So many online accounts packages ... hard to choose.

[cava83]

Dear All,

First and foremost, thank you for your time and happy new year!! + apologise for the essay.

Need some assistance on the accountancy software aspect, wondering if you guys/ladies can help. If near us (Surrey, will take you out for a beer or two for the gratitude)

We currently use a tool called GetHarvest, it's fantastic, provides us with really nice looking invoices, we have time sheets, can manage our expenses and have some wonderful reports but it lacks in the following areas;

Add/remove VAT on expenses
Bank reconciliation
VAT reports

So we are on the look for a new tool, I have been going through the majority of the recommendations but still none the wiser, if anything more confused.

Let me explain how a bit more about us. We are a small Web Development / IT company which is run by a couple of nice guys (biased here) to help the SME market & avoid a 3+ hour daily commute & £500 monthly travel costs.

The business Invoices are generated from the following;
1) Hourly rates
2) Monthly retainers
3) Annual retainers
4) Fixed fee jobs
5) Products such as hosting/domains/servers/backups (can be annual, can be monthly, can be quaterly.)

As we are in the UK, for us, VAT is applicable to nearly all our invoices, 90% of our business is UK, 10% outside EU, so no VAT but charged in sterling.

Currently using Harvest 100%, meets our requirements, but doing VAT returns manually, expenses are a pain as no VAT can be added and thus, need to mess around with spreadsheets for the accountant.

I've also been looking at Freshbooks/Kashflow/FreeAgent and Xero as you guys have mentioned, they all do very similar things, most importantly VAT reports & Reconciliations. I've also come across wave accounting but as we know, free doesn't always mean good.

We would like to invoice from iPhone/iPad (we really do need this feature)
Reports are important.

Being able to customise our invoices is important.

What software package would you recommend and what is the winning feature?

Thank you a million, again, apologies for the essay.

G.

 

[David Griffiths]

Xero will handle all of your requirements, with one exception. Am I right in thinking that you enter your timesheets into your current package? If so, that feature isn't directly available, although there is a host of add-ons or partner packages for Xero, including time/project management. I've had a look at Procision Plus, and one of my clients is looking at it in depth. Of course that's an extra cost, which might be a consideration.

Xero fits your other criteria. Invoice layout is wholly flexible via a word template.

Set up inventory items for products and services, with fixed prices, hourly rates

Repeating invoices - monthly, quarterly, annually. These can be automatically approved and emailed with no intervention or you can opt to check them before they go

Multi currency version is available. It's a fiver a month more but handles multi-currency better than anything else that I've seen, picking up exchange rates and adjusting on the fly.

Iphone/Ipad app no problem. Cheesy demo here Also available on Android.

VAT is a doddle. Bank rec is a doddle, with automatic bank feeds making it even easier. Good range of reports, and both sales and purchases give you a total of overdue items to follow up

I looked in depth at seven packages about three years ago, and opted for Xero, both for myself and for clients. There's no point in commenting on the features or lack in the other packages as I know that they have moved on, but so has Xero

I'm not sure that you are going to be able to cover all of your requirements with any single package but Xero certainly does nearly everything

 

[cava83]

David,

Thank you very much for your reply.

Xero does certainly look good, I need to make things easier for the accountant but learn more too. One thing that annoys me is that you have to pay an extra £3 if you use HSBC, no costs for other banks.

How do you manage your time and projects? I guess you use a third party?

Thanks a million for your time,

Thanks,

Gabi.

 

[David Griffiths]

There is a difference between the HSBC feeds and the others, in that HSBC actively provide the feed. With the others, the details are downloaded via a third party, Yodlee or you have to download the statements manually, which is what I do. The HSBC feed is much more stable and in my opinion well worth the extra £3. Lets hope that the other banks finally see the light on this.

Yes, we use a different product for projects, We are moving to Workflow Max, which is now owned by Xero. Not had it for long, and there's a lot to get to grips with!

Just edit to add that last night I downloaded the Xero app on to my new toy, sorry, android tablet I had it on the phone but the screen is far too small (for me anyway) for it to be useful. On a 10" tablet it's excellent

 

[ILilja]

Just want to add that E-conomic also handles what you're asking for - everything but the time sheets is covered by the standard package, but for the time sheets you would have to use the Project Accounting add-on module. The iPhone/iPad app is free, though.

So if you're trialling different solutions, you might want to give this one a shot too.

I work at E-conomic myself, and if you decide to trial E-conomic in your quest for the right accounting software, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts. If you specifically want to try out the Project Accounting module, let me know and we'll sort that out for you.

Good luck!

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Have you tried asking your accountant - often accountants will work with one or more packages and may be able to offer you a discount and or support in using the package if required.

 

[cava83]

Hi,

Thanks for all these replies.

My accountant is an awesome old school guy, who loves sage and nothing but sage. So that is out

Kashflow seems good, they all do. But it's hard to make a decision.

I need to have a think and see.

I think the requirements are relatively similar for smaller businesses.

I did want Xero, but the cost is a lot more than say Kashflow, it all makes a difference.

Thanks,

G.

 

[David Griffiths]

Everybody has their own perception of value, but with Xero coming in at £228 a year I think that it will save you far more time than it costs, even +£36 for the bank feeds. I reckon that it saves me about 2 hours a month minimum and I definitely value my time at more than £11 an hour!

 

[cava83]

Everybody has their own perception of value, but with Xero coming in at £228 a year I think that it will save you far more time than it costs, even +£36 for the bank feeds. I reckon that it saves me about 2 hours a month minimum and I definitely value my time at more than £11 an hour!

David,

Thank you for the reply. Agreed on that basis.

I think maybe I should waste time trying to find packages and get cracking.

Ah, so many choices!!

The bank fees are a bit :S but what can you do, that is with HSBC and I am not having the best of luck with them, so might change bank.

Have you used any of the other packages?

Thank you so much for replying,

Regards,

G.

 

[David Griffiths]

Have you used any of the other packages?

I set up trials for a few of the others before I plumped for Xero, and had an extended demo of two others, so that's a fairly good view of about 7 packages. There were certain areas where they just didn't do what I wanted. It would be unfair to go into specifics now as they will surely have moved on, although I know that one or two issues remain with a couple of them.

When I say a trial, I mean that I set my own data up and used the package for up to a month - at one time I must have had my own records in about four live trials! One in particular didn't get to a trial because the set up was so poor. Another I just didn't like the look and feel of it - reminded me too much of something else

 

[meibaker]

hi, i am using my business works. i think its a fab software. it even does your vat return for you. it costs @£14.50 + vat. check it out

 

[cava83]

I set up trials for a few of the others before I plumped for Xero, and had an extended demo of two others, so that's a fairly good view of about 7 packages. There were certain areas where they just didn't do what I wanted. It would be unfair to go into specifics now as they will surely have moved on, although I know that one or two issues remain with a couple of them.

When I say a trial, I mean that I set my own data up and used the package for up to a month - at one time I must have had my own records in about four live trials! One in particular didn't get to a trial because the set up was so poor. Another I just didn't like the look and feel of it - reminded me too much of something else

David,

Thanks very much.

Do you have a discount code available for me as a reseller of the services? happy to put it your way, if I can get some ££ off

Thanks,

G.

 

[meibaker]

David,

Thanks very much.

Do you have a discount code available for me as a reseller of the services? happy to put it your way, if I can get some ££ off

Thanks,

G.

hi, its free agent, you can find it online. i am a barclays customer, thats the service they offered to me. so i dont have any coupon off as i am not a reseller. good luck

 

[cava83]

hi, its free agent, you can find it online. i am a barclays customer, thats the service they offered to me. so i dont have any coupon off as i am not a reseller. good luck

Thanks, but was talking to David

 

[David Griffiths]

David,

Thanks very much.

Do you have a discount code available for me as a reseller of the services? happy to put it your way, if I can get some ££ off

Thanks,

G.

No, sorry. Xero doesn't work with referrer codes. In general we only set it up through our account for clients, and bundle the charge in with the annual accounts. There is a small margin, but the admin is more than it's worth, I'm afraid.