I'm happy with my TaxCalc software but am torn between three for my accounts :
VT - Really simple but no LLP templates and this taking turns to update a file seems a bit clunky. (1 staff vote).
Digita -Does everything we want and many things we'd never use (1 staff vote)
Forbes -Haven't used this before but do seem to know what they're doing with the dreaded iXBRL.
IRIS -seems fine to me but all two of my entire staff have taken against it .
Our IT chap has said our server is big and ugly enough for any/all of them .
Any feedback, comments or other suggestions ?
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have a look at the new forbes as it were
i am looking at all their products esp the cosec program then the acs program, young mr grace sorry mr good is involved
http://www.absolutetax.co.uk/absolute-compliance/accounts.html all for £100
My views as someone who has used VT, Digita and Iris.
VT is cheap and cheerful, and despite the fact it has limitations it actually does the job really well. The more I use it the harder I find to fault it. It enables extremely fast accounts production and is very flexible. I bought it intially as it was cheap intending to get a 'proper' package later but dont need to.
Digita very good, much more expensive, not anywhere near as flexible as VT and not anywhere near as quick to produce accounts. Funnyily enough I used Digita for years, set up on my own and called them for prices, and found them to be the most arrogant sales people I had ever used, they werent interesed in speaking with me as I was clearly too small. Astounding.
Iris - very well respected but horribly cumbersome and slow to produce accounts compared to both VT and to a lesser extent Digita. I understand why people who actually prepare accounts dislike like it. Its not nice to use.
Forbes
£100 for 10 accounts certainly seems a good price. I know full Forbes does LLPs but what about the rebadged cheapo Absolute version?
i think the speed of generation of acs is a complete red herring
does it matter if its 5 secs or 20, anyway in digita you can save previous versions etc etc
will let you know about forbes / absolute shortly when i do a controlled data exercise
out of curiosity..
What made you decide against the other main players?? (Sage, CCH/Viztopia, etc)
Red herring?
Why is the speed of accounts production a red herring when considering software options?
Surely the fundamental purpose of any accounts production software is to enable the user to prepare accounts in the most cost effective and efficient manner, and as such of course the ease of use and time it takes to produce the accounts is a primary factor in the decision making process.
well it depends what you mean
but as i said one spends 2 hrours putting all the info etc in, why worry about the extra 10 seconds it may take
and what about the processor speed and memory on the computer . those are the the real constraints
Red herring?
The time it takes to use software to produce accounts is very important and most certainly not a red herring.
VT wins over many packages in this respect and were not talking a few seconds here.
I'm going to wait and see
Because iXBRL has thrown a spanner in the works at the lower end of the market. Whilst the big boys (Caseware, IRIS, Sage, CCH, Digita) will definitely have it covered there are clearly issues with the "cheaper" providers of accounts production software.
I am guessing that there will be lots of new developments between now and the turn of the year, so we are going to just carry on as we are for the present until there has been a shake out.
It may well not be an issue at the cheaper end of the market
But, the fact is that only one provider has presently satisfied HMRC that they have it cracked. If VT (and for that matter the others) had it cracked already they would have released the iXBRL compliant versions of their software by now. I don't doubt anybody's intentions - but delivery is another thing.
Which is why we will wait and see.
Avoid Sage Accounts Production
If you want easy to use (user-friendly I mean as opposed to easy for Sage software writers) software then avoid Sage Accounts Production ("SAP").
Some of the issues with SAP include:-
Difficulties encountered getting particular notes included or excluded from the accountsWhen tidying up some pages in the accounts the syntax of a formula appears instead of the arithmetic result of the formulaThanks to the added horrors of SPS (Sage Practice Solution) incorrect directors or partners names formats can arise on the accountsDefault notes for Deferred Tax appears to be an extract from a textbook as in half-a-page of text rather than a user friendly simple short paragraphSome default formats have the idiocy of bank interest received appearing after sales but before cost of sales resulting in an illogiocal gross profit value (ie. gross profit includes bank interest!)Updates create chaos as they often overwrite the corrections previously made to defective formatsWill not export to Excel or .csv format (but will export to Word or .pdf)
Whilst not answering the original question but.....
What is the difference between absolute accounts and Forbes?
Absolute accounts is simply Forbes repackaged isn't it (Right down to the help stating Forbes)
Puzzling marketing.
Accounts software
Our main accounts person put aside two days to put together a requirements list, do trials and put together a short list so we've not looked at every single package.
I've found small to be far better
It may well not be an issue at the cheaper end of the market
But, the fact is that only one provider has presently satisfied HMRC that they have it cracked. If VT (and for that matter the others) had it cracked already they would have released the iXBRL compliant versions of their software by now. I don't doubt anybody's intentions - but delivery is another thing.
Which is why we will wait and see.
After nearly 30 years working in accountancy practices, my experience, having used CSM(Taxman & Auditman), Sage, Digita, and IRIS is that it's the larger firms who can't deliver. Not only are they usually slower than the competition to issue the new software releases, they are far more prone to bugs, slow running, etc., and when that happens, their helplines are generally useless. The worst case I experienced was when CSM moved from Dos to Windows at the same tax as the introduction of self assessment - we suffered months of trying to use a clearly flawed system until we bit the bullet and moved elsewhere! Sage was second with a virtually flawed release each April, followed by IRIS and Digita who were sometimes OK and sometimes not.
Compare that with my recent experiences of using Drummohr and Taxcalc in association with VT for accounts who've all, every year without fail, released their new versions on time, and what's more their new versions actually worked, without even having to make a single call to their support lines.
Big isn't always best!
Keytime Accounts Production
Keytime Systems have completely revamped their Accounts Production software which is now sophisticated and very easy to use. They also have Tax and CT which integrates into the system well.
http://www.keytime.co.uk/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=436
Accounts software
I have used different software in my time. Sage Accounts Production Advanced; PTP for partnership tax; Alphatax for corporate tax; and now IRIS for all. They all have their pros and cons but I'd recommend IRIS for ease of use for all as they link together very well. The output is only as good as the input when all said and done though. You do need to know what you are doing! JS1