I am semi retired and have a small number c. 30 of straightforward compliance only clients.
I’ve happily used Taxfiler for the last few years. I’ve just had an email from them upping their prices from £12 per month for up to 50 clients to £24 per month for up to 20 clients.
With the nature of the client base and revenue stream this is a significant increase, it doubles the cost and halves the clients! Plus there is the principle involved.
Does anyone have positive experience with other products, I would welcome any recommendations.
thank you
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I got the email today too - fees doubled!
At least it includes MTD
What with that and the tripling of ML fees, my sixteen kids will soon be on bread and water......
A year ago when IRIS bought Taxfiler it was likely there would soon be a massive price hike, and here it is. I have found in the past that Andica is a good and cheap alternative.
Yes indeed, the monthly subscription has basically doubled it seems, for me .. from £15 + VAT to £30 + VAT
This is an annual cost of £360 + VAT
How is this cost any different from other software?!
And what happened to them being the'disruptors' in the software market.
I am so disappointed.
Well... I cant say I'm surprised - we all groaned when we heard that Iris had taken over.
It says in the email that it includes bookeeping integrations - not my bookkeeping package it doesnt.
Also... may I be the bearer of more bad news... anyone who uses Clearbooks also needs to prepare themselves for an increase in prices (according to someone on the stand I was talking to at Accountex).
We await more increases.
Trouble is... we have to take the hit.
Not had my email yet but I'm sure it's on the way.
I believe annual upfront is a little cheaper, and it's supposed to include a practice manager module.
I'm presuming there must be a tipping point for the price points based on user profile. I know mine was on the border of just biting the bullet and going unlimited.
I will be cancelling. I use it for my two home businesses, and our own two SA returns.
I no longer have any clients - as I only had a few alongside the 'day' job.
It is just the hassle, now, of exporting all the data - printing stuff to PDF etc.
I guess so long as no more than half the clients leave they are ahead.
James still answers the queries personally so the support is great and I won’t be moving yet.
As you are semi-retired I have some sympathy.
There are some folk worried about paying £360 per annum - actually it's £300 if you pay annually - yet think nothing of annually paying £800 for their morning Starbucks.
Indeed - multiple threads on the front page (come on sift - merge perhaps?) about an increase which seems to work out at about £3 per client.
If you start with a nominal fee then a couple of quid increase, as a percentage, is going to look disproportionately high.
I don't want to belittle an issue that other members genuinely find important, and appreciate that there's an element of principle in these posts, but if £120 a year is enough to justify the hassle of changing providers and learning a new system then people have too much time on their hands.
Thank you, I did try Andica, but they were unable to accomodate an accounting period >365 days, so couldn't do first year accounts/tax return, which as a start up I had a few.
But maybe they've fixed that glitch by now.
Thank you, I did try Andica, but they were unable to accomodate an accounting period >365 days, so couldn't do first year accounts/tax return, which as a start up I had a few.
But maybe they've fixed that glitch by now.
I only ever used Andica once, same scenario. It can be done, but you have to do manual calculations across 2 different CT600's.
We all knew this was coming when Iris took over but:
you cannot be critical of the developers of Taxfiler. They had the entrepreneurial spirit that we try to engender in our clients and I defy any of you to say no to the sums that they received, presumably taxed at 10%
I was previously with PTP who were also taken over by Iris. For a comparable package to what is currently available through Taxfiler, I would be paying £ 2,000 pa and I have never had the technical problems that I had with PTP.
In this context an increase to £ 30 per month is very reasonable.
If cost is such a factor, I would suggest
- you can save £15 per month by using the HMRC website
- you go out there and develop your own cost effective alternative, which someone will doubtless do.
- you increase your fees. £ 180 a year over a client base however small,is not really very much and if you think that your clients will not pay either you should not be acting for them or you are severely lacking in confidence in your abilities and the service that you are providing.
I just asked them the question if I could review the practice management element before subscribing for 12 months (as the cheaper option). This is the reply I received:
"I can give you a demo of the new standalone software that we have purchased from Farnell Clarke who developed it and are using in their practice. The features are going to be incorporated into Taxfiler over the coming year. Some of the feature are going to be included free of charge while others may not be relevant to all users chargeable."
So it doesn't look as though the enhancements will be available from 1 July (but "over the coming year") and not all of it will be free as I believed from earlier corres
Also now looking for an alternative or back to VT!
I just asked them the question if I could review the practice management element before subscribing for 12 months (as the cheaper option). This is the reply I received:
"I can give you a demo of the new standalone software that we have purchased from Farnell Clarke who developed it and are using in their practice. The features are going to be incorporated into Taxfiler over the coming year. Some of the feature are going to be included free of charge while others may not be relevant to all users chargeable."
So it doesn't look as though the enhancements will be available from 1 July (but "over the coming year") and not all of it will be free as I believed from earlier corres
I may be wrong but I think the chargeable part will relate to document and email management. This from their website: "Pro users benefit from integrated practice management and can access document management and email management if required"
Also now looking for an alternative or back to VT!
The only one that works out cheaper for me is Andica, which would save me roughly £100 a year. I've only used their product once and I didn't like it.
If you go back to VT you still need software to file.