Software

Jenbo

Opinions please on best cloud accounts software and prices. Looking into xero but seems expensive as you have to add bolt on's or apps.

Thanks

burg

Xero for us.

It can appear expensive but for most a cashbook version will work well. This starts from £5 + VAT per month.
It has caused us to change what we offer though and have identified around 100 clients we are not likely to be able to support once MTD arrives.

MarieNoelle

Jenbo said:

Opinions please on best cloud accounts software and prices. Looking into xero but seems expensive as you have to add bolt on's or apps.



Thanks

Who are your clients and would you be ready to offer a mix or stick to one software whether the clients like it or not?

reader

@burg , how long did it take you to learn how to use Xero? Do you use any of the associated apps, e.g. receipt bank, expensify, workflow max, harvest, etc?

burg

It took a few weeks to get to grips with it but I'd say 3 months of constant use to build confidence. We use Datamolino, workflow max, Fathom plus a few others

BrooksCity

Jenbo said:

Opinions please on best cloud accounts software and prices. Looking into xero but seems expensive as you have to add bolt on's or apps.



Thanks

Top contenders would be:

Free Agent - starts at £9.50/month
Kashflow - starts at £7.00/month
Quickbooks - starts at £6.00/month
Clearbooks - starts at £10.00/month
Sage One - starts at £3.00/month

Most offer a trial and some have a lowered price for the first 3-6 months.

Hope that helps.

reader

Do you know about Xero's pricing model?

I believe Free Agent charge clients around £29+VAT so £9.50 is a nice discount

burg

Xero starts from £2 per month for Ledger, £5 a month for a cashbook version and £20 for full version.

Additional discounts then based on volume.

reader

Thanks as always, burg

Went on the xero roadshow yesterday, was interesting.

The futurli guys (formerly known as crunchboards) were there.

Loads of other guys were their like receipt bank, boma (for email and social media campaigns for accountants), the profitable firm, expensify, practice ignition for automating client on-boarding, etc.

Usual mention about to open banking, psd2, gdpr, mtd, advisory (rather than compliance) business model.

Xero payroll looks really good. Definitely going to take some of moneysoft's client base!

Xero HQ seems like a bit of a practice management tool.

I'm not sure if I should go on xerocon for £175. Probably not. Too expensive for me.

MarieNoelle

reader said:

I believe Free Agent charge clients around £29+VAT so £9.50 is a nice discount

That's what I get for sole traders. £16.50 for a limited co.

reader

Looks like Free Agent have a ratchet system. The more licences you buy the cheaper you get them for. I think £9.50/month is the rock bottom price for ltd.

You should renegotiate or at least find out how many more clients you need before you get to £9.50/month.

You might need to become a 'premium partner' for £9.50/month which might cost a bomb.

Went to a Xero roadshow yesterday and they were very keen on getting advisers to get their certifications for migrations and their badges and go into their directory for marketing purposes.

MarieNoelle

I only have a few contractors and sole traders on Free Agent at the moment but trying to move my smaller VAT registered clients currently on VT onto it before MTD.
I also use Xero typically for larger businesses.
Free Agent is a pain when it comes to reporting. The export facility on Xero is far better.
AutoEntry integrates very well with FreeAgent, I think they work with other Apps like Receipt Bank. And I like the fact that FreeAgent is a UK based company so they have developed the product with UK tax in mind.

reader

What software do you export the free agent data into?

MarieNoelle

Taxcalc and VT

reader

Taxcalc website looks nice. It also has an accounts production module although I'm assuming its cheaper just to use vt.

MarieNoelle

reader said:

Taxcalc website looks nice. It also has an accounts production module although I'm assuming its cheaper just to use vt.

I use both and really like the layout of TaxCalc, but I only use it for subcontract work (so I don't have to pay for it). For my own clients VT does the job for now.

KatyTurner

Hi All,
Does anyone know if HMRC are going to provide any free software to bolt on to excel for MTD? Or if this is likely to be made available to purchase directly from Microsoft?

reader

The Government has confirmed that businesses will be able to continue to use spreadsheets for record keeping, but they must ensure that their spreadsheet meets the necessary requirements of MTD for business (such as passing relevant information across to HMRC every quarter), which will involve combining the spreadsheet with additional software to perform the upload of data to HMRC.

https://www.icaew.com/technical/tax/making-tax-digital/software

TreadStone

As far as I'm aware HMRC won't be providing ANY free software.

Jenbo

Where do we purchase this software from?

reader

Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, Free Agent, KashFlow, etc

CSan89

Went to an AAT MTD event at the weekend and the speaker told us that HMRC are expecting free software to be developed by Xero, sage, quickbooks, etc, but they will be very basic. It will then likely to be that you have a sliding scale of fees dependant on what features you want to unlock.

Not sure if this covered the VAT reporting as he was talking about the quarterly income reporting that isn't due now until at least 2020.

Jenbo

Do these companies supply just the bridging software though?

TreadStone

No. At present they all offer a cloud based bookkeeping solution.

reader

The software providers will be required by the Government to produce software that is both MTD compliant and compatible with spreadsheets.

This software will probably go on sale to agents at the end of the year/beginning of next year for clients not already using a cloud accounting solution.

KatyTurner

Thanks for all that, everyone. So basically, we still don't know exactly what will be available until a few months before we have to start using it.
I have a few clients who are quite worried as they use paper ledgers and have done so for years. They aren't computer literate and don't feel confident enough to use any kind of cloud based software.
I will wait and see what happens.

TreadStone

We're now (finally) making a concerted effort to move as many as possible NOW so as to avoid potential bottle-necks later on in the day.

Just because the "bridging" software isn't available shouldn't mean clients can't be moved to some form of cloud solution now. Use brings confidence so start a few trials....

KatyTurner

Thanks TreadStone. I might just do that.

burg

We are actively moving our clients all across.

We have a different level of packages and have even introduced a basic MTD package, only available to existing clients, which at least gets them ready.

I'm definitely with @TreadStone in that I don't want lots of last minute moving over of clients. I'd rather encourage them now and risk losing some who don't want to or would rather wait until the last minute.

Jenbo

Well what happens if you have clients, like I have who want to stick to their spreadsheets and are adamant that they don't want to change. The only option is to wait for the bridging software. I cannot see how the government can penalise people if there is no systems in place in time or enough time to learn how it works.

burg

Jenbo said:

Well what happens if you have clients, like I have who want to stick to their spreadsheets and are adamant that they don't want to change. The only option is to wait for the bridging software. I cannot see how the government can penalise people if there is no systems in place in time or enough time to learn how it works.

For us they will most likely cease to be clients. There is no doubt that moving everyone to a quarterly service will mean an increase in workload. The method we have come up with by having one main solution will mean we can automate and can also get to know our own systems inside out. If clients are not prepared to get onboard with that and want to wait then that is fine. However they will be told that we won't be the ones to help them and they wither need to manage this themselves or find someone else who is willing to wait until the last minute.

I've been there and been the last minute person before dealing with many people who frankly just don't care or appreciate our time. I'm done with that approach and its a great reason to improve things for us.