A client's bookkeeper currently uses excel and it is just too manual. I am currently moving clients to VT and FreeAgent.
This business provides physio services and uses a software system to record the sales. If I move the client to FreeAgent then the transactions come through the bank feed. So will not agree to the sales and the bookkeeper does no do double entry bookkeeping. I would then have to make bookings which makes it manual again.
I don't think the bookkeeper could deal with VT either.
Which software do your clients use where no invoices or cash?
Do FreeAgent/Xero take feeds from third party software?
Replies (14)
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Eh?
A bookkeeper who can't manage simple accounting software. I think you are probably being a little harsh. We have clients (not bookkeepers) using VT Cashbook and doing a really good job. OK, they don't reconcile everything, but virtually all of them manage to reconcile the bank.
Get the bookkeeper to download the free VT Cashbook, and have a go. It's the easiest bookkeeping software to learn that I've come across, and that's why clients can use it AND give us good data to work from.
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There are nearly 200 transactions a month so VT Cashbook would not be the right one.
Why ever not? VT Cashbook could cope with 2,000 transactions a month.
But I sounds as though there are a lot of sales invoices to be matched with receipts, in which case VT Transaction+ for a modest one-off £125 is the solution.
Edit - on re-reading the OP. There are no sales invoices, but a record of sales in another software system. Is there any reason why VT should not replace the software which currently records sales?
It isn't the software that is the problem
It's the bookkeeper, or possibly yourself. You would still have the same problem no matter what software is used. If you don't like the way the records are presented, then you have to persuade/teach the bookkeeper how to present the records in the way you want. This one-off training would be chargeable, but should, in turn, earn for a lower fee, year after year, for preparing the accounts. That's the argument I use when trying to persuade clients to present better records. The other alternatives are to carry on as you are, or give them the boot. EDIT: Sorry .. for some reason the paragraphs aren't working, and I've tried enabling/disabling rich text.
Import into VT
Just use the VT import function to import the sales invoices each month, and also to import the bank transactions each month. Both are easy if the raw data is in excel/csv format from the sales invoice system and online bank login.
VT will remember which ledger each transaction has been imported into previously, so it's only the first time of each type of transaction where you need to manually tell it which ledger to post to, i.e. which customer, which supplier, which nominal ledger, etc.
I do this for a client who had thousands of transactions every month and it only takes a morning - tops, with decent management accounts produced by lunchtime. Year end accounts are likewise dead quick and easy.
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Please can someone help with the original question - if there are no invoices then how do you book the sales?
if you were using VT Cashbook you would simply enter them as receipts, either individually or as the amount credited to the bank, eg several cheques on one credit slip. Obviously you would reconcile this to the sales record.
Does it matter?
Does your client give credit? If not, the only issue you have is at the year-end to pull in timing differences which can be done as a 'one-off' for the preparation of accounts/tax return.
If your client gives credit then isn't it an odd and badly managed situation that there is no sales ledger?
OK
Here's an idea. Use the bank feed as the basis of the sales in the month, supplemented by a reversing journal for trade debtors at the month end.
Why?
Why wouldn't the sales receipts +/- movement in trade debtors equal the sales report?
The weak link is surely the sales reporting system, not the bank so why build a system based around it? You say there is more than one interested party looking at the numbers, all the more reason to have proper controls, which would include a double-entry system. Even my vet produces invoices, so why wouldn't a physio practice?
Or am I barking up the wrong tree?