Hello all
I am looking at doing some practice work for some potential clients who want me to act for them, which will be nothing major, some payroll, management accounts and year end accounts. A handful will be SME accounts.
At the moment, I work in industry and left practice around 3 years ago. I am pursuing the notion of starting my own practice as I enjoy the work and have accumulated some excellent commercial experience. I have kept up to date with (hopefully) the majority of changes within the profession and intend to refresh my knowledge through various channels.
Can my fellow professionals please recommend some affordable software and resource material for the different elements I intend to take on, such as:
Payroll - I've decided to use Moneysoft. Any other alternatives?
General Practice Procedures Manual - I have seen SWAT offer this for 195 + VAT
Accounts production - Recommendations needed please
Timekeeping - preferably a mobile version for iOS, there are plenty to choose from
Personal/Corporate tax return software - Recommendations needed please
Office management? - not really required at this point but good to have some ideas
No doubt I have missed some items.
Obviously my aim is to grow but at the moment turnover is minimal. I'd like to get the foundations in place rather than chase my tail later on down the line.
Many thanks for your feedback in advance.
- P
Related resources
Replies (17)
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Hi
I made the move to set up my own practice a few months ago and have chosen:
Payroll - Moneysoft
Accounts Preparation and Bookkeeping - VT Final Accounts (includes VT Transaction + for bookkeeping) www.vtsoftware.co.uk £199 for first year and £150 thereafter
Tax - www.taxfiler.co.uk £10 per month
All of the above offer free trials so you can try before you buy.
As for office management I am not using anything specific for that just yet.
Good luck and hope this helps.
Regards
Mark
Thank you
Hi Mark - I appreciate you sharing your experience.
I will have a look at the VT package you mentioned.
Which bookkeeping package do you suggest for your clients? I have heard good things about Xero.
- P
Hi
The majority of clients already use Sage but you can do bookkeeping with Transaction+ and there is also a free version called VT Cash Book which links to both Transaction+ and Final Accounts. However, I haven't used it so can't comment how useful it is - maybe suitable for very small clients.
Regards
Mark
VT is excellent
I also use BTC for tax and am very happy with this. Digita is another popular one on here - this topic has been covered a few times so worth having a look through previous questions.
Other posts
Hi,
Yes the other posts do provide some very interesting reading. Actually answered some of the questions I didn't post.
Do you both use working papers sheets to assist with the accounts prep? Also, what do you use for your statutory forms such as dividend minutes/waivers, engagement letters etc?
Regards,
- P
I use my own working paper schedules developed in Excel.
Engagement letters I produce in VT Final Accounts using a great template from here https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/group-thread/letter-engagement-0
Hope this helps
Mark
You can user scanner plus Able to extract PDF converter in to excel. Once the data are in excel, it depends on how good you are at manipulating the data and convert them in to TB. Then, VT will do the rest of the job for you. This saves you lots of time.
You can attach IXBRL in to tax filer. All these for less than £300.
As to time sheet, Ron Baker said
"Burn your timesheets"
excel
I prepare an excel spreadsheet for each year for every client with all of my working papers in it, so a sheet for bank, debtors, creditors etc etc plus all notes that I would previously have written out by hand as a junior many years ago.... Paper does not feature much.
This is in addition to the VT spreadsheet for the final accounts.
Thanks
Being 'out of the game' with regards to being in industry I just didn't want to unintentionally miss something.
Thank you for sharing your experiences.
- P
General Practice Procedures manual
The SWAT manual is very good but is overkill for a sole trader or small practice although you can cherry pick from it to suit your needs.
Sage Line50
As you grow you'll almost certainly need a copy of Sage Line 50 as the vast majority of clients will use it and being able to restore the data yourself will undoubtable save you time
WHAT!!!!!!
As you grow you'll almost certainly need a copy of Sage Line 50 as the vast majority of clients will use it and being able to restore the data yourself will undoubtable save you time
Blasphemy!!!
The future is the Cloud, check out Xero, ClearBooks, FreeAgent etc.
For those still in the dark ages use MoveMyBooks to convert the data - works brilliantly.
Just commenting on personal experience you total clown. To quote it as blasphemy is quite frankly insulting.
Having left practice a couple of months ago 90% of my clients were using SageLine50 so I feel its pretty useful to have.
Lazy
With the array of products on the market, to recommend Sage50 is just lazy.
Edit - apologies. That was a knee-jerk posting. It's how I feel but I shouldn't have said it quite like that.
Granted it was lazy. I personally need it because clients are unwilling to change it most case. If you get examine the data outside of the programme in a cheaper fashion then I stand corrected!
Excel dump
@Gaffa201 I get clients who use Sage to do a csv file dump. That way I have the data in a form that I can manipulate.