From 1 January 2019, ABSS will no longer be providing technical support for certain earlier versions of ABSS product, and will instead be focusing on providing support resources for customers who are either:

• Subscribed to an ABSS Premium Cover; or
• Registered users of the latest-version ABSS product; or
• Registered users of up to two versions before the latest-version ABSS product. 
• Registered Premium Cover user and your product version is two versions or older than current ABSS product were recommended you upgrade to latest version.

Over the years ABSS has provided many hundreds of thousands of customers with a range of special upgrade and support subscription offers. The current pricing of the ABSS Premium Cover represents the best value of any of these offers, with an automatic upgrade to the latest version of your ABSS product included in the price.

Depending on your current product, you can also upgrade to a product with more functionality, such as multi-level pricing inventory.

To establish which latest-version product is right for your business, either browse the small business products page on the ABSS website or call ABSS customer service during business hours on +603 7989 0599.

Providing technical support resources for more than two versions of each ABSS product is a considerable commercial challenge. Each version requires its own dedicated phone-based staff, as well as technical product specialists who are constantly updating technical information (for instance, when older-version ABSS products are introduced to new operating systems such as windows XP).

ABSS has to balance the support needs of all of its 700 000 customers, and unfortunately it is not possible to provide the full spectrum of support for each and every customer. Drawing the line at two versions back (including the current version) is a compromise that best meets the needs of most customers, especially those who have paid up front for an ABSS Premium Cover.

Providing access to two years of support also assists those customers who are new to the ABSS software environment with enough time (namely, at least two annual ‘business cycles’) to familiarise themselves with their product’s functionality.

The change in policy effective 1 January 2019 will ‘roll’ with new versions of ABSS product. In other words, as a new version is introduced, customers who are using a version of ABSS product that is four versions back will no longer be able to access support from ABSS.

ABSS will endeavor to contact all potentially-affected customers by email. If you would like to receive such notifications, ABSS recommends that you keep your contact details up-to-date.

The extensive support documentation that was initially supplied with your ABSS product answers most questions that have been asked by customers over the years. Other material has been provided from time to time on the ABSS website, although this material has tended to cover only the most recent version of product.

Of course we understand that sometimes it can be easier to be talked through a problem, and many thousands of ABSS customers have benefited from the experience of an ABSS Partner visiting them on-site and taking them through procedures step-by-step.

Check the current list of ABSS Partners on the ABSS website for details of your nearest qualified consultant.

ABSS is dedicated to providing small business owners with the best possible technological platform on which to run a business as efficiently as possible. This includes the ability to interact with the latest operating systems (such as Windows XP) and applications, as well as providing access to the latest relevant legislative information, such as federal government tax tables.

Support resources for software with all of these dependencies are not cheap, and ABSS has had to balance the total support needs of all of its customers with the ability to provide these resources on demand at an acceptable price.

Demand on ABSS support resources is always consistently high, especially during the preparation of tax documentation and the end of financial year.

Of course we don’t know what a customer’s needs are until we answer the phone, and a query from a customer who is using an older version of ABSS Payroll software and is trying to juggle the end of year payroll with tax tables that are several years out of date is going to take a lot longer to assist than a customer with the latest version who is simply trying to trace an account or an invoice. Therefore, in trying to best meet the needs of all customers, ABSS has decided to priorities resources for those who have paid for their support up front, for those who have bought or upgraded to the latest version of an ABSS product, and for those up to two versions previous to the current version.

The introduction of this policy falls into line with software industry practice but provides customers with up to a year more of access to phone-based technical support in comparison to significant competitors.

The change in support policy applies to all ABSS products.

At the very least you should consider keeping the product which deals with the payroll up-to-date (through a subscription to ABSS Premium Cover) so that you’re always calculating your pay runs according to the latest tax tables.

As for the other ABSS product, if it provides a ‘mission critical’ role in your business, then you need to consider your future support needs and make a decision accordingly. It may be the case, for example, that you don’t need to be on the latest version every year, and that you choose to upgrade every second year (or even every third year).

However, you should always consider the implications of linking software that might not be completely compatible and pay close attention to the respective minimum system requirements and other technical specifications.

Some ABSS products, such as ABSS FirstAccounts, have been discontinued for several years, while some of the more specialised ABSS products are far less frequently versioned than, say, the accounting and payroll products, which tend to change at least annually with federal government tax table changes.

In terms of the products with longer development cycles, ABSS technical support staff will continue to work closely with ABSS product development staff to ensure that the optimum level of support is provided for customers who have paid up front for an ABSS Premium Cover.

A table detailing the current support status of all ABSS products (including discontinued ABSS products) is provided on the ABSS website.

If there is any change in the development status of an ABSS product, ABSS will endeavor to contact every potentially affected customer, so if you wish to be notified of any changes, ABSS recommends that you keep your contact details up-to-date.