Was just reading this in comments. You would think it wouldn't be too hard to add in more computer code for different tax regimes?...but nooooooo!!
NZ that piffy little island!.....lol
Karyn Collier says July 5, 2015 at 6:13 PM
As a user of both systems here in New Zealand Xero has proven superior in the majority of instances however absolutely inferior in the vital occurrence of NOT catering for all four of New Zealand’s GST basis. The Hybrid GST basis is left out completely in Xero where as fully accessible in MYOB and in my opinion a huge oversight in Xero’s basic foundation to offer accounting solutions to all New Zealand businesses. When Xero Support were questioned as to possibly when the Hybrid GST basis would be written into the programme they advised there had been low demand for this request and not on the horizon anytime soon. Another oversight I also feel as when businesses are analysing accounting solutions when the basic question of GST basis is discussed many people will simply be walking away without signing up as the programme is lacking to deliver core essentials if the business returns GST on the Hybrid basis. Loss of potential clients in New Zealand I can imagine for Xero due to this inadequacy is vast and worth addressing. One area MYOB wins hands down
Mark says July 10, 2015 at 6:52 AM
Hi Karyn, Mark from Xero here.
We haven’t done the hybrid basis because we have had next to no demand to do so. Specifically, we have had 68 requests from customers in the last 6 years for it. We are certainly not against doing it, but we balance our efforts with what our customers will value the most. Given the resource to do Hybrid Basis GST or for example Oncharging of Expenses, you can guess which would win.
As to Xero not focusing on GST enough, I would dispute that heavily. We have had automatic calculations for late filed GST since Oct 2010. To the best of my knowledge we remain the only accounting software provider in NZ to keep track of out of period changes that should be accounted for. We give the user both a full audit report, which drills down to the source transactions, as well as the option to automatically include those late transactions in the current return. End users love this feature and for accountants it means the end of year GST square up should be very small, and easily calculated.
