Accounts and payroll package for multiple companies

Accounts and payroll package for multiple...

Didn't find your answer?

I am trying to source a package for our group of five small companies which all have 3-5 employees and 300-500 transactions per month. We currently use Sage 50 and Sage payroll but I am fed up with their endless extra charges and unhelpful support service. I need a package that will allow me to input all the company invoices and transactions, do the VAT returns, weekly payroll runs and HMRC submissions. I don't need stock control and our reporting requirements are quite simple, but I dont want to have to export data to other packages and I don't want to juggle different software or online providers. I have looked at lots of the packages suggested by people on this forum, but the only ones I've liked the look of so far are Moneysoft and Liberty Accounts. Does anyone have other suggestions that would cover all our needs?

Replies (13)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By taxhound
09th Dec 2011 06:55

Moneysoft for payroll

I would thoroughly recommend Moneysoft for payroll.

 

Have you looked at VT Transaction + for bookkeeping?

Thanks (1)
By Canary Boy
09th Dec 2011 09:16

We like you

got completely fed up with Sage and have been using VT for both bookkeeping and final accounts. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once mastered it is brilliant.

Moneysoft for payroll - you can't beat it (IMHO).

Thanks (1)
By Moonbeam
09th Dec 2011 09:25

Could be you're stuck with Sage

I find it very irritating that I have to keep ringing the support people at Sage because of some new thing in the program that I don't understand or a bug of some sort. Many of the support people are good. A few aren't.

As for the program, yes it's written based on obsolete technology - part of the reason there are so many problems perhaps.

Then you start looking at other options and realise that Sage is not as bad as you thought. They have had a stranglehold on the market which has kept other companies out for a long time.

Judging by the time taken to answer calls in the support centre I assume Sage are cutting back on staff numbers and pay furiously right now. They have just launched a cut down version of the payroll for smaller companies - make sure you ask about this when your renewal comes up. Maybe support costs will start to come down rather than go up every year as Sage see their customers go bust or go to competitors.

Unless you can find other software that is substantially cheaper and better, I would stick with Sage for another year or so. At that point some of the cloud options written by other companies will begin to look mightily attractive. I have the feeling that for your size of operation a cloud solution would probably not be sophisticated enough yet, but others may say I'm wrong.

Thanks (1)
avatar
By BigBadWolf
09th Dec 2011 10:21

Anything but SAGE

Moneysoft for payroll without a doubt, i have not used their bookkeeping package - but i suppose it has to better than sage.

 

VT Transaction+ for bookkeeping!

 

 

Thanks (1)
avatar
By Jekyll and Hyde
09th Dec 2011 12:26

Moneysoft for payroll

I would certainly recomend moneysoft for payroll. Sage payroll is not only inefficient but expensive.

I am however not quite sure why you are experiencing add on charges for sage L50 or sage instant. I use the client manager and I make it clear that I will not be updating annually and therefore this package usually lasts me 3 - 4 years before I update it again as my clients renew theirs.

If you are actually using the 5 companies yourself and will never update them, then I do not see why would pay more than the first purchase price. Just tell them you are not interested in updating or renewing?

Thanks (1)
avatar
By Kev70
09th Dec 2011 13:02

VT Transaction + Moneysoft

According to what you have described, I would recommend VT transaction + for all the book-keeping which easily ports to VT Final Accounts (if you need it).  VT doesn't have a payroll product but moneysoft is easy enough and adequate for your purposes. 

Thanks (1)
avatar
By Frustrated Accountant
09th Dec 2011 13:03

Big fan of Moneysoft too (and it's much less complicated than Sage). And the good thing is they let you download it for a trial period to evaluate it.

As I have to do year end accounts I use VT which can be a little fiddly but the bookkeeping part in particular is excellent and the accounts part being excel based is quite good.

Thanks (1)
avatar
By lynda001
09th Dec 2011 13:57

Xero.com

Sage Line is a terrible package. We use an online package called Xero. (www.xero.com).

This has payroll facilities and is great for small companies, especially if you want to do bookkeeping (AP & AR), tax returns, reporting,  budget comparison and payroll.

It currently does not allow you to do statutory accounts, but they are working on setting this up soon.

 

As Xero is cloud  based (online) you can access your accounting records from anywhere in the world via the internet. You can manage users access and companies are grouped, so you do not have to keep logging out and into the next one.

You can export and import information quickly and easily and have your bank statements feed automatically to the system, free of charge, so no more downloading from the bank and importing manually. You can also upload VAT returns to HMRC direct from Xero.

 

Reports and reconciliations can be easily exported to MS Excel. You can add your own company logo and send invoices direct to clients from the system.

You can download a free trial from the website if you want to test it out before buying.

It is the easiest and most proficient software I have come across in years of accounting.

 

Thanks (1)
Torben Halvorses owner of PaperLess Document Management for Sage
By torbenhalvorsen
09th Dec 2011 15:06

Easy accounts and payroll package for multiple companies

Sage seems to take a battering from quite a few people, but then that is normal for the larger companies. They still have many thousands of users.

We have integrations with a number of accounting applications and Sage is one of those, and when working with End Users , of all accounting applications, we often find that the End User needs the support of a good Business Partner to make the best use of their software and that this partner can really help them, using their experience of other businesses, make their investment in the accounting application pay off.

Using PaperLess integrated with Sage or any other accounting application can make the whole process efficient by posting transactions directly into Sage, for instance, from the digital document after you have had the document approved for posting or payment and completed that within PaperLess without ever losing track of where the document is in your process.

Of course it is also easy to locate the document with the transaction and share it with colleagues.

Using Sage for instance there is no need to export data to other packages, just efficient integration mean that its like working within one application.

Perhaps one consideration could be to take a good look at your processes, procedures and current software tools before making any unnecessary moves away from applications that are already working.

Phil

-- Accounting the PaperLess way™

Thanks (1)
By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
09th Dec 2011 16:43

.

Xero has a neat feature which would help with multi-company set up (sounds horrible, 5 small companies, is the FD on a make work mission?) in that you can set it up so if you bill one company the invoice appears in the other company too. Goodbye interco. recs!

You would need to look carefully at the stock however, its great for service businesses but on "stuff" ones its pretty basic. As Moonbeam alludes to its still pretty new, but getting better.

NB even if you decide to stick with antiquated sage for now, I would ditch the payroll without a blink, and cancel all the updates. 

 

 

Thanks (1)
avatar
By duploduchess
09th Dec 2011 19:59

This is really helpful

Thank you so much to everyone who has posted a reply to my query so far. 

I can see that there are a few differing opinions out there, but it is reassuring to know that lots of you like the moneysoft package for payroll, I think we will definitely go with that. 

As for the accounts package, I need to do the year end and I'm still a little wary of the VT two-pronged approach, as I'm used to doing everything on Sage.  I know the big boss is suspicious of the cloud, security-wise, although I know it is safe.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Frustrated Accountant
11th Dec 2011 09:51

Re Sage payroll. Of course it is an all-singing all-dancing package which can post automatically into a Sage accounts package - but I've also seen automatic postings made before the data was corrected in the payroll package and a real mess result. Of course competent bookkeepers are  unlikely to experience that. Sage accounts whilst I personally think there's better out there is designed to minimise incorrect transactions - when you're an accountant in practice you pick up all the messes so you tend to have as negative a view of a package as is possible to have. I also think people don't buy the right package for them because of the cost which can cause problems in all fairness to Sage.

Moneysoft though is an excellent cost-efficient package - and do download and trial it to see at least.

Thanks (0)
By NeilSeekings
13th Dec 2011 06:14

Payroll and Integrated Accounts

Have a look at MyPAYE which integrates with Kashflow,Xero,Twinfield,e-conomic, and Sage 50. Also has a free White label Partner program so you can run it from your website under your own brand. I will declare my interest as Sales director of MyPAYE and of course there are lots of other choices but few with the branding or free partner program.

You could look at Moneysoft,Payroo, both have great product.

Hope this helps

Neil Seekings

www.mypaye.co.uk

 

Thanks (0)