MYOB vs Xero, from accountants who use both.
Our bias, stated up front: we are a Xero Platinum Partner and most of our clients are on Xero. So rather than write another article that arrives at the answer we sell, here is where MYOB is genuinely the better choice, where Xero is, and the part almost nobody says - that for a lot of businesses this is not the decision holding you back.
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The honest answer first.
For a typical Brisbane small business - a few hundred transactions a month, a handful of staff, no unusual inventory - both products will do the job, and the difference in your day will be smaller than the internet suggests. That is not a fence-sit. It is the single most useful thing we can tell you, because it changes what you should actually be deciding.
01
What is actually slow?
If the answer is entering data, changing software will not fix it - bank rules and a proper app stack will, on either platform.
02
Who touches the file?
The more people who need to be in it - you, a bookkeeper, an office manager, us - the more the seat-cost difference matters.
03
What has to connect to it?
Job management, POS, quoting, workforce. Check your specific tool integrates before you decide, not after.
04
Where will you be in three years?
The right answer for a $500k business and a $15m one are not the same. Choose for where you are heading, not just today.
Where MYOB is the better choice.
We are a Xero partner writing this, so read it in that light - and read it knowing we would rather lose a conversion than talk someone into one that makes their business worse.
You have real inventory
Not a handful of products - stock with landed costs, multiple locations, backorders and a bill of materials. MYOB AccountRight was built around this and Xero's native inventory was not. Xero solves it by bolting on a dedicated inventory app, which works well but is another subscription and another integration to keep alive.
You are heading toward an ERP
If the business is genuinely outgrowing small-business software, MYOB has a path upward within the same vendor. Xero does not have an equivalent step - the Xero answer is to move to a different platform entirely. If you can see that decision coming in three years, it is worth weighing now.
You need it to work offline
The desktop products still run without an internet connection. That sounds like a relic until you are on a site in regional Queensland with one bar of reception and a supplier invoice to enter.
Your award interpretation is genuinely hard
Both products handle straightforward payroll well. Where the awards get complicated - multiple classifications, allowances that stack, shift loadings that change by day - the answer on either platform is usually a dedicated payroll or workforce app rather than the accounting file. Do not choose your accounting software on payroll alone.
Your bookkeeper has done it for fifteen years
This is not a small thing and most comparison articles ignore it. A bookkeeper who is fast and accurate in MYOB, on a file with no real problems, is worth more than a nicer reconciliation screen. Switching costs money and attention that could have gone somewhere else.
Where Xero wins.
Reconciliation is faster
This is the difference people feel first and it is not marketing. Bank feeds, coding rules and the reconcile screen are the part of the job you do every week, and Xero is genuinely quicker at it. Over a year that is real hours.
Unlimited users on every plan
Your bookkeeper, your office manager, your accountant and you all having a login costs nothing extra. Once you start counting seats you start rationing access, and rationing access to your own numbers is a false economy.
The app ecosystem is deeper
Job management, quoting, point of sale, payroll, debtor chasing, inventory - whatever the industry-specific tool is, it is more likely to have a mature Xero integration than a mature MYOB one. This is the compounding advantage: your software stack grows around it.
Finding help is easier
In Brisbane, the pool of bookkeepers, accountants and advisors who work in Xero every day is simply larger. If your bookkeeper leaves, the replacement is easier to find and cheaper to onboard.
Your accountant is already in it
We work in Xero all day, which means we can look at your file the moment you call rather than asking you to export something. That is the difference between an answer today and an answer next week.
Side by side, on the things that decide it.
Deliberately no prices and no feature counts. Both vendors change those on their own schedule, and a comparison table full of numbers that are wrong within a year is worse than no table. These are the structural differences that have held for years.
| What matters | MYOB | Xero |
|---|---|---|
| Bank reconciliation | Capable. The browser products have improved a lot. | Faster, and the difference shows every week. |
| Users | Per-user cost on some products - you end up rationing logins. | Unlimited on every plan, so everyone who needs access has it. |
| Inventory | Strong in AccountRight - locations, landed costs, bills of materials. | Basic natively; the real answer is a dedicated inventory app. |
| Third-party apps | A decent marketplace, thinner in some industries. | Deeper, and usually the first integration a new tool builds. |
| Offline access | Desktop products still work without a connection. | Cloud only - no connection, no file. |
| Growing out of it | A path upward with the same vendor. | No equivalent step - outgrowing Xero means changing platform. |
| Finding a bookkeeper | A smaller pool in Brisbane, and shrinking. | The larger pool, and easier to replace someone. |
| Your accountant's speed | We can work in it, and do. | We are in it all day - answers come faster. |
Accurate as at August 2026. Both products change, and if you find something here that has moved on, tell us and we will fix it.
If you do decide to move.
The conversion itself is a known job, not an adventure. One to two weeks for a straightforward file, timed around your BAS cycle, with a fixed quote before anything starts.
Coming from MYOB
LINK Books runs the MYOB conversions for the group and has the detail on all three MYOB products - AccountRight, MYOB Business and AccountEdge - including how payroll categories map to Xero pay items, what happens to jobs and tax codes, and the undeposited funds account everyone forgets.
MYOB to Xero, in detailComing from QuickBooks
A different job with different traps - QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop convert quite differently, and the chart of accounts, GST codes and payroll all need deliberate handling rather than a straight import.
QuickBooks to XeroComing from Reckon, Saasu, Sage, a spreadsheet or a shoebox? Those are all routine - see Xero setup and conversion.
Frequently asked questions.
Which is easier to use, Xero or MYOB?
Xero, for most people, most of the time - particularly bank reconciliation, which is the task you actually repeat every week. MYOB's browser products have closed a lot of that gap and are perfectly usable. The bigger difference is that Xero's learning curve is shorter for someone who is not an accountant, which matters if the person doing the data entry is you at nine o'clock at night.
Why do accountants prefer Xero?
Honestly? Partly because it is genuinely better for the collaborative parts of the job - we can be in your file at the same time as you, with no seat cost and no file to send back and forth. Partly because the practice tooling around it is strong. And partly momentum: most Australian firms standardised on Xero years ago, so it is what our people are trained in and fast at. That last reason is a real reason, but it is our convenience, not your business case, and you are entitled to weigh it accordingly.
What are the disadvantages of using MYOB?
The main ones are a smaller third-party app ecosystem, per-user costs on some products, and a split product line that can be confusing - AccountRight, MYOB Business and AccountEdge are genuinely different things with different capabilities. None of those are disqualifying. If your file is clean, your bookkeeper is good and you have no integration you are missing out on, MYOB is not holding you back.
How hard is it to change from MYOB to Xero?
For a straightforward file, one to two weeks, timed around your BAS cycle so nothing falls between systems. Contacts, the chart of accounts, open invoices and bills, payroll year-to-date figures and an appropriate amount of comparative history all come across. What generally does not come across cleanly is deep transactional history, complex inventory and some report customisations - so the honest answer is that you keep the old file readable for a few years. LINK Books runs these conversions and quotes them fixed up front.
Should we switch mid-year or wait for 1 July?
You do not have to wait. A mid-year conversion sets payroll year-to-date figures correctly so STP and payment summaries still work, and there is a reasonable argument that mid-year is better - you are not doing a software change and a year-end at once. Waiting for 1 July is tidier if nothing is forcing your hand.
Do we have to tell MYOB, and can we cancel straight away?
You do not need MYOB's permission to leave and you do not need to tell them anything in advance. Do not cancel the subscription the day the new file goes live, though - keep it running long enough to finish the changeover and answer anything that comes up. Once it is cancelled, getting back in to check something is harder than it should be.
Is the software really what is holding the business back?
Usually not, and we would rather say so than sell you a conversion. The most common problem we see is not the platform - it is a chart of accounts nobody has looked at in a decade, a bank feed that has been broken for months, or numbers that arrive four months late. Those are fixable on either product. If that is your situation, fix the process first and treat the software choice as a separate question.
What does a Xero conversion cost?
It is a fixed quote based on your current platform, file size and payroll complexity, agreed before anything starts. Our published Xero setup and conversion range sits on the fees page alongside every other one-off job, so you can see the number before you talk to anyone.
Still not sure which way to go?
Tell us what the business actually does and we'll give you a straight answer - including 'stay where you are' if that's the right one.
Or call 07 3899 8311.