Software

lisajayne1

Xero - bookkeeping / payroll package only
Quickbooks bookkeeping / payroll only

Taxfiler - accounts production + tax. linked to the above two

Or Capium - bookkeeping / payroll + accounts production + tax

All seem great options ... would love some reviews from people who have experience using these! All the above are MTD ready (well as much as we all are)

Should I go for one or mix and match ? I'm dreaming software at this point!

Quickbooks did say if I transferred from sage.. it would migrate all transactions not just TB totals .. which is good- not sure if Xero & capium would do the same?

burg

We use

Xero - Bookkeeping
Moneysoft - Payroll
Glide - Practice Management
Capium - Accounts production and tax

Works well. Xero definitely is for us for bookkeeping due to ease of use and popularity. Glide is great for practice management but takes some setting up (they will help you though). Taxfiler is good for tax but not very good for accounts. Really liking Capium but have no experience of their bookkeeping or payroll software.

Xero have regular offers for Move my books which will transfer data from Sage into Xero.

lisajayne1

Thank you burg. I really do appreciate it

lisajayne1

Oh really Mrme89 thank you .. the plot thickens

TreadStone

"Quickbooks did say if I transferred from sage.. it would migrate all transactions not just TB totals .. which is good- not sure if Xero & capium would do the same? "


I'm trialling Capium now and I'm pretty sure they offer a migration service if requested. I'd be surprised if the likes of Xero don't offer this, they want your business after all.

lisajayne1

> @TreadStone said:
> "Quickbooks did say if I transferred from sage.. it would migrate all transactions not just TB totals .. which is good- not sure if Xero & capium would do the same? "
>
>
> I'm trialling Capium now and I'm pretty sure they offer a migration service if requested. I'd be surprised if the likes of Xero don't offer this, they want your business after all.

Thank you. How are you finding Capium? Are you using all of it ? Inc payroll?

TreadStone

I only started the trial 2 days ago. See this thread:-

https://forums.aat.org.uk/discussion/444447/capium#latest

I don't handle payroll but our place uses Pegasus Opera. I've advised them to change as it's clunky and old fashioned but you can only lead the horse to water as they say....

Sue

I have finally managed to speak to someone at Xero after four attempts of my contacting them first.

The person I spoke to was very helpful but she did not know what cash accounting was and it is important to me that the software I use is able to calculate vat using both invoicing and cash accounting. Can anyway who is already using Xero confirm whether it is possible to calculate vat using cash accounting?

Thanks

burg

Yes invoicve and cash accounting for VAT and deals with FRS too.

Sue

Thanks. I will give the demo a trial then and see how I get on.

Bertie

@TreadStone @Burg Hey, how are you finding Capium?

TreadStone

Well, after @Gem7321's feedback on the bookkeeping module, I think I'll be giving it a wide berth for the moment.
I found the Accounts Production, CT & Practice modules all very promising though. I'm finding more time is needed to evaluate things.

Bertie

Ah yes, I've just read the post of @Gem7321 that isn't very encouraging.

Sage one it shall continue to be, for now at least.

It is a pity there isn't one package that will cater for all, not having to do any re-mapping.

Smooth intergrations between bookkeeping, accounts and tax would provide the most effective methods going forward.

I do quite like Sage One final accounts...

lisajayne1

I also liked Capium accounts production (have to lean a new chart of accounts) but I think that's going to be the same for all of them.
Payroll looks great too.. even assessing the employees for auto enrolment
For me tho I need a business tax module & Capium do all the accounts adjustments within self assessment so a big black mark against it for me! Shame

TreadStone

That's the problem not ONE product seems to do EVERYTHING well. Maybe I'm expecting too much.

I did mention to Capium about the "missing link" being a business tax module but they didn't seem bothered. By their response I'm sure others must have mentioned it too.

lisajayne1

@TreadStone
This was the reply I got earlier :-


Thanks for your query. As of now, we are providing SA302 computation as per HMRC standard format and at the moment we do not support the breakdown of accounts i.e. a separate listing of Capital/AIA, Add Backs and deductions etc under Tax Computation.

We have shared this with the concerned department and it is most likely to be made available in near future. I will update you once it is there.

Please feel free to contact us in case of any doubt or difficulty.

Thanks
Ryan

So fingers crossed they get their act together before Accountex as I think people will be making decisions soon

burg

We like Capium. I've never planned on using the bookkeeping part as we have already chosen Xero as in our opinion nothing comes close in terms of functionality and ease of use.

Cloud based was a major thing for us as we wanted to move away from needing a server.

Integration with other bookkeeping works quite well as you can import a .csv TB and map it. Takes less than 5mins for most.

As for business tax, we have always made adjustments in the accounts rather than on the tax return. One improvement I would like is the capital allowances method for CT available in SA.

burg

I adjust in the accounts on the basis that clients should want to look at business performance and how effective that year has been. If we have say phone included as all of it but only 20% is business use then the accounts don't help much. When you consider this with others too such as motor expenses etc it can be quite significant.
I do however adjust for non tax allowable items in the tax comp such as client entertaining. Reason being as they are business expenses just not allowable for tax.
Overall I want to discuss a set of accounts that shows the business performance with tax being a by product of the profits made.

lisajayne1

@burg I have some clients with several business and I only do one of them.. so accounts and tax comp need to be sent to their main accountants for their self assessment... it's a pain and rare however I like the breakdown of the tax comp to show the clients that net profit is not necessarily the tax profit

burg

I agree there are different ways of doing things. I'm not necessarily saying I'm right and others are wrong. I can see positives and negatives for each way. As long as we are being consistent and following rules correctly then I don't see an issue with either way.

My only thought would be if you are particular about only working one way or the other then you may limit the software that you are able to use as many have chosen one particular way they expect accountants to work.