Breaking News & Updates
EzyLearn · Bookkeeping & Business Software Blog · May 2026
MYOB has a brand new app for sole traders, Xero’s AI is now handling your BAS prep, and QuickBooks just made proposals look genuinely professional. Here’s the quarterly update every bookkeeping student needs to read.
By Claudia · Monday, 11 May 2026 · 8 min read
Every quarter, something shifts in the accounting software world. Sometimes it’s big headline stuff, sometimes it’s smaller quality-of-life improvements that only bookkeepers notice — but either way, staying across these changes is genuinely useful if you’re working in or studying towards a career in bookkeeping or business administration.
This week I want to walk through the most interesting developments from Q1 2026, because there are a few things worth talking about. Let’s get into it.
MYOB Solo: Finally, Something Built for Gig Workers
This one’s been quietly making waves. MYOB launched MYOB Solo — a new app specifically designed for sole traders and gig economy workers. Think freelancers, rideshare drivers, tradies working for themselves, and anyone earning income without a full business structure behind them.
It’s genuinely impressive for what it is. Solo includes tap-to-pay so you can accept payments on the spot, snap-to-expense functionality for capturing receipts with your phone camera, and the ability to connect two existing bank accounts. It’s app-based for clients (you manage everything from your phone) and priced very affordably — practically nothing, in MYOB’s own words.
What’s interesting from a bookkeeping perspective is that advisors and bookkeepers can log in online to support clients using Solo. So if you’re working as a bookkeeper and one of your clients is a sole trader, you don’t need them to upgrade to full MYOB Business just to help them stay on top of their finances.
This also signals something broader about where MYOB is heading — they’re clearly trying to capture customers earlier, before they grow into a business that needs the full suite. Smart move, and worth knowing about as someone entering the industry.
? Learn MYOB from the ground up Whether you’re supporting sole traders or managing accounts for larger businesses, our MYOB courses cover everything you need. Explore MYOB courses at bookkeepercourse.com.au ?
MYOB’s AI BAS Tool: This Is a Big Deal
Even more significant than Solo is MYOB’s release of AI BAS — currently in beta — which is an agentic BAS preparation tool. In plain English: MYOB’s AI now helps you get your Business Activity Statement ready to lodge, rather than just giving you a report to fill in manually.
This is actually a pretty meaningful shift. BAS preparation has traditionally been one of the most time-consuming parts of a bookkeeper’s quarterly workload — checking that every transaction is coded correctly, making sure GST figures reconcile, reviewing payroll data, and then compiling everything into the right ATO format. An AI that can assist with that process end-to-end is genuinely going to change how much time it takes.
Now, before anyone panics about job security — the AI is assisting, not replacing. Someone still needs to review everything, catch any coding errors the AI might have missed, understand what the numbers actually mean, and take responsibility for the lodgement. That’s the bookkeeper’s job. Understanding BAS fundamentals is still essential — arguably more so, because you need to know when the AI is wrong.
“AI can prepare the BAS. But it takes a trained bookkeeper to know when the AI has made a mistake.”
QuickBooks Gets Serious About Professional Proposals
QuickBooks has quietly rolled out something really useful for small businesses and their bookkeepers: personalised proposals in QuickBooks Plus and Advanced. These aren’t just templated quotes — they include your branding, custom fields, and e-signatures. Plus, they’ve added autosave on invoices and estimates, which might sound minor but is one of those things that users have been asking for forever.
This matters for bookkeeping students because proposals and quotes are a core part of the accounts receivable workflow. Understanding how a quote becomes an invoice, how an invoice becomes a payment, and how a payment gets reconciled — that’s the end-to-end process you need to know cold. Our Bookkeeping Basics course covers exactly this workflow across all three platforms, which is why students who complete it tend to feel genuinely job-ready.
Intuit has also launched something called Intuit Accountant Suite — a unified platform that brings together client management, collaboration, service delivery, business planning and team management in one place. It’s aimed squarely at accounting practices rather than individual businesses, but it signals that QuickBooks is increasingly thinking about the professional end of the market, not just the small business owner managing their own books.
? Learn QuickBooks alongside Xero and MYOB Our Bookkeeping Basics course is the perfect starting point — covering all three platforms so you’re ready for whatever software an employer uses. See the Bookkeeping Basics course ?
The Xero Partner Hub Is Now Live
We talked about this one a few weeks ago when it was first announced, but it’s worth revisiting now that it’s actually rolling out. The Xero Partner Hub combines Xero HQ and XPM (Xero Practice Manager) into a single unified platform for accountants and bookkeepers in practice.
If you’re planning to work at an accounting or bookkeeping firm — rather than in-house at a business — this is the environment you’ll likely be working in. The Partner Hub is designed to give practice staff a single view of all their clients, with AI-powered insights and workflow tools built in. Early access has been rolling out to Australian and New Zealand partners since the start of 2026.
The practical implication for students is this: Xero now holds over 60% of the Australian accounting software market, and the firms using it are increasingly operating through the Partner Hub. Understanding how Xero works — not just as a standalone tool but as part of a practice environment — is increasingly valuable on a resume.
Something Interesting Happening in the Market Overall
One thing that caught my eye in the Q1 2026 roundup was a note about two AI-powered bookkeeping platforms — NAB Bookkeeper (powered by Thriday) and Botkeeper — both running into serious trouble within weeks of each other. Botkeeper, which had been operating since 2015, announced its closure in February before being acquired by Xendoo.
This is a good reminder that the AI bookkeeping space is still very much in flux. Plenty of startups have tried to automate bookkeeping entirely and discovered that the compliance requirements, the edge cases, and the sheer variety of business situations make it far harder than it looks. The platforms that are thriving are the ones — like Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks — that are using AI to assist trained professionals, not replace them.
That’s genuinely good news if you’re studying bookkeeping right now. The market is signalling clearly that human expertise, combined with great software skills, remains the winning formula.
What This Means for Your Studies
If you’re working through our courses at the moment, here’s how to connect these updates to what you’re learning:
The BAS preparation modules are more relevant than ever — even with AI assist tools emerging, you need to understand the underlying logic of GST coding, payroll summaries and input tax credits before you can trust any AI output. That foundation doesn’t go stale.
Invoicing and proposals are an increasingly important skill set as platforms like QuickBooks add more sophisticated proposal tools. Understanding the full quote-to-cash workflow is something employers specifically look for.
And if you haven’t looked at MYOB Solo yet, it’s worth exploring — especially if you’re thinking about supporting sole trader clients as part of your bookkeeping work. It’s a genuinely different product to MYOB Business and worth understanding on its own terms.
? Ready to get qualified? From Bookkeeping Basics to a full Certificate IV, we’ve got the pathway that works for your schedule and your goals. Visit bookkeepercourse.com.au to find your course ?
As always, the best bookkeepers aren’t the ones who know the most about one platform — they’re the ones who understand the principles well enough to adapt quickly when the software changes. And in 2026, it’s changing faster than ever.
MYOB Solo, AI BAS, Xero Partner Hub, QuickBooks Bookkeeping, BAS Preparation, Gig Economy
-- Did you like what you read? Want to receive these posts via email when they are published? Subscribe below.