Software to handle investments in listed shares?

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I have a consultancy company which invests spare cash in listed shares.  I use FreeAgent but it wants to treat investments as fixed assets subject to depreciation. Is there a good alternative to FreeAgent.  I have asked my accountant but he has humbly pleaded ignorance.  He despairs of me, because, although I am a lawyer, I like doing my own accounting and tax returns.

 

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By johngroganjga
30th Apr 2018 11:13

Are you asking about bookkeeping software or accounts preparation software?

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By MatthewDuggan
30th Apr 2018 11:31

Both, in effect. I use FreeAgent for book-keeping and use its B/S and P&L as the basis for preparing my Companies House/HMRC accounts, for which I use TaxCalc's accounts preparation software.

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By johngroganjga
30th Apr 2018 11:37

Surely TaxCalc deals with investments in shares. Are you saying that it forces you to include them in tangible assets?

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By mg200
30th Apr 2018 11:55

It sounds as though FreeAgent is merely treating it as a Fixed Asset and applying depreciation.

I'm sure this is just a simple of case of changing a setting in FreeAgent and not depreciating this 'asset'.

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By MatthewDuggan
30th Apr 2018 13:10

FreeAgent won't let me apply zero depreciation to capital assets.

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Replying to johngroganjga:
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By MatthewDuggan
30th Apr 2018 13:03

TaxCalc is fine, so far as it goes. It's FreeAgent which isn't up to the job.

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By johngroganjga
30th Apr 2018 13:13

But why does it matter if everything ends up in the right place in your accounts? Is it because the book keeping system automatically calculates depreciation which you have to reverse?

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By MatthewDuggan
30th Apr 2018 13:53

It's not that I can't find workarounds. It just strikes me as odd that the book-keeping software isn't set up for investments of this sort. I can't believe it's that unusual for a small business to invest in listed securities, particularly given the miserable interest rates.

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By johngroganjga
30th Apr 2018 14:00

Are you sure it isn’t? Have you looked at the full list of available balance sheet asset categories?

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By MatthewDuggan
30th Apr 2018 14:37

Quite sure. FreeAgent confirmed, when I asked them.

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By johngroganjga
30th Apr 2018 14:49

Can't comment about FreeAgent as have never used it. But surely there are stock or debtors categories which would be simpler for you to use than tangible assets - surely no automatic depreciation there.

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By mg200
01st May 2018 17:19

This is the type of thing that made me avoid FreeAgent. It tries to be clever by depreciating assets for you and working out the corporation tax. Not giving you an option to override. It made the year end process harder.

I just had a quick look at FreeAgent to see if you missed a simple solution but it's worse than I thought.

You've probably found the same workaround that I would suggest. I imagine Natwest with have a field day trying to develop out these sorts of issues!

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By Matrix
01st May 2018 17:35

Why can't you use 631 Investment additions? This is what I use for my clients.

I usually find a work around in FreeAgent.

If you don't want to book depreciation on a fixed asset then book it as a journal entry as the depreciation is not automated.

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By MatthewDuggan
01st May 2018 17:55

I will give this a try. Thanks.

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