Hi I'm new in the book keeping business and looking to purchase software . What is the best software to help me for people I take on to do book keeping for them? It will onlybe a few clients say under 50
Popular software package on here is VTtransactions. It is free and simple to use.
Personally i prefer using SAGE but that is probably more a historic thing in that i have always used it. It costs to get that and i think i am paying about £730 a year for a 25 company licence (ie can prepare accounts for 25 clients on it).
The main thing isnt choosing the software but getting the clients. I expect it will be a lot harder to get clients than you think.
I work full time and also have my own small accountancy practice which been actively marketing for the last few months. Currently i have 25 clients ranging from sole traders needing yearly accounts and tax returns to business needing monthly bookkeeping work and quarterly mang accounts.
How do you manage to work full time and manage 25 clients I could barely handle two when I started, with all the calls and emails that was difficult as the day job was very intense also with all the meetings and calls and workload that was dumped on my desk I never had time to deal with my personal clients at all.
welcome to the forum and good luck finding 50 clients!
On the software front VT Cashbook is free but it's not enough to offer bookkeeping services with (it's basically a peice of software to give to clients free so that they can record their transactions before giving their data to you to sort out).
If you decided to look at VT the minimum that you should look at is VT Transaction+ (I use VT Accounts).
You need to be proficient with double entry theory in order to use VT products as VT assumes quite a depth of knowledge of bookkeeping and accounts of the people using their software. However, assuming that you are experienced in bookkeeping and accounts it's an excellent piece of kit and personally I prefer it over all competitor products that I've tried.
Inclusive of VAT, VT Transaction+ will cost you £150.00 an VT Accounts would cost £238.80. Both products are for unlimited clients. If you go to the VT site you can get a 60 day trial of the software which is fully functional except for iXbrl filing.
As Mark states Sage is good and its quite easy to use but can come in a little expensive espechially in relation to Sages quite awful licencing which seems more like a client tax than anything else. Also Sage is a lot less forgiving of mistakes than VT. Personally I'm endeavoring to run my practice completely without it... So far so good!
There is also Quickbooks worth looking at plus numerous cloud offerings although the cloud movement has yet to convince me of it's merit over traditional software (some like it, some don't. At the moment it's a very much divided house).
Don't forget that it's a legal requirement that you will need MLR cover.
Also, PII is strongly advised and it a very reasonable price from this site.
You will also need Payroll software. Both 12pay and Moneysoft Payroll come highly recomended by site members although because Tom is a regular contributor on here combined with some excellent training material on their site 12pay defintely has the edge.
HTH,
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Thanks for your replies. Yes I am experienced in book keeping, but no formal qualifications,so doing the open university b190 to get me onto the ladder, then going for AAC degree. I only want to do this part time around a full time caring role I'm doing with my two boys that have additional needs, so just looking for a small business (retail) to get started, and just to bring in extra money.
One is a weekly commitment of a couple of hours a week doing the accounts function on SAGE ie processing purchase invoices, paying suppliers, reconciling the bank. It is a good little earner so i usually do it sometime on a saturday.
For the rest of the clients 3 are quarterly bookkeeping and management accounts that should take about a day a quarter (though havent done any of them yet so still to see). All the rest are yearly accounts and tax returns split between limited companies and sole traders.
When i get between 50 - 100 clients i will need to make a choice between going it alone or maybe doing my own and going part time. Though that a worry for maybe a year down the line.
At my day job there is potential to be a joint partner in about 2-3 years in a £1m turnover CA firm so there is always that to consider. But i like the challenge of going out and getting my own clients. But then again £500k of your own fees is always tempting.
As well as that i have a taxi driving licence and usually go out on a Fri and Sat night rather than sit in the house. Nothing like the rate of pay in my day job but i enjoy it as it is totally different from normal work and you get some characters in the car when they have had a skinful. Taking tonight off as got some stuff to do early 2morrow morning but prob be out 2morrow nite.
Cheers
MarkS
PS also forgot that i teach SAGE at beginners and intermediate level at a a local enterprise business as well as doing 1-2-1 sessions if there is anyone wanting it. Additionally also teach basic bookkeeping course through business gateway at the same business. Usually do one course a month over 2 nights. Did the SAGE beginners course earlier this week and got the bookkeeping course in June.
I've tried the vt plus, it's a brilliant piece of software I'm impressed, im in the process of learning sage though the b190 course, but I'm sure I'm going to go back to vt.
