Free accounting software? (fed up paying for Sage)

[simonukbf38468]

I've been a Sage 50 user for 20 years. I know I've owned the software in the past but for a while now I've been paying £30+ a month. I'm a very small business nowadays and really don't need this software.

Can I stop paying? Or will the software stop working? ie I don't need updates.

Are there any free alternatives? Or even something considerably cheaper.

Cheers!

 

[johndon68]

If you are currently on a monthly licence with Sage then, yes, if you stop paying the software will stop working.

 

[fisicx]

I've been a Sage 50 user for 20 years. I know I've owned the software in the past …

No you didn’t. All you ever had was a license to use the software.

But that aside, what do you use sage to do? I don’t use any software and don’t have any issues managing my accounts. I send out invoices, collect money and spend money for the business. It even pays me to entertain imaginary clients. At the end of the year my accountant does the sums, saves me a ton of cash and sends me a bill. He saves me more in tax than he charges.

 

[simonukbf38468]

No you didn’t. All you ever had was a license to use the software.

But that aside, what do you use sage to do? I don’t use any software and don’t have any issues managing my accounts. I send out invoices, collect money and spend money for the business. It even pays me to entertain imaginary clients. At the end of the year my accountant does the sums, saves me a ton of cash and sends me a bill. He saves me more in tax than he charges.

I definitely owned it. Bought a box with CDs in it from a shop and used it for years without paying for updates

All I use it for these days is simple bookkeeping and VAT returns. There must be a free way of doing this?

 

[fisicx]

I definitely owned it. Bought a box with CDs in it from a shop and used it for years without paying for updates

Nope. All you had was a license. There are all sorts of people complaining about sage subscriptions and all been told they never owned anything. It’s the same with all software. Not even the companies writing the software own all the code. Explanation here:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/04/you_cannot_buy_software/

Anyway, Google gave me this:

Top 10 best free accounting software for small businesses

We take a look at some of the best (and free) accounting software for small businesses currently on the market. Discover more here.

www.unbiased.co.uk

Some of them will no doubt meet your need.

 

[simonukbf38468]

Nope. All you had was a license. There are all sorts of people complaining about sage subscriptions and all been told they never owned anything. It’s the same with all software. Not even the companies writing the software own all the code.

Anyway, Google gave me this:

Top 10 best free accounting software for small businesses

We take a look at some of the best (and free) accounting software for small businesses currently on the market. Discover more here.

www.unbiased.co.uk

You’d think for a moderator you’d be more useful yet…

Splitting hairs. I bought some software once and never had to pay again to use it. In my books that counts as owning. If you want to be pedantic…

If you’ve nothing useful to add other than a Google link then feel free not to reply.

 

[fisicx]

You’d think for a moderator you’d be more useful yet…

Not sure what you mean. It's not splitting hairs, you didn't own the software you just had a license to use the CDs that were in the box. The link above explains why.

There is loads of free software available to help you do your accounts. You just need to trial them to find the one that best suits your needs. What you won't find is one you can download and install on your PC. These days just about everything is SAAS. There is no escaping this.

 

[Scalloway]

When I was operating my business I used VT Cashbook. It is basically a cash book only but I set up a debtors ledger using a work around.

Free accounting software

Free accounting software from VT Software

www.vtsoftware.co.uk

A regular on this forum sings the praises of GNU Cash but I haven't tried it.

Free Accounting Software | GnuCash

GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

www.gnucash.org

 

[fisicx]

Asked my neighbour and he uses free agent. Mainly because NatWest gave it away with his business account. I did try it a little while back and it was quite clever in that it connected to PayPal and HMRC but I couldn’t get the invoice templates to work so gave up.

 

[YasmeenLondon]

Top 10 best free accounting software for small businesses

We take a look at some of the best (and free) accounting software for small businesses currently on the market. Discover more here.

www.unbiased.co.uk

Personally I use Freeagent and it's very simple and easy to learn.

 

[YasmeenLondon]

I did try it a little while back and it was quite clever in that it connected to PayPal and HMRC but I couldn’t get the invoice templates to work so gave up.

Out of curiosity what couldn't you get to work with the invoice template maybe I can help? I almost gave up on FreeAgent because I couldn't figure out how to send a stripe link with the invoice, spent hours looking for the option and the whole time the solution was literally staring me in the face

 

[The Byre]

You’d think for a moderator you’d be more useful yet…

Splitting hairs. I bought some software once and never had to pay again to use it. In my books that counts as owning. If you want to be pedantic…

It is not splitting hairs - knowing the difference between ownership and licensing is fundamental to the world of business and would have saved you £30 a month!

If you’ve nothing useful to add other than a Google link then feel free not to reply.

Getting snippy about someone trying to be helpful is not going to get your question answered.

We paid good money a while back to get bespoke software written. If we had to start from scratch, I would vote for GnuCash as it does everything and I do mean everything - except MTD and multiple inputs - though there are workarounds and bridging software for MTD.

It does look a bit dated - but then bookkeeping is not supposed to be sexy!

Features | GnuCash

GnuCash is powerful accounting software. Below are details of some of the numerous features that GnuCash has to offer to its users.

www.gnucash.org

 

[fisicx]

Out of curiosity what couldn't you get to work with the invoice template maybe I can help? I almost gave up on FreeAgent because I couldn't figure out how to send a stripe link with the invoice, spent hours looking for the option and the whole time the solution was literally staring me in the face

I wanted to create a custom invoice template. All you get is an empty editor and no instructions for use.

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

QuickFile is free for small businesses.

Up to 1000 nominal transactions in 12 month period its free. Then only just £45 + VAT per year.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I've been a Sage 50 user .. I've been paying £30+ a month. ... something considerably cheaper.

You will definitely find cheaper alternatives.

What features are 'must haves' for your software eg VAT returns, invoicing etc?

 

[Bob Morgan]

The OP did mention the word 'FREE' - It is the first word in the heading!

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

The OP did mention the word 'FREE' - It is the first word in the heading!

The OP did also say

''... Or even something considerably cheaper.''

Lots of choice for good software which is a lot cheaper than Sage at £30 per month. Hence my question to ask what he features he needs.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

As intimated, the first thing to do is know what you want the software to do!

Then you can make a list of suitable replacements.

I use Kashflow for one business and Clearbooks for another, and will probably migrate KF to that soon.

I also have Freeagent, which for self employed is probably adequate, but not good enough for other businesses/types.