Best accountancy software for working through a company?

[Benjaminpalma]

I'm working for a contractor through my own company.

Any recommendations for a decent accountancy software package - to help handle my company's and my own bookeeping and tax affairs?

Many thanks!

[deggles]

I can highly recommend FreeAgent, been using it for ten years for my IT contracting Ltd. Free trial and 10% off with this link https://www.freeagent.com/?referrer=2tkwrfti

[playalistic]

I've been very happy with crunch for the last 5 years.

[Eric Mc]

What do you want it to do?

Will you be VAT registered?

[Benjaminpalma]

Eric Mc said:

What do you want it to do?

Will you be VAT registered?

Ideally, I just want to just plug figures in one end and have everything ready - with reminders - for HMRC company and personal returns. I reality I expect I'll need an accountant to answer questions - I just don't want to keep paying a monthly fee for data-entry.

I may have to be VAT-registered soon.

Thanks for your thoughts, chaps!

[Eric Mc]

Having book-keeping software for a limited company will not normally be suitable for your personal self assessment tax return - unless you buy a higher spec software that contains both limited company and personal tax modules.

[AndrewCrown]

B

We’ve been running clearbooks on a few businesses and zero books on another makes vat returns a 15 minute job... all invoicing, quotes and p&l very easy....

Accountant can interface with both and make it all correct and compliant for corporation tax etc..

Wouldn’t trust either for personal tax...always prefer an accountant to do that...

[a1topdog]

Another vote for Free agent. All done online, so you can view accounts from anywhere, no software to install. Online filing for VAT returns etc, and free support calls. All for about £300 a year. The only crap bit about free agent is the report downloads.

Steer well clear of Quick books pro. It's the opposite of all of the above.

[48k]

I'm very impressed with Xero. Use it for my companies and have also got it installed at some clients (which is handy because you can do "Xero to Xero invoicing"). It does vat, corporation tax and so on, plus payroll if you want. It's also very clever when you have foreign currency payments (several of my tech subscriptions are paid in USD) - when a bill comes in through your bank feed it grabs the foreign exchange rates from the day in question and can auto reconcile the foreign currency transaction. But by far the best thing about it as a non accountant its so bloody simple and intuitive to use and the interface is great. Base version without lots of bells and whistles costs £10/month.

[Eric Mc]

Up to now, simple spreadsheets such as Excel were perfectly adequate for many small businesses. Indeed, I use it a lot myself (as well as proper dedicated packages if required).

However, HMRC seems determined to force businesses off Excel so it may be coming to the end of its usefulness as a tool for simple book-keeping and accounting.

[jammy-git]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Have to agree with this. Something like FreeAgent or Crunch is perfect for the requirements stated.

[ecs]

Eric Mc said:

Having book-keeping software for a limited company will not normally be suitable for your personal self assessment tax return - unless you buy a higher spec software that contains both limited company and personal tax modules.

FreeAgent calculates your personal self assessment return without the need for any extra modules.

[jammy-git]

As does Crunch.

[robinessex]

Money Manager

https://moneysoft.co.uk/money-manager-overview/

[Eric Mc]

ecs said:

FreeAgent calculates your personal self assessment return without the need for any extra modules.

It's obviously a separate section to the bit that handles the company situation. "Module" was probably not the correct term but Corporate Tax and Personal Tax are separate areas so need to be calculated separately.

[Benjaminpalma]

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm surprised Sage hasn't been mentioned more...

[surveyor]

Benjaminpalma said:

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm surprised Sage hasn't been mentioned more...

I'm not. They have been left napping.

[worsy]

Plenty of threads on this, Xero is well liked (and what I use) as is FreeAgent as previous posters suggest.

[Eric Mc]

Benjaminpalma said:

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm surprised Sage hasn't been mentioned more...

Sage is an excellent product, if you are still living in 1989.

[TheD]

I use Xero for my Ltd company. I find it great and was advised to use it by my accountant. They can log in at will and make any corrections. My accountant has over 400 clients and he tells me that there is only two of them still using Sage.