Cash flow software

[Andre78]

Hello all.

Basically I have an accountant that does all my paperwork and I have a spreadsheet that helps me approximately calculate my day to day profit.

However, I'm looking for a piece of software that I can put my credit card expenditure, materials, fuel wages, pension, bills etc that will help me graphically analyse my profit loss on a day to day basis and monthly basis both for my main business.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks

 

[jimbof]

Probably best speak to the accountant first and see what they suggest. It might be that what they're doing already integrates with something well.

I use Freeagent, which was provided to me by my accountancy co., included in my monthly accounting cost. I have good visibility of cashflow, profit, etc, can easily work out how much dividend I can take. It shows me my current company and personal tax position based on earnings to date, etc. It is hooked up to my bank accounts so all transactions appear automatically and can be reconciled, which means the accountants don't get a bit pile of receipts to deal with as I upload the invoices / receipts against the bank transactions.

The only thing I'll say is Freeagent probably isn't suitable for larger businesses. It strikes me it is targeted fairly squarely at contractor / consultancy type outfits. Which suits me fine as that is what I am.

 

[Andre78]

Thank you. My business is a micro business. I also dabble in day trading of the stock market.

I'm actually on the lookout for a better accountant. I'll certainly take on board what software the next one uses and bear that in mind with my selection.

 

[Financial-Modeller]

If you're already using a spreadsheet for some of it, why not use that for the rest? You have the information, just add the chart.

As @jimbof suggested, your new accountant will probably encourage you to use one of the established packages which may well provide the same functionality, but its also likely that it will accept an export from your spreadsheet, so it will not be wasted time.

 

[Stuart_Walker]

+1 for @Financial-Modeller.

A really well-designed spreadsheet will do the job very well and arguably better than paid-for software.

The important thing is that it is something you can use in practice and frankly much of the cash flow specific software out there can be complex and take time to learn and use.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hello all.

Basically I have an accountant that does all my paperwork and I have a spreadsheet that helps me approximately calculate my day to day profit.

However, I'm looking for a piece of software that I can put my credit card expenditure, materials, fuel wages, pension, bills etc that will help me graphically analyse my profit loss on a day to day basis and monthly basis both for my main business.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks

As mentioned FreeAgent is worth a look, its not perfect for cashflow and works better for some than others but worth a look.

I am a FreeAgent accredited accountant and have several clients who use it and can pass on a discount for any clients who have to pay for a subscription, it's free for NatWest, RBS Ulster and Mettle bank account users.

I generally find most clients use Excel for cashflow forecasts.

This might be useful to read https://www.freeagent.com/guides/small-business/cash-flow-forecast

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

My business is a micro business. I also dabble in day trading of the stock market.

2 separate trades? or 1 trade and investment activity

 

[Tin]

You could try KashFlow it's a very decent piece of software for small businesses.

 

[Andre78]

2 separate trades? or 1 trade and investment activity

1 Trade and investment activity. Why do you ask? I ask why you ask because I am wondering myself whether I will have to pay VAT on any profit made trading. (I'm very new to it - but I am cautiously turning a small profit) - Pretty sure that HMRC will tell me it's artificial disaggregation despite the fact that they are 2 entirely different trades.

 

[Andre78]

If you're already using a spreadsheet for some of it, why not use that for the rest? You have the information, just add the chart.

As @jimbof suggested, your new accountant will probably encourage you to use one of the established packages which may well provide the same functionality, but its also likely that it will accept an export from your spreadsheet, so it will not be wasted time.

This has crossed my mind but my spreadsheet is only good enough to stop me from shooting myself in the foot on pricing up jobs. It basically factors fixed costs, wages including holiday pay, expenses, mark-up, and vat input output. It then spits out an approximate profit based on jobs going to schedule. Obviously I can adjust durations etc.

It is evolvable perhaps but I haven't taken that mental leap yet.

 

[Scalloway]

Day trading on the stock market should be outwith the scope of VAT.

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

1 Trade and investment activity. Why do you ask?

investment activity is not a trade- capital transactions are taxed differently from trading profits.

FreeAgent will be no use for recording gains/losses on investments.

 

[Andre78]

investment activity is not a trade- capital transactions are taxed differently from trading profits.

FreeAgent will be no use for recording gains/losses on investments.

I understand. But what I meant was I have a company that provides a trade service. I also personally trade stock.