September 4, 2026

MYOB migration timing: 1 July, after BAS, or mid-year? What actually changes

The short answer: 1 July is the cleanest date to move from MYOB AccountRight or MYOB Business to Xero or QuickBooks Online, because the new file starts with a whole financial year and last year becomes a tidy set of comparatives. But 1 July is not when the 30 June numbers are final. The April–June BAS is due 28 July, STP finalisation is due by 14 July, and the accountant’s year-end adjustments arrive later still. So the practical pattern is: transact in the new system from 1 July, load provisional opening balances, and true them up with a delta pass once the BAS and adjustments are done. If July is too far away, the first day of a BAS quarter (1 October, 1 January, 1 April) is next best. Any other month-end works, but you pay for it in payroll and reporting effort. This is the timing companion to our broader Australian migration guide.

The dates that actually constrain you

None of them is 30 June. The ATO’s quarterly BAS is due 28 October, 28 February, 28 April and 28 July; monthly lodgers are due on the 21st of the following month. Employers must make the STP finalisation declaration by 14 July (30 September for closely held payees). MYOB’s own guidance says you do not need to close the financial year at any particular time and can keep using the file into the new year; closing it later only moves the profit-and-loss result to retained earnings and changes no transaction. So the “final” 30 June trial balance exists somewhere between late July and whenever the accountant finishes, not on 1 July.

Three cutover options compared

Factor	1 July	First day of a BAS quarter	Any other month-end
Opening balances	Provisional 30 June TB, replaced after year-end adjustments	Quarter-end TB; year-end journal still comes later	Month-end TB plus interim accruals to unwind
Comparative reporting	Prior year loads as comparatives; current year is native	Year-to-date must be brought across or reports split across two systems	Same, plus a partial quarter to reconcile
GST and BAS	Q4 BAS from MYOB; Q1 onwards from the new system	One BAS per system at the boundary	One BAS straddles two systems
Payroll YTD and STP	Finalise in MYOB by 14 July; new system starts at zero	Transfer YTD and notify the ATO, or run two income statements	Same as quarter start
Bank feed gap	Re-apply feeds; import statement lines for the gap	Same	Same
Staff workload	Collides with EOFY	Quieter; only BAS prep overlaps	Lightest calendar, heaviest reconciliation

Why payroll decides the mid-year question

On a 1 July move you finalise the old payroll year in MYOB and start the new one at zero year-to-date. MYOB assigns a pay to a payroll year by its date of payment, so a period spanning June and July belongs to whichever year the pay date falls in. Mid-year is where it gets expensive. The ATO’s guidance on changing payroll solutions during a year says that if you carry employee YTD amounts into the new software you must either send a final update event from the old software showing all YTD amounts as zero, or send an update event from the new software quoting the previous BMS ID. Skip that and employees see duplicate income statements and you over-report PAYG withholding. If you do not transfer YTD, each employee has two income statements and you must finalise both, which means keeping MYOB access after the cutover. That deadline-bound task is why we steer most employers to 1 July. If you do have to move mid-year, our step-by-step guide to STP when changing payroll software mid-year compares the zero-out, previous-ID and no-transfer routes.

What stays in MYOB, and for how long

The ATO requires most business records to be kept for five years (ASIC asks companies for seven), and says that when a record-keeping system changes you must be able to reconstruct the original data and extract it into a standard format such as Excel or CSV. A conversion moves balances, open items and, depending on scope, history; it does not move MYOB’s audit trail, In Tray attachments or payroll register as stored. So build the archive using MYOB’s own pre-cancellation checklist: finalise STP and keep the YTD verification report, run a financial report pack per year and a payroll report pack per payroll year, export Accounts, Cards and Items through the Import/Export Assistant, and save In Tray documents you do not hold elsewhere.

On continued access, MYOB says a cancelled subscription can be restarted within 90 days, online files stay openable read-only for 60 days after cancellation, and a read-only plan may be available depending on product, so confirm for yours. Two cautions. From AccountRight 2020.2, prior-year transactions remain editable by users with the Transact in Closed Financial Years role, so set a lock date after your last MYOB entry. And since 17 June 2026, AccountRight PC Edition no longer opens offline company files or backups; MYOB says an offline backup can only be viewed in the older v2026.4 or Server Edition. Test the archive before you rely on it.

What the vendors’ own paths carry

Intuit’s Australian switching page routes MYOB AccountRight and Essentials files through MMC Convert, free on Essentials and Plus. The basic conversion covers opening balances, customers and suppliers, chart of accounts, open invoices and credits, open bills and product/service records; year-to-date transactions are an extra you phone about, and the move can take up to five business days with neither file usable. Xero’s Australian conversion page hands MYOB files to Jet Convert, a third-party partner whose scope and pricing sit on its own site, not Xero’s. Xero itself works from a conversion date, with conversion balances as the opening position and comparative balances for earlier periods. Which records can leave the file at all depends on whether you run desktop AccountRight or browser MYOB Business; what each MYOB file can export sets that out. When you need more than balances and open items, that is what our MYOB to Xero and MYOB to QuickBooks conversions cover; what doesn’t convert has the honest list.

Six weeks, working back from 1 July

Mid-May: pick the target, agree scope, map the MYOB chart, jobs and tax codes. Book the conversion.
Late May: cleanup. Agree receivables and payables reconciliations to control accounts, clear suspense, reconcile every bank account, tie GST control accounts to the March BAS.
Early June: trial conversion from a backup; fix mapping now, not in July.
Mid-June: set up employees, leave balances and super funds in the new system; apply for bank feeds; confirm which pay runs are dated on or before 30 June.
Last week of June: final MYOB pay run, final June invoices and bills, then lock MYOB at 30 June.
1 to 28 July: transact in the new system from day one, finalise STP in MYOB by 14 July, lodge the Q4 BAS from MYOB by 28 July, load provisional conversion balances.
August onwards: post the accountant’s year-end journals as a delta to the conversion balances and re-agree the opening trial balance.

The mid-year delta-pass method

The same idea makes a quarter-start cutover safe. Convert from the quarter-end trial balance, transact in the new system from day one, and lodge the finished quarter’s BAS from MYOB. Anything posted to the old quarter afterwards (late bills, adjustments) goes into one dated journal against the conversion balances, with MYOB’s general ledger detail report as the working paper. Payroll follows the ATO’s zero-out or BMS-ID path above. Our method page shows how each pass is reconciled to the cent.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to close the financial year in MYOB before I convert?

No. MYOB says you can keep using the file into the new year; closing only moves the P&L result to retained earnings. Use the lock date to freeze the converted period.

Can I still lodge the June quarter BAS after the cutover?

Yes, from MYOB, because the April–June activity lives there. It is due 28 July, inside MYOB’s 60-day read-only window if you cancel on 30 June.

What if my accountant changes the 30 June figures in September?

That is normal and is what the delta pass handles: one journal against the conversion balances, then re-agree the opening trial balance to the signed accounts.

Will employees’ income statements be wrong if I move mid-year?

Only if YTD is transferred without telling the ATO. Use the zero-out or previous-BMS-ID method, or keep the two payroll periods separate and finalise both by 14 July.