I'm new to book-keeping, about to embark on ICB 1&2.
Before I enrol with Ideal Schools, I would appreciate any views on the role of SAGE and whether it is critical and/or useful in starting a small self-employed business
Put simply Sage is one of the best known accounting packages out there, that's not to say it is the best, the cheapest or the easist to use. There are plenty of other accounting packages out there, have a look at the various threads on this forum, you will find plenty of advice. Sage is certainly not critical and you may find the cost prohibitive at first anyway. I too am in a similar postion, although I have a experience of accounts and bookkeeping for my own business for many years, and have used Sage Line 50 and Sage Instants for years, now that I am starting my own bookkeeping business I am looking at other suppliers, Quickbooks, Kashflow, Business-ware amoung others, quite a few of these allow you to try first for 30 - 60 days, also you can download MS Accounts for free - although it is very slow. My advice is to hold off for as long as possible, do some research, try some free trials, speak to accountants to see if they have any preferences in your local area, probably not, in many cases your clients might be small one man businesses ie. local plumber who would not justify having Sage, you could keep their records on an Excel spreadsheet, hope this helps.
Thanks Richard for your advice. I think I will do as you suggest and just undertake the manual book-keeping levels for now...these should be enough to keep me occupied for the short-term anyway.
Personally I don't like Sage as I preferred TAS prior to them being taken over by Sage some years ago. I have heard though, that TAS still has some advantages over Sage (I am retired by the way).
However, if your Clients wish you to pass on their/your bookkeeping information to their own Accountants for auding and/or finalising, you would probably be better sticking with Sage as most accountants have a 'tie up' with them and for obvious reasons, they don't like accepting non Sage information.
