Best accounting software for self employed?

[LivingMyBestLife2020]

My friend has recently become a self employed courier. He isn’t business minded, and has come from a completely different profession where he was an employee.

So which are the best, simplest accountancy software packages and their cost?

Thanks in advance

Xero. Very simple. Can’t remember the cost, I’m afraid.

Thank you. I was thinking xero but I’ve never used it personally

Xero is good, it's what we use. However, we make sales and purchases, are over the VAT threshold and have lots of loans/ business mortgages/ credit agreements etc. He may not need anything that does all of that just yet,

So, most banks now offer some kind of free software with their business accounts (they aren't as good as Xero but do the job) or he can just use a spreadsheet and some bridging software to make him making tax digital compliant.

I use free agent but I'm not an IT contractor so not sure if it work meet their needs. It's by far the most popular accounting software for contractors.

Xero really.

None are perfect, and I will adapt to any system a client uses but, as the years have gone by, Xero stands out for the small business.

Quick books. Very easy to use.

We just use excel spreadsheets (vat registered company employing around 20 people).

As a courier? Depending on what he needs to sort he could keep the records on an excel spreadsheet and file using the hmrc form at the end of the year

@Shelddd

I use free agent but I'm not an IT contractor so not sure if it work meet their needs. It's by far the most popular accounting software for contractors.

Sorry meant to say I am an IT Contractor. No idea why I can edit some posts but not others, so annoying.

I use xero and I don't think it's as intuitive as it might be but I hear good things about quick books.

Don't use excel spreadsheets. That's my only advice. Any software you choose is better than that. It's not worth trying to save 20 a month.

Xero is great for small business, very simple to use, as an accountant I find it a bit too simple but it's fantastic for the non-professional.

Xero plus Hubdoc works for me

Thank you everyone. I’ll pass this info on to him.

@Sauvignonblanket

Xero plus Hubdoc works for me

I also use hubdoc with Xero.

Not a fan.

I keep going with it because it saves me having to log in individually to utility suppliers to get PDF bills.

For everything else it's rubbish

Easify!

@Shelddd

Don't use excel spreadsheets. That's my only advice. Any software you choose is better than that. It's not worth trying to save 20 a month.

Surely it depends what you need?

If the friend is a 'self employed' courier, all he needs is a list of income and expenses. His income he can paste into a spreadsheet from his bank account and his expenses will be the cost of running the vehicle, probably using the 45 p a mile standard rate, and perhaps the allowance of a few quid a week for using his home as an office.

If you're dealing with wages, premises costs, stock or supplies, VAT etc, I can see the need for specialist software, but in this case it sounds like paying to turn a simple job into a complex one.

Most SE couriers (it sounds like this is for Amazon, My Hermes etc, it's debatable whether he's legally SE, but that's a separate issue) earn fuck all, employ no-one except themselves and don't have to buy any stock or have much in the way of other business expenses, so don't really need dedicated accounting software.

@Scrowy - fair enough, it took me a while to get up to speed as well, but I get a lot of receipts and invoices by email and like being able to forward them straight into Hubdoc rather than manually inputting everything.

Most of us IT contractors are doing very little as well. Barely any expenses. I enter 1 or 2 transactions a month into my accounting software. Still way better than a spreadsheet.

I am not from the UK originally and it was actually shocking to me how much people rely on spreadsheets in UK and how little systems are used. Its hard to explain why it's bad without giving foundational information in IT systems, databases, etc.

If you want to keep using your spreadsheet no one will stop you and they do have their place but they are no supplement for accounting software and i would not hire or trust an accountant who manages their clients transactions and prepared their financial reports in a spreadsheet.

[quote Sauvignonblanket]@Scrowy - fair enough, it took me a while to get up to speed as well, but I get a lot of receipts and invoices by email and like being able to forward them straight into Hubdoc rather than manually inputting everything.[/quote]
I email them straight in to Xero and cut out the middle man .

I've found hubdoc was just adding an extra layer most of the time. When they first introduced it I thought it sounded great but the last 3 quarters I've used it and it was definitely slowing me down rather speeding things up.

I use QuickBooks. Very simple and user friendly.

I use excel spreadsheets. Works fine for me. I email to my accountant for the quarterly VAT returns and annual accounts. Keeps my accountant happy.

He'd be best off getting the free testing days of each of them and run a trial invoice etc through it.

I use FreeAgent because it is the only one that easily allows c/o invoicing, which I do a lot of (Landlord, c/o Letting Agent).

Others have better stock control etc.

Anyone else still using spreadsheets, check out the Make Tax Digital deadlines

www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital/overview-of-making-tax-digital

You can still use spreadsheets with making tax digital. We pay £30 a year for a programme that runs as part of excel simply to file the VAT returns.

That was what I was pointing towards. But you have to know the deadlines and the acceptable mechanism to use!

www.gov.uk/guidance/find-software-thats-compatible-with-making-tax-digital-for-vat