MYOB chases Xero with surge in online users

MYOB has reached 170,000 online users for the 2015 financial year, up by 46 percent year-on-year.

The increase comes after the online accounting software provider made a significant investment of more than $45 million on research and development in 2015.

MYOB has also chalked up significant growth of its "API partners", from 2,000 in 2014 to 3,500 in 2015. These partners include the likes of point-of-sale vendor Kounta and other software developers specialising in areas such as MYOB Essentials, MYOB Banklink and MYOB AccountRight.

MYOB's cloud-only competitor, Xero, reported that as of Sept 30 2015, Xero had 262,000 paying customers in Australia and 600,000 paying customers worldwide in 180 countries

MYOB chief executive Tim Reed said: “Online solutions offer significant benefits to small businesses and accountants. With over 60 percent of all Australian and New Zealand accounting practices currently using an MYOB solution, MYOB is in a unique position to enable SMEs and their advisors to make the most of this opportunity.”

The announcement comes after MYOB kicked off its nationwide 'MYOB INCITE' tour last week in Melbourne, which will see the company it visit all major capital cities across Australia and New Zealand over the coming weeks.

“MYOB INCITE will see accountants, bookkeepers, certified consultants and add-on partners coming together to connect, inspire and enable them to take advantage of the transformations occurring within the industry, supported and enabled by the move to online accounting,” according to a company statement.

MYOB is an online business management solution that simplifies accounting, payroll, tax, practice management, customer relationship management [CRM], job costing and inventory. The company was listed on the ASX last year and had the biggest float in the country with $833 million raised.