I am considering starting a bookkeeping and payroll practice. I imagine my clients on the bookkeeping side will be sole traders with fairly simple accounts and with little interest in doing any paperwork.
I have no idea where to start with software and would welcome any suggestions.
For payroll I am looking at Bright Pay which I used as a trial and liked. But don't know if it would be better to opt for bookkeeping software with its own payroll option.
Price is crucial especially as I don't know if I'll actually get any clients.
I feel stumped before I've even got started so any advice much appreciated.
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Brightpay all the way. Its intuitive handling of Auto Enrolment is (IMHO) second to none. It is constantly being developed and updated. Has CIS built in. Links seamlessly with numerous bookkeeping packages. Has cloud facility for employees if desired.
I've never regretted moving to it several years ago.
If you haven't got any clients at the minute, if I were you I'd probably use a subscription service for payroll that doesn't do banding and you only pay for what you use. E.g Sage Cloud charges per client and the software itself is very good. They also give discounts to accountants so you get it cheaper than the advertised prices.
It gets expensive once you get more clients even though you get the discounts, so once you've built up 10 or so clients then that's when I'd move software.
If it's down to price then you can't beat MoneySoft. It looks old fashioned but it's very good. If you prefer something more modern then BrightPay is also very good.
Bookkeeping wise is down to personal preference. Do a few of the free trials and see which ones are the most user friendly for you.
I'd recommend cloud based so you can do it anywhere. I'd use Xero, it's the most expensive of the most popular bookkeeping software but you get what you pay for really. As bookkeeping is done all the time then using software that is suited to you is a no brainer otherwise you'd be frustrated every day.
If you are happy with non-cloud solutions then VT for your bookkeeping and annual accounts and moneysoft for your payroll.
I'm a sole practitioner and work alone have spent a long time looking for cost effective software. I use Calcpay for payroll, £156 per year for up to 1,000 companies, excellent support. I use Xero for accounts prep as it's buildable as your clients increase and your practice version is free, definitley worth joining the accountants programme for discounts. I use Taxfiler for accounts and tax returns, around £30 per month for unlimited returns for 1 user and Senta for practice management at £27.00 per month, invaluable for managing deadlines.
