September 11, 2026

MYOB AccountRight vs MYOB Business: what each file lets you export before a QuickBooks or Xero conversion

The short answer: an AccountRight file (Plus or Premier, opened in the desktop app) can export almost every record type through the Import/Export Assistant, with two gaps that matter for a conversion; a MYOB Business file used in the browser (Lite or Pro) exports items, an accountant’s pack and reports, and everything else has to come out as report data. Both routes reach QuickBooks Online or Xero with history intact, but they are scoped and priced differently, and the first question we ask on any MYOB to QuickBooks or MYOB to Xero job is which one you have. This post sets out what MYOB’s own help documentation says each file can export, and what that means for the conversion plan. AccountEdge, MYOB’s US and Canada sibling from the same “Mind Your Own Business” lineage, has its own export quirks — see what actually transfers from AccountEdge to QuickBooks.

Which MYOB you actually have

MYOB’s current line-up puts Lite, Pro, AccountRight Plus and AccountRight Premier under one “MYOB Business” banner, and all four sign in through the same browser page. The distinction that matters for export is not the plan name but the application: AccountRight Plus and Premier files can be opened in the AccountRight desktop program, which carries the full Import/Export Assistant; Lite and Pro live in the browser only. If your team opens a company file in a Windows application and sees a File menu, you are on the desktop path. If everything happens in a tab, you are on the browser path. Older Premier and Classic desktop files follow the desktop path with version caveats.

Desktop AccountRight: what the Import/Export Assistant gives you

MYOB’s help page for exporting data describes the route: File → Import/Export Assistant → Export data, one record type at a time, as tab- or comma-separated text, with a field picker for each. You need the Administrator or Accountant/Bookkeeper role. The record types MYOB lists as exportable include the accounts list (with a choice of current or previous financial year balances and the period whose closing balances you want), customer, supplier, employee and personal cards, items, jobs, the tax/GST code list, custom lists, contact logs, general journal entries, inventory adjustments, sales in every layout (service, item, professional, time billing, miscellaneous) filtered by period and status, purchases in the same layouts, spend money, receive money, and transaction journal entries by journal and period. Timesheets and activity slips are Plus and Premier, Australia only.

That is why a desktop AccountRight conversion can carry invoices, jobs and years of detail rather than opening balances alone. Two lines in MYOB’s own table are the ones to plan around:

Pay bills and receive payments are marked “can only be imported.” You can export the sales and purchases, and you can export the receipts and disbursements journals, but the record that links a payment to the invoices it settled does not export as a payment record. In the destination, invoice-to-payment application has to be rebuilt from the journal export and the aged receivables and payables reports, then agreed to MYOB’s balances at the cutover date.
Transaction journal entries export “excluding Tax/GST information,” while general journal entries export including it. If a converter loads history from the transaction journal alone, GST coding is lost on the very transactions the BAS was built from. The GST detail has to come from the sales and purchases exports, which carry tax codes line by line, or from the GST reports, and the conversion should reconcile GST collected and paid by quarter against lodged BAS figures before anyone calls it finished.

MYOB’s export options page adds useful filters: sales and purchases can be restricted by period, layout and status (invoice, order or quote), the receipts journal can be split into customer payments, receive money and supplier refunds, and the disbursements journal into pay bills, spend money, customer refunds and, on Australian Plus and Premier files, pay employees. Used well, those filters let the extraction mirror how the destination will store the data.

Browser MYOB Business: reports do the heavy lifting

MYOB’s browser help page routes import and export through the settings menu (⚙) → Import and export data. Its import side offers templates for accounts, items, contacts, employees and timesheets; its export side, as documented, covers items and an export for accountants, and the page points to report exports in PDF, Excel or CSV for everything else. There is no transaction-level Import/Export Assistant in the browser.

For a conversion that changes the method, not the outcome. Lists come from the export tools; history comes from reports run to CSV: the general ledger detail for the period you want to carry, the customer and supplier ledgers or invoice registers for open and historical documents, the GST reports for tax coding, and the payroll activity summaries for year-to-date figures. The destination is then built from those extracts and reconciled to MYOB’s trial balance, aged balances and GST reports at the cutover date. CSV reports strip the structure a transaction export keeps, so the mapping step is longer and a quote for a browser file with years of history reflects that. History is not unavailable; the extraction is report-based and the reconciliation carries more of the load.

What this means for the two destinations

QuickBooks Online and Xero both take lists cleanly from either route; the difference shows in history. Neither destination’s standard importer is built for years of applied payments and GST-coded journals, so the historical load is done outside those tools and checked against MYOB’s reports. Jobs map to tracking categories in Xero and to classes, locations or projects in QuickBooks Online, both with limits on active entries, so a long job list is usually rationalised first. Common Australian GST codes map one-to-one; custom codes are mapped on a sheet you sign off before the load.

Before you ask for a quote

Confirm the path: desktop AccountRight or browser. Note the version if desktop.
Run the trial balance, aged receivables, aged payables and GST summary at the intended cutover date and keep the PDFs; they are the reconciliation targets.
Count open invoices and bills, and active jobs. Those three numbers drive the payment-application rebuild and the tracking design.
Decide how many years of detail you want queryable in the new file, and read our note on cutover timing before you pick the date.
Do not close the MYOB file or let the subscription lapse until the first reconciled close in the new system; MYOB says the file can keep running into the new year, and the read-only fallback is not enough for the tie-out.

Send those five items with your quote request and we will return a fixed price and a scope naming which exports, or which reports, the conversion will use.

Frequently asked questions

Can I export all my transactions from MYOB AccountRight?

Most of them. MYOB's Import/Export Assistant exports accounts, cards, items, jobs, tax codes, general journals, sales and purchases in every layout, spend money, receive money and transaction journal entries by journal and period. MYOB's own table marks pay bills and receive payments as import-only, and notes that transaction journal exports exclude tax/GST information, so payment application and GST coding are rebuilt from the sales, purchases and journal exports and reconciled to reports.

Can I export transaction history from MYOB Business Lite or Pro in the browser?

Not through an export assistant. MYOB's browser help routes exports to items, an export for accountants and report exports in PDF, Excel or CSV. History for a conversion is taken from reports such as the general ledger detail, customer and supplier ledgers and GST reports, then reconciled to the trial balance and aged balances at the cutover date.

Does the export path change what ends up in QuickBooks Online or Xero?

It changes the method and the scope of the reconciliation, not what the destination can hold. A desktop AccountRight file supports structured transaction extracts; a browser file supports report-based extracts. Both can deliver historical detail into QuickBooks Online or Xero, agreed to MYOB's trial balance, aged receivables and payables, and GST figures by quarter.

What should I keep from MYOB before the conversion starts?

PDFs of the trial balance, aged receivables, aged payables and GST summary at the intended cutover date; a count of open invoices, open bills and active jobs; and the file itself, kept running until the first reconciled close in the new system. MYOB's guidance is that the file can continue to be used into a new financial year without closing it.