If you're setting up businesses for your clients, or if you're moving to MYOB Essentials from MYOB AccountRight or AccountEdge, you can replace the default accounts list with one imported from MYOB AccountRight.

1. Export your accounts list from MYOB AccountRight

You can use the Import/Export Assistant in MYOB AccountRight to export your accounts list. Make sure the file you're exporting is in either comma- or tab-separated format, and that it includes headers.

You need to include at least the following fields:

• Account Number
• Account Name
• Account Type
• Tax Code
• Inactive Account

See the AccountRight help for more details on how to export your accounts list.

Or, manually create an import file

If you're not using MYOB AccountRight or AccountEdge, but still want to import an accounts list, you can manually create a file containing your account information and import it into MYOB Essentials.

The imported list must be a text file (.TXT), in comma- or tab-separated format. You can create this file using Excel and save it as a Text (Tab Delimited) file. The first row must contain the headings "Account Number", "Account Name", "Account Type", "Tax Code" (for Australia) or "GST Code" (for New Zealand), and "Inactive Account", and each row must contain these details for a single account. For a list of accepted account types and tax/GST codes, see below.

Want to download a sample import file? Right-click the sample file: AU | NZ and save it on your computer. Open the file, fill in your own account details and save it (as a .TXT file) before importing it into MYOB Essentials.

2. Import the accounts list into MYOB Essentials

To import the accounts list into MYOB Essentials, go to the settings menu () and choose Accounts List.

On the Accounts List page, click Import Accounts.

On the Import an accounts list page, click Upload list of accounts. Choose the .TXT file containing your accounts list, and click Open.

A summary appears on the page, explaining which accounts will be imported, which ones have unsupported tax codes, and which accounts can't be imported at all.

Click Continue.

The accounts list is imported, and an Import successful message appears at the top of the Accounts List page, describing details of what was imported. You can see your new accounts list by scrolling down to the table on this page.

Things to note

When you import accounts, all of your existing MYOB Essentials accounts will be replaced, except for:

• MYOB Essentials system accounts
• Accounts with balances in MYOB Essentials
• Accounts used in MYOB Essentials transactions

In addition to this, there are a few restrictions on which accounts will be imported, and what information will be brought into MYOB Essentials.

Accounts that won't be imported

You can’t replace:

• Accounts that have a balance in MYOB Essentials
• Accounts that have been used in transactions 
• MYOB Essentials system accounts (those marked with a padlock). See the table below for details of which MYOB Essentials system accounts will be used in place of your AccountRight system accounts.

You can't import:

• Accounts with names containing any of the following special characters: < > ( ) # % ; + ' \ "  
• AccountRight header accounts, as these don't exist in MYOB Essentials.

Other data that won't be imported

• Some tax codes (including consolidated tax codes such as WET) are not available in MYOB Essentials, and won't be imported. See the table below to see which tax codes will be assigned to accounts using these tax codes.
• Some account types are different between MYOB Essentials and MYOB AccountRight. See the table below for the list of accepted account types.
• Opening balances and account balances will not be imported. The only information that will be imported is the account name, account number, account type, tax code, and whether the account is active or inactive

Using an imported accounts list when creating client businesses (MYOB Partners only)

When you use your Partner Dashboard to create a new business for a client, you can use an existing business as a template when choosing the chart of accounts.

So if you've imported a customised accounts list into one of your clients' businesses, it will always be available to use whenever you're creating a new business.

Account types and tax/GST codes