Should you learn MYOB, Xero or QuickBooks First?

We receive lots of bookkeeping course enquiries from students who are changing careers and want to find bookkeeping work.

If you are new to bookkeeping you may be familiar with MYOB because it has been around for decades. As soon as you start looking at job ads you’ll hear about Xero because a lot of businesses are migrating away from MYOB to Xero.

So a common question is should I learn MYOB and then Xero?

Should you learn MYOB before Xero?

When students ask for our advice the simple answer is it doesn’t matter.

Learn one and then learn the other one straight away. If you are changing careers this will reinforce the common bookkeeping tasks you’ll be doing for work and give you confidence speaking with employers.

Business owners also ask us if they should use MYOB or Xero and the problem with that is that everyone has a different opinion. Even amongst our own team members we prefer different programs.

But there is a good way to decide which one to start with.

Established Businesses use MYOB, but..

There is a percentage of businesses which have been using MYOB for years and don’t have a reason to change. These businesses tend to be larger or more established and they might be a good choice for job seekers who seek security of working with a larger business.

When we talk about this kind of employer we generally refer to MYOB AccountRight, the Microsoft Windows based accounting software program but MYOB also have a newer, online program called MYOB Business (was called Essentials).

To cater to job seekers and Career Changers we offer an MYOB Training Course package which includes both MYOB AccountRight and MYOB Business (Essentials).

Newer or more tech savvy business owners tend to lean towards Xero because it can be used on different devices and enables staff to work remotely from home if needed. They also have a marketplace of hundreds of apps or integrations which connect with Xero to add more detailed and specific functionality – like Workforce Management and Receipt Scanning.

To cater to Job Seekers and Career Changers we offer the Bookkeeping TRIO MYOB and Xero Training Course package.

Learn from Seek

Seek and Indeed are the market leading job sites and this is where you’ll find local accounts jobs which list the software requirements to perform the job.

Spend time researching what local employers want from their job ads. If you find an ideal accounts job for a junior position like Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable using Xero then you can upskill quickly to have these skills in the Certificate in Xero Beginners.

Later, if you need to upskill some more to do more advanced bookkeeping tasks you can enrol into Advanced Certificate in Xero fairly quickly.

If you want to learn as much as possible about Xero in one go, then enrol into the Complete Xero Course package and save some money.

FREE bookkeeping course inclusions for Job Seekers

We offer a number of training courses and resources for Job Seekers and these are available forever, even after your course access has finished.

See what’s included for free with MYOB and Xero Courses

Should you learn Microsoft Office before Bookkeeping?

The normal progressing for employees is from an office admin to business admin role so Microsoft Office skills are more important than Bookkeeping skills – if you don’t already have good MS Office skills.

There are 4 main Office productivity programs you need to know:

• Microsoft Word,
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint, and
• Microsoft Outlook

You can learn all of these Microsoft Office programs in

1. the Data Entry introduction course,
2. the COMPLETE Office Admin Course package or
3. individual short courses if you are missing specific skills.

If you are looking for bookkeeping, office admin or business admin jobs you’ll be best off mastering Microsoft Excel because it is used for getting information into other programs as well as receiving information and creating financial reports.

See what’s included in the COMPLETE Microsoft Excel Course