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MYOB glitch sees 220 payment summaries sent in error

Technology

A major system glitch has seen MYOB incorrectly send 220 individual payment summaries to the wrong individuals ahead of tax time 2019.

By Jotham Lian 9 minute read

Accountants Daily understands MYOB became aware of a glitch on AccountRight Live late last week, with an investigation revealing that 220 individual payment summaries were sent to the wrong individuals between 1 June and 28 June.

The accounting software provider has since contacted impacted customers to work with them to “safely and correctly dispose of the misdirected payment summary emails”, as well as contacting impacted employees whose payment summaries were sent to another person.

Affected individuals have been briefed on steps to take to protect their identity, including informing the ATO if they believed their TFN has been compromised.

The ATO and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner have also been informed, in line with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

An ATO spokesperson told Accountants Daily that while it could not comment on the specific matter, it would “assist taxpayers with dealing with any potential data breach that may affect their taxation affairs”.

‘Sincerely sorry’

“We take our responsibility in protecting data privacy incredibly seriously and understand this will have had an impact on the individuals affected,” MYOB said in a statement.

“We are sincerely sorry for the situation, as well as the frustrations experienced by all our AccountRight Live customers caused by the delay in sending the payment summary emails.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused as we know it is a busy time of year for businesses; however, we could not take the risk with such sensitive, personal information.”

MYOB has since released payment summary emails in batches, with the final emails set to be sent today.

The glitch comes at an inopportune time for MYOB, with its customers seeking support for the rollout of Single Touch Payroll.

With call centre wait times now between 30 and 60 minutes, MYOB has now doubled its support team to deal with the extra call volume.

“Unfortunately, call volumes are exceeding our expectations, which is driving higher wait times. Our average wait time yesterday was just shy of 30 minutes; however, we are seeing pockets of time throughout the day where it is getting to the hour mark,” MYOB said.

“We do have a call-back service. However, due to the higher demands on our contact centre team with the higher than expected volume of calls, we have not had the capacity to offer a call-back service to everyone.

“We emphasise our sincere apologies for the situation and assure our clients we are doing everything we can to manage expectations.”

More to come.

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Jotham Lian

Jotham Lian

AUTHOR

Jotham Lian is the editor of Accountants Daily, the leading source of breaking news, analysis and insight for Australian accounting professionals.

Before joining the team in 2017, Jotham wrote for a range of national mastheads including the Sydney Morning Herald, and Channel NewsAsia.

You can email Jotham at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

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