TaxCalc moves into accounts production

Since moving to TaxCalc professional suite a few years ago I have been quietly impressed by Acorah and, true to form, they have come along with a nice solution to the whole iXBRL issue - a big problem for those of us with only 20 or so company clients -  just a time when I was searching for one!

Nice one.

I recently downloaded the demo of TaxCalc and have to say I was impressed with the software, so much so that I am considering moving from Sage to TaxCalc.

I have high hope for the accounts production software and the price seems very good.

Look forward to seeing the demo.

You obviously haven't looked at VT!

Price - about a third of Taxcalc's offering, and it does ixbrl at the press of a button, is really easy to use and unlike Taxcalc they care about their customers and keep them informed.

No brainer......

Whilst I agree that TaxCalc is a great tax package, I have to say that the proposed price for the accounts production package is beaten hands down by VT.  I have used VT for many years and it is excellent value for money and simple to use.

People going on about the price when compared to VT is getting a bit tedious now.

You have to consider the value of something and also if it meets your requirements.

For example if I have 500 limited company clients, then tax calcs offering of unlimited clients and 2 users would look like good value.

If, however, I only have 8 or 9 limited company clients, then £499 might not seem such good value to me. If I were in this situation, I could consider other products, like PTP/Iris priced at £99 for up to 10 clients. A good system which I have recently beta tested. Also will file the abb. a/cs at Companies House for you.

Or I might even consider Sage Instant Accounts Production, again priced at £99 for up to 10 clients.

In these circumstances VT might seem expensive, because it is £200 for the first year, and £150 thereafter.

As it can be seen, the price can be a bit of a red herring. You have to consider your individual requirements and go with what best meets them.

As a user of both Tax Calc for tax returns and VT for accounts production (for in excess of 60 companies a year) I am looking forward to seeing the Acorah product for the speed of integrating input of data at a lot less cost than the offerings by Sage and Iris.

Whilst I have no significant complaints on VT it does lack polish and any clients that fall outside the general accounting policies, such as lessors, are somewhat cumbersome to fit the templates. The fact that you cannot yet file ixbrl accounts with Companies House via VT yet (although I understand the reasons) does make the forthcoming Acorah product of interest.

Finally Tax Calc's support is very good, an area we find lacking with VT and by the time you add an additional user at £99 for VT the pricing begins to look a bit closer.

Is coming this time next year with their CT product...

I've found Tax Calc to be very poor (don't respond or do but then don't actually answer the q) whereas VT are very quick to respond and don't try any bull***t.

But then I'm very anti-taxcalc at the mo whereas VT (like Moneysoft) have never p*ssed me off but have made me a happy bunny.

I have used this for 14 years now. It has a very easy to use Bookkeeping mode which really needs updating.

Very quick data entry with accounts and ixbrl.

lacking in LLP formats otherwise excellent software with very poor backup!

TonyKelly

I'm amazed that you would consider £99 to be good value for 10 Ltd company clients but £150 for VT for unlimited sole trader, partnership and Ltd Companies to be expensive.

I would be amazed at that also, but the thing is that is not what I said in my posting.

I said consider a scenario where someone has 8 or 9 limited company clients.

Options to consider PTP/Iris £99

Sage £99

VT £200.

in this particular scenario, VT might seem expensive, as it is twice the price of the other 2 packages.

The point is (once again, if you didn't get it the first time), the unlimited feature is of no use to this particular practitioner, as they only have less than 10 ltd company clients.

I am not going to explain it again, as I am sure that 99.99% of people understand, but there's always one.

I would assume that nick's point was that if you then exceed 10 ltd company clients (which would be the aim I would guess of most practitioners, unless they were targetting sole traders etc) the costs go up unless you're with VT. With VT you can go from 8 clients to 800 clients and not have to worry about costs shooting through the roof and having to change software.

But then I'm sure 99.999% of people understood that :)

To Mr. or Mrs. Gordon (can't make any assumptions) :

I'll work on the basis that when someone posts something, they mean something entirely different.

Are you nick also?, because you seem to think he means one thing when he has posted something else.

As previously pointed out, I am not concerned with cost, I look at value.

As Oscar Wilde said: The cynic knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.

You forgot to include Ms, Miss, Dr and so forth.

And no I'm not nick, I only have one persona on this site. You may call me Mr Gordon (given that Flash Gordon the quarterback (NY Jets) and saviour of the universe was 'just a man...'!) or Flash, I don't mind.

I look at value as well as cost, that way I cover all bases. I happen to think that VT is excellent value given that it satisfies all my accounts preparation needs and for a cost lower than the competition but still with all the features I need. I have more than 8 or 9 Ltd company clients.

Equally you may find that another package provides you with what you perceive as better value as our needs and opinions will be different.

I was merely giving my viewpoint on what I thought nick meant. So I guess there's not just one after all.......

Some interesting comments above, but there seems to have been a bit of a digression from the original article.

Taxcalc have moved into accounts production. This can only be good news as it does offer accountants more choice.

I would hope that one of the developments in the pipeline would be the filing of abbreviated accounts.

Does the TaxCalc accounts programme have a bookkeeping element? If it does, and can import dates, I would consider moving from VT. Or if it was easier to edit journals.

[subject line moderated - inflammatory, defamatory and unnecessary comment]

I remember TaxCalc pushing their "Hub", saying it would be free to all TaxCalc users. Now they are saying it will only be free to their accounts programme users. A bit dishonest if you ask me.

Mr. Chatman has made a very direct allegation against the Acorah (aka Taxcalc) corporation.

Following this allegation they have an obligation to come on this forum and do the following:

a) refute the allegation outright and take legal action against Mr. Chatman for malicious rumour and libel;

or

b) stand by their original offering of providing this hub machine free to all users.

Accountants are very peculiar people when it comes to their software. They like to know where they stand and what developments or changes are in the pipeline.

Hopefully this can be resolved quickly as I would like to take delivery of my Hub mashup. I would imagine this gadget may be quite useful as all sorts of things could be plugged into it.

Completely trustworthy then!

John - if you are going back to tax calc for answers, then I would like to know whether their offering will be facilitating ixbrl filing with Companies House, and if so when, as this is probably the most useful feature I miss having with VT. (Yes I know its coming...but so's Christmas! and more importantly the 31 December deadline for the many March year ends). I appreciate the appalling state of Companies House (CH) formats and difficultly writing something to comply with this, presumably CH reason for deferring compulsory filing, but other software houses have managed it! and waiting for VT to be forced into making this facility available has become increasingly frustrating! (but calm)

I will not be buying their accounts production, and I am not sure I will be buying their tax software again.

Other software providers that are attractive to sole practitioners have already given their customers a CRM and the ability to file online to Companies House.

I have already made my views of TaxCalcs accounts production very clear in the TaxCalc discussion group, however, in response to comments regarding the price, it may be comparable if you require 2 users, but why????? There doesn't seem to be a cheaper version eg. for a limited number of accounts maybe, or a single user.

TaxCalc has built it's success by catering for the sole practitioner, and even non-accountants. It gives the impression that TaxCalc are changing direction away from the sole practitioner, and I find this very unwelcome, and quite amazing!