Al.

First up I discovered that the 2010 edition may not actually be Lion compatible after all which was a bit of a shame. I wasn’t certain, but there may have been a few problems with it. Thankfully, the version I bought from Apple came with a 12 month upgrade and service pack so I was able to download the demo of the 2011 version of AccountEdge from the Mamut website and register it using the serial number from my Apple Store purchase.

This means I now have the 2011 version of AccountEdge running and fully registered on my Mac which will work under Lion when / if I upgrade my OS.

Julie has also managed to track down a copy of the software from a bricks and mortar Apple Store – one of the last copies available in the country as far as I’m aware.

Also, I’ve just had a phone call from George at Mamut asking how I’m getting on. I told him what I’d done and I once again checked with him that the version I now have is completely Lion compatible and will continue to work without having to pay the annual service fee. He assured me it will, so it looks as though I’m OK… Until of course I need to upgrade due to an incompatibility with a future release of the Mac OS.

So, it cost me £180 but I now have continued access to my historical accounts, don’t have to pay an annual fee and hopefully have software that will continue to work under Lion for several years to come.

Al.

Sorry Julie… I feel a little guilty that I managed to get in there before it was removed, and possibly a little responsible for its removal, but I hope not, I’m sure I don’t have that much influence. It does seem a little suspicious though.

Al.

I’ve rung apple and they can’t explain why it’s not there any more, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Mamut have closed this loophole.

I think I’ll go back to having a paper ledger.

The only way to easily keep these old account usable was to upgrade to Mamut AccountEdge. The other options were just as costly too, as long as I could find a way of upgrading without incurring on ongoing annual fee.

Buying via the Apple Store for £179.95 was the way to do this as it stated the following on their site

“Please note: Twelve months’ support is included. Continued Support after twelve months is optional. If support is not taken after the initial twelve months the software will continue to work, but you will not be entitled to technical support or product upgrades.”

I spoke to George at Mamut and he confirmed this so I ordered Mamut AccountEdge from the Apple Store on Sept 16th.

It arrived today and the version I got was AccountEdge 2010, not AccountEdge 2011, but it seems to be OK. It isn’t very different from the MYOB Business basics. It has a few extra features and is a little more colourful but it is essentially the same application… I just had to pay £179.95 for the privilege of continuing to use it. Upgrading my company files and accounts was straight forward and I can now open them all in Account Edge. AccountEdge will also run under Lion, so if / when I upgrade to Lion I should be ready to go.

The fact that it is AccountEdge 2010 and not AccountEdge 2011 does mean that it won’t sync with the iPad app, but that isn’t a huge problem for me. It would have been nice seeing as I do have an iPad, but I didn’t need that before so should survive without it now.

One other thing to note though is that I decided to check which version it said I was buying on the Apple Store, and it is no longer there. It looks as though Apple no longer sell it, or that Mamut have asked them to remove it as they have discovered that it was a loophole that allowed people to buy it without signing up to the ‘service agreement’. I could be jumping to conclusions, it may just be that Apple are out of stock, but it does seem a little odd that it disappears from the Apple Store days after mentioning to Mamut the fact that I could buy it there without the service agreement.

I just hope my version does continue to function as stated without the need to pay the annual service charge.

Al.

Thanks Julie,
Although for me, I first found out about this when I was planning to upgrade to Lion and found out that MYOB was a PowerPC only application so wouldn’t work under Lion. It therefore looks as though I will need to upgrade to AccountEdge in order to be able to upgrade to Lion. Using Phil’s somewhat dubious techniques to simply getting old MYOB files to run after the end of the year won’t be enough. Because it’s my choice to upgrade to Lion, I don’t mind paying a little to upgrade to Account Edge, but the cost is quite a bit more than I had expected and the annual service agreement is just a con! I’ve never needed support in the past so why would I suddenly need it now?

Only after looking into the upgrade paths if I updated my OS to Lion did I discover the plans to disable MYOB at the end of the year. That just doesn’t seem fair to me. I can understand that a software company needs to make money and can’t offer all updates and upgrades to its products free of charge, but most manage by improving their products enough to make people want to upgrade. They don’t normally do as Mamut are doing which is to force you to upgrade by artificially disabling a product that you bought many years before in good faith. If I buy software that works on my current hardware / operating system and I don’t change that combination of hardware and OS then surely the software I purchased should continue to work indefinitely? As a developer myself I can see that any changes in the original hardware / OS may require development of the software and then, yes, someone has to pay for it. But if nothing changes then it shouldn’t be disabled just to force you into purchasing an update.

Al.

Al.

And Phil puts his contact details on the page.

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=108190&page=18

I’ve just spoken to George.. he was of course very nice and very polite, but the long and short of it is that there is an upgrade fee from MYOB Business Basics to Mamut AccountEdge and it does indeed only cost £29, but you also have to purchase the annual Service Agreement which is £108 per year so, the total cost of the upgrade is actual £137+VAT plus an additional £108+VAT each year thereafter. If you stop paying the service agreement then the software stops working.

Not exactly ideal as that is still a pretty expensive upgrade and then a very expensive annual fee for the ‘pleasure’ of using their software in the future. It does look as though you can Buy AccountEdge through the Apple Store for £178 though without the need for buying an annual service agreement. The Apple Store states

“Please note: Twelve months’ support is included. Continued Support after twelve months is optional. If support is not taken after the initial twelve months the software will continue to work, but you will not be entitled to technical support or product upgrades.”

This looks set to be the best option at the moment as it will allow me to continue using my old accounts and continue using the software in the future without being tied into paying for it every year.

You can also get it from Amazon for £117 but they do say “*Note a mandatory yearly service agreement will be payable. This entitles you for free updates (including major releases!).”
Quite why Apple and a few other 3rd party sellers can sell it without the need for an annual service agreement but Mamut themselves can’t I don’t know.

Al.

I’m in the same pickle. I really like Business Basics and I don’t want to nor do I have the time to learn any new software and I don’t need any support, so just don’t want them to switch off the software.

Please let us know where we find out about the upgrade to Account Edge Chris

Thanks

Julie