Accounting Software

[johnkendall]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any recomendations for easy to use Accounting software? I'm struggling to do it all in Excel at the moment, and would love something that automates a load of the process.

Thanks
John

[GLOC]

Ditto!

Tax return due in 4 weeks time

[Bantam]

I have always thought that MYOB (Yes, Mind your own Business) is a great package, cheap too (less than £100 for the sole trader one), and runs on both a Mac and a PC.

Link here.

EDIT - Just looked at their site and in fact, it's only £39.50 at the moment, plus you can download a 30 day free trial and if it's good just get the key and licence the trial as a full product

[Richie]

Originally Posted by johnkendall

Hi All,

Does anyone have any recomendations for easy to use Accounting software? I'm struggling to do it all in Excel at the moment, and would love something that automates a load of the process.

Thanks
John

John, approx what size of business, what type and how much do you want to spend?

My background is large business (huge systems) but I know that SAGE is well regarded and come in various modules, there is/was Great Plains from Microsoft.

[johnkendall]

Originally Posted by Richie

John, approx what size of business, what type and how much do you want to spend?

Um, Well there's me and that's about it. So Small business.

Ideally I don't want to spend that much, but I'd rather spend some money, than waste time and effort trying to make something work.

Thanks

John

[Bantam]

Originally Posted by Richie

John, approx what size of business, what type and how much do you want to spend?

My background is large business (huge systems) but I know that SAGE is well regarded and come in various modules, there is/was Great Plains from Microsoft.

Problem with Sage / Sun Accounts / Great Plains is that basic install is circa £20k, then you have SQL costs and Hardware Costs, and Consultancy on top making the base install at least £30k.

[Ian@1904]

I have used this for several businesses
Small Business Accounting Software | QuickBooks 2008 by Intuit

The basic Sage products do not cost £20k to install. The basic setup is easy. I have been setting this software up for about 20 years. Designed by acccountants for accountants
SPJ Solutions - Sage Products on the Web

If you want to upgrade to sage 200 then yes you do need SQL etc. Not generally the case for small businesses

[Bantam]

Originally Posted by Ian@1904

I have used this for several businesses
Small Business Accounting Software | QuickBooks 2008 by Intuit

The basic Sage products do not cost £20k to install. The basic setup is easy. I have been setting this software up for about 20 years. Designed by acccountants for accountants
SPJ Solutions - Sage Products on the Web

If you want to upgrade to sage 200 then yes you do need SQL etc. Not generally the case for small businesses

Apologies. Foot is in mouth. Sage 50 Accounts is £150 for 1 user.

We use a much bigger version of Sage (400 users) which does cost an arm and a leg.

However, as I'm not an accountant, but a techie, I find sage a pain in the arse to use and support. Especially because we have to get the Sage support guys to fix it when it goes wrong, vs us being allowed to fix it ourselves. They set encryption on the DB amongst other things which doesn't allow us to tweak stuff. Talk about getting a business over a barrel.

I'm much happier with SunSystems Sun Accounts, but this is expensive and stuck in the middle ages too!

[Clare Gledhill]

SAGE instant - runs a small business and personal tax returns, including VAT. Under £100 plus free support for a limited time.

[Robin Jones]

Sage is not very intuitive, unless you are accountant that is!

I started with Excel- Simple one column paid in, one for Paid out. Then developed my own MS Access programme- worked a treat.

Then went LTD so moved to Sage (Thinks me it's more professional and will be better for the accountant) and so now I have to pay an accountant to extract what I've put in!

I would advise to steer clear of Sage and use something thats user friendly and not sold by accountants.