Best Accounting Software

[oldeagleeye]

I know I made a joke earlier about accountants providing software be it on-line or otherwise - and then whacking on a huge margin. Let me make it quite clear then that it was a joke and I for one have never used an accountant in my 40 years in business just for their number ticking skills.

It has been for the advice that they have given and the expertise in knowing what legitimate tax efficient measures are out there which save you money - even after the fees are paid. There is also the piece of mind in knowing that once accounts have been agreed by HMRC with a qualified ccountant each years accounts are done and dusted where those that try to DIY and come unstuck can expect a lengthy investigation going back 5 years.

Lets remember then that software is just a tool to help reduce paperwork and keep the costs down. It is no substitute for an accountant. Rob

 

[Wild Goose]

Blimey Rob, where did that come from?

Have you been ordered to retract or apolgise for some earlier statement, of have you been breaking out the sherry before noon?

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I probably shouldn't say this (since our software is one of the 'cheaper' ones) but I agree with others that the cost is more than just the amount you pay.

Your time is valuable, so you should consider how easy it is to learn and use. Check out Solar Accounts and our testimonials. We often get people telling us they have bought our software after paying for other accounting software packages - here's an example.

Mark - I just had a really quick look at your software and it looks very user friendly. I like the layout a lot -I think many small businesses will like it.

Do you produce a summary of the features of your package that readily compares your products features with your competitors? Apologies if its on the website I only had a quick look

 

[AlanR]

For locally installed accounting software, you can't go wrong with Solar. It's what we now recommend to people who realise KashFlow is web-based and insist on something locally installed. (We used to suggest Accountz, but people have come back to us saying it's too fiddly)

After (attempting) to use MS Accounting, i was recommended Accountz (not by you Duane ) and found it very fiddly and tempermental but decided to soldier on. After about 6 months i thought there must be an easier / more intuitive software package available.

Found Solar Accounts and have not looked back. So much easier and quicker to use and i feel much more confident with the output. A user definable Invoice template would be nice but apart from that, i cant fault it for my 1 man Ltd Co and i would recommend it.

Regards

Alan

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Two points

Sage (which we use) is probably to largest software package around and run by most accounting firms, Good history, Not to hard to learn but maybe harder than most, One benifit is that they brought out Protx payment service provider and totaly own it so new software will work verry well with protx which is a big star for online traders

Misrosoft has recently entered the market so their new software will challenge all the others and most likely on past experience offer a verry compeditive product at a great price, trial software can be downloaded.

Can you ever take the risk with the small companies, a lot were profitable before the summer but might look a bit weak now, they are not imune from folding up and may not have the breath of applications to see them through these hard times, so I suggest play it safe with just the major players and look to the future rather than just the short term investment

 

[GaryMc]

Trouble is Chris you started well but then from word three it went downhill

Sage are known as being a big market leader (in terms of numbers) but their development effort is not the best.

Its dominance will be challenged over the next 5 years by the mass of user focused offerings that are appearing.

We are moving away from a one size fits all approach to more tailored approaches to software that people can pick up and use if it suits them or leave alone if it doesn't. Look at something like FreeAgent Central as an example of this http://www.freeagentcentral.com/

Every company was a small company once - you might find that the 'risk' pays off in the long term

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Two points

Sage (which we use) is probably to largest software package around and run by most accounting firms, Good history, Not to hard to learn but maybe harder than most, One benifit is that they brought out Protx payment service provider and totaly own it so new software will work verry well with protx which is a big star for online traders

Misrosoft has recently entered the market so their new software will challenge all the others and most likely on past experience offer a verry compeditive product at a great price, trial software can be downloaded.

Can you ever take the risk with the small companies, a lot were profitable before the summer but might look a bit weak now, they are not imune from folding up and may not have the breath of applications to see them through these hard times, so I suggest play it safe with just the major players and look to the future rather than just the short term investment

Sage is a good product, I'm truly not knocking it at all, but many small business owners really dislike it and find it very, very hard to use.

Sage used to be heavily sold by accountants but this isnt the case anymore.

I actually gain a lot of clients who come to me because they dont HAVE to use Sage, and I show them other products many of which they find much easier to use.

I think that their is plenty of scope for good alternatives to Sage and good products will do well. I welcome alternatives to Sage.

 

[dp0848]

We are big fans of Solar Accounts here at Farrant Frost. Simple to use, good basic reports and good value for money. We would recommend it to small limited companies and sole traders.

David.

 

[garyk]

Sage are known as being a big market leader (in terms of numbers) but their development effort is not the best.

Its dominance will be challenged over the next 5 years by the mass of user focused offerings that are appearing.

Yes the trouble with that is that it just leads to greater fragmentation of the market with more vendors, more offerings, and for the poor prospects, more confusing choices! Thats what has happened with the CRM market, its much more fragmented than the financials software market with hundreds of offerings but still a challenge for business owners to find something that suits their needs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying for one minute Sage's dominance is a good thing and to be honest Gary I would agree with your sentiments to some degree. That said I dont know if you know the latest regarding a software as a service model from Sage (the news broken early by Duane from Kashflow) so they havent been resting on their laurels despite common belief they were. Of course Sage are also one of the few vendors to have products for the entire business spectrum from startups using Instant to companies turning over in excess of £100 million using Sage 1000.

For me the whole point of accounting software is it needs to enhance your business process, not hinder it. For small businesses speed of entry of quotes/orders/invoices is paramount and sooo many fail to do the basics well. My acid test is this, raise a sales invoice to a non-existant customer for a non-existant product (i.e. be able to create them on the fly), if I cannot do that in less than 90 seconds then I question the usability of the system.

Gary

 

[GaryMc]

Surely that fragmentation can be good? If you want a particular piece of software tailored toward the industry that you work in and, more importantly, the way that you work then you are more likely to buy that (if it exists) than a one size fits all product that you then need to spend time customising so that you can work around it?

Duane broke that news because it was a validation of what he is doing. If the big guns have decided to wade in to this market then it must be the place to operate.

He also pointed out that it 'suffers from the same problem as all of Sages products - it's obviously designed by people that have never run a small business. It looks really good and it sounds really good, but a scratch of the surface shows it simply doesn't deliver the goods.'

Maybe they don't quite get it at the moment? They aim at a market called 'business' so how can they respond as quickly (even with their level of resources) as a company like Kashflow which knows exactly who is using the product?

I am sure that Sage is great once you have taken the time to learn how to use it but there is a great big millstone around the neck of Sage in that people don't trust them to continue with development of products.

Although until the data security and recovery issue can be addressed, all SaaS players may struggle (especially selling to accountants)

 

[garyk]

Surely that fragmentation can be good? If you want a particular piece of software tailored toward the industry that you work in and, more importantly, the way that you work then you are more likely to buy that (if it exists) than a one size fits all product that you then need to spend time customising so that you can work around it?

It would be if the offerings were different, trouble is it seems that you have multiple offerings all very similar which makes choosing difficult. There have been countless threads on here along the lines of 'I need CRM' with lots of follow up suggestions whilst all the while, 'that looks like overkill' or 'that doesn't do what I need' are typical responses.

He also pointed out that it 'suffers from the same problem as all of Sages products - it's obviously designed by people that have never run a small business. It looks really good and it sounds really good, but a scratch of the surface shows it simply doesn't deliver the goods.'

Maybe they don't quite get it at the moment? They aim at a market called 'business' so how can they respond as quickly (even with their level of resources) as a company like Kashflow which knows exactly who is using the product?

But he also said that it didnt look like the normal offering, i.e. like it was from an Internet startup and whilst they don't respond as fast they do have big enough pockets to pay someone to move on their behalf.

Please don't get me wrong I'm not making a point because I cosy up to Sage, I dont, I make money filling in the gaps they leave across their entire product range and I dont sell Sage software so have no preference for it.

Gary

 

[Wild Goose]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Goose
I'll tell Ling - she's just set up an accountancy practice to become Accountingweb's newest member.


Link please? I've not seen it....
WG you'd better buy a partner licence now since you asked and it was given!!

I'm hanging on until the January Sales for my partner license. Ling's just cleaned us out for the deposits on some motors!

 

[Wild Goose]

I seriously wonder reading through the thread whether the industry is on the right tack with bookkeeping software.

Why can't we have a system that looks like a cash book and a blue purchase ledger card? More importantly why can't we have one that behaves like one?

Using Sage to set up an account for hp interest to post it back monthly, post depreciation, accruals, prepayments urghhh. We accountants have to undo all that to get it back to a set of balanced books and a TB, before making our OWN hp interest / sepreciation / accruals etc posts to our own ETB.

I'm waiting for the day IPOD bring out a bookkeeping package.