hi all i know this has been done too death but i was after some ideas, i run a small car repair garage and want to start to do my own book keeping and accounts,i allready have an invoicing software called garage assistant whisch is great but need something that will help keep me in with the tax man and vat man, any suggetions? i am very new to this so value all your inputs, and the simpilar the better
1. Manual books 2. Spreadsheets 3. Accounting software e.g. Sage Instant 4. Cloud package e.g. Kashflow, Freeagent
The first two are very simple, but it comes down to how much work you're prepared to put in, what you're au fait with and whether you'll be acting alone.
hi Nick thanks for the quick reply, my accountant has been doing my vat return,and end of year for a few years and to be honest its getting a bit pricey i have been paying him nearly the same as i have been paying in tax, i dont have any employees, i dont claim for anything other then laundry costs, and yet i have been being charged 2000 a year,what i wanted is something that i can add my parts costs, what i charge the customers, and for it to be able to work out depreciation on assets and do the vat return which is cash based,and give me what i need for my end of year self assessment,
I don't know how big your business is but if it's not that big then you can consider sticking to excel, if your business gets large or complicated then it's best to have a proper accounting package to cope with the data. Also maybe you should consider getting a bookkeeper to produce your accounts ready for your accountant and then he would just need to check the work make minor adjustments and that would bring the cost down also. If you still want a simple software you can try my excel program, see if you like it and if you find it easy to use. It can help with your VAT returns depreciation etc but, You can download it from my website and see.
As mentioned before on here I'm a big fan of Sage 50, probably overkill for you, but I'd check out the Instant version. I have a few smaller clients who use Instant and it's perfect for their requirements.
Also noticed there's a link to Sage One on the forum. Not used it myself but I believe it's an online version of Sage. Might be worth a look.
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Stuart
Birmingham City FC - Blues is my religion St Andrews is my church
hi Nick thanks for the quick reply, my accountant has been doing my vat return,and end of year for a few years and to be honest its getting a bit pricey i have been paying him nearly the same as i have been paying in tax, i dont have any employees, i dont claim for anything other then laundry costs, and yet i have been being charged 2000 a year,what i wanted is something that i can add my parts costs, what i charge the customers, and for it to be able to work out depreciation on assets and do the vat return which is cash based,and give me what i need for my end of year self assessment,
How is £2k p/a broken down? I have an MOT garage who we do VAT and accounts for, they do their own wages (8 employees), we charge them £250 p/q for VAT and £1k for year end, but there are a lot of transactions, their t/o is £350k.
I'm just trying to think how they compare with your situation - if you're a small car repair garage, with no employees, sounds like you're paying a lot!
thanks all, to answer a few questions out turnover is about 120,000, i dont have any employees, we do mot tests no car sales, i have 4 bits of equipment that depreciate, all i can see my accountant does is put down all the invoice we sell against all the parts invoices,bills and then i pay whats needed, just trying to work out if i could do this myself as we dont claim for anything that is not directly linked for the business, i am just unsure of what data i need to input in to excel, or the like,
NB I haven't and can't fully test the latest version (7) so am linking to the previous one (6). A big plus is there's no annual renewal or support fees, just a one-off for each version. For that reason you might prefer to try (7), but beware because there's no Final Accounts add-on for that, as yet.
I'm not connected in any way, just a satisfied user, and I'll do my best to answer any questions on here.
There are many bookkeeping and accounting software that helps in your business. As you are new in this so before selecting any accounting software, you must compare feature of some software according to their properties. accountingfaqs.com/what-are-the-properties-of-good-accounting-software/ helps in selecting best software. I think kashflow is good accounting software for your business.
