Quickbooks or Similar accounting software

[someoneseatenmyapple]

Hello. I keep looking at the Quickbooks website and wonder if its worth the money and any good? I am a self employed maker and also hire out vintage china for events and do a bit of styling from time to time. My accounts are not complicated and I do send out invoices.

Can anyone give me any advice as to whether its worth getting or shall I stick to my excel spreadsheet and work it all out myself.

Thanks

[delilahbucket]

It depends how much time it would save you. I use QuickBooks because it pulls in my PayPal and Etsy accounts and saves me hours and hours of manual entry. I have anywhere between 20-80 individual transactions per day and that is just money in so you can imagine how long it would take me to do it myself (I used to when I first started out).
You can do a free trial on QuickBooks so why not have a go and see if you like it. It took me a few goes to get everything up and running smoothly but any issues were quickly ironed out by the very efficient customer support team.

[Muriel65]

Hello
I'm looking for a good inexpensive desktop accounting package for a couple of clients I do bookkeeping for. I need to file VAT online and do P&L reporting.
I currently use QuickBooks Pro 2015 but when looking at upgrading it the license is changing to a monthly fee which could work out expensive when I'm doing quarterly bookkeeping.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.

[Kazzyhoward]

Before thinking about QB, you need to be aware than there is a BIG difference between the desktop and online versions. There are features in one absent in the other and vice versa. They are like two completely different products, so be wary.

As for alternatives, there are lots as it's a growing and evolving market, especially with MTD on the horizon. The monthly subscription model is widespread now and you're unlikely to find anything that you can buy as a "one off", and if you did, you'll probably have to buy an updated version fairly quickly, i.e. within a year or so when more is known about MTD as no products are currently MTD compatible simply because HMRC havn't yet released definitive specifications as to what is required.

[Kazzyhoward]

As far as is know QB Pro 2015 can be used indefinitely so until more is known about MTD, I'd just carry on using it. In my practice, we use VT for book-keeping and we know it won't be MTD compatible, but we're carrying on using it until more is known about MTD - no point changing and finding out we've chosen the wrong alternative!

[gillybeanz]

As no products are currently MTD compatible would it be worth holding off buying for a while?
I'm just starting out and was looking at QB and alternatives.
I think I'll do mine manually for the first year.

[Muriel65]

Many thanks. I'll wait out for now.

[EverardDigby]

I use FreeAgent, I find it much more user friendly than quick books.

[EverardDigby]

Oh just noticed this is an old thread!