Alternatives to IRIS for small practice

Iris Alternative

Lets be honest up front and say that frankly there is nothing wrong with the Iris software and all its parts function as expected all that is wrong with IRIS is the cost.

If your practice is such that only by total integration of Accounts, Tax and Correspondence can you function then Iris is the one for you and you better get used to paying a premium.

If on reflection and consideration you break down the sum to its componet parts and view each in isolation then obviously numerous significantly cheaper options become available.

For Accounts production checkout the ICPA/Diamond Discovery joint production "Comnprehensive Accounts" at www.comprehensivesoftware.co.uk where unlimited acounts could cost as little as £150.

For Personal and Business Tax there is a wealth of good software available from Taxcalc to Ptp to Forbes etc they all produce what is required for significantly less than Iris.

All are capable of accomodating multi users.

Integration is the key and it depends how much value you place on this one aspect. Undoubtedly the larger the practice the more important this aspect becomes but at a cut off of 150 clients I wonder. My own experiences are such that the mere act of integration can cause the staff and Principals to "Stop thinking" and trust the software with dire consequences.

For myself I don't view Integration as being the "holy grail" of practice development so I run various software which cost significantly less then Iris and I'll still say that the time "lost" in non integration is a) rather negligible and b) actually of more value to the practice as we spend more time thinking about both the client and what we are actually preparing.

I hope this posting helps but at least you can say you got a response.

Tony Margaritelli Chair ICPA

try absolute

www.absolutetax.co.uk

Two alternatives as I see it...

If cost is the real big issue and you want the cheapest thing then why not use VT plus say Tax Calc as a lot of other practices which comes in at under £1000 (unlimited clients) if memory serves me right.

If however you enjoy the integration of Iris and its ease of use then personally I only have one other alternative, Digita.

I have experience of Iris (as well as PTP and Keytime) it's a good product but too pricey for me.  Digita is about 80% of the cost of Iris in year one but further years are much lower due to the way of their pricing model.  (effectively double in year 1 compared to future years)  This does however mean if you look at things over more than one year then Digita really is a winner.

It's easy to navigate around as it has a windows look and feel and it is run on a central database providing integration between products.  One of the biggest things I found is no pressure selling and a sense of importance even though I'm only a small client to them.

small practice

I am a sole practitioner using VT for accounts and TaxCalc for tax returns. Reason prices, easy to use but does get you thinking more rather than just pushing info between software. Keeps you on your toes but without massive extra time involved.

I agree with Sparkey999

We used integrated software for many years but finally swapped to VT & Taxcalc for the cost savings. We have found the time saved by using 'best of breed' software more than compensates for the loss of integration (I was amazed by these time savings as they were so unexpected, having believed the hype about integrated being quicker). I have more free time now than I ever did when using fully integrated because the individual pieces of software were not the best or easiest software to use. I also found integrated software to be more 'buggy' and it often caused more problems than it solved. It is very quick and easy to set up new clients in both VT & Taxcalc and I have yet to find a problem with either.

I do not have experience with Iris, but can that cost be justified? It would have to be very, very efficient to justify that sort of spend!

For what it's worth

Hi - you may have lacked a response to your original post because over the last few months (especially when the support & reliability complaints hit a high) there seemed to be 2-3 similar questions a week and I guess people may have worn themselves out or actually been unable to find an alternative to match Iris's functionality at a substantially different cost.

I too am an Iris 3 user (I have 6 arms) and also use Company Secretarial and Practice Management. Co Sec is a little gem and, whilst it is "cheap" compared to the other functions, PM is my most valued bit.  Having started with separate packages I greatly value integration and PM shifts it up several gears.

I met a sole practitioner last week who has worked with various software combinations over the years but who jumped in with both feet 6 months ago and took on "full blown" iris, including open docs, with the lot being fully hosted on the web.  His view was that whilst there have been problems they are as nothing compared to trying to run disorganised systems (especially Sage) and he says it's the best business decision he's ever made.

You are right it is expensive and the inflationary rises over the past couple of years are a bitter pill but, at £5K - £6K pa, it saves me far more than that in additional salary, admin and inefficiency and, with the exception of Digita, who get good write ups but who seem to charge similar sums, I've yet to see an answer to any of the recent questions to indicate an equivalent worth considering.

I'll be interested to see any other comments this time but, unless someone comes up with a viable alternative, without a huge loss in functionality, it might be a case of making better use of Iris?

TaxCalc Hub

I use VT and TaxCalc. I am very happy with both of these. I going through the evaluation copy of TaxCalc hub. So far at this early stage I am impressed with it. Hub is a practice management tool.  It will be given free to TaxCalc professional users.

My vote is for Keytime and Moneysoft Payroll

I changed from IRIS to Keytime in February this year and am saving a fortune.

I am not a large practice (yet!) but my costs reduced from about £2,700 (with IRIS) to about £1,100 (with Keytime).

Had I stayed with IRIS I would have had to go onto the next package up which would obviously have increased the costs further.

I am very happy with the software and the customer service department and would recommend you ask for a demonstration and demo version to see for yourself how it works.

Just to let you know I had a problem with the software yesterday afternoon and so I contacted Keytime. They remotely fixed the problem in less than half an hour ... you can't beat that.

Dave

VT and Tax calc

Agree with most comments.  Integration is not always work it, as it means that when completing tax Calc, you view it on its own merits etc.  Our software costs are about £1000 for the two packages, and both look after you after purchase!

Would like to know how the evaluation is going on the TaxCalc Hub, as we are looking for an alternative to Sage ACT for our clientbase and are looking forward to seing the Hub.

Good luck but it seems alot of money!

As an alternative

to Tax Calc you should look at BTCsoftware at www.btcsoftware.co.uk and BTC PM which is a self-assessment package, unlimited users and has a practice manger in it.  This is a great product.

But to beat VT is a hard act to follow... 

IT for small practice

Absolute is excellent, cheap and uses an integrated database.

Look no further!!