What software do I need

What software do I need

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I am a sole practicioner with 50 clients at the moment but growing quite quickly. Have slightly fallen into a job that suits my lifestyle perfectly - young family, part time hours, working from home etc etc. Thus far I have managed with the HMRC software but need greater functionality now. Most of my clients are sole traders, many with overseas earnings which have been taxed at source so the software needs to cope well with FTCR calculations. Same query for the corporation tax clients. Vat returns feature for a few clients but the accounts production side is fairly straightforward at the moment. Would like a system that can produce the accounts and integrate into a tax return. I also have a few ltd company charities and am looking to expand this area in particular. 

Then on the practice management side, I need to start logging my time more carefully. Would like that to feed into an invoicing system.....I need a good database for client info.

Finally, I think a cloud based system might be the way to go given that I am going to have to spend time training and getting familiar anyway - might as well move forward as much as possible. But can it be intuitive please - haven't got limitless time to spend getting to know my way around the software.

I probably could do with some other functionality also that will make my life easier and more efficient. Don't really know the full extent of what is out there. 

Would welcome any ideas and input. 

Many thanks,

Replies (7)

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Time for change
By Time for change
06th Feb 2014 10:38

Keytime's my provider

and has been since 2008.

Excellent product, exceptional support, whilst still retaining a friendly outlook.

You could do much worse, in my view.

Worth a chat with their sales department at least.

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By cheethaz
06th Feb 2014 11:23

Thanks - will have a look.
 

Thanks - will have a look.

 

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By Sarah P
06th Feb 2014 13:06

Are you sure you're not me?

I think I wrote a fairly identical post about 6 months ago!

I've moved onto BTC for personal and corporation tax and even in the first year I find it has saved me a lot of time on tax returns.

The client database which links into tax software and your own time management / invoicing is a bit of a holy grail.  I am using BTC as a client information database, but I'm still using Outlook for my recurring tasks and I'm using an app called Hours Tracker for recording time, which doesn't feed into my invoicing.  I use Xero for my own practice accounts and invoice from there, which is very very straightforward.  I wish I could find a neat (inexpensive) way of bringing all that practice management stuff into one place.

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By cheethaz
06th Feb 2014 14:18

Ha! Will have a look at your one too. Any chance you are able to link me to the posting/ replies to your query 6 months ago. Might be easier than hoping people will repeat themselves....

 

 

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By cheethaz
06th Feb 2014 21:40

Sarah P, 

Sarah P, 

So useful - have read through the old posts and am going to go off and have a good look around BTC, Tax Calc and a few others. 

Many thanks for your input.

C

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By marks
06th Feb 2014 23:26

taxcalc for me

Taxcalc works well for integrated accounts and tax returns.

I just keep my WIP on an excel sheet and keep my timesheets on an excel sheet which then cut and paste at the end of the month to the relevant clients running total.  When raise invoice  attach the clients WIP to date to the invoice to make sure recovery is reasonable.

Also have all monthly tasks on a spreadsheet per month eg year ends, ltd co accounts 6 months after year end, ltd co accounts due, quarterly accounts, VAT returns, ltd co 10 months into year for tax planning opportunites.

Do my own accounts on SAGE and just raise invoices on an excel template.

So far works for me.

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