroll costs, including superannuation,
workers comp, holiday pay, sick pay, etc. for any employee or range of employees
Remember that any standard report can be saved to disk, simply by clicking Disk while in the
Index to Reports. These saved reports can be easily opened with a spreadsheet or word
processor (although you’ll find spreadsheets are usually best when it comes to figures). You can
then edit a report – reformatting, adding or deleting sections to your hearts content.

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Service Business 38
What reports should I print at end of year?
M.Y.O.B. is very flexible about end of year processes and you can continue to enter information
for the next financial year before you have completed the previous year.
However, there will come a time when you have to bite the bullet and start a new financial year.
At this point, you will need to print final end of year reports for yourself and possibly for your
accountant also.
Do check first with your accountant what they require. More and more accountants are using
M.Y.O.B. in their practice, or accept imported information from M.Y.O.B. on floppy disk.
M.Y.O.B. data can be exported to Solution 6, Cee Data or TeleTax, and it is highly likely that your
accountant is running one of these three systems.
Following is a list of the minimum reports that you should print at end of year:
• A Profit & Loss for July through to June
• A Balance Sheet for June.
• A General Ledger [Detail] report for the full year, for all accounts. Have lots of paper
handy, and use a small font. This is the longest report there is!
• A General Journal report for the full year.
• A Receivables Reconciliation [Summary] report. Use the last day of your financial
year as the Aging Date.
• If you use M.Y.O.B. for purchasing, a Payables Reconciliation [Summary] report.
Use the last day of your financial year as the Aging Date.
• Bank reconciliation report. Reconcile your bank statement up to June 30 and stop
(even if this date falls in the middle of the bank statement page). Print this report
before you continue reconciling the bank.
• If your accountant requests it, save your year’s data onto a floppy disk so that they can
import it into their system. You will need to find out whether they need this data
saved in Cee Data, Solution␣ 6, or TeleTax format, or as an M.Y.O.B. data file.
Remember that as well as the above reports, you will also need to print any reports that you
want for your own information, such as Sales Analysis or Job Profit & Loss reports.

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Service Business 39
Index
The Essentials Reports
Which M.Y.O.B. program?␣ ␣ 6 Where can I find a list of all
Step One – Choose a Template␣ ␣ 7 outstanding quotes?␣ ␣ 19
Step Two – Review your Chart of Accounts␣ ␣ 7 How can I see at a glance how much I owe?␣ ␣ 21
Step Three – Check your Preferences␣ ␣ 8 Can M.Y.O.B. be used to create
Step Four – Set up Opening Balances ␣ ␣ 9 advertising mail outs? ␣ ␣ 28
Step Five – Ready to Go ␣ ␣ 9 I’d like to ‘map’ the location of my customers.
Designing your information system Can M.Y.O.B. help with this?␣ ␣ 29
– three key concepts␣ ␣ 10 Can M.Y.O.B. create reminders for follow-up
Understanding the difference between general calls?␣ ␣ 31
ledger accounts and job numbers␣ ␣ 11 How do I identify my best customers?␣ ␣ 31
Fitting the pieces together␣ ␣ 12 Can M.Y.O.B. provide a listing of inactive
The essentials of recording expenses␣ ␣ 20 customers?␣ ␣ 32
When should I use Purchases, and when Can M.Y.O.B. help me track the performance
should I use Write Cheques? ␣ ␣ 20 of individual salespeople? ␣ ␣ 32
How do I calculate commission
Common Questions for my sales team?␣ ␣ 35
Where do I record income in M.Y.O.B.? ␣ ␣ 13 Can M.Y.O.B. help control my payroll costs?␣ ␣ 36
How do I create a customer invoice? ␣ ␣ 13 Can M.Y.O.B. calculate depreciation?␣ ␣ 37
Can I change the look and layout What reports are most useful for service
of my invoices?␣ ␣ 14 businesses?␣ ␣ 38
How do I issue receipts?␣ ␣ 14 What reports should I print at end of year?␣ ␣ 38
How do I create quotations?␣ ␣ 19
How do I turn a quote into an actual sale?␣ ␣ 19 Tips
How do I record credit card expenses?␣ ␣ 20 I have the same sale I make to lots of people.
Where does all the time go? ␣ ␣ 23 Can M.Y.O.B. speed this up?␣ ␣ 15
Can I prepare an invoice bit by bit Some customers have sales that recur
over several weeks?␣ ␣ 23 regularly. What’s the quickest way to
Can I use M.Y.O.B. for my customer manage these? ␣ ␣ 16
database?␣ ␣ 27 I hire out equipment for a rental charge.
Can I record phone calls and meetings Can M.Y.O.B. help with this?␣ ␣ 17
in the Contact Log?␣ ␣ 27 How do I print “Quotation” at the top?␣ ␣ 19
How do I use the Contact Log to track time?␣ ␣ 23
Can I enter timesheets into M.Y.O.B.?␣ ␣ 24
Can I split my customers into groups? ␣ ␣ 27
Designing your chart of accounts as a reporting
tool ␣ ␣ 37
Case Studies
Echidna Studios␣ ␣ 22
Redback Pest Control␣ ␣ 26
Dolphin Dating␣ ␣ 30

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Service Business 40