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kelvin white

What is the best accounts package for a sole trader?

Occupation is driving instructor ,so no invoicing or VAT required.

Basic customer records and reporting.

Many thanks.
 
For the type of business you have you can't go wrong with a good excel cashbook.

a 'proper' accounting package will just be overkill for you.

I have a pro-forma excel cashbook that you're welcome to have, PM me your email address and I'll send it over to you
 
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A "proper" accounting package like FreeAgent costs £15 per month and includes:
- time trackers
- expense & mileage trackers
- self assessment & income tax calculator

It does lots more that you won't need...but I thought the items above might well be useful for your business and might not be in the free Excel calculator.
 
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???

I don't think anyone is disputing that packages such as Free agent or Kashflow are good and have useful features, merely saying that they aren't of use to everyone.
 
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Looking again, my post might have come across as a bit cross - it was intended just to add info not to have a dig. Apologies if that was how it was interpreted...it wasn't meant :-)
 
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Rather than using a spreadsheet, why not use the www.vtsoftware.co.uk free cash book software which lets you quickly and easily enter your transactions, reconcile the bank, and produces the usual year end reports.

I'd also endorse free agent central as it also works out your tax bills as you go along which is invaluable if you really want to keep track of your forthcoming liabilities rather than waiting until the year end and getting a shock!

I really hate spreadsheets with a passion as virtually every client who has presented a spreadsheet to me has made a foul-up of it, with columns and rows that don't add up, links from one place to another that aren't automatically updated, putting £ signs in cells which makes the content a label rather than a figure, hence not being included in totals, etc. When a proper package like VT is free of charge and FAC is so cheap, I can't see why anyone would want to use a spreadsheet.
 
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I agree with Philip and Tony, a spreadsheet based system would be more than adequate. As Philip suggested, check the VT excel based software range, i've recommended this several times to driving instructors.

Kind Regards

Neil
 
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Philip Hoyle said:
Rather than using a spreadsheet, why not use the www.vtsoftware.co.uk free cash book software which lets you quickly and easily enter your transactions, reconcile the bank, and produces the usual year end reports.

I'd also endorse free agent central as it also works out your tax bills as you go along which is invaluable if you really want to keep track of your forthcoming liabilities rather than waiting until the year end and getting a shock!

I really hate spreadsheets with a passion as virtually every client who has presented a spreadsheet to me has made a foul-up of it, with columns and rows that don't add up, links from one place to another that aren't automatically updated, putting £ signs in cells which makes the content a label rather than a figure, hence not being included in totals, etc. When a proper package like VT is free of charge and FAC is so cheap, I can't see why anyone would want to use a spreadsheet.
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Also a killer if a client is using a different MS Excel date system to you! :eek: ........ following taken from microsoft help:

"Excel supports two date systems: the 1900 and 1904 date systems. The default date system for Microsoft Excel for Windows is 1900. The default date system for Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh is 1904. You can change the date system. On the Tools menu, click Options, click the Calculation tab, and then select or clear the 1904 date system check box."
 
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Philip Hoyle said:
I really hate spreadsheets with a passion as virtually every client who has presented a spreadsheet to me has made a foul-up of it, with columns and rows that don't add up, links from one place to another that aren't automatically updated, putting £ signs in cells which makes the content a label rather than a figure, hence not being included in totals, etc. When a proper package like VT is free of charge and FAC is so cheap, I can't see why anyone would want to use a spreadsheet.
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Exactly. And a proper accounting system will give you information that you are not going to get out of spreadsheets - unless you have an in depth knowledge of both spreadsheets and accounts.

I've made the point before that proper commercial accounting systems aren't written as spreadsheets, they are written as data bases. That should tell you something.
 
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Philip Hoyle said:
Rather than using a spreadsheet, why not use the www.vtsoftware.co.uk free cash book software which lets you quickly and easily enter your transactions, reconcile the bank, and produces the usual year end reports.

I'd also endorse free agent central as it also works out your tax bills as you go along which is invaluable if you really want to keep track of your forthcoming liabilities rather than waiting until the year end and getting a shock!

I really hate spreadsheets with a passion as virtually every client who has presented a spreadsheet to me has made a foul-up of it, with columns and rows that don't add up, links from one place to another that aren't automatically updated, putting £ signs in cells which makes the content a label rather than a figure, hence not being included in totals, etc. When a proper package like VT is free of charge and FAC is so cheap, I can't see why anyone would want to use a spreadsheet.
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True in some cases but if you have your own template for clients to use the data is presented in a format that suits you and it minimises the risk of things going wrong.

You've also got to consider that not everyone is a computer whizz or wants to learn how to use a software package, even if it is something fairly straightforward like VT. Most people, even technophobes are happy using excel.
 
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Thanks very much for the replies.

Thanks Tony for the excel download.

I will look at both the excel and the vtr software and see what fits best.

The accounts software is for my son who has just joined the company as a self employed instructor and the aim is to record just enough information without getting to complicated.

I use Sage in conjunction with Barclays for the limited company and is far to complex for his needs.

My accountant provides a good price for tax returns and running payrol for two employees but information is hard to come by.

I may have to change accountants as the company is growing so if anyone would like to pm me with their services I might be interested.

Once again thank you for the advice,

Kelvin.
 
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panachesols said:
I use Tas - its free and part of sage
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Reason enough to avoid then?

I've tried Tas, and with no lack of effort. Was losing the will to live with it. Moved over to Solar, a product that is actually usable.I would argue, a simple solution is all the OP requires. Tas most definitely isn't it.
 
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Blackberry said:
You've also got to consider that not everyone is a computer whizz or wants to learn how to use a software package, even if it is something fairly straightforward like VT. Most people, even technophobes are happy using excel.
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Can't speak from a financial perspective but from general use, i would disagree with the above.

It is a rare day indeed when we go on a job and find the customer/end user has the faintest idea how to use a spreadsheet. Even the simple task of collating a user list - name/dept/shift etc is beyond many of them.
 
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Hi

Which company is your some working for AA/BSM etc ? Some of these franchises offer accountancy support incuding bookkeeping software.

Might be worth him checking with them.

Thanks
 
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If you have the skill and time to set something up in Excel, then thats fine. I'd warrant that very very few people can do that unless you are a real spreadsheet jockey.

As others have suggested, accounting is much more than the just the raw numbers.
 
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I am a small business owner and for my first two years I used a spreadsheet for my accounts. This was ok as there weren't many transactions going through and I had the time to keep on top of it. In my third year things started to get really quite busy (thankfully) and I got in a right mess. Not only did I get behind with recording purchases and expenses I also got behind with invoicing which is an absolute no-no. Spreadsheets are ideal for doing complex custom calculations and analysis but they are no good for routinely accurate inputting of data. Unless you really know what you are doing it's too easy to really mess things up, and I like to think I know what I am doing.

I had looked at most of the budget and free accounts packages out there and decided I wanted something simple to use, hosted so that I could access it from anywhere as and when I wanted, and with a level of automation so that regular invoices went out on time. In the end I settled on Kashflow. This costs me around £15 per month which is easily justified by the time saving (mine and my accountant's), improved cash flow from regular invoicing, accuracy, and lack of hassle from HMRC for late returns.

I have blog posts on my reasons for choosing Kashflow, and a general piece about the hazards of using spreadsheets for line of business applications, on my website. As I am new here I can't post the links but my site is estm.co.uk/blog

The only possible reason I can think of for trying to use a spreadsheet instead of an application designed for the job is economy, but in my experience it's a false economy.

Ian
estm - Information Systems for Business
 
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