MYOB users transferring to Pearl

I’m surprised at the lack of public awareness of the fact that MYOB is no longer going to be supported beyond 2010, but having spent a fair bit of time with accountants this week it’s clear that there is a desperate need for practices to start evaluating an alternative NOW. We’ve found that it takes a looong time for accountants to be comfortable enough with an application before they put it in front of their clients, which is fair enough.

Especially with the new brigade of web based apps, they need to have confidence that the software provider is going to be around in 5 years time – which is of course much more of an issue with an externally hosted offering than it would be with a local install of Sage or Quickbooks.

The accountant needs to be totally familiar with the system before they can attempt to answer questions about it, which requires a commitment before they have even made the first sale.  And if they are selling Pearl, well wow, there’s a lot that you could be learning about!

Softly softly :- start off nice and easy. Luckily we’ve got the Pearl Express version which is a light, FREE business app (Sales, CRM) with Pearl Accounts plugged in. Even so it’s never an easy sell. Some practices have the vision, and some don’t. The past few days have given me a renewed confidence in the future of web based business software, and accounting in particular.

And as a special treat, we have written a tool  to allow an accountant to transition a client from Sage, MYOB or TAS books to Pearl in literally 3 ludicrously simple steps. Customers, Suppliers, TB and all. Watch out for the press on that one next week.

Also on the cards at Pearl HQ this week has been an upgrade of the Flash sales and product reporting, more AJAX look-ahead functionality in the accounts area, and a faster slicker way to top up your SMS credits.

Bon weekend, les internauteurs…