Iris Software for Small Practise?

Iris Software for Small Practise?

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We have a small practise with between 50-100 clients. They are a mix of partnerships, sole traders and about 10 small owner/diurector limited companies.
At the moment we use Quickbooks for book-keeping and accounts, VAT returns etc and TaxCalcs for filing with HMRC.
We are looking to integrate the whole accounts production, VAT return and HMRC filing onto one system and have been looking at IRIS for this purpose.
Would anyone be able to either recommend IRIS or indeed another package which will do something similar.
We also need a payroll package which has the capablility of working with the new pension regime.
Many thanks
Yvonne

Replies (12)

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By Kevin Kavanagh
29th Feb 2016 10:44

Absolute / Moneydoft

Iris is good, but expensive. We switched to Absolute some years ago and have never regretted it - much cheaper and brilliant telephone support.

For payroll, it's got to be Moneysoft - an absolute bargain, and so far seems to be working well with AE.

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By YF
29th Feb 2016 10:47

Thank you for that we will look into it.Yvonne

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By becky@freshapproach
29th Feb 2016 12:10

Integration of software

Hi there

Please could you tell me if the bookkeeping software and the accounts/tax software is integrated?  I find the websites quite difficult to work out exactly what it is that you need! 

Thanks in advance

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By cheekychappy
29th Feb 2016 12:16

Iris is ok as long as you are happy to be paying double the original quote within a couple of years of using them and see the price continue to rise year on year.

A couple of interesting packages I have looked at recently are Tax Calc and Capium.

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By mavis02455
29th Feb 2016 12:22

VT Transaction

Have a look at VT transaction software for bookkeeping - excellent software and very reasonably priced.

Also Moneysoft for payroll.

 

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By Alex_T
29th Feb 2016 12:27

Alternative to Iris

Iris was just too expensive for me, so I went with BrightPay for payroll and now I'm a big fan. 

The software is easy to use, very inexpensive and most importantly the Auto Enrolment functionality is second none. Give the free trial a go, you won't regret it.

Best of luck!

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By marks
29th Feb 2016 22:38

depends what your plans are

If you dont intend to grow much bigger and dont want to take on any staff then look at the following;

VT/taxfiler

Taxcalc

Absolute

If you already use Taxcalc for tax returns then they have an accounts module that integrates with the tax module and they have VAT return module.  We used to use taxcalc for accounts and tax but the practice management wasnt what we needed so we moved to IRIS last year.

Prefer the accounts and tax modules in taxcalc to IRIS as they are easier to use, faster and more intuitive but as an integrated package IRIS does everything that we need much more efficiently.

You pay for it but as in most things in life you get what you pay for.

Our intention is to get to 300-400 clients and have 5-6 members of staff.  Controlling this with something like taxcalc wouldnt be possible.

As alternative to IRIS you might want to look at Digita which is fully integrated but is usually about half the price of IRIS.  Though understand Digita needs more work done to get everything set up as you want.

For payroll look at Moneysoft. or Brightpay.  There is one other market leader but cant remember it off the top of my head.  We use Moneysoft and it is really easy to use.  Which is what we need.

For bookkeeping VT has a bookkeeping module or your might want to look at one of the many cloud offerings that are now in vogue.

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By johnny fartpants
29th Feb 2016 23:04

Iris Starter Packs

Hi Yvonne. I have a small practice too & use Iris. They do starter pack bundles so the price (although high compared to its piers) need not be too high. I think these start at 20 accounts production licences with 20 business tax & 40 personal tax licences.

Like everyone else on AWeb I am frustrated by the annual fee increases in excess of inflation BUT like the software, think it is the best & think my clients deserve the best.

I think you also need to think of which software you would like to use when the business is fully developed. I started with a cheaper alternative (Absolute Accounts), didn't like it an found it quite a hastle changing to another software provider. Luckily the practice was much smaller at the time.

I too use Moneysoft for payrolls. couldn't praise this software highly enough. Have never used Iris payroll but much prefer it to Sage which comes with a much higher price tag. Moneysoft seems to work well for auto enrolment too so far.

 

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By bumpdinkwhallop
29th Feb 2016 23:07

Moneysoft
Been using sage & quickbooks. Got moneysoft after a post about CIS compiance siftware on here and its outstanding.

Starting a trial with BTC software for accounts production, CT & SA returns tomorrow. Currently using sage for those but far too expensive.

Will be following this feed keenly.

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By elliottchandler
29th Feb 2016 23:51

Two Pennies worth
Not an accountant myself but have many clients who are. I think all the software has been mentioned except perhaps BTC which seems to work well. From a technical side both Digita and IRIS require SQL server and so you will need to consider the hardware that this runs on whereas VT and BTC does not require SQL. Having SQL also means managing the database backup and having disk space for this. Moneysoft Payroll manager and a Bright Pay are light weight and simple to maintain. Happy to provide further technical advice before you make your final decision.

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By DMGbus
01st Mar 2016 08:33

IRIS - Support and dislike

The only IRIS-owned products that I have used are the Tax Expense (PTP) P11D program and the Tax Credits Calculator spreadsheet.

Support has been poor compared to when PTP was NOT owned by IRIS.

On another thread I see that some criticism of IRIS is expressed:

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/question/keytime-accounts-cor...

Here's some pertinent comments:

"They have however migrated all contracts to auto renewal, auto charge the last credit card you used, three months notice not to renew, etc - a very aggressive collection process."

" If I had a choice I wouldn't deal with them"

"If I had a choice I would have nothing to do with them"

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By bernard michael
02nd Sep 2016 13:43

We now have an HMRC letter of apology. First I've seen

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