Growing Your Business – Accounting - Forum

I’ve read quite a few posts on LNJ and some concern me, rather than post on those threads I hope that the following is useful.I’ve learned the hard way that relying on using spreadsheets to prepare accounts is only for accountants who know what they are doing and understand accounting. For accounting numpties like me using a “proper accountancy” package is utterly essential and worth the time spent on getting to know how whichever package you choose to use.Why? Without needing to understand accounts you will see the bigger picture and as your business grows you will understand what you are doing right and more importantly what you are doing wrong.There are various packages available and they fall into various categories, I have just listed a few, a search for “accounting software” will quickly show the key players.Off lineFree – worth checking out some offer more facilities than other but they all do a good job at covering the basics and helping you to understand where your business is going.Cashbook Turbocash MicrosoftPaid – usually with more advanced features and a steeper learning curve, however, they will give you a real insight into your business and as your business grows that is exactly what you need.Sage QuickBooksOnlineSaaS - Software as a Service, a rapidly growing sector and ideal if you do not want the hassle of maintaining software, safely backing up…Kashflow Liquid AccountsPersonal recommendations would be interesting and for what it’s worth mine are Kashflow and QuickBooks ProDuane Jackson runs Kashflow and is a very cute business man who is very hands on with his product.A good Wiki article comparing some of the various packages that are available. Unfortunately KashFlow is not listed but I’ll point that out to Duane and I’m sure he will get it updated.