Practice management software

Practice management software

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We are a very rapidly growing practice with clients mainly small to medium sized businesses with Turnover less than £1m.

At present majority of work is carried out using spreadsheet and Access data base. Due to the considerable growth in business it is clear that an integrated software including accounts, tax and practice management software would be a way forward. We have been looking at Iris and Digita. I would be interested to hear your views and your experience of these two software.

Thanks

Waheed Rehman

Replies (19)

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By stevesat
01st Apr 2009 15:19

Digita Contact Manager & Peter Saxton
Peter

Just to clarify your point .."You can't print or export a list of clients" - this is incorrect - you can and very easily!

2 ways:

Standard Windows commands: From "File" select "Print Preview" and then "Print" - a very nice listing of your clients comes out of the printer!

Another method:

Use the "Merge" Wizard to export the entire list of clients (or / and prospects) or a selection of those using numerous different criteria and then Digita Contact Manager exports to a fully formatted Excel spreadsheet from where you can print etc.

We find firms using Digita Contact Manager use this excellent feature when for instance they organise a golf day, then want a list of attendees for the day or to be able to email the list as an Excel spreadsheet to someone in the firm to follow up on etc.

Great system is Digita Contact Manager when used in conjunction with Document Creator.

Steve Thorns
3Soft Limited - Authorised Resellers for Digita.
[email protected]

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By petersaxton
21st Feb 2009 17:03

Digita v Iris
PB
I was consider Digita or Iris a few years ago and I chose Digita because it seemed more logical.

I'm happy with Digita's software except that they are taking a long time to produce a comprehensive practice management suite. They have a contact manager and should soon be issuing time and fees.

The contact manager has some basic flaws. You can't print or export a list of clients.

Their technical support seems to have suffered from their success. When I first joined they would answer and deal with my query immediately but now I may have to wait for a call back a few hours later.

I would still recommend Digita because they seem to have the right attitude.

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By User deleted
05th Feb 2009 11:11

IRIS experience
I moved over to IRIS from PTP around October 2007. I use the practice compliance solution, which comprises Personal Tax, Business Tax and Accounts.

So far my experience has been nothing but positive. I have a policy of never reading instruction manuals, and the software is intuitive enough so that I've only had to venture to the help screens on a couple of occasions.

When I have needed technical support it's been prompt and first class, with a nice bloke logging onto my PC remotely and fixing everything while I made the tea.

This January just gone was my first experience of online filing for personal tax returns. I wasn't looking forward to it, but now that I've experienced how easy it is on IRIS I'll probably never file a paper return again if I can help it.

I've been moving up the cost ladder (you pay per number of clients e.g. the starter package is 20 (I think) for which you get 20 accounts clients, 20 business tax and 40 personal.) It's getting more expensive now but I can' t see myself moving away from it any time soon.

Hope this helps.

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Replying to User deleted:
Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
27th Sep 2017 00:29

.

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By User deleted
05th Feb 2009 08:04

Sorry to re-open oldish thread
Hi all,

Tax Return season is now over so I am now considering moving to Iris and Digita. I have had demo's for both and my initial preference is with Digita as it is less cumbersome, not overly complex and considerably cheaper than Iris. However, the one slight downside I see with Digita at the moment is that the only part of it that is not integrated is the Company Secretarial which as I understand may be put right in 2010.

Has anyone got any further comments on this please, especially the OP and are there any other thoughts by Digita or Iris users?

Thank you.

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By AnonymousUser
19th Nov 2008 14:00

Drive
Careful Mr Myles.

I know some people back in the home country who can deliver horses heads to people who take my name in vain!!

Also, Keytime's relationship with Relate is an arms length one - we simply recommend and resell their excellent products and I am happy to recommend them where appropriate.

Waheed's posting indicates that Drive would be an ideal fit.

Anthony Boggiano
(of Keytime, not Relate)

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By carnmores
18th Nov 2008 16:55

buggiano off Anthony
its your company you would say that wouldnt you - please disclose when promoting your own products or lose all credibility

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By BryanS1958
17th Nov 2008 17:10

Iris Practice Management
I did have a look at Iris PM on a demo basis, but it appeared very complicated to use - and I'm reasonably conversant on using various programs.

It could do with a complete make-over, including making everything more intuitive and wizards to make setting up tasks, reminders and reports much easier for staff who are not very computer literate.

It's also quite expensive for a program that's creaking a bit!

Digita seemed easier, but I didn't get very involved in using it. From my recollection, it didn't have sets of templates for various scenarios e.g. companies due to file, CT600s due to file, etc. which meant everything had to be set up from scratch, but maybe that was because I was trying to convert from Iris to Digita.

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By Fred Hoad
17th Nov 2008 10:55

Old Greying Accountant
I note that you find Iris works well. Can I ask, have you used software from other providers?

I work in an office where people have come from Pertax, Sage and Digita backgrounds and all of them find Iris to have very broken thinking and some of the menu layouts bordering on the point of obscurity.

Sure, if it works for you then fine. And I have acknowledged that Iris is probably very powerful, but, it strikes me as very much a piece of software designed by people who are very much programmers first and accountants second.

Also, with the basic database idea being a good one, it mainly just needs an interface that employs logic and it's usability would increase alot.

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By User deleted
14th Nov 2008 23:39

Just goes to show
I find IRIS extremely easy and intuitive to use, but may be I've grown with it and would view it differently if I came at it now for the first time.

It just goes to show there are horses for courses, and what is one man's meat is another man's poison.

Conclusion, get demos of them all and see what you think. IRIS used to give you a free 30 day trial so you could really get the feel of it. IRIS I think also have a bank of sites that would allow you go and see it in action as it were.

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By Fred Hoad
14th Nov 2008 13:01

What choices?
Can I just add that in the past I have used mainly Pertax (Solution 6?) though in my current firm we use Iris.

What I will say is that Iris for me has got to be one of the most unituitive (or least intuitive if you will) pieces of software that I have ever come across. And I am not just exaggerating this for effect. I actually exchanged emails with a product development manager who acknowledged what I was saying but proposed very little to change things.

Pertax on the other hand was really easy to use, though whether it was quite so powerful, I don't know.

If 'professional' software houses had to match the levels of excellence set by games software houses, then they would all be out of business. How do they get away with producing software that has so many issues and needs so many help menu's. The mind boggles!

Whoever you go for, make sure the support is good and can all of us continue to pester them to make sure they get things right.

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By AnonymousUser
14th Nov 2008 13:07

Drive
I would recommend Drive from Relate also.

Nothing else touches it in the market presently.

Good luck

Anthony

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By JRMCKEE
11th Nov 2008 16:12

DIGITA SOFTWARE
I am a sole practicioner with five staff and moved to Digita from Sage some seven years ago. We currently use all of the Company Secretarial, Tax and Accounts modules and have absolute satisfaction with the products. The annual cost is not prohibitive and can be easily spread over the year by standing order. Customer service is first class.

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By dlrelate
11th Nov 2008 12:54

Relate Software
In quick response to Bryan's comments, DRIVE includes a module for Accounts Production and we can link to other tax packages like Forbes and Digita etc.

We have recently released to our clients in the past couple of weeks a link from DRIVE to the Forbes Tax software which has been taken up by a number of our clients. This will allow you to have a central client database where all client data is entered and amended reducing the need to update multiple applications, and will allow you to run the calculations in the tax software.

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By BryanS1958
11th Nov 2008 12:37

Practice Management Software
We have Iris, but have not taken up the PM option because we considered it to be very expensive.

Iris is good, but expensive. We did attempt to move from Iris to Digita, but this did not work out - Digita didn't even have an Income & Expenditure Account template at the time! This is easy enough to create, but there were other issues regarding transferrability from Iris. If you are starting from scratch Digita may be the cheaper and better option.

Iris do everything they can to make access to the sql database (which contains MY client information!) difficult if you want to change software suppliers. As per the previous comment, they try and lock you in and bump their charges quite rapidly over the years.

Another option is Forbes. This is something I have in my in tray to look at because I hate being held to ransom by Iris or any other software supplier (Iris even had the cheek to make us pay up front when we went back to them, whereas before we had paid quarterly - being a big firm they have no concept of customer relations, I'm still wound up about it!!) Forbes is far cheaper and simpler than Iris by the looks of it. Being a simpler system also means that it should be fairly easy to migrate to a more complex system at a later date if you need to. It probably doesn't have every single bell and whistle that Iris has, but it seems to do pretty much everything we need as a small firm.

I also had a look at Relate, but couldn't see the point if you have a system such as Iris, Digita or Forbes which has a central database.

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By dlrelate
11th Nov 2008 12:36

Relate Software
You might be interested to take a look at Relate Software as DRIVE was voted Best Practice Management Software at the Software Satisfaction Awards for 2008 in London recently.

I agree that firms do not always wish to put all their eggs in one basket, although DRIVE uses a single, central database, all data is held in a Microsoft SQL database. Also, by using DRIVE to run your practice you do not always need to change your compliance software.

Please contact me for further information or if you would like to take a look at this award winning software.


[email protected]

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By User deleted
11th Nov 2008 12:21

IRIS
We have been transmitting to Companies House using XBRL for a month now with IRIS, one small problem rapidly sorted out by support.

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By Colin23
11th Nov 2008 02:15

Eggs in a basket
Be wary of putting all your eggs in one basket. One software house = opportunity to exploit. Your business will become reliant on their product and support, warts and all.

Is the software ready for the new accounting electonic data transfer standards of XBRL? Can it electonically file all the forms of return to Companies House and HMRC?

Has the software house recently changed hands and is the software going to be fully supported going forward?

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By User deleted
09th Nov 2008 21:10

IRIS
We have used the IRIS suite for twelve years and dynamite wouldn't shift me from it.

With the number of clients you are potentially talking about a central database would make life so very easy. The Practice Management and Automail modules are most excellent, and even I, with the typing dexterity of a three toed sloth, can knock up a letter template in seconds.

We have been filing most Companies House forms direct off IRIS for a long time now, and the recent updates mean we can import details direct from companies house for new company clients, and the latest update now allows most abbreviated accounts to be filed straight off IRIS.

Due out in the next week or three is the staff planning option which links through from practice managment so that when you assign a job to a staff member you can automatically block out the appropriate time in Outlook.

In addition there is a direct link to Call AML for money laundering checks which is excellent.

Whatever you choose, judge on functionality and reliability, not price - and make sure you back up regularly.

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