The Setup Interview

You can quit this interview at any time when the quit button is visible in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. Simply Click on it to exit.

Step 1

In Step 1 of the Setup Interview, you can enter some basic information about your company, such as your company's name and address, and A.C.N. and Sales Tax Number (GST Number in New Zealand, or VA.T Number in South Africa) if applicable.

All the entries in Step 1 are optional at this time, and you can change them in M.Y.O.B. at a later time, if you need to.

When you're finished with Step 1, click Next to continue to Step 2.

Exercise

Enter the information required from your data sheet.

Step 2

In Step 2, you need to enter some important information about the structure of your company's financial year.

In the Current Financial Year field, enter your current accounting year. The year you enter here isn't necessarily the current calendar year; for example, your financial year 1996 might run from July 1995 to the end of June 1996.

Be sure you enter the correct financial year for your company. If you are not sure, check with your accountant before continuing.

From the Last Month of Financial Year list, select the last month in your financial year. Most businesses' financial years end in June, but if your company has a different financial year structure, you'll need to select another month, such as December.

When you're finished with Step 2, click Next to continue to Step 3.

Exercise

Enter the information required from your data sheet.

Step 3

In Step 3, you'll make one very important selection: your conversion month.

Your conversion month is the month you plan to start using M.Y.O.B. to record your day-to-day accounting information. This month will be used as the starting point for all your financial activity in M.Y.O.B.

Warning! In Step 3, the conversion month automatically comes up as the current month. Transactions that occurred before the conversion month can only be entered into the system as historical transactions. Make sure the correct conversion month is selected in this screen.

When you're finished with Step 3, click Next to continue to Step 4.

Exercise

Enter the information required from your data sheet.

Step 4

In Step 4, you need to answer another question about the structure of your financial year: How many financial periods do you have in your financial year?

In M.Y.O.B., you can have either 12 or 13 financial periods in your financial year.

• If you select 12 periods, one period will be used for each month in the year;
• if you select 13 periods, one period will be used for each month in the year, and one period can be used for the year-end adjustments you make to your financial year.

To enter transactions in the 13th period, put an asterisk (*) before the date.

If you select 13 periods, you won't be required to use the 13th period, if you don't want to. However, if you select 12 periods and later decide you wanted 13 periods, you won't be able to add a 13th period until the next financial year.

When you're finished with Step 4, click Next to continue to the next window.

Exercise

Enter the information required from your data sheet.

Confirm your selections.

Step 4b

After Step 4, MYOB will ask you to confirm:

• Your current financial year,
• The last month of your financial year,
• Your conversion month (the month you will start to use MYOB in),

and

• The number of accounting periods you have per year (we strongly suggest twelve).

THIS INFORMATION MUST BE CORRECT AT THIS TIME.

This is the information that tells MYOB how to structure your business's accounting information. If you make a mistake here, you will have to delete this data file, open another data file and re-enter all your business's information.

When you're sure the answers you've given are correct, click Accept to continue the Setup Interview.

Step 5

In Step 5, you need to select the M.YO.B. starter chart of accounts you want to base your own company's chart of accounts on.

During the M.Y.O.B. installation process, you installed a number of starter charts of accounts. The charts of accounts appear in the list in this window. From this list, review the choices of charts of accounts, then select the chart you wish to use as a foundation for your own business' chart of accounts.

Keep in mind that the starter chart of accounts you select in this window can be modified when you begin using M.Y.O.B. Choose the chart of accounts that most closely matches your business; you can add, change and remove accounts you don't need later.

If you want to start your chart of accounts from scratch, choose Build Your Own.

If you want to view the specific accounts in a starter chart of accounts, click the zoom arrow next to the chart's name. The Preview Chart of Accounts window appears, listing all the accounts in the starter chart of accounts.

When you've finished viewing the accounts, click OK to return to the Step 5 window.

To select a starter chart of accounts, click once on the chart of accounts you want to highlight it. When you're satisfied with your selection, click Next to continue to Step 6.

Exercise

Select your Chart of Accounts.

Step 6

In Step 6, you'll give a name to and specify a location for your company's data file.

When you make entries in M.Y.O.B., that information is stored within one physical file in your computer, called a data file. This single file allows you to work with your company's financial information without expending a lot of time and effort with your computer's file storage system.

More information about M.Y.O.B. data files is located in the Using M.Y.O.B. chapter of the User Guide.

To perform Step 6, click the Next button. A window appears, allowing you to enter the name of your data file and determine where you'd like the file to be created. A default name and location appear in the Window.

Make any changes you'd like to this information. This window works the same as the standard "new file" box in Windows. If you need more help using this window refer to the documentation that accompanied your computer.

When you've finished working with the window, click the Save button. The Setup Interview takes a few moments to create your new data file.

When your data file is created, the next window that appears depends upon whether you purchased M.Y.O.B. Accounting with Payroll or the non-Payroll version of M.Y.O.B. If you're using the Payroll version, Step 7A appears: continue following these instructions.

If you're not using Payroll, the last window in the M.Y.O.B. Setup Interview appears; click the Close button, and the Setup Interview is finished.

Exercise

Click Save to accept the default location.

Step 7

Setting up M.YO.B. Payroll consists of a number of steps that are similar to some of the steps you followed earlier, before you created your data file.

If you don't want to set up Payroll at this time, that's okay; you can skip the setup process for now. To skip Payroll setup, click Continue. The Setup Interview will end. When you want to set up Payroll later, however, you will not be able to use the Setup Interview's help in setting up Payroll, so we suggest you take a couple more minutes to set up your payroll information.

If you want to set up Payroll now, click the Set Up Payroll button. The first step in the Payroll setup process, Step 7-A, appears.

Exercise

Click the Setup Payroll button.

Step 7-A

Step 7-A allows you to automatically load M.YO.B. Payroll's tax tables. Tax tables contain the current withholding tax information, so you can create and print pay cheques with correct information.

To load your tax tables, click the Load Tables button. The tax tables take a few moments to load; when the process is complete, Step 7-B in the Setup Interview appears.

Exercise

Click the Load Tables button.

Step 7-B

During Step 7B, you will be asked to confirm your payroll year. This is the payroll year in which you start writing payroll cheques.

Your company payroll is always structured on a twelve month July to June year. This will go from July 199(x) to June 199(x+1). Example: July 1997 to June 1998.

You can not set MYOB for any other payroll period.

MYOB will not accept a Jan 1998 to Dec1998 payroll year.

MYOB is written this way because the Australian Tax year goes from July to June and you will need to write group certificates, pay superannuation etc for this time period.

It is possible for your accounting period to be different from your payroll year.

If you want to start writing paycheques in the current year, enter the current year in the Current Payroll Year field. If you want to start writing paycheques next year, enter next year in this field.

When you're finished with Step 7-B, click Next to continue to the next window.

Exercise

Confirm your entry.

The next window in the M.YO.B. Setup Interview asks you to review the entry you made for your current payroll year. Review the answer you entered carefully, and make a change if necessary.

This entry MUST be correct at this time, or else your company's payroll information won't be structured the way you want it in M.Y.O. B. Payroll. Be especially careful when you review the answer you provded here before you continue.

When you're sure the answer you gave is correct, click Accept to continue the Setup Interview.

Exercise

Check your entry and click on Accept.

Step 7-C

In Step 7-C, you need to enter the number of hours in your company's typical work week. The number you enter here will be used to calculate wages and payroll payable amounts (such as tax and superannuation) on pay cheques.

Keep in mind that the number you should enter here is the number of hours in a single work week not the hours in a pay period. M.Y.O.B. will use the number you enter here to properly calculate the hours and dollar amounts in your pay period.

When you're finished with Step 7-C, click Next to continue to Step 7-D.

Exercise

Enter the information required from your data sheet.

Step 7-D

In Step 7-D, you can enter various tax information.

In the A.C.N. field, enter your A.C.N., if applicable (if you entered this number earlier in the Setup Interview, it will appear in this field already.).

You can specify whether you want M.Y.O.B. to Round net pay down to a Multiple of a certain number of cents. For example. to round to the nearest 10 cents, enter 10. To round to whole dollar amounts, enter 100. If you do not wish to round net pays, leave this field blank.

In the Group Number field, enter the number assigned to your company by the federal government for group tax reporting purposes. This number will appear on Group Certificates you print using M.Y.O.B.

When you're finished with Step 7-D, click Next to continue to Step 7-E.

Exercise

Enter the information required from your data sheet.

Step 7-E

In Step 7-E you can enter your bank account information if you wish to pay your employees by Direct Entry into their bank accounts.

When you're finished with Step 7-E, click Next to continue to Step 7-F.

Exercise

Enter the information required from your data sheet.

Step 7-F

Before Step 7-F appears, the Setup Interview takes a few moments to set up some initial payroll information in M.Y.O.B. When Step 7-F appears, you will find that your setup of M.YO.B. Payroll is done!

In fact, your question-and-answer period in the entire M.Y.O.B. Setup Interview is complete. Click Next to continue to the last window in the Setup Interview.

Congratulations! You've completed the M.Y.O.B. Setup Interview. The information about your business that M.Y.O.B. needs is now entered into your data file, and you'll be able to use M.Y.O.B..

This last window in the Setup Interview reminds you about entering opening account balances, historical sales and historical purchases.

Click the Close button to exit the Setup Interview.

Exercise

Click the Close button.

 

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