I've seen several posts in the past few years regarding members' views on the popular accounting practice software being offered by the main players. (Iris, Taxcalc, Intuit, Xero, Sage, Keytime). As technology is moving on I'm asking for your current opinions on whats available and how good it is.
As some background - there seems to be a move towards providing a one-stop shop for accountants to allow their clients to do simple book-keeping using good applications which link to the same database that is used for final year end accounts (eg cloud-computing and fancy add ons such as applications on iphones, applications for taking and uploading screen shots of receipts, etc) - I'm wondering if I could ask your views on:
1. Which systems do you use? (for statutory accounting, corp tax, personal tax, client book-keeping)
2. Are these systems interlinked? (or do you spend your time copying data over from the book-keeping module to the accounts production software)
3. Are you happy with the software and the customer service you receive?
4. Are your clients happy with the book-keeping software? (is it intuitive enough and does it save them time entering the data?)
5. What sort of fees are you paying?
Any help/views on the above would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Wendy
Replies (11)
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answers in turn
1. VT for accounts, Taxcalc for tax work, SAGE for bookkeeping
2.Not interlinked but the cost saving over say IRIS more than offsets this given client number I currently have.
3. Never had need to use customer service to date. Been using VT for over a year and Taxcalc and SAGE under a year.
4. Clients that I use SAGE for I do the bookkeeping. Other clients use SAGE themselves. One client uses xero. Others just use spreadsheets or manual records.
5. VT £180 per year. Taxcalc £480 per year SAGE about £800 per year (off the top of my head)
Regards
Mark
Mirror the last post...almost
VT Accounts and bookkeeping
BTC tax
Sage for some bookkeeping - if the client wants it, I personally hate it and how much it costs
Moneysoft for payroll
Software I use
Sage One (free) or Instant for Bookkeeping
Sage for all practice stuff
Very happy, clients like that they have choice of online/offline. I've looked elsewhere but subscription can be pricey and I dont like the idea of giving my money to the US or NZ :)
Software for me
Bookkeeping - QuickBooks; a couple of clients use Irisopenbooks
Payroll - Sage but considering Moneysoft because a lot cheaper
Accounts Production, Personal Tax, Corporation Tax, Practice Management and Company Secretarial - Digita - I pay about £2.5k for a mixture of 50/75/100 clients for each
Similar
VT for bookkeeping and final accounts
BTC for corporation tax and personal tax
moneysoft for payroll
Not integrated but works well and I am happy. Would just now really like a good well proced company secretarial package. I did use PC Share Register but, good though it is, it is costly and I can't justify it. Would love BTC to add a dividend voucher facility to their software....
Dislike sage immensely.
whazleyp,
Keytime offer a fully integrated software suite including: Tax, Corporation Tax, Accounts Production, Payroll and Practice Management.
Check out our website: www.keytime.co.uk
If you have any further questions then please do not hesitate to contact me ([email protected])
Callum Macrae
USER FRIENDLY AND CHEAPER SOFTWARE OPTION
VT For bookkeeping and Accounts
Xero for Cloud Based Accounting (Bookeeping)
Tax Calc for Taxation
Moneysoft for Payroll
My choices
VT for accounts production
BTC for CT
Sage (larger companies) & Excel (smaller co's) for book-keeping
Moneysoft for payroll
VT links into BTC splendidly. Previously used Taxcalc for CT, wouldn't go back. And used PTP for Accounts before VT and again, so wouldn't go back!
Am I the only IRIS user to admit to it?!
1.Software
a) Bookkeeping: VT T+;
b) Payroll: Moneysoft;
c) Stat Accts/Biz & Personal Tax/CoFormations/Asset register/CoSec: IRIS
2. IRIS all linked through the hub n spoke database. Not a great deal of effort required to trfr TBs ex VT (or any other a client chooses) to IRIS and the payroll gets journalled into the bookkeeping anyway.
3. Very happy with the customer service from all three. Never had an issue go unresolved or drag on too long.
4. Some clients find VT T+ less intuitive than say Freeagent because they haven't been exposed to accounting language. They soon learn though and, by using cloud data storage for the *.dta file, we have access for review/helping (and, if they really can't get to grips, they can always ask us to deal with it!).
5. Fees in the region of £3½k p.a. all told.
Clients are at liberty to choose whatever software they like. We do look at their circumstances and suggest which is best suited to their needs when taking them on. VT T+ being the preferred choice as you can mess with the chart structure more easily.