accounts & tax software for small accountancy firms

accounts & tax software for small accountancy...

Didn't find your answer?

Hi all. In view of the plethora of accounts and tax (both personal & corporate) software packages on the market, what are your latest personal experiences and what would you recommend? I would very much appreciate your comments.

Replies (28)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

By Canary Boy
29th Oct 2014 16:15

We use...

VTT+ and BTC and Moneysoft.

Thanks (1)
avatar
By buttinski
29th Oct 2014 16:16

We use

VT for accounts and PTP for tax.

Thanks (0)
By Howard Marks
29th Oct 2014 16:20

Currently

I'm as above VT, BTC, Moneysoft

 

However....

 

BTC's lack of a proper PM solution (the current task thingy just doesn't cut it in my opinion) is leading me to look elsewhere.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Gary Hornby
29th Oct 2014 16:21

VT, Taxfiler, Moneysoft

Not integrated, but for the cost and ease of use, unbeatable!

 

 

Thanks (0)
By ShirleyM
29th Oct 2014 17:45

VT & Taxfiler

We don't do payroll.

Not integrated, but better and quicker than the integrated software I have used in the past.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Ken Howard
29th Oct 2014 18:31

VT, Taxfiler, Moneysoft here too
VT, taxfiler and Moneysoft here too! Does what they say on the tin, no gimmicks, and very well priced.

Thanks (0)
By Howard Marks
29th Oct 2014 18:43

12 months ago...
...it would've all been TaxCalc & BTC - TaxFiler seems to have ruffled some feathers!!

Thanks (0)
avatar
By jbaccsol
29th Oct 2014 21:25

Iris for me

For tax and accounts.  Yes it's expensive but the level of integration saves so much time in my opinion it's totally worth it.  And for payroll I find Sage the easiest of the packages I've used (including Moneysoft]. 

Thanks (0)
By The Don
29th Oct 2014 21:53
Thanks (0)
Locutus of Borg
By Locutus
29th Oct 2014 23:11

PTP, Taxfiler and Moneysoft
Taxfiler (personal and business tax) and Moneysoft (payroll) are easy choices.

I've used PTP for accounts for many years, which is effectively a cheaper version of Iris. I tried VT this year, but found myself going back to PTP. I did previously have some reservations with PTP, in particular with support, although I felt it had improved when I last called them earlier in the year. I expect I will eventually go to a cloud supplier for accounts production.

Thanks (0)
By Howard Marks
29th Oct 2014 23:14

Practice Management
Shirley aside, nobody so far seems to be using a PM tool?

Thanks (0)
Logo
By marks
30th Oct 2014 00:06

minority of one

Taxcalc for both accounts and tax.  

Though the need for a PM facility will mean having a look at Digita and IRIS in February when the tax season is by.

Other PM option is to look at something like PMpracticemanager which although standalone seems to do everything I need from a PM viewpoint.

Not ideal having accounts/tax on one system and PM on another but if just means have to update details on two systems rather than paying a few £000 extra a year for one system with accounts/tax/PM in it then worth a look.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By gordonb
30th Oct 2014 07:24

PMpracticemanager?

@marks I also use taxcalc for both and need a PM option. I googled your suggestion but could not find anything. Do you have a link?

Regards Gordon

Thanks (0)
Replying to Natashas93:
By Howard Marks
30th Oct 2014 09:39

TaxCalc

gordonb wrote:

@marks I also use taxcalc for both and need a PM option. I googled your suggestion but could not find anything. Do you have a link?

Regards Gordon

I take it TaxCalc's PM isn't up to scratch either?

 

Thanks (0)
Replying to Natashas93:
Img
By MissAccounting
30th Oct 2014 12:43

MB not PM?

gordonb wrote:

@marks I also use taxcalc for both and need a PM option. I googled your suggestion but could not find anything. Do you have a link?

Regards Gordon

 

I think they are referring to MB Practice Manager.  I use it and find it very good although it does have a few little bugs, particularly when setting up new VAT services.

Thanks (1)
avatar
By SJRUK
30th Oct 2014 07:41

VT+ for Accounts, Topup for Tax and Moneysoft for payroll.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By nickselectaccounting
30th Oct 2014 11:03

TaxCalc

Good Morning, 

I would recommend that you trial TaxCalc. . nothing ventured nothing gained.

I have been in practice since 2006 and trialed a number of systems, even using HMRCs' own software . . 

For me TaxCalc beings the following benefits to my practice:

Affordable  . .  Very important for a small practice. I have looked at other providers and their costs are not in the same ball park for a small practice.The support team are so approachable and love to hear about your experiences and feature requests. I can see requests and recommendations that I am making as a customer so you are in a way of making the software your own and current.The client hub is becoming the focal point of my business. The client hub is where it all happens and actually quite excited by the new updates that I have ran (free of charge by the way, no extra fees). The client data is stored in one place, no need to enter the data more than once and you can actually plan your work flow.I used a networked version so that I can access from anywhere (Using Remote Desktop Connection) and the infrastructure is ready for planned roles for my business next year.All documentation helps for a paper free office. . .most of my clients love working with PDFsWe can add client notes for audit purposes to the client hub. . . When you are dealing with 10-20 clients starting off, remembering key facts is easy. .  when you get bigger it gets more and more difficult. The client notes option gives you the opportunity to recognise conversations / key facts / important points / updates so that you can see the flow of data at a later point when trying to recall information.Accounts Production, a doddle . .Tax Returns even easier as the data from accounts production is brought into the returns . . File to HMRC and Companies House directly. . no need to use Companies House templates any more. . .It just works. . whatever your process, however you interact with your clients. .  it is perfect!

I could not run my practice efficiently without TaxCalc. . . .

If you want to know more about the software by all means drop me a line

 

[email protected] 

Thanks (6)
By williams lester accountants
30th Oct 2014 11:04

Keytime

We use Keytime for accounts, tax & company secretarial. Still not implemented a PM solution but Keytime do have one.

Thanks (1)
By Howard Marks
30th Oct 2014 11:10

@Nick

Thanks for the detailed feedback Nick.

 

For me, it's all about the PM solution but feel most providers don't pay anywhere near enough attention to it.  I generally like BTC but it's nothing out of the ordinary, they can all file the returns etc so there's nothing new there.  Their PM is fairly crap though which is leading me to look elsewhere - shame really.  

 

Having spoken to Iris this week, they're just too expensive.  I know it's all integrated bla bla but the cost of their 10 client package is more than I pay for unlimited through my current setup!

 

How do you find the WIP/tasks side of TaxCalc?

Thanks (0)
avatar
By jroystonsmith
30th Oct 2014 11:14

TaxCalc Client Hub Refined is now available

Hi all,

 

Further to Nick’s note, as chance would have it, the latest major release of TaxCalc has just gone live, which includes the many improvements to our Practice Management module, Client Hub. We haven't yet contacted customers to make them aware of the release, but the new features can be accessed immediately by updating; simply start TaxCalc and press F9 (or Help > Check for Updates).

 

A web page dedicated to explaining the new functionality has been set up and you can browse the list of features by visiting www.taxcalc.com/chr (NB doesn’t open in new tab/window).

 

This update sees a big leap in the Client Hub’s capability and we are already receiving positive feedback on the changes. We believe these tools are so essential to the daily running of your practice that we provide them free of charge with any Tax Return Production or Accounts Production purchase.

 

I hope that these improvements will really serve your practices well and will take a lot of the administrative weight off your shoulders, which is exactly why we have done this update.

 

Please let me know if anyone has any questions or queries.

 

Kind regards,

 

Jamie Royston-Smith

TaxCalc Sales

 

0845 5190 883 | [email protected] | www.taxcalc.com

Thanks (1)
Replying to Clinton:
Red Leader
By Red Leader
30th Oct 2014 11:44

IRIS + Moneysoft

IRIS for personal tax, business tax, accounts production.

Moneysoft for payroll.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Jakarmi
30th Oct 2014 12:16

Digita and Moneysoft

Moneysoft for payroll is of course the no brainer.

Digita is the option I use with Accounts, CT and PT. I used VT when I started but the time that ended up being wasted by not using an integrated package was unreal.

My practice has increased by around 80% since I started using Digita (this is of course through my marketing rather than anything Digita have done) but when I used VT I didn't feel I had any time for any further work or clients.

They were over a £1,000 a year cheaper than Iris so the costs were a lot better too. I guess it depends what your budget is and whether you want to pay a bit more at this moment for the integrated package.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By kazbor
30th Oct 2014 13:30

Capium for a cloud based system

Having used IRIS, PTP, Absolute and Keytime in the past I am now using the Capium cloud based accountants package and have been very impressed with the whole package from ease of use, functionality, support and value for money. Being a sole practitioner the ability to the access system from any computer and from anywhere was a top priority and the task of transferring clients was exceptionally straight forward with the ability to import trial balances. The package includes everything from bookkeeping to final accounts and tax including online filing. With the option to add users at no extra cost I would definitely recommend it. 

Thanks (0)
By Charlie Carne
30th Oct 2014 14:31

TaxCalc and VT

I use TaxCalc for all of my SA and CT tax compliance and find it a very easy product to use and reasonably priced, and I use VT for accounts production. I've used both products for years and have no desire to change.

VT is a fully featured accounts production tool and is easy to use, as it simply runs in Excel. Once you've imported a TB (or created the accounts in the free product, VT Cash Book), it makes it very easy to produce final accounts for sole traders, partnerships, LLPs and limited companies. I would strongly recommend VT for any small practice. I rarely, if ever, see a bad word written about VT, for good reason: its users all love it! It's also very well priced.

I've also used TaxCalc for years and have always liked its simplicity of use (you can prepare a tax return by filling in the on-screen form templates or allow the software to guide you though a "simple step" process). They had some issues a few years ago and development was stalled for a while. However, since they re-launched with their Hub product, it has got even better. I disagree with mrme89, as the thread that he refers to is three years old. I would agree that TaxCalc were not at their best back then, promising new features that took a while to arrive, although their core tax product was always excellent (even then). As nickselectaccounting says above, TaxCalc have just (last week) released a major upgrade to their Hub - see here. I've not had a chance to test it thoroughly yet, but it looks like a massive improvement on what was already a good product. It now offers lots of practice management tools, including the new task manager which allows you to set up and monitor repeating tasks, even those that have nothing to do with corporate or personal tax returns, such as VAT return due dates. As far as PM tools go, task management is probably the most useful feature for my practice and I will be testing it fully over the next few weeks. Their data mining functionality has also been expanded, allowing mail-merged emails to be sent to an automatically filtered sub-set of clients (eg sole traders over the age of 60). If you want an integrated tax and PM tool, I would check out TaxCalc.

Thanks (4)
paddle steamer
By DJKL
30th Oct 2014 14:27

Historic loyalty but expensive

I use PTP Accounts production  which does a job but  really annoys with roundings so that it flags errors re b/fwd rounding issues and Drumohr/ Iris Tax Assistant, which I do like and have been using since the advent of self assessment in the 1990s, but which has got more and more expensive each year.

This thread prompted me to to have a quick look at Tax Filer and have a play with their demo, in this regard quick question;

In tax Filer do profit shares from partnership returns get auto input into individual partner returns? I could not spot how this was done. Or do the individual partner returns need this data manually entered? I suspect it is the former but on my quick squint I did not spot how this was set up.

Thanks (0)
By ShirleyM
30th Oct 2014 14:33

DJKL

When you go to the partnership pages in a self assessment, Taxfiler tells you which partnerships that individual is a partner of, and asks if you want the profits to be transferred from the partnership return.

Thanks (0)
Replying to Tax Dragon:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
30th Oct 2014 15:25

Tax filer or tax Calc versus cost re Iris Tax Assistant

ShirleyM wrote:

When you go to the partnership pages in a self assessment, Taxfiler tells you which partnerships that individual is a partner of, and asks if you want the profits to be transferred from the partnership return.

Thanks Shirley, that makes sense.

 

Thanks (0)