Tax calc or tax filer?

New practise- choosing software

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Hi, I am awaiting my MIP certificate from CIMA and I think I have narrowed down my choice of possible software suppliers to use in my practice to Tax Calc and Tax Filer, the latter I notice is far cheaper. Has anyone any experience of using both of these for comparison on how they differ in terms of what they offer. On first glance they appear fairly similar but Tax filer allows for more clients at a much lower cost. I assume that this option will be less useful on the practise management side but no idea as of yet. I may trial this first and if it fulfils it's purpose this may be the way to go. I am also deciding between Money Soft and Bright Pay for payroll. Any advice on any of the above will be much appreciated. I will be starting on my own and I have no confirmed clients as of yet.

Thank you in advance

Barbara

Replies (19)

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
22nd May 2018 17:33

Filer is much cheaper, especially if you need a few trusts and other things which are all ££££ extras with Tax Calc. but its not quite as sophisticated, and and has fewer helps and reminders, so assumes a greater level of competence on your part.

The direction of travel for Tax Calc is very much away from the smaller practice and are targeting middle sized firms with more and more practice management bumf, which is fine if you want to use it, but a distraction if you don't and just want to file some tax returns.

Tax Calc are also ramping up their prices year on year, well above inflation, so Id expect to be 20-25% more within 3 years the way they are going so it depends what sort of practice you are starting.

If its just you, I would go cheap myself.

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
23rd May 2018 08:58

Given the news this morning, I change my view.

Taxfiler will have its prices pushed through the roof and the quality of its development decimated whilst IRIS strangles it to death for daring to compete with its very slick but hugely expensive suite.

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Replying to ireallyshouldknowthisbut:
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By atleastisoundknowledgable...
23rd May 2018 09:21

Not surprised about the u-turn!

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By andy.partridge
22nd May 2018 17:53

I have never used Taxcalc but I have recently moved from a big company provider (Iris-owned) to Taxfiler. So far I have seen no disadvantages to making the move.

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By carnmores
23rd May 2018 07:53

Hi Andy, just completed my 4th year with Taxfiler, best decision I ever made. Also use it for accounts preparation. Can work from anywhere in world with total ease. Looking forward to API coming on stream any day

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By andy.partridge
23rd May 2018 10:18

Amazing how quickly some posts age!

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By carnmores
23rd May 2018 11:46

Sods law

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By atleastisoundknowledgable...
23rd May 2018 09:22

andy.partridge wrote:

I have recently moved from a big company provider (Iris-owned) to Taxfiler.

D’oh [head, table].

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By andy.partridge
23rd May 2018 10:16

Literally.

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By A4TUser
22nd May 2018 21:32

Thank you both for your comments, as I have no clients as of yet I think I will start on tax filet and see how I get on and as the business grows I will consider if I need something more comprehensive such as tax calc . Thank you

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By marks
22nd May 2018 23:13

If you are just starting out I would stick with taxfiler. It the cheapest and will be functional and you can always grow into something else.

I used to be with IRIS however we are in the process of moving to taxcalc. I know that IRIS have heavy year on year fee increases but we are just ending our 3 year deal having moved from taxcalc to IRIS 3 years ago and their quote was 42% higher than what we currently pay. They also said that year on year the price would be going up by 7-10%

Thats what prompted the move back to taxcalc. I prefer taxcalc accounts and tax return modules over IRIS as you can have multiple clients and multiple years open at once, the accounts and tax return can be run in a click and following the simple step process for tax returns it is easier to complete a tax return in IRIS especially if you are a trainee (we have 3 new trainees starting shortly).

Taxcalc practice management is pretty poor and was the reason that moved to IRIS 3 years ago but it doesnt seem to have changed since then. However 3 years ago there wasnt separate standalone practice management softwares that you could run alongside taxcalc then but now there are a few eg accountancy manager, senta, whatsglide, karbon to name a few. We have decided to go for whatsglide as we think we will get a lot more from the reports plus we can set up auto text and email reminders to chase for records for accounts, tax returns and VAT return info which you cant do in IRIS unless you have fibre CRM which is another £300 - £400 per month.

IRIS is a good piece of kit and is the self proclaimed industry leader boosting 17k accounting practices using their software. But we all know that business likes to massage it figures and guess that the 17k users is spread across IRIS accounts, keytime, IRIS payroll and other software that it now owns. Would be interesting to know how many practices use the basic IRIS key modules such as accounts production, business tax and personal tax. As currently understand there are 8k practices using taxcalc and 5k practices using taxfiler.

We are now getting taxcalc (for accounts and tax), whatsglide (for practice management and timesheets), TheGap (for business development tools), infusionsoft (for CRM automation) and 20 spotlight reporting licences for the same that what IRIS quoted.

So we arent saving any money as such but we are in my opinion getting more value in that we get better practice management information, be able to systematically deliver business development services, be able to automate marketing campaigns and other useful processes in infusionsoft and thus save time and start introducing spotlight dashboards, reports and forecasting to add value services to clients that want them.

The big software providers such as IRIS, digita and SAGE need to remember that 75% of accounting firms are made up of sole practitioners with less than 10 staff. These firms are the backbone of the accounting sector and if other providers such as taxcalc, tax filer, absolute, BTC can do much the same as them at less than half the price then the accountant instinct will inevitable mean a move to save money.

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By carnmores
23rd May 2018 07:46

Thanks Marks I will look at whatsglide and the gap. Time to leave Greece and come back to London for Accountex oh the high life......

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By Paul D Utherone
23rd May 2018 08:33

DOH!!! How do you feel about this morning's email to say Taxfiler has been acquired by IRIS?

EDIT: Just reread the post and I suppose 'not too bad' as you're going to Taxcalc

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By davidbarry
23rd May 2018 08:40

I have just received an email that IRIS has purchased Taxfiler. Is this a scam or true? If true i am devastated. I dont want to hear it. Never knew it was for sale. What do others think? I worry about inevitable cost rises.
If known for sale I am sure a co-ordinated group of accountants could have purchased this company.

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By Paul D Utherone
23rd May 2018 12:50

Take a look a the top 4 or 5 posts in Any Answers today and you'll see it's a litany of people crying "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

IRIS PR people must have incredibly thick skins going by the apparently universal opprobrium

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By atleastisoundknowledgable...
23rd May 2018 09:29

Hi A4T,

Given the news this morning that IRIS have just bought Tax Filer, no-one is going to suggest them as an option.

When I started up, I went for TaxCalc, which we still (5 staff) use & is great, especially for FRS105 companies, and integrating with tax returns. The tax module has a ‘simple step’ format which leads you through the tax return easier than most softwares.

We use Glide for our PM, but you will also get recommendations on here for Senta & AccountancyManager. AM is probably the better more complete ‘out-of-the-box), but I think the most expensive.

We use Moneysoft for payroll, which again is great and really easy to use. Don’t get the extra client portal module for £50pcm(?), just email payslips with a PDF password, which you can set up as default.

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By A4TUser
23rd May 2018 11:55

Thank you

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By A4TUser
23rd May 2018 09:37

Oh no!! Not good news at all about tax filer and Iris, I hope this doesn't Change things, it looked as though it was an ideal solution for sole practitioners.

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By rander
16th Apr 2019 12:49

i know this thread stopped some time ago. If anyone interested i tried to quit Iris after disposing of my accountancy clients (unforeseen circumstances and reaching 70) but they held me to the contract dates even though i had been with them for some 30 years. When i sought some alternative to dealing with a small number of personal tax clients they did not even mention Taxfiler. When i put this to them they simply said they were a different branch and they could not advise moving to that platform. Taxfiler say they do not envisage any substantial uplift in pricing for the foreseeable future.

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