Anyone use Quickbooks?
Anyone use Quickbooks?
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Discussion

DeanR32

Original Poster:

1,840 posts

200 months

Saturday 10th October 2020
quotequote all
Evening guys

My missus has become a personal trainer. She will register as sole trader, so everything is above board, and needs to sort out her accounts. Hiring an accountant seems a bit overkill, as she isn't making mega money. Infact I'd be happy for her if she earned over the taxable threshold in her first year.

I've been looking at the Quickbooks site. All looks pretty straight forward, but as we've never tackled anything like this, I'm not sure what to expect. Theres also talk of Excel for spreadsheets (wouldn't know how to do a spreadsheet in the first place), which needs to be transferred to Quickbooks.

Anyone using Quickbooks for their taxes/acounts?

Cheers

egomeister

7,224 posts

280 months

Saturday 10th October 2020
quotequote all
I assume that she's unlikely to be VAT registered and that transactions will be very simple? I'd think software might be a bit overkill for her initially.

I've not operated as a sole trader, but if I was to start I'd be looking at opening a separate bank account for all the business transactions, and export the data to Excel to do any reconcilliation you might need. As far as I know you would only have to state basic revenue/costs/profit on the self assessment?

Mr Pointy

12,607 posts

176 months

Saturday 10th October 2020
quotequote all
How many transactions does she think she will be making per month?
How many "purchases" ie equipment, premises hire, new leggings etc
How many clients will she invoice & how - cash/credit card/Paypal?
Will she drive to clients?

It's usually worth at least a meeting with an accountant to point her in the right direction. Have a look at online services like Xero as they may integrate with your accountant & hopefully should cope with MTD (Making Tax Digital). There are also lots of add-on apps but I'm not sue if there is one for trainers - maybe she could ask other trainers what they use?

https://www.xero.com/uk/features-and-tools/account...
https://www.xero.com/uk/resources/small-business-g...

williaa68

1,538 posts

183 months

Saturday 10th October 2020
quotequote all
Yes I do. I use it for my accounts and vat MTD. It’s pretty good. I worry a bit that I am locked in but can’t complain at the functionality.

MaxFromage

2,438 posts

148 months

Saturday 10th October 2020
quotequote all
Saving a few hundred quid on an accountant is a false economy and depending on competence, can be very costly.

DeanR32

Original Poster:

1,840 posts

200 months

Saturday 10th October 2020
quotequote all
Cheers for the replies

She's been taking bookings and doing one to one sessions for around 6 weeks now, and we reckon she will be on course to make somewhere between £1000/£1200 per month, going by initial take up. She takes cash as the session starts, and does a few online sessions, which are usually paid via PayPal.

We'd like to get a little Smart car and have it signwritten for promotion, and hoodies etc. Probably seems overkill for such a small entity, but we want to keep it legit, and have her earnings count when we look at another mortgage.

Do you think its as easy as sorting out a spreadsheet to document her earnings, and do self assessment at the end of the year? Is it as easy as adding up the years takings, then deducting outgoings on the gov website?

robinh73

1,143 posts

217 months

Saturday 10th October 2020
quotequote all
I use Xero which costs me £28.80 per month and is superb. Both the mobile app and desktop work well and integrate with my bank account. I was advised against Quickbooks by a couple of people I know, who all are switching to either Sage or Xero. As for the accountant side of things, I am damn glad I opted for an accountant too as I managed to get a tax refund of £4,200 which I would have missed out on had I been doing the whole process myself.

loafer123

16,048 posts

232 months

Saturday 10th October 2020
quotequote all

I tried Quickbooks, but reverted to Excel and TaxCalc Vatfiler for the VAT submissions as I prefer to have control over the numbers.

My accountants think I am positively sophisticated.

Rhodri27

57 posts

112 months

Saturday 10th October 2020
quotequote all
When I started out self employed I was a sole trader and glad I got an accountant involved from the beginning.

First year I got a tax rebate higher what I had to pay for there services. I just kept a monthly spreadsheet of monthly income/outgoings and they did the rest.

Simple enough

48k

15,450 posts

165 months

Sunday 11th October 2020
quotequote all
How does she take bookings, manage her diary, take payments, send clients their workouts, track clients progress etc?

Friend of mine is a PT and I've been evaluating various cloud based PT packages with him to allow him to do the above.

Might be an idea to approach the problem that way around - rather than look at an accounts package, look at what service she is offering her clients and what opportunities there are to use an online solution to help her and her clients, and see what accountancy packages the PT software integrates with.

DirtyHands

111 posts

100 months

Monday 12th October 2020
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I use quickbooks online for my Vat registered ltd co and it works well. When I first started out 3 years ago I used the quickbooks self employed and that was really very good, the app works well too.

If I was to start again I'd be happy to use it

skilly1

2,791 posts

212 months

Monday 12th October 2020
quotequote all
Another recommendation for Xero. Use with receipt bank, just awesome software. We have just moved from Sage to Xero.

Stephanie Plum

2,797 posts

228 months

Monday 12th October 2020
quotequote all
Anything is awesome compared with Sage....

megaphone

11,261 posts

268 months

Wednesday 14th October 2020
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I'm using Wave, it is free. Been using it for nearly a year now and it does everything I want. Only downside is it is not MTD compatible, yet, only an issue if you're VAT registered, I doubt she will need to be.

Worth setting up and testing, there's nothing tying you in.

https://www.waveapps.com

loafer123

16,048 posts

232 months

Wednesday 14th October 2020
quotequote all
megaphone said:
I'm using Wave, it is free. Been using it for nearly a year now and it does everything I want. Only downside is it is not MTD compatible, yet, only an issue if you're VAT registered, I doubt she will need to be.

Worth setting up and testing, there's nothing tying you in.

https://www.waveapps.com
That looks pretty good.

Does it do the link up with U.K. bank accounts?

megaphone

11,261 posts

268 months

Wednesday 14th October 2020
quotequote all
loafer123 said:
megaphone said:
I'm using Wave, it is free. Been using it for nearly a year now and it does everything I want. Only downside is it is not MTD compatible, yet, only an issue if you're VAT registered, I doubt she will need to be.

Worth setting up and testing, there's nothing tying you in.

https://www.waveapps.com
That looks pretty good.

Does it do the link up with U.K. bank accounts?
Don't know, don't think so. They are alway improving the features, so maybe they will. It is geared to the US/Canada. Works ok for my simple business.

DaveH23

3,334 posts

187 months

Friday 16th October 2020
quotequote all
Stephanie Plum said:
Anything is awesome compared with Sage....
Which particular Sage product there is alot.