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Software Excellence Awards 2018: The shortlist

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14th Jun 2018
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The 2018 Accounting Excellence software awards indicate that the profession’s transition to cloud applications has started to bed in.

The prestigious small business accounting award is now dominated entirely by cloud programs, with UK contenders FreeAgent and Kashflow up against the international giants, QuickBooks Online and Xero.

With a record 12,930 votes cast across all categories, 2018 was the biggest in the history of the Software Excellence Awards. To see the shortlist scroll down or click here. To view nominated firms and individuals in the Accounting Excellence Awards click here.

To accommodate the more specialised preferences of the practice side of the profession, we have introduced a “practitioner’s choice” accounting award, which finds room for the cloud practice suite Capium alongside the big cloud players and desktop offerings from Sage, QuickBooks and VT Software.

Both Capium and Taxfiler showed up in multiple practice software categories, illustrating that if you put low-cost cloud applications in front of practitioners, they are likely to respond. The online trend continued through to the specialist practice management category, where Practice Ignition and Senta joined Capium and the small firm desktop suites from TaxCalc and BTCSoftware. For more details about each programs and individual product assessments, visit AccountingWEB’s practice management software reviews page.

However, larger businesses are still behind the curve when it comes to cloud adoption. AccountsIQ and Exact Online emerged in the mid-market and enterprise accounting software category, but the shortlist is packed with more traditional client/server offerings from Sage, Pegasus and SAP.

Elsewhere, most of the categories show programs shortlisted in 2017 building on their success to increase their market shares and satisfaction ratings.

Just to show the market isn’t closed to new entrants, Fluidly jumped out of nowhere to make the shortlist for forecasting, planning and analysis  (FP&A) software and is now featured alongside the other contenders on AccountingWEB's FP&A software reviews page.

With its innovative use of artificial intelligence to construct and maintain rolling forecasts, Fluidly also made the 2018 shortlist for innovation alongside AccountancyManager, CCH OneClick, Countingup, Sage Personal Tax Account Viewer and Tax Cloud from Myriad Associates.

Congratulations to all the developers and individuals driving excellence in software and accountancy in 2018. The winners will be announced at a black-tie event in central London on 20 September.

Here are the nominees, listed in alphabetical order within their categories:

Small Business Accounting Software     

  • FreeAgent
  • Kashflow
  • QuickBooks Online
  • Xero

Small Business Accounting, Practitioners Choice             

  • Capium
  • QuickBooks Desktop
  • QuickBooks Online
  • Sage 50 Accounts
  • VT Transaction+
  • Xero

Enterprise Accounting/ERP Software    

  • Accounts IQ
  • Exact Online
  • Pegasus
  • Sage 200
  • Sage 50
  • SAP Business One

Payroll 

  • BrightPay
  • Capium
  • Moneysoft
  • The Payroll Site
  • Xero Payroll

Data & Expenses Management

  • AutoEntry (Ocrex)
  • FreeAgent mobile agent
  • Quick Books
  • Receipt Bank
  • Xero Expenses

Professional Tax            

  • BTCSoftware
  • Capium
  • Keytime
  • TaxCalc
  • Taxfiler

Practice Management & CRM   

  • AccountancyManager
  • BTCSoftware
  • Capium
  • Practice Ignition
  • Senta
  • TaxCalc

Accounts Production

  • BTCSoftware
  • Capium
  • TaxCalc
  • Taxfiler
  • VT Final Accounts

Practice Suite   

  • BTCSoftware
  • Capium
  • CCH
  • IRIS
  • TaxCalc
  • Thomson Reuters

Forecasting, Planning & Analysis            

  • Adaptive Insights for Finance
  • Float
  • Fluidly
  • Futrli
  • Spotlight Reporting

Cloud App         

  • Capitalise
  • Chaser
  • GoCardless
  • Satago
  • Stripe

Software Awards - Innovation of the Year         

  • AccountancyManager
  • CCH OneClick - Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting Software
  • Countingup
  • Fluidly
  • Sage Personal Tax Account Viewer - Sage Group
  • Tax Cloud - Myriad Associates