Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.
AIA

Software Tools clinic : Fulcrum Accounts 2002

by
25th Dec 2005
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

Richard Murphy from Fulcrum joined AccountingWEB for a lunchtime workshop to discuss the new version of Fulcrum Accounts, which was launched on AccountingWEB in early March 2002. AccountingWEB members can order Fulcrum Accounts 2002 for just £60 + VAT.

{Jeremy Arnold} Hello Richard - good to see you here and hello Paul.
{Paul Roscoe} Hello Jeremy. Just realised I'm early.
{Richard Murphy} Hallo too - it's always good at the start of the event to find someone else has come along!
{Jeremy Arnold} Paul that's OK - are you a Fulcrum user?
{Paul Roscoe} Yes. Been using for a few months now. I find it excellent.
{Richard Murphy} That's an even better start! I might enjoy this!
{John Stokdyk} I second your emotion, Richard. Looks like we might have a good session.
{Jeremy Arnold} Thanks for that - what features in particular do you like?
{Paul Roscoe} Apart from the following complaints... only joking!
{Richard Murphy} I'd be quite happy to know of problems - the product can't be perfect.
{John Stokdyk} Paul - Richard is going to talk about the new edition of Fulcrum Accounts, but one of the points of this session is for him to collect feedback from users. If you've got any observations about the system, I'm sure Richard would like to hear them!
{Jeremy Arnold} Yes I agree - important for product development!

What's new in Fulcrum Accounts 2002
{Richard Murphy} The new edition of Fulcrum accounts might only be the second on sale, but is actually the sixth in use - there's been one for every year of Self Assessment
{John Stokdyk} Richard, can you tell us what you've had to update in Fulcrum Accounts, and what new features you've added.
{Richard Murphy} John, the main reason for updating Fulcrum Accounts has been tax. It includes a tax calculator and this obviously needs updating every year. In addition, because this is the second year on sale, I've added notes on how to bring forward data from one year to the next to make sure the system works to best effect
{Richard Murphy} And in one or two less obvious areas I've tidied things, up based on use - which is a virtually continual process on my own version. But, in many ways it is the same as last year. Which is vital. Consistency is a virtue in accounts - because things work the same way, are laid out the same way, and the comparatives hit the right box without too much thinking!
{John Stokdyk} Were there any major bits of tidying up?
{Richard Murphy} Hopefully most of the tidying won't be noticed - externally - it's like changing the code on software. I hope it works better and is more robust, but little has changed in the appearance of the worksheets. As I noted above, the tax return continues as is, as that is important too.
{Richard Murphy} Fulcrum has changed over the years - the firms I've been involved with over the last three years (three of them) have probably produced 5,000+ sets of accounts on it. In that time, ideas have come and gone. For example, I liked including some graphs in it, but not everyone did, so the current version doesn't have them. {Richard Murphy} I also automated some business commentary at one time, for example your sales are up, but your GP ratio is down - but again it wasn't to everyone's taste, so it's not there at present
{Jeremy Arnold} Hi Simon, are you a Fulcrum Accounts user?
{Simon Paskin} Hi! No I am not a user. I did make an enquiry about the product several months ago but never received a reply so I didn't pursue it.
{Richard Murphy} Simon - what did you want to know?
{Simon Paskin} As I recall, one of the things I wanted to see was a screenshot of typical pages. Also I asked what would happen if one was not enamoured with the product after buying it?
{Jeremy Arnold} Simon we do have a returns policy, the details of which I shall e-mail to you after the workshop
{Simon Paskin} OK. How many accounting firms are using this product?
{Richard Murphy} Simon - I know of five firms personally - but sales suggest there must be quite a lot more out there now.
{John Stokdyk} Jeremy, can you give us a rough estimate of the user base from sales through AccountingWEB?
{Jeremy Arnold} Yes John,we are very close to the 100 - around 95 so far.

Links to Excel graphing tools
{Christopher Bales} Richard - would there be any difficulty in exporting data into Microsoft Graphing?
{Richard Murphy} Christopher - I can see no problem at all, though I'd probably do the graphs in Excel itself and save them as part of a template and use them again and again - but that's just personal preference
{Paul Roscoe} Richard - Those ideas about graphs and "your sales are up..." sound good. Could they be included easily?
{Richard Murphy} Paul - I suspect they could happen. I remember now why we dropped them - one of my firms was big on artist clients and we implied more sales were better. One client was very offended - how dare we say sales were a criterion for success!
{John Stokdyk} Incidentally, there is an Excel Graphing tool available from 2020/BBS in the AccountingWEB Resource Centre. It has a set of ready-made charts for presenting business performance figures. It would be interesting to see if you could configure something like Fulcrum Accounts to work with that, Richard.
{Richard Murphy} John - I'm excited about some of the other products on AccountingWEB - they're smart and useful (and I can use them! Despite writing Fulcrum Accounts, I'm no IT wiz). So yes, links between applications are something I'm keen on - as long as they deliver value to the accountant and they can sell that to their client for a profit.
{Paul Roscoe} Any plans to extend the package to do complete limited company accounts? Perhaps extended for abbreviated accounts?
{Richard Murphy} Dealing with company accounts first, I have to be honest and say this isn't something I plan. The reason is simple. It's too damned complex for the pitch Fulcrum Accounts has at present. I do use it for preparing draft accounts (and there is a company balance sheet in the package for this purpose). and have used it for audit lead schedules and the like on occassion. But for final accounts I like VT Accounts and think it works well. You can also link it quite easily to Fulcrum. What VT doesn't help with by the way is actually getting to the TB. That's why I still use Fulcrum for company accounts.

Does it link to tax programs?
{John Stokdyk} Richard, Charles Stringer asked on AccountingWEB if Fulcrum Accounts integrated with commercial tax packages. Can you repeat your answer for people in the workshop and explain your strategy for dealing with tax and allowance computations in Fulcrum Accounts?
{Richard Murphy} It doesn't link directly to any tax return program - but what it does do is produce accounts in the layout of the self employed tax return, so that transcription of data is a doddle.
{Christopher Bales} You ought to be able to draw down the info directly into Digita for personal tax.
{Richard Murphy} In my view the best link for tax is having the client undertsand where the figures on their tax return come from. We may not like the tax return layout, but it's a fact of life. So I have account headings for it with meaningful account titles underneath, for example motor expenses are broken down and so on. Chris - can you explain the Digita comment?
{Christopher Bales} I'm not a Digita user, but the Digita tax software can draw info from Excel spreadsheets.
{Richard Murphy} In that case the link will be easy - and for those who are interested, I think Peter Hool's new ExFiles Datalink product on AccountingWEB will make this much easier - I'm looking forward to trying that myself

Back to basics - Fulcrum Accounts explained
{Simon Paskin} Are there any screen shots available?
{Jeremy Arnold} These can be made available - but tend to be simple forms and headings which are not very visually appealing. I shall produce some for you
{Simon Paskin} ta! again
{Christopher Bales} Jeremy - I'd like to see them also please.
{John Stokdyk} Simon, we haven't posted any screen shots on AccountingWEB as yet. But Fulcrum is just a set of pre-formatted worksheets. You can find out more in a detailed review by Gary Mackley-Smith.
{John Stokdyk} Richard, Simon's request made me realise that some participants may not be familiar with Fulcrum Accounts yet. Could you give us a brief recap of what it is and how you intend practitioners should use it.
{Richard Murphy} Sure. Basically Fulcrum accounts is driven by what looks like a 16-column analysis sheet. This is its nominal ledger as such - just as it used to be in the days of paper. So, it does require the user to know what double entry is - but I have always found this a useful skill!
{Richard Murphy} From the trial balance (TB) it drives a full set of accounts - P&L with comparatives in tax format, balance sheet, notes including a full fixed asset note, plus a capital account for the self employed and partnerships of two people as well as sole traders. There's also a company option. There are schedules of estimates, because I always dislcose these to the Revenue and the client as I think it reduces risk under self assessment
{Richard Murphy} And there are explanatory notes - saying to the client the basis on which the accounts have been prepared and what the headings mean - most seem to think this a value added. Finally, it includes a D1 computation and capital allowance comp, plus an indicative tax calculator assuming D1 is the only source of income.
{Richard Murphy} All pages can be auto hidden by macros, printing is macro driven , tailoring it to suit your firm is menu driven etc
{John Stokdyk} Why the 16-column format, Richard?
{Simon Paskin} Presumably if more than 16 columns are required, then the Sundries column will fill up fast. Or is there an alternative?
{Richard Murphy} John - I use the 16-column approach because I liked staff to prove things like control accounts from incomplete records - and like it or not these are still part of life. I found once I'd taught them this approach, the quality of work went up no end. It also allows single entry for very simple income and expenditure accounts. PS - do you know many Inspectors don't expect a balance sheet with less than £500,000 turnover?

Using Fulcrum Accounts in practice
{John Stokdyk} Can you tell us how you apply the package within your own practice?
{Richard Murphy} I wrote Fulcrum for two reasons. One, I was fed up with the diversity of output my firm produced in accounts - nothing quite looked the same. And two, I wanted discipline in producing small accounts which meant a file would be easy to follow, but without the hassle of setting up files that many systems seemed to require. It's no use spending two hours setting up a file for a £400 job. In my experience, Fulcrum can be set up for a client in under 10 minutes - even including entering comparatives and opening balances. If the client has a TB - say Sage - just enter it and do spot TB journals using Fulcrum.
{Richard Murphy} I don't do accounts off Fulcrum Accounts now - unless I use the management accounts version, which may be released as a new product later this year
{Simon Paskin} For small businesses I have been using a spreadsheet to produce accounts from TB or working papers. Will Fulcrum be better than this?
{Richard Murphy} Simon - my answer is "almost certainly". Gary Mackley-Smith said it was better than his version of such a spreadsheet - and others have said much the same thing. The advantage is its comprehensiveness, ease of use and speed of features such as macro-driven printing.
{Simon Paskin} Richard, so would I be performing the TB on Fulcrum or continue using my pad?
{Richard Murphy} Simon - you could use your own pad. My question would be, "Why?" Fulcrum is complete (and has extra lines for all those accounts where there are likely to be lots of journals). My other feeling is that it's cheap enough to risk. It transformed profit in my firm in 1997 when we introduced it - it was like a revolution. If I could have done that for £50 rather than write it I'd have loved it!
{Simon Paskin} And what about book-keeping? Can Fulcrum replace normal book-keeping?
{Richard Murphy} Simon - no I don't think it replaces normal book-keeping. If you've read the Basic Books for Business packs that I've also written as client giveaways, you could link data from the spreadsheets they produce straight into Fulcrum. That has sometimes worked very well for me, although it depends on how tidy the client was.
{Jeremy Arnold} The Basic Books for Business client guides are also available directly from AccountingWEB as a set (for VAT-registered businesses and non-VAT firms) costing £85. They are very popular.
{Christopher Bales} Richard - what about the basic analysis of the raw data then before it gets to the extended TB stage. Please explain how it works.
{Richard Murphy} Chris - when I was senior partner with a firm with 700 clients, the analysis depended on the client and what they gave as -as I guess it does with you. Sometimes we wrote up the books (but that was rare). Usually we used the summary pages that are also in the pack, based on what they'd written up in Basic Books. Or we just posted in a Sage or MYOB TB (the latter has good excel exporting by the way - and is good value). Basic Books and Fulcrum Accounts were part of a whole package for us. When clients behaved the way we wanted, it was really profitable. If they didn't, by and large we got rid of them.
{Christopher Bales} Richard - thanks for that. Have you checked out the one button automated export into Excel from QuickBooks Pro? It works for any figure type report.
{Richard Murphy} Chris, I agree re Quick Books, but I'm not a fan of the product - I always lost money when clients used it and I now won't go near it. It was too easy to post figures to the previous year and screw up the opening balances, in my opinion.
{Christopher Bales} Richard - use the simple locking in QuickBooks routine to prevent that.
{Richard Murphy} Agreed - but will the client do it at the right time? That's been the problem in my experience.
{Simon Paskin} I don't think I saw a reply to an earlier question which was: Presumably if more than 16 columns are required, then the Sundries column will fill up fast. Or is there an alternative?
{Richard Murphy} Simon - sundries has five lines deep and sixteen columns - but we didn't post individual entries to the ETB. There are summary pages for accounts summarising in the pack and then we posted totals from there - although this is not automated in Fulcrum Accounts as you won't want to use it every time - they're there as optional extras.

Pricing and upgrade details
{Simon Paskin} Is it necessary to buy the programme every year or is there an upgrade/update price assuming that there are annual upgrades?
{Richard Murphy} Simon - the current price is a discount to represent an upgrade price. My hope is you'd recover the cost very quickly - I do on probably every job I do.
{Simon Paskin} But what about next year et seq?
{John Stokdyk} Simon - Richard's latest edition is our first "upgrade" product on AccountingWEB. We've been talking through ideas with Richard about how to develop an on-going practice development service that may extend beyond just the spreadsheet package. Is that something that would interest you, perhaps for an annual subscription?
{Jeremy Arnold} The Basic Books/Fulcrum package is something we are also planning to add for AccountingWEB users
{Simon Paskin} Jeremy, I might be interested in a Basic Books/Fulcrum Accounts package. Do you have any details at present ?
{Jeremy Arnold} Simon I shall add details to my e-mail to you - the package will represent a discount.
{Simon Paskin} Thank you Jeremy. Is the "latest edition" standalone? Or does it require another program?
{Richard Murphy} Simon - the latest edition is standalone - it's the 2001/02 package for tax.
{John Stokdyk} Thanks for the reminder on pricing Simon. We've informed existing FA users by email & through publicity on the site - such as this workshop. The price will go up to £60 on 19 March.
{Simon Paskin} Richard - thanks. I would like to thank everyone for their responses to my queries. I realise that the cost is not much, but I have spent much time before on other packages that have eventually been sent back as totally useless. And that includes "illustrious" names such as TAS Books and Sage.
{John Stokdyk} In case we haven't made it absolutely clear, Simon, Fulcrum Accounts isn't so much a software package like Sage or TAS, it's a set of ready-made Excel worksheets that you populate with individual clients' data. There are some minor calculation routines, but what Richard has done is all the grunt work so that you end up with a standardised set of accounts for each client. Hope I've got that right, Richard!
{Richard Murphy} John - spot on

How will Fulcrum Accounts develop?
{John Stokdyk} Before we let Richard escape, I was hoping he could give us a picture of how Fulcrum Accounts fits into his overall strategy - and how the spreadsheet package is likely to develop.
{Richard Murphy} John - the strategy is to help people make money from clients whilst letting the client think they've got value for money. The Basic Books guide lets them feel they got more than a brochure - as they do. Fulcrum Accounts is about giving consistent service on accounts. The next step is management accounts, because Fulcrum is really a financial accounting product. But clients often want something more. That allows for Fulcrum budgeting - which is another spreadsheet package.
{Richard Murphy} And then there's the whole area where I find it easy to make very good money - business planning - which might take us back to the narrative.
{John Stokdyk} That's quite a battery of suggestions you've put forward, Richard. You're going to be a busy man in the months ahead! It also looks like you are going to keep us on our toes at AccountingWEB to keep members posted on all the developments.
{Christopher Bales} Richard - when would you reckon to have the 2002/2003 package available?
{Richard Murphy} Why do you want it now, Chris? The tax return is a year away and we can't be sure what the Revenue will do with tax return layout in the meantime
{Christopher Bales} Richard - not now but the first relevant year ends will be 30 April 2002 and clients will not want to wait too long for their accounts.
{Richard Murphy} Chris I could do one - but I'd be reluctant, just in case of those changes. I think we'd carry too much product risk. Do remember, you can always re-work the tax if you want yourself - and it will only be indicative at best at this stage anyway for any client -which is all Fulcrum does anyway. What I'm really saying is the current Fulcrum will do the job pretty well for now given that the client will change their mind on pensions and all sorts of other things before 5 Arpil 2003 anyway.
{Christopher Bales} Richard - point taken.
{Simon Paskin} I use Digita TaxPro. Presumably data can be entered automatically? Now that would save some considerable time.
{Richard Murphy} Simon - I think we covered this above - look also at Peter Hool's new Datalink product - this might do the job for you by linking the two easily.
{Christopher Bales} Simon - Digita will advise you on how to draw down data from Excel. Would be worth a phone call to discuss it with them.
{Simon Paskin} Thanks, Chris.
{Richard Murphy} Simon - does it take that long to enter data anyway on Digita? I haven't used it so don't know.
{Simon Paskin} If you referring to accounts information, then it takes anything from 10 minutes to half an hour, depending on the size of the client's accounts and whether a balance sheet was produced. Being mercenary, saving quarter of an hour is extra money in the bank.
{Richard Murphy} Simon - agreed!
{Simon Paskin} Richard - I was told many years ago that my firm's best client is myself. That came from a practice development guy.
{Richard Murphy} Simon - I manually enter Forbes and or PTP - I have my reasons... I find that I don't take that long from Fulcrum because the spreadsheet lays out all the data in exactly the right order. I think I should mention I never launch a product until I've bashed it in use! They're all tried and tested first.
{Simon Paskin} Richard - well I think I will definitely try this out.
{Richard Murphy} Simon - thanks!

Final thoughts on AccountingWEB Software Tools
{John Stokdyk} Chris, do you have any views on the best way we could present these tools to AccountingWEB members? Would a package of spreadsheets with some kind of regular mailing or advice line attract you? Or do you prefer coming to workshops like this every so often to discuss software tools and practice development strategies?
{Christopher Bales} John - What about regular mailings to members on what's available on Software Tools - too all members, that is.
{John Stokdyk} On the issue of mailings, Chris, that is what we are trying to do with our Insider newswire. Go to your profile page, enter your user ID and password and then select "My Services" from the top menu. The Insider is one of the options available on the menu. We send it each Tuesday to tell people about new product launches, special offers and things like this workshop...
{Christopher Bales} John, getting into the Software Tools list is not obvious. I know that clicking on the icon does it but a text hyperlink would be more obvious.
{John Stokdyk} Hopefully you might also have noticed our "Resources" section in today's wire, Chris. We try to tell members as often as possible about all the useful software tools we have, and are working on an upgrade to the Resources page to make them easier to find.
{John Stokdyk} The lunch hour is very nearly up. Thanks for your time and comments Richard, and for everybody else who came along and helped make this such a stimulating session. We're having a Software Tools month during March on AccountingWEB. Next Wednesday at 1pm, Peter Hool is coming along to tell us about ExFiles Datalink. As Richard has indicated, this is a very slick tool that can make data management much easier in your firm. There's a brilliant interactive guide to ExFiles Datalink. Take a spin around it and come back next week!
{Simon Paskin} Is Peter Hool anything to do with Timax/Finax -Orchard/Solution 6?
{John Stokdyk} Simon - one and the same... I have discovered while meeting people like Simon Hurst of The Knowledge Base (ProductivITyKit author) and Peter Hool that most of our Software Tools partners come from Horsham and used to work for Orchard!
{Richard Murphy} John - have I ever mentioned I was also CFO/CEO of acompny in Horsham for seven years? Not an IT one though - it did environmental auditing.
{John Stokdyk} Did you find anything in the West Sussex water?
{Simon Paskin} I bought my first decent accounts package from Orchard. No disrespect intended to anyone, but quite frankly I have never found one better, as it also ran my practice. Sadly my Orchard package does not run in Windows 95 onwards...
{John Stokdyk} Simon - you really should check out ExFiles Datalink and come back next week. Peter Hool said his ambition at Orchard was to put practice management tools into 2,000 firms. He's got similar ambitions now for ExFiles Datalink.
{Simon Paskin} John - thanks for that.
{Christopher Bales} Richard - I've got to go as a meeting is coming up. Thanks for a very useful session.
{Jeremy Arnold} Thanks Chris for your contributions and suggestions.
{Richard Murphy} And John, thanks to you and all who've come.

* If you were unable to attend the workshop and would like to know more about Fulcrum Accounts 2002, ask for help on the Any Answers page and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Tags:

Replies (0)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

There are currently no replies, be the first to post a reply.