Better bookkeeping with Five's Business Inspector

[FusionAccounts]

Tune into Five tomorrow night to watch the first of a new TV series “The Business Inspector”

The series has been sponsored by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and will raise awareness among small businesses that they need to keep good records.

This four-part series will be broadcast weekly on Five at 8pm from 17 March 2010.

Hopefully this series will highlight to businesses the importance of having a good bookkeeping system in place and the value of having an online bookkeeping system which can be accessed real-time and from any location.

[mikky_uk]

I am only just becoming a part time self employed book keeper and hope that in a few years i can offer my clients online 24hour access to their accounts.

As i am only just starting out (registering with the HMRC Money Laundering Registration), i have no client and do not see the point in paying the monthly fees attached to the provision of online access to accounts.

[Chris Ashdown]

There is still a lot to say for keeping your own accounts with a basic accounting software package like quickbooks or sage instant accounts and let your bookeeper / accountant run their eye's over them now and again for first few months and year end

So many online accounts startups how do you know who, what or how long they will last

[MyAccountantOnline]

There is still a lot to say for keeping your own accounts with a basic accounting software package like quickbooks or sage instant accounts and let your bookeeper / accountant run their eye's over them now and again for first few months and year end

So many online accounts startups how do you know who, what or how long they will last


Here here Chris.

I do see the advantages to online packages but you also make a very good point - I am sure many of the companies are ''here today gone tomorrow''

Good record keeping can certainly be done without an online package.

[Philip Hoyle]

I fully appreciate the worries about online accounting and I sat it out for the first few years, continuing to recommend the likes of Quickbooks, but for the past couple of years, I've been a convert and my default advice is now Kashflow.

Cost is minimal - just £60 per client if you're in the accountant's scheme, which is easily absorbed.

Loss of service is obviously a worry, but you can get an automatic weekly email backup of your data, and like any good software, you can do you own data-dumps to csv/spreadsheet files, so if you're organised, you'll never lose your data. Of course, online firms can disappear, but so can "desktop" firms - look at the debacle with the withdrawal of MYOB, look at the withdrawal of MS accounting.

There are so many benefits of online accounting.

Firstly, there's no updating to do - program enhancements and fixes happen seemlessly with no user involvement at all. The Kashflow system has evolved enormously over the couple of years I've been using it.

Secondly, and what I've found most useful, is the ability to log in live to client's book-keeping whilst they're on the phone - it never ceases to impress a client when I change or enter a transaction for them, or set up a new bank account, or talk them through the trading results, etc.

Thirdly, I can easily log in and review the trading results without all the hassle of transferring backup files between us. I can see whethe their book-keeping is up to standard and if not, contact them to give live on the phone training. I can monitor turnover (for VAT reg or dereg) and profits for tax planning purposes, at regular intervals throughout the year.

Most importantly, I can do the year end accounts far more quickly and efficiently because of the above points - the "books" don't turn up blind, I know how things look, I have confidence in the book-keeping quality.

For such low cost, it's a no brainer. I am sure that Kashflow will survive as it's so popular, but if it didn't, I'm sure it would be taken over. I can't see it disappearing and such a vast number of users being cast adrift. Even if it did, other online providers would no doubt write conversion programs to convert the data to their systems. My own personal view is that Kashflow will become the number one online provider if it isn't already and will continue to snap at the heels of Sage, maybe even over-take Sage one day as the most popular accounting software - the current ownership & management is certainly heading the right way.

[DuaneJackson]

Wow, thanks Philip. Praise indeed.

[MyAccountantOnline]

I fully appreciate the worries about online accounting and I sat it out for the first few years, continuing to recommend the likes of Quickbooks, but for the past couple of years, I've been a convert and my default advice is now Kashflow.


Thanks Philip - a great post and some really interesting comments.:)

[dahowlett]

Congrats to KF for getting such unsolicited comments. Surprising though this may sound, this is becoming a common occurrence for the key players in the saas/cloud space to see these kinds of comment coming through. That tells me the game has changed.

Incumbent providers are under significant pressure. They are way behind the curve on delivering what customers both want and need.

I'm not allowed to post URLs at this point but check out the Sage related post on AccManPro.com I wrote which discusses specific issues and what it means for both customers and the vendors.

Thanks for your attention.

[Link http://www.accmanpro.com/2010/03/19/the-sage-50-2010-train-wreck/ ]