Any recommendations for software package for start-up self employed person?

VT Cashbook (free) and VT Transaction + (very reasonable price with free trial period) are both capable of standard VAT.

However, a lot depends on the business/trade/profession, so I would advise him to get an accountant and see which software they recommend after discussing the business in more detail.

VT cashbook is free and very easy to use.  VT Transaction + has a sales and purchase ledger but you would have to pay for this if you want this facility.  You can start with VT cashbook and upgrade later if needed.

http://www.vtsoftware.co.uk/tranplus/download.htm

VT

I recommend VT for the reasons given above, with the same caveat as ShirleyM.

Another vote for VT

I would also recommend VT, particularly for it's ease of use. However like Shirley M I would suggest that your colleague contact an accountant for advice on the right solution for the business.

Go cloudy!

Have a look at one of the cloud providers - they tend to be easier to use than the legacy bookkeeping products, and it eliminates worries about backups, updates, etc.

Start with the big three....

XeroFreeAgentKashflow

But you might also want to look at..

e-conomicTwinfield

I use FreeAgent, and have done for some years - it calculates and files my VAT returns on-line  automatically - takes about 15 seconds every three months to do the whole thing.  Full support for the Flat Rate Scheme as well.

wave

If you want online try wave accounting. It's free. Looks a bit american but easy to do in UK.

VT good.

Solar Accounts also good.

Quickbooks - don't touch with a barge pole IMHO.

Quickbooks - don't touch with a barge pole IMHO.

I thought QB was the layman software-Well it was when I used it, but I do not know what went wrong. The basic package was and is still under 100 quid, had all the basic functionality, and above all, had the best reports-you can drill.  

Why on earth on this day and age Sage can't come up with a decent report?  It is still suffers from data corruption. Year end and can go on. I am lost as to why people still use sage. When I used QB, there was a VAT issue, had abandoned Multi-currencies. Recently, I have read that individual sales and purchase accounts do not tied-up to the control accounts. This is horror to me.

When we moved to ERP from QB, I had this issue. Without naming the Vendor, it was nightmare. The Auditor refused to sign the accounts as the individual supplier accounts are not equal to credit control account. I spent three days to sort out this. The reason was, in the system we have, you can post purchase invoices directly to the Credit control account which should never happen unless there is a design flow in the software. In QB, you can’t unless you attach the transaction to a supplier name, or customer name.

To this day, I have not met anyone who can to convince me why Sage is better than QB. Most accounting packages have similar functionality. Yes, the layout and some useless features may be added as a selling gimmick, but the fundamentals are very similar.

QB suffers from like any thing in life- Flexibility. You can press Control+ D to delete most transactions without knowing the consequence. Lots of Accountants are horrified by this feature. It did not have locking period- I do not know now. It was near impossible to import in to QB. Sage has the upper hand on importing. Sage copied QB’s memorized transactions as if it’s invention and calls it “Recurring”

QB was cheap. I bought it for 99 quid- did not need any support, so I did not pay any extra fees.

You can easily back-up and restore files- ohm it is night mare in Sage.

The other day, I was reading in Sage forum that people have still issues with corrupted files.

I have lost in touch with accounting software world for a couple of years now, so there may other good products out there, and keen to see and learn, but Sage - don't touch with a barge pole IMHO.