best free accounting software - is it necc?
best free accounting software - is it necc?
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Lord Vladimir

Original Poster:

303 posts

224 months

Sunday 20th April 2008
quotequote all
Hi,

getting very bored of creating invoices in word already and was surprised to see there is a free microsoft product - office accounting. is it any good? are there better ones? are they overkill ie would excel ? word suffice?


thanks

biglepton

5,042 posts

232 months

Sunday 20th April 2008
quotequote all
It's only free for the first 60 days.

Liszt

4,337 posts

301 months

Sunday 20th April 2008
quotequote all
No it is free in the UK, 60 day trial in the US. I am currently trialing it as I have a simple business as a time based consultancy. It works very well. Does invoices, accepts bank downloads, does VAT (but not flat rate) and produces some useful reports.

I am impressed with it so far.

Lord Vladimir

Original Poster:

303 posts

224 months

Sunday 20th April 2008
quotequote all
Liszt said:
No it is free in the UK, 60 day trial in the US. I am currently trialing it as I have a simple business as a time based consultancy. It works very well. Does invoices, accepts bank downloads, does VAT (but not flat rate) and produces some useful reports.

I am impressed with it so far.
hmm im doing flat rate does that make it useless or can u get round it?

thanks

Eric Mc

125,796 posts

296 months

Sunday 20th April 2008
quotequote all
Can't you simply adjust the VAT rate used in the calculations? After all, even under "normal" VAT rules thre are a number of VAT rates in existence.

You do need to be careful if you are using Flat Rate VAT. Most computerised book-keeping systems operate on the basis that you are not a Flat Rate operator and you therfore have to "tweak" the software to some extent to make it give you the right outcome. Even Sage needs some fettling.
This is crucial if you are using the system to generate sales invoices instead of just recording already produced invoices.

Even under Flat Rate VAT you MUST issue Standard Rated Invoices to your customers. Therefore, if using a computerised book-keeping system, those invoices will be generated by the computer and Standard Rate VAT will be calculated and allocated to the VAT account automatically. If you are on Flat Rate, you will probably need to manually enter a journal to alter the VAT calculation to reflect the lower amount actually payable to the VAT man.

Liszt

4,337 posts

301 months

Monday 21st April 2008
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
Can't you simply adjust the VAT rate used in the calculations? After all, even under "normal" VAT rules thre are a number of VAT rates in existence.

You do need to be careful if you are using Flat Rate VAT. Most computerised book-keeping systems operate on the basis that you are not a Flat Rate operator and you therfore have to "tweak" the software to some extent to make it give you the right outcome. Even Sage needs some fettling.
This is crucial if you are using the system to generate sales invoices instead of just recording already produced invoices.

Even under Flat Rate VAT you MUST issue Standard Rated Invoices to your customers. Therefore, if using a computerised book-keeping system, those invoices will be generated by the computer and Standard Rate VAT will be calculated and allocated to the VAT account automatically. If you are on Flat Rate, you will probably need to manually enter a journal to alter the VAT calculation to reflect the lower amount actually payable to the VAT man.
Yes you can set up different VAT rates, and mark customers as outside of EC for VAT purposes. There is an inbuilt chart of accounts, which can be amended and there is journal functionality. Invoices can be produced by stock item sales or service based sales.

For a free product it is really comprehensive. The only draw back is there are a few adverts for Microsoft products and it prompts you to upgrade to the Professional version, which does a few more complex things.

Eric Mc

125,796 posts

296 months

Monday 21st April 2008
quotequote all
It sounds pretty good - but the pitfalls obviously still exist for VAT Flat Rate traders if they sre using the software to generate their sales invoices.

touching cloth

11,706 posts

270 months

Monday 21st April 2008
quotequote all
Interesting thread, have just downloaded a copy and am having a play, was going to start using Quickbooks but if this is close to being an equal and it's FREE (the magic words for a man like me with Scottish blood) then sounds ideal. Gotta be better than my cumbersome old excel spreadsheets.