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I use Sage Instant for my main company and Quickfile which is a cloud based accountancy for another company I have....
My other company hasn't started trading yet so I cannot comment on Quickfile other than it is free.
I have a bookkeeper who runs Sage for me (although I am very familiar with how it works) and the info is then fed to the accountant fopr when they require it. Receipts in Sage do not have to be entered in in any order and I would quite often have them sorted by supplier for quicker entry. All my receipts are scanned for quick retrieval from the network.
I have an accountant who is on hand to advise on the most tax efficient way to run my business as well as taking care of Company accounts, Self Assesment and Payroll. I complete the Vat return myself each quarter (one click in Sage and its done).
Hope this helps.
Nick
Steve, i use to use an excel based accounting program, but after several years of use it became cumbersome, was too basic and time consuming, as some entries had to be manually input twice.
I now use a cloud(online) based package, costs me £9.60 a month and is far, far better, quicker data entry and invoices look much more professional.
http://www.accountsportal.com/
Steve, as per Nick, process identical except we use QB, with QX.
Nick @ NM Garden Services Ltd said:
Same here - Quickbooks, comes with an additional package from Barclays Business banking. I'm ex IT, so I love to get my hands dirty with it all. I use it for book-keeping really and then export an accountants copy for them to do the hard stuff. We just registered for VAT, so I file my own returns with one click.
Benefits of doing it yourself, you have a little more control - and the reports you can run are great for keeping tabs on expenditure etc.
Started off with Excel, which was a total disaster - only useful for very small businesses or where you can easily see what you are doing...even then I would not advise anyone to use a flat file database for accounting purposes - if I had continued using Excel I doubt I would be in business today.
Ended up with Quickbooks and accountants that prepare year end accounts and who I talk to about future developments. Why use Quickbooks? Because I need to be able to drill down and see what is performing well and what is a liability. I want to be able to see what is happening year on year. I can track invoices at a glance. Alter the credit status of a client at the push of a button...I want to know my accountants are actually doing a proper job - you'd be amazed at how bad some accountants are.
I use a package called banana accounting brought it a few years ago and works well(despite the name), also use freshbooks for invoicing.
I do my own accounts so that I can see whats happening with the business and to keep the cost of using the accountant down. Dont see much point in paying somebody else to do something that doesnt take that long to do myself.
It looks like quick books might be worth looking at. How much is it?
Also if I could ask a simple question. Please could someone talk me through how this programme inputs receipts? What I mean is, can you input receipts on this system and it will sort them into date order without having to do it in chronological order in the first place???
What are the benefits of using quick books if you have an accountant? Aren't you just doing their job for them?
I use a internet based system which is free and allows customers to log in make payments and view there own invoices.
I started a link about it Quickfile FREE Accounting
Hi Steve,
i have been using QB for many years, moved to Sage for a very short period and came back to what i new.
QB allows you to input your purchase receipts as you find them or come in through the post. If its for some thing on an account you can enter it as a bill and can keep a record of who you owe and how much.
The things you pay for as you go during the week, can either be entered as being paid either as Cash, Bank Account or Credit Card.
The other nice bit is you can categorise what you spent it on so you can see how much you are spending on fuel, servicing , insurance etc without getting a calculator out.
If you do estimates you can create them in QB as well and then when it comes to invoicing for the works in full or in part you can do it with out re-typing anything.
It will probably do more than you need, not sure if you carry stock or not, but it can deal with that for you aswell.
Hope this helps, it basically allows you to keep an eye on your cash flow everyday with very little input from you as it has reports galore and will send out statements to clients by email as required.
Hi Steve, accountants account, bookkeepers, keep the books. We use quickbooks or rather my wife does. she finds it very good for both, we send our live input data to our accountant each month for the accounting side. if your vat registered its a good programme for both the bookeeping and month end accounting.
Steve Sonic Grounds Maintenance said:
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