Both companies push their value-added online services, which of course come at an additional cost. In the case of MYOB they consist of a range of invoice, superannuation, payment, bank statement and ‘Money Controller’ services through links with the Commonwealth and Macquarie Banks. The money controller is a particularly nice feature, even if you don’t use it in conjunction with the M-Services.

It will instantly tell you your tax position in relation to GST and whether you have enough money set aside to cover your liability. It also gives you an instant update on your cash position and advise you when you have cash available for investment.

MYOB is becoming simpler to use with every version and the inclusion of video walkthroughs of new features makes it even more user friendly. While some of the interfaces remain bland and a little cluttered it is hard to fault them.

Not everybody will find the need to upgrade to v15, but if you are on an upgrade cycle or looking for a new accounting program you won’t be disappointed either in terms of functionality or value for money.

Like MYOB, QuickBooks has tweaked rather than upgraded and most of the improvements relate to the payroll functions. All of the improvements have – where applicable – been applied to the entire QuickBooks range so they are not exclusive to Premier.

Employees can now not only be paid by direct credit into their bank account, but their pay can be divided and paid into multiple bank accounts by simply adding additional account numbers to the employee’s banking details.

Improvements have been made to the way leave is handled and there are more options for deductions and employer contributions.

There is even greater emphasis than in previous editions on doing banking and paying employees online, and Quicken offers a payroll service at an extra cost.

However, users can organise payroll payments through their own bank if it is set up to handle QuickBooks files. If it is, they also can import bank statements as QBO or QIF files and match them with your QuickBooks accounts.

The good news for anyone upgrading from earlier versions is that they no longer have to reset their BAS settings because their existing details will be imported during the upgrade.

While credit card payments can now be processed through Premier and there is a new ability to refer bad debts directly to a collection agency, users have to subscribe to Quicken’s online services for them to happen.

While information about the changes and how to take advantage of them are contained in the Help menu, unlike MYOB the video tutorial doesn’t cover payroll nor any of the changes.

The QuickBooks interface hasn’t been changed and it still has a more polished look and better working area than MYOB, but it comes at a cost – you have to have at least twice the RAM and a much more powerful processor to run it.

While the improvements add to what has long been a polished package they are not compelling enough to say this is an essential ‘must have’ upgrade.However, the biggest negative for QuickBooks is the $300 price increase since the 2004 edition which seems difficult to justify.

QuickBooks Premier 2005/2006
Price: $1699

Labs Verdict: An excellent package but the few improvements don’t warrant the price hike.
Supplier: Quicken Australia 1300 784 253
www.quicken.com.au

Requirements:
Processor: 350 MHz Intel Pentium (1GHz Intel Pentium IV recommended); 128MB RAM (256MB recommended); Windows 98/ME/2000/XP (Windows 2000/XP recommended); 425MB of disk space; Internet Explorer 6.0 ; online features and services require at least a 56Kb/s modem. Multi-user mode optimised for Windows 2000 Server or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 clientserver and Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP peer-to-peer networks.

Overall: 4/6

MYOB Accounting Plus V15
Price: $559