Recommendations on Accounts Package to use please?

[Hugh Potter]

I think my book keeper (father-in-law) uses an old version of sage. I did start doing it myself before he took over a couple of years ago on quickbooks, seemed to do everything I needed (and far more), I think it had cloud based too. was only around£150 if I recall.

[David Hammond]

We use sage instant accounts – £89.00 +VAT, and will do everything you require for a few years to come.

http://www.sjstartup.co.uk/products/sag … oduct.html

Our accountant prefers sage, and it works with clarity, does what we need, and for the price we can’t complain.

[Cheryl Smith]

Sage is overpriced and there are many things it doesn’t do (we had full backup services) …I know …ive used it for many years …until we came to a programme error and sage said there was nothing they could do ….we would have to manually re enter all invoices etc for 9 months (huge job)…
My accountant suggested Kashflow…have a look…its a third of the price and does much more than sage…including importing bank statements so no human error on the reconciliation (and the cloud backup) …im packing in sage at the end of this financial year (april) then moving over….

[Simon Worrall]

I use XERO.

It is cloud based.
People say its good, though I dont have anything to compare it with.
I dont have any issues with it, and it seems simple enough for me to use which is saying something!
I pay $45 dollars a month which is about 20 pounds.
Simon

[Iain Pearson]

We use Sage One – its all cloud based, linked to your bank accounts so you can consolidate all transactions.
£90 a month and well worth it.
My accountant can log in at anytime, give advice on spending etc, can run VAT returns etc . . i cant fault it.

Take a look . . http://uk.sageone.com/

[Daniel Evans]

£90 a month?

I use a Kashflow, £15 a month and although it does a job, I want to swap to xero as it offers so much more.

Having researched this thing, the word is sage is losing ground and xero is picking up pace.

There’s also free agent, quick books and another one but can’t think what it’s called.

My recomendation would be Xero (but it will take a little time to work out and most accountants will know how to use this)nor Kashflow as it’s easy to use.

[Robert Lambie]

Think Iain has made a typing error on the SAGE price mate. But I do agree with him on the software itself.
SageOne cash book is only £5 per month
SageOne accountancy package is £10 per month
SageOne Payroll is £5 per month.

they are all modules and one or more can be taken and droppped whenever.
unlike PC based software you are constantly up to date and informed of legalities via your login panel etc.
unlike pc based accounts software you can login from multiple computers without additional licences.
It is very easy to work and monitor…

another is freshbooks online and Quickbooks online. based around same idea of SageOne.
Freshbook and "i think" quickbooks allows virtual hosting of all receipts. simply take a picture via the app of the receipt and its stored in the relevant expenses folders and more…

all three have apps, so you can be anywhere and create an invoice and send there and then to your customer, as well as duplicates.

The likes of Paypal integrates with freshbooks, while sageone has its own SagePay.
this means when you send an invoice it has a button within the invoice to settle the invoice there and then via paypal, credit/debit card and so on. once the customer pays it, it automatically adjusts your books and sends them a paid invoice.

[Warren Beard]

We’ve been using Xero for about 4 years now and it’s very good and getting better all the time as they develop and update. We do all our quotes on it as well so can easily convert to invoice when ready. Run our vat returns from it as well. It now also will automatically chase unpaid invoices, I haven’t used this feature yet as been using Debtor Daddy for that but as it’s free and Debtor Daddy is £9 per month I may start using the free built in option.

Xero has a lot of add ons available via 3rd party apps and as mentioned is gaining ground very quickly on a lot of other packages. It’s by no means new or in development stages, it’s a full on accounting tool and many accounting firms are also signing on to be parters due to it’s excellent growth.

[Robert Lambie]

To be honest i hadn’t heard of Xero till now… I think they are all doing much the same thing because SageOne also has third party bolt-ons. As i said in a post some time ago, i have moved 90% of my business on-line now, doubt it will ever be 100% cloud based but i intend trying. 😀

SageOne also allows you to set various dates of the month to auto-send statements to all accounts owing money and with the in-invoice pay now button to pay by card and all automated receipts and balance updates, it really does take a lot of the work load away.

[Iain Pearson]

Yeah sorry – as Robert pointed out, it was a typo, we pay £20 a month, not £90 lol :lol1:
I have used other systems no packages before, even invoice2go but Sage one for me does everything I need it too. – I guess it’s just personal preference at the end of the day

[Vince Francis]

Thanks for all the input, I shall get my accounts lady to look at those options, seems she has been given wrong info regarding the costs.

Thank you all once again

[Unknown Member]

I’ve tried all the major softwares out there and I must say they all work in very similar ways apart from Sage which can be a mind boggle if your not used to accounting.

My argument here would be if you’ve got the right accountancy firm supporting your business your actual day to day accounting should be minimal and no more than raising invoices.

Our accountancy firm supports a lot of the well known signage suppliers some common names you see all the time, the good things about these guys is they understand how a signage and print company runs….

We use Shopvox here at 101….and all our accountant requires at the end of the month is a CSV report from shopvox, our credit card merchant statement, bank statements and our supplier invoices and he does the rest….We have detailed management accounts produced each months which shows us where we are and how we are doing.

Taking on this firm has meant we can concentrate on the job in hand….I have recommended them to a few people and I must admit everybody has said good things.

[Ewan Chrystal]

I use quickbooks. Love that its linked to my bank account and recognises transactions. So if someone pays me online or whatever it will match the amount with any outstanding invoices. It also includes a virtual terminal meaning i can receive card payments in the office or if i email an invoice the customer just clicks pay now and can pay by debit or credit card. One thing i haven’t tried yet is the photo invoice feature. I fill up at the garage, take a photo of the receipt and it uploads to quickbooks, it recognises the receipt if ive used the garage before and automatically enters it on the system

[Pane Talev]

Another vote for Kashflow!
Made me love book keeping!