If you’re using Reckon Accounts Hosted, this weekend you’ll notice that one of your existing icons will be removed. This is a simple change that’ll mean that rather than having two icons to choose from when logging in you’ll now only have one.

For businesses that are already using the latest version of Reckon Accounts Hosted (R2) this change will have no impact on you. However, if your business is yet to make the change there are several steps you can follow to help make moving to the latest version as easy as possible – I’ve covered these in this blog post.

Tip 1: Know what to expect from the latest version of Reckon Accounts Hosted

The latest version of Reckon Accounts Hosted labelled “2013 Accounts AU R2” includes:

  • tax tables for the Financial Year 2013/14;
  • changes to the superannuation guarantee;
  • enhancement to the Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR);
  • updated State Payroll Taxes (updated to 30th of May 2013).

Tip 2: Upgrade before 28 July, 2013

We recommend moving over to the latest version of Reckon Accounts Hosted while the two icons are still active, up until 27 July, 2013.

To do this:

1. complete all outstanding transactions and processes like Online Banking and Send Forms,

2. create a Trial Balance report and print it;

3. verify the integrity of your company file: File > Utilities > Verify

  • if errors are found, rebuild your company file: File > Utilities > Rebuild
  • save any backups to a different name than used in step 1
  • verify again – you want to get the message ‘No errors found’;

4. if errors persist, rebuild again and then verify. Continue until a ‘No errors found message’ is received. If after a number of cycles you still have the error, call Technical Support for assistance.

5. Create a backup with the name “companynameBKP2013R1”.

You are now ready to upgrade your company file by clicking on R2 (see Tip 3 for further details).  When the upgrade completes, create a Trial Balance Report and check it against your printed copy.  There should be no change to any figures to confirm that the upgrade has been completed successfully.

Tip 3: If you haven’t upgraded before 28 July, 2013

If you haven’t upgraded by this Sunday, 28 July 2013, you’ll have no choice but to click on the “2013 Accounts AU R2” icon.  Not to worry, you’ll be taken through the key upgrade process.  (You could click on this R2 icon now.)

Once you click on the latest icon, follow these steps:

1.  First, browse to your company – select File > Open or Restore a company file > Open a Company file (.QBW) and select your company file from the relevant folder;

2. Reckon Accounts Hosted will now upgrade your company file – that is, reconfigure it to work with the latest version;

3. When prompted with Update File to New Version, you Just type Yes and select your Q drive as the destination for the back-up that will be created.  Reckon Accounts Hosted will name the file: “companyname (Backup Jul 29, 2013 9:00AM)” (you can move your backup file from your Q drive to your local PC for permanent storage later);

4. Now open your company file and you’ll see it looks the same as last time you used it;

5. Check that the upgrade completed successfully by opening a Trial Balance report and ensure that total Debits equal Total Credits;

6. Check another report that you are familiar with for any signs that data may have changed during the upgrade;

7. Now create a new backup of your company file in this version.

You should now be able to use the latest version of Reckon Accounts Hosted as per normal. Give us a call if you have any questions through the process or see more details in the Reckon Accounts installation and upgrade guide.