Accounting Software

Scream

Scream

Scream

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,656
Location
The Darkside
A client of mine is after software for accounting. I know nothing about accounting software so can anyone recommend a good program for the job.

He has a budget up to £1000 but the cheaper the better.

Cheers.
 
Scream said:
I will have to ask him but I think I remember him saying he hated the sight of it.
Click to expand...

So did I and I support several companies that have Sage Line50 (now just Sage Accounts 200x) and there's always been little strange things that have happened it in different situations. And you can tell by the way the interface is made that it's a 10-yr old program just patched up with fancier buttons but still with no basic functions like Ctrl+Tab recognition or proper tab focusing (hard to explain but so obvious if you're a software developer).
Anyway I since decided to use it for my own business since I thought it'd be useful to know it a bit more for my customers, and you learn to ignore the above factors. It's a really great program in that nothing else in the UK is as complete and as well recognised in accounting. Plus if he's looking to employ somebody to look after the accounts at some stage, chances are they'll have used Sage in their previous company or had at least some training in college or what not.
The thing is, it doesn't look nice, but since you're entering the same basic information all the time you're always using just 3 or 4 forms 90% of the time to enter purchases, sales, invoices and customer records. The other 10% for corrections, vat returns, journalling etc. If you're using 3 or 4 forms in the most fanciest-looking of programs, you'll get tired of the sight of that too :)

There are more cut-down versions out there too to get him started off but I know nothing about them - Sage Instant Accounts for example. Tell him to give it a go, it looks complicated but it's not. And get a wee book like 'Sage Line 50 v. x in easy steps' - I skimmed over it for a couple of hours before diving in and took it from there.
Sorry for the long post :p
 
Depending on the size of the business, Microsoft have released a freebie (MS Office Accounting 2008). Looks like they're trying to lever themselves into the SMB accountancy market so may be worth a look?
 
Last edited:
I would recommend Quickbooks.

Your client should check with his accountants to see what they use.
 
The worst thing about Sage 50 is the journal function in my experience.

You cannot

- drill down on a journal, you have to go to financials and look at the opposite entry (pathetic)
- reverse journals for accruals etc (have to do it manually or post it fixed and keep a spreadsheet)
- have one journal number for each journal. Each debit / credit has its own reference number

Apart from the above I've found Sage 50 to be reasonably acceptable and above all very VERY easy to use. It's so self-explanatory.
 
That MS Office Accounting looks good, I had a look at that before but I don't think it dealt with VAT in any shape or form. Must have a look at that and see how it compares to Sage :) I see it can import Sage up to Line50 which is good.
 
Robbie G said:
Well it has a general ledger and purchases and sales day books - what else do you need?
Click to expand...

Firstly, I meant to say that I see it now deals with VAT, which is my reason for wanting to check it out.
I use a fair bit of Sage regarding costing jobs and splitting sales/purchases into different categories, quite a few reports etc. But in general, anything with as you say a basic sales/purchase ledger and an invoicing function would suffice for a novice accounting user.
 
I haven't got speaking to the guy yet about Sage but I will look into Microsofts version which is interesting. The software needs to be able to do everything as he is his out on his own and does the books for businesses and on top of that, work for several departments including government in NI.

Cheers for the info guys.
 
I have been discussing the needs of the software with my client and I now know that he does not want bookkeeping software but infact he wants software that deals with 'Profit & Loss & Balance Sheets'.

So far it seems that Sage Accounts Plus covers that area and the likes of Sage line 50 etc doesn't do it as its bookkeeping based.

Does anyone know of other software that will cover Profit & Loss & Balance Sheets? Sage has bought out some previous software packages that did the job hence the difficulty in finding similar software now and my client doesn't fancy forking out £800+ if he can help it.

Cheers
 
I'll suggest QuickBooks again. It has profit/loss reports. IIRC it also has a 60 day money back trial.
 
Do you happen to know which version does it as I am looking at them now and it doesn't exactly say that it covers balance sheets etc?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom