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Tax and accounting: which accounting software? Help please!

12 replies

panzotti · 25/06/2019 06:42

I feel I am in a huge mess and I am panicking.
I have used for some years some accountants just because they were in very good terms with BIL. I panicked with taxes and I keep all receipts in a box until the tax return is due.
I now understand that their did not lose time doing my bookkeeping and have claimed the least possible - end result a huge tax bill for last year and also a big chunk of money to be paid by 31st of July - which I do not want to pay as my income so far this year has been null. Hence the need to do some careful accounting.
Some suggested to upload my bank statements into a software highlighting all money coming in and out due to business - sounds a good idea.

Now which is the accounting software that is easier and most effective to use? How do I go about it?

OP posts:
Snaponlogic · 25/06/2019 06:48

there are hundreds of software packages available now, some free and some you pay a monthly fee. Have a look at a few of them & find one that works best for you - I tried 3 of them before I settled on my current package.

Sage, quickbooks, receipt king..to name a few!!

Or find a local book keeper or accountant to do all of this for you!

Good luck!

MrsPnut · 25/06/2019 06:54

Unless you have a reasonable sized business then I would just use excel.
Download your bank statements as a csv file and open it in excel so you can highlight your business transactions. If you work from home then you can also claim back a proportion of your utility costs.

Alarae · 25/06/2019 06:56

They can only claim a proportion of how much you paid them as a cost- I used to do someone's return who was a box person and they were only charged around £350, so a percentage of that was claimed as an expense.

It worries me that you are talking about creative accounting to get your bill down.

If you have no income for the current tax year, then go back to your accountant to tell them and they can reduce them to NIL.

panzotti · 25/06/2019 07:19

@ Alarae no creative accounting here, just trying to understand what is in and what should be out.
My accountant charged an absolute fortune for what he was doing and my rather simple accounts.
I had a big bonus paid over the last 2 years and I clocked an income of around 150K per year....accountants fee estimate is around £3000 - is this correct?
I have started downloading CVS format - thanks for the tip!

OP posts:
Kazzyhoward · 25/06/2019 11:23

No one can say without knowing how complicated and how much stuff is comprised in your book-keeping.

If there are piles of invoices/receipts to wade through, worse if there are personal stuff in there, it can take many hours/days for a book-keeper or accountant to sort out. Even worse if some are paid by cash, some by personal bank account, some by credit card etc. The messier, the higher the cost.

Rather than trying to teach yourself book-keeping, you could always just spend some time sorting it all out yourself, so the accountant/book-keeper doesn't have to wade through all the irrelevant stuff. Sort it all into piles, i.e. all phone bills in one pile, bank statements for each account in separate piles, extract and remove any private/personal stuff not relevant to the business, etc. You'll have to do all that if you decide to do your own book-keeping.

Using software isn't a magic bullet. If it's all a mess, you'll just end up computerising a mess - i.e. "garbage in, garbage out". Sort it out first, make sure it's all complete, make sure you can cross reference each item of paper to the relevant bank statement, etc.

Kazzyhoward · 25/06/2019 11:28

accountants fee estimate is around £3000 - is this correct?

Depends on the time they've had to spend sorting it out. I've seen book-keepers charge that kind of money for relatively small/simple businesses. One was a small shop, no employees, just the owner running a "hobby" business (in his case it was fishing tackle). He came to me complaining his accountant charged another £500 which he though extortionate considering his book-keeper "did everything for them". When I looked deeper, the book-keeper was charging £3000 per year which I thought was stupidly high, until I saw just how chaotic his paperwork was. In reality, it was about right as the book-keeper was spending several hours per week. Of course, the correct answer was for the book-keeper to organise him better so she could spend less time, but she clearly didn't want to do that as she was on a good earner!

panzotti · 01/07/2019 07:25

@Kazzyhoward - you are soooooo right and this is what is happening here....I am not organised but that is mainly because I really DO NOT KNOW!
Do you have to keep paper copies? BT Bill's- BT for some reason does not want to send me paper bills ( nor does my mobile phone provider). Are the figures indicated in the bank statements enough?
Is it ok if I take pictures and put everything in a dropbox?
Do you need paper?

OP posts:
Accountant222 · 01/07/2019 08:30

Do NOT use Sage.

My husband accounts needed a software program for MTD (making tax digital) I have used Sage for many clients, am very familiar with it.

I phoned them to arrange a suitable package, I didn't need anything particularly advanced, just to send the VAT electronically. They advised a cloud version which was £10 a month plus VAT, discounted to £6 for the first 3 months. I agreed to this program and was sent a link.

Spent hours setting it up, due to part way through financial year. Get the first invoice from Sage and it's £54 !! Apparently I had set up the very much more expensive version, it was a link with no options and also no pricing attached. I emailed the person who had sent the link, no reply. I spent over an hour on the phone, waiting to be put through, to be told, I can cancel if I want but basically they are not interested. It's sharp practice on Sage behalf imo.

The waiting times for assistance from Sage are longer than trying to get through to HMRC and due to MTD lots of people will need assistance.

haveuheard · 01/07/2019 13:39

@panzotti it depends what your accountants use - my DH works for an accountant and they use specialist cloud software so clients just upload documents, very little on paper now.

Kazzyhoward · 01/07/2019 16:33

Most accountants use several cloud software these days - usually they use a few different ones as different ones are good for different business types.

CanIFindaValidUsername · 01/07/2019 21:33

Look at free agent or xero

topcat2014 · 01/07/2019 22:38

£150k of income is not small - you really ought to be using the services of a qualified accountant to some extent.

The personal allowance goes away at that level,

TBH if anyone is quoting you less than the low four figures they probably don't really know what they are doing.

Obviously better organised records are cheaper to make accounts from.

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