Which accounting software ?

[colinicky]

I am eventually having to take over from my mother doing the accounts for our buisness having put it off as long as I can . My mother prefers the old fashioned way of paper & pen which has served her well enough but I would prefer to do it on the pc .
So I am looking for advice on software that might be suitable :-
Needs the following (I think ) !

Easy to use (very easy)
Needs to do VAT at 4 different rates
Runs on windows XP
I do not need anything for payroll or PAYE.
I realise it might take a bit of tweaking to do exactly what I want .
I would like to be able to enter a figure that includes the VAT & it automatically seperates the vat element etc in the next coloums ,or am I hoping for to much ?

TIA

[Andy the Coastie]

Colin,

make your own in a EXCEL spread ,,,, very very simple to do and your accountant will love it .

If I still have / can find our template when we had taurus diving, i'll E:mail you a copy.....

Or you could PM me some details of your more require's and my Mrs will look over it and build you a template ....

[colinicky]

pm sent

[Andy the Coastie]

Originally Posted by colinicky

pm sent

and replied back

[Sixsquid]

Don't know how vast your accounting system needs to be but Sage was a nice simple package when I used it a trillion years ago

Used to come in 'suites' so you didn't have to get payroll etc if you didn't need it. Easy to set up and easy to create reports

[NotDeadYet]

When I started my own company last year I thought I was going to need some accounting software too. A lot of people said Excel, a lot of people said Sage, a lot of people said Quicken... 12mths later I'm still on an Excel spreadsheet, nice and simple. My accounts aren't overly complex so it works fine.

[Jeremy H]

Take a look at MYOB. I've been using it for years. I love it! Cheap - very effective.

The version at the link below should do you...

MYOB BusinessBasics (UK) - UK Business Solutions (PC) - For Businesses - Products + Services - MYOB UK

I think they do a free trial as well...

[colinicky]

Well I had a chat to our current accountant this morning & to others as a potential customer & they have all said that the easiest thing for our size & the nature of buisness is to use a spreadsheat on Excel . So I will wait for Andy's kind offer & take it from there .
Otherwise I need to learn to write formulas !
Thanks top all for your advice

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by NotDeadYet

When I started my own company last year I thought I was going to need some accounting software too. A lot of people said Excel, a lot of people said Sage, a lot of people said Quicken... 12mths later I'm still on an Excel spreadsheet, nice and simple. My accounts aren't overly complex so it works fine.

I got Sage Instant Accounts and i just couldn't get my head around it. It would be good if i were invoicing the same clients over and over again but for single hit client base it was a PITA.

So i went back to a spread sheet. My one does vat and would be simple to set up for multiple vat percentages.

I put in the amount and put a 1 in the next box if its vat able. If not i put a 0 This could easily be adjusted for a 2 or 3 for different rates.

I also got sage pay-role which is absolutely brilliant. Wages tax and NI takes me 15mins and my year end report about 34mins instead of half a day and two days

Support is great but costs about £100 a year.


ATB

Mark

[BigHairyAl]

Excel gets my vote; requires a little knowledge to get going, but once you do it is totally flexible and can do absolutely anything you need it to do.