Hi,
With little experience in practices, I have recently started my practice serving only small business of Sole traders, Partnership and Limited Companies (including CIS).
I'm looking for a simple and straightforward Accounting software for Accountants in Practice by which I can file VAT and submit final accounts to HMRC and Companies House.
Any help / advice is highly appreciated.
Replies (14)
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TaxCalc is also worth looking at for tax. Also has an accounts preparation module but untried and untested by me.
Digita
I use Digita and I like all the programs and they have the advantage of being integrated and cheaper than Iris.
If I were starting up...
... which I'm still hoping to do once I've saved enough, I'd be going with TaxCalc. Have checked a few of these products out now and I suggest you do too. They're all slightly different from each other.
taxcalc
Costs £900+VAT for unlimited accounts and tax modules which are intergrated. Also has VATfiler module whichs costs I think £50 per year but you are just as well using HMRC online facility.
Now has improved practice management functionality but not 100% what I need so will be looking at probably going with Logical Office or MBPracticeManager as PM function.
If you want to go fully integrated then it is either Digita or IRIS. Digita will probably cost about £3k-£4k and IRIS about £6k. I will be reviewing both of these but think Tax and Logical Office/MBPracticeManager will give me everything I am looking for at a cheaper price. Only downside is two databases but no big issue to update both if get a new client or a client details changes. Certainly the additional time involved will be covered by the cost saving made.
I am a big fan of Tax calc.
I am a big fan of Tax calc. I have used Logical office a lot in my old firm, and honestly found it really hard work. The team were very supportive, but it felt like you needed a detailed working knowledge of their software to understand how to do fairly basic tasks.
There was a lot of opportunities to get things wrong as well which had major implications down the line.
Mail merges were tricky as were most of the automation processes they offer.
Our practise now uses a combination of Xero and Tax calc. Two lovely programs to work with, well engineered and Intuitive
Should try capium.com
I'm using capium.com for a while now and it's a kind of package which serves all what you mentioned from VAT filing to tax return to HMRC and annual accounts to Companies House to Practice Management. I would say you must give it a go before you finalise anyone!
I always get a bit suspicious
about somebody who joins a month ago and only talks about one product.
VT and Taxcalc/BTC
As a start up I'd go with VT for accounts which is very cost effective and flexible, around £200 a year for unlimited clients. For stand alone tax either BTC or Taxcalc, I use Taxcalc, though am thinking of moving to Taxfiler next year because it's cloud based and seems to be very well reviewed here. if you want an integrated solution then it's going to cost a lot more, Iris is very expensive for a start up around I think £3-4,000/yr for entry level, Digita a bit less. Taxcalc does offer an integrated solution which is quite a bit cheaper than either but I haven't used it, it's quite a new add-on and I'm entirely convinced by recent Taxcalc changes. Have a look at the accountingweb software survey from Jan this year for more info on this.
Taxfiler has the advantage for a start up
With Taxfiler you do not need separate licences for different types of returns.
Definitely VT for bookkeeping and accounts. Quick, easy, and very reasonable priced.
Digita
I pay Digita a lot less than some of the prices quoted. It also has the advantage that you can increase the client numbers as you need to use them for most of the programs.
Ftax and Moneysoft
Ftax for tax returns.
Moneysoft Payroll Manager for payrolls.
Both are easy to use and sensibly priced.
Digita for me
As Peter says the price goes up in blocks of clients so not badly priced .
I looked at the others mentioned whilst VT is popular with others I just didn't like it.
I have always preferred a integrated suite as opposed to mix and match set up.
I must say though that Tax Filer does look good value for money if you have a lot of SA returns
to do you cannot beat £10 per month.
Telling Trio
We have used VT for Accounts, BTC for Tax and Moneysoft for Payroll - very happy with all 3 and all reasonably priced. As for document management, we have used DMSPRO from Docman Solutions since 2008.