MYOB launches set and forget payments for SMEs

Business management platform MYOB will enable businesses to “set and forget” recurring payments via direct debit capability. The new functionality, MYOB Direct Debit, rounds out MYOB’s invoice payment workflow with a deeply integrated experience.

With MYOB’s current invoice payments solution helping businesses to get paid three times faster* than those who do not harness software, MYOB Direct Debit is targeting further reduction of payment times, freeing up business owners to manage customer payments in a new way.

MYOB anonymised customer data demonstrates 75% of payment volume is of a recurring nature, where on average a business receives six repeat payments per year from the same customer, with typical recipients spanning gardeners, cleaners, bookkeepers and gyms. The new recurring direct debit transaction service will allow subscription services to seamlessly receive payments and greatly reduce time spent chasing payment.

Through the improved MYOB invoicing workflow, businesses can request payment of an invoice through a built in “pay now” button or set up a recurring direct debit. The invoice and subsequent payments are reconciled automatically to the profit and loss report, enabling a fully automated end to end invoicing workflow.

Andrew Baines, General Manager of Financial Services at MYOB, said the new capability will ease known business pressures for SMEs.

“The time businesses are spending on chasing down late payments – particularly for those with recurring payment schedules – is a pressure that’s increasing for our customers. MYOB Business Monitor shows extreme pressure caused by late payments from customers rose from 25% in January 2021 to 29% in June 2021. This is time business owners could otherwise spend on growing their business.

“MYOB has designed this recurring transaction service to be as pain-free as possible. The streamlined consent process means as soon as the business’ customer provides their approval, the job of the business owner is done.

“This is the latest update of our invoicing workflow, which is designed to automate the process of getting paid as much as possible. For a business, automating payment reminder messaging and invoice reconciliation are those seemingly small features that provide a big return in time. We are regularly improving this workflow to give businesses back as many hours as we can so they can get back to doing what they love.”

Harry Linden is the owner of Lakesview Accounting Solutions, a two-person business delivering bookkeeping and BAS solutions for its small business clients. Harry has been trialling MYOB Direct Debit as a participant of MYOB’s early access program and believes streamlining administration tasks are a key part of future-proofing a business.

“The role of the bookkeeper is about to change. AI, automated payment generation and end to end streamlining free up the bookkeeper to focus on higher value pieces of work, like consulting my business clients on strategic ways they can run and grow their business. Features like this present an opportunity for me to expand my offering for my customers.

“Simplified payments mean for small business owners like me, the future’s a lot more predictable. You can better plan your movements in the understanding that your cashflow reporting will be a lot more accurate, you’re spending less time chasing people up for payments and worrying about making your own payment commitments. It gives the business control,” Harry said.

Set and forget payments are now available for businesses to use in both AccountRight Live and new Essentials at a competitive rate of 0.7% plus 25c per transaction with a $4 cap.  Other features include a simple to digest dashboard containing a summary of all live, paused or past recurring payments.

MYOB Direct Debit is another improvement to the invoicing workflow, which was also recently integrated Butn’s invoice financing functionality, which is now available to all new Essentials customers, providing access to short-term cashflow smoothing facilities for businesses.

For more information on MYOB Direct Debit, visit https://www.myob.com/au/comms/business/myob-direct-debit

*Based on a sample of 2 million MYOB invoices between August 2019 and July 2020 on days to payment for invoices paid via online invoice payments versus non online invoice payment