I disliked all my accountant's suggestions until he got me onto freeagent. The modest cost makes my life easy. My business is simple - I submit invoices, I get paid into my bank account and I have bills to pay. I'm VAT registered but a sole trader, so I have drawings and personal stuff mixed in with the business and Freeagent lets me keep things very straight forward and just presents me with bank transactions for money in and out, but then suggests matching invoices and bills. It works really well, and mistakes usually generate queries. I can use it on all my computers and phones and I can take a picture of a receipt and stick that into freeagent. It's great for finding customers, and amounts. I can easily find things. I can generate an invoice and send it to the customer within the software. It's really friendly and the more you enter, the better it makes guesses as in - you just got paid £436, is it this invoice. You then say yes, or no. It also manages the VAT. As long as I have approved all the ins and outs at the quarter end, I simply press the send to HMRC button, and a few minutes later HMRC email me the confirmation. The invoice system can also use pre-programmed items, for when you do lots at the same price - saves you lots of typing. For me, it also means lower accountancy bills because even though it is not their ideal system, they can see what I'm doing if they are slack and do tidying. My common one is entering a wrong value - like £4.39 when it was £4.29 - this means it does not clear and often I don't spot it. It just needs the amount changing, but the double check facility works really well.
