Hi Sarah,

it's a real divider with, I would say, the bulk of us strongly in favour of the traditional software on your own machine rather than dependancy on other peoples servers and the service of yours or your clients internet service providers.

Personal opinion (I'm full of those!) is that this is another case of the software industry giving us something that nobody asked for and that doesn't give any improvements over existing software (although some would argue that the data existing elsewhere is more secure).... Whatever happened to products being consumer driven rather than the current belief of build it and they will come?

So, my suggestion would be use VT Transaction+ and be in control of your own software rather than the other way around. However, if you want to go down the online path then Kashflow is always well spoken of but also take a serious look at Arithmo as Dalbir is a regular contributor on here and it's shortlisted for software industry prizes.

All the best,

Shaun.

Hello again Shaun and Ali

Many thanks for your comments. It's really interesting to hear them.

I personally am a BIG Sage Line 50 fan. I love the functionality of it and the fact that I am in charge of the software on my computer. I backup my data religiously BUT with the idea of keeping up-to-date with modern technology I was wondering if it was possible to offer my bookkeeping services to my clients to enable them to also access the data via the online package.

From what I can see the software isn't sophisticated enough yet to be able to offer the same detail. I agree that some of the packages are perhaps ideal for micro-businesses doing the bookkeeping themselves. They also seem to appeal to the younger business person just starting out. I am also concerned about the security aspect of having no control of the data.. although I suppose I do backup my own data off-site..

From - ..confused of Bristol..
Sarah

I use Clever Accounts Accountants package because it gives me complete control and is cheaper than anything else I have been offered by anyone else before and since.

I was wary when I first got it - Aug 2008 (doesn't time fly!) but I've been very pleased with it, and it has allowed me to take less time to do the work I need to do, and I have been able to incorporate the costs into my charges - so clients get it free, I do less work and earn the same. Clients think I'm wonderful as they are paying the same as they did 5 years ago. I get calls from other suppliers all the time, but no-one can beat them on price - and it can even be updated on a iphone or on a Mac!

They still offer it, but don't advertise it any more, which is a shame because its a really good system. What I love is I can talk to a client or bookkeeper while we are both on the system on our respective offices and I can talk them through the transaction or even quickly change them there and then.

Its great because for many of my clients I have the detailed bookkeeping for the last 3 years accessible in one place. Its extremely useful as it has a facility to compare up to 6 years figures, without printing anything out - I can certainly say that "I know my clients".

It is great to see the book-keeping community debate this hot topic. As someone who is a big fan of cloud computing (and the Xero product in particular), I have to confess that I am a little biased on the subject. However, instead of adding to the usual fanfare about the benefits of online accounting software, I thought it would be useful to share with you some of the trends that we are noticing amongst our clients (who are all small businesses in the UK):

1) More and more of our clients are thinking about moving (or have already moved) other software applications to the cloud. Once they move one, they will start to move others, often starting with their CRM systems, before moving onto their accounting system.
2) Clients are phoning us up and asking to work with us because of our Xero expertise. They see the ease-of-use of the product and cannot wait to start using it. Increasingly, they are the ones driving the change.
3) What is also interesting is that weve noticed more and more clients moving away from their more traditional accountant or book-keeper purely because they were not prepared to adapt to their move to the cloud.

This last trend is an interesting one. If it continues (which I think it will) it spells a two-tier world of accountants and book-keepers. Those that get the cloud and those that dont. There will be a place for each group, of course (as it will take time for clients to move their businesses to the cloud). However, one thing is for certain, one group is getting bigger by the day..... the other smaller. Which group do you want to be in in 12 months time?

Useful links:
http://www.xero.com  
http://www.thewowcompany.com/xero_accountant.htm  


-- Edited by Peter Czapp on Tuesday 15th of March 2011 06:31:55 PM

It is great to see the book-keeping community debate this hot topic. As someone who is a big fan of cloud computing (and the Xero product in particular), I have to confess that I am a little biased on the subject. However, instead of adding to the usual fanfare about the benefits of online accounting software, I thought it would be useful to share with you some of the trends that we are noticing amongst our clients (who are all small businesses in the UK):

1) More and more of our clients are thinking about moving (or have already moved) other software applications to the cloud. Once they move one, they will start to move others, often starting with their CRM systems, before moving onto their accounting system.
2) Clients are phoning us up and asking to work with us because of our Xero expertise. They see the ease-of-use of the product and cannot wait to start using it. Increasingly, they are the ones driving the change.
3) What is also interesting is that weve noticed more and more clients moving away from their more traditional accountant or book-keeper purely because they were not prepared to adapt to their move to the cloud.

This last trend is an interesting one. If it continues (which I think it will) it spells a two-tier world of accountants and book-keepers. Those that get the cloud and those that dont. There will be a place for each group, of course (as it will take time for clients to move their businesses to the cloud). However, one thing is for certain, one group is getting bigger by the day..... the other smaller. Which group do you want to be in in 12 months time?

Useful links:
http://www.xero.com
http://www.thewowcompany.com/xero_accountant.htm

Cloud accounting systems are without doubt the way forward. Being able to have real time access from anywhere is a massive benefit. If a client phones me I can simply login to the same system they are looking at and run through the transactions that they are querying. I can process journals etc. All this without data backups having to fly about everywhere.

I recently changed my computer and this was absolutely no headache as the majority of my services are in the cloud. I simply boot up, access the web and away you go.

Only downside can be data speeds but generally this is ever improving.


Incidentally, KashFlow, knocks the socks off a lot of what Sage can do at a fraction of the cost. There is also awesome support from them. My bookkeeping team also use the rapidfire software bolt on which massively improves the experience of KashFlow.