We have just acquired a practice that has a considerable number of clients with branches and/or subsidiaries in Eire. We are looking at servicing these clients directly from our UK office as one of our partners is Irish we have suitable and experienced staff.
We will need to invest in a system as the practice acquired outsourced all of this work. Unfortunately Sage appear to be the main suppliers in Ireland. Can anyone recommend an alternative software supplier. We use Iris in this office and if possible a system to integrate with this would be ideal as we could maintain one database.
Thanks for taking the time to look this post.
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Replies (8)
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Sage no good?
If you really can't bear to use Sage, try Relate software. I haven't used it, but there are plenty of practices I know who have changed over from Sage & would recommend it.
Keep an open mind
As in the UK, Sage bought up the various Irish software providers and now sell Sage Accounts Production and Sage Accounts Production Advanced - two completely different packages from different acquisitions. I work for a firm that uses SAPA and as far as I know it seems to be good (I don't work in that area). You may need to hold your nose and have a look.
As a long-shot outsider, you might have a look at Solutions Plus from Thesaurus Software. It can be downloaded and tried out free - but I have no idea how many people use it or how effective it is. But it is not too expensive as far as I can see.
Maybe there is an opening in Ireland for VT?
Otherwise Relate may be your best option.
Bradley Hardacre
Additional info
Our Irish partner used Sage in Ireland and remains to this day unimpressed by the support the firm received from Sage in Ireland. As he is the partner who will primarily be responsible for the area, he calls the shots.
Why do you need something specific to the Rep of Ireland?
When you say Practice Management, do you just mean time and fees or do you mean eveything including Tax, Payroll and Accounts production? If this is the case I assume you would like it to be integrated.
I am an IT Consultant based in Northern Ireland and support some local practices. Apart from Tax and Payroll, I am not aware of them doing anything special for the RoI.
Paul Kelly
Formats and Tax
The reason we specifically are looking at a South of Ireland system is the format of the accounts are different from here. We would also like a Tax module.
As we want to run this from our UK office, we also want to integrate it into our existing practice management system to enable us to maintain just one combined database.
Does IRIS not have RoI Formats?
One of my clients uses SAPA and I know it comes with RoI & UK formats.
Does IRIS not have the same?
Naturally there are a number of factors to consider. However, if the tax module is the only national peculiarity that IRIS cannot handle and you have to buy all new software in the RoI anyway, I would want to hear a very convinmcing argument no to use IRIS.
There is going to be disruption in the RoI office no matter what you do. Putting in a completely different system from your current one means you cannot really be of any assitance to them, but maybe that doesn't matter.
Paul Kelly
Bolt-on to existing office
We acquired a practice who out-sourced all Irish work. One of our partners qualified in Ireland and he will now do this work in-house.
We use Iris as our system for UK work but they don't appear to have a system in place for Ireland. Rather than having 2 systems we want to keep both Irish and UK work on the same system.
RoI Practice Management
I would recommend CCH - bullet proof and has UK & RoI formats, etc - steer well clear of Sage, completely useless in Ireland and updates are not always sent through; when they are, they cause problems throughout your system
DRIVE from Relate Software is good (we have been using it for a number of years) - BUT, the support is not great and the package could be so much more than it is - loads of tiny annoying little glitches that just build up and let you down - there are lots of trial and errors too and it is easy to mess things up if you don't know your way around it - on balance I would not recomend it
We are in the process of moving from Relate to CCH - it is owned by the company that publishes all of the ASB & APB technical work