Can anyone recommend some small business VAT software?

[NormaSnorks]

Am VAT registered, but doing my own VAT with a crappy spreadsheet each month.

I have hardly any transactions (about 30 per Q) but it's still a hassle, and I'm always worried about 'human error' with so much manual number crunching...

Is there a really cheap as chips, or even FREE, piece of software for small businesses/ consultants etc?

www.vtsoftware.co.uk is free.

Seems quite effective..

Microsoft used to do a free accounting software package (Microsoft Office Accounting)which we use (although we have upgarded to professional version which you have to pay for).

Microsoft sold it to Mamut and it is no longer available - the Mamut package costs money up front and has a hefty monthly fee.

If you are a freelancer there are some online packages that integrate time and/or expenses and/or billing but none of them does everything right and they all cost money (except for some cut-down versions). Look at Harvest, Freshbooks and possibly FreeAgent - there are many others (Cashboard, Paymo, ClientSpot..), some of which integrate project collaboration facilities which might make them worthwhile for you.

But there is nothing wrong with a spreadsheet. I'll give you one tip - when you are totalling a column of figures, change the row height of the rows above and below the column to 5 (or whatever). Put the sum formula in the row below the narrow one and include the two narrow rows in the range. That way, if you insert/delete rows in the list the formula will always work. In 30 years of using spreadsheets, missing the bottom row out of a formula due to an insertion is the error I have seen more times than any other.

IMHO Quickbooks is just a route to frustration.

MrA - I'm confused - could you give an example of what you mean?

I know what you mean though - inserting and then recalcing is a pia.

What I mean by quickbooks being frustrating? Well in my (brief) experience it took loads of clicks to do anything, and all you actually end up with is some numbers on a report which are difficult to probe behind and a list of transactions.

After 4 hours of struggling with the software you get an end result you could have achieved better than in 20 minutes with a spreadsheet.

But hey, if it works for you, don't fix what ain't broken!

What I mean by quickbooks being frustrating? Well in my (brief) experience it took loads of clicks to do anything, and all you actually end up with is some numbers on a report which are difficult to probe behind and a list of transactions.

After 4 hours of struggling with the software you get an end result you could have achieved better than in 20 minutes with a spreadsheet.

But hey, if it works for you, don't fix what ain't broken!

No - I meant the spreadsheet narrow rows thingy.

Oh, here is an example. There are a few more useful tricks in that sheet too.

So you mean if you are going to insert a line at the end of your list - right click on the narrow line - so the narrow line always stays empty but included in the formula?

ps - what were you doing up that early??

add it up and multiply it by 7/47 - job done

That's right Tracy. It works because you are never going to put anything in the narrow row (because you won't be able to read it!) so you have to insert above it.

At first you might think it is a pain because it inserts a narrow row, but in reality you almost always want some formulas and/or formatting in that row, so I always insert by copying the last (proper) row and inserting that - usually with keyboard shortcuts ([Ctrl]C, [Ctrl]+).

I was partly watching the election results, partly surfing and mainly falling asleep

Back to the OP - are you using a flat rate scheme? This is almost always better for freelancers, unless you have a lot of expenses with VAT on them.

When I insert by right clicking on the narrow row - it's ok - it inserts a normal sized row.

Oh yes, they must have changed that sometime in the last 15 years! I never noticed cos I always copy/insert the bottom row to copy formulas.