Accounts package - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

Rhianrach · Expert

Accounts package

Rhianrach · Expert

Whats VT Final Accounts like?

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Its an Excel add on.

If you use VT Transaction+ you can import your data directly into the accounts package producing professional looking sets of accounts in many different flavours including ACCA / ICAEW formatting, limited company accounts, sole trader accounts, partnerships, LLP's and dormant companies.

It has built in iXBRL tagging.

VT Final accounts now also includes the corporation tax computation (but stops short of filling in the CT600 for you and still requires manual manipulation and annoyingly does not keep the b/fwd figures from one year to the next).

VT Accounts unlike VT Transaction+ is a 12 month licence but that is for unlimited companies.

VT Transaction+, VT Cashbook and VT Fact viewer all come bundled in with the annual VT Accounts licence so it can be thought of as the complete package for £199 plus VAT.

At the intuit roadshow when I asked about iXBRL filing they actually advised that one purchases VT Accounts to do the tagging if you need it but that creates the situation that if one needs to buy VT for quickbooks what does quickbooks do that VT doesn't.

The answer to that one is no doubt a lot as I find that with VT I need to also have an Excel file for each client as there is no fixed asset register within VT and the tax figures are not kept between years.

All in all I would highly recommend VT... Just don't expect it to be pretty like Sage or QB.

On the original question about emailing invoices that would be from the functionality within VT Transaction+ rather than VT Accounts.

I've not used that functionality within VT Accounts myself but it is a built in function to email invoices and statements to clients in PDF format.

HTH,

Shaun.

MarkS · Expert

I use VT to do my final accounts, taxcaln for tax returns and SAGE for bookkeeping.

Would certainly recommend VT if you know what your necessary disclosures are.

Though having used IRIS for 15 years the aim is to eventually move over to it when it is cost effective to do so.

Regards

MarkS

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

I remember my shock when Rob (Robh) told me that he pays IRIS £6k a year.... That's an awful lot of small company accounts to justify that outlay.

That said it must have a lot going for it to justify that price as my friends who are local chartered's have all opted for Sage and IRIS as their setups.

I dare not even try it in case I decide that I like it. lol

Shaun.

Rhianrach · Expert

Shamus wrote:
Its an Excel add on.

If you use VT Transaction+ you can import your data directly into the accounts package producing professional looking sets of accounts in many different flavours including ACCA / ICAEW formatting, limited company accounts, sole trader accounts, partnerships, LLP's and dormant companies.

It has built in iXBRL tagging.

VT Final accounts now also includes the corporation tax computation (but stops short of filling in the CT600 for you and still requires manual manipulation and annoyingly does not keep the b/fwd figures from one year to the next).

VT Accounts unlike VT Transaction+ is a 12 month licence but that is for unlimited companies.

VT Transaction+, VT Cashbook and VT Fact viewer all come bundled in with the annual VT Accounts licence so it can be thought of as the complete package for £199 plus VAT.

At the intuit roadshow when I asked about iXBRL filing they actually advised that one purchases VT Accounts to do the tagging if you need it but that creates the situation that if one needs to buy VT for quickbooks what does quickbooks do that VT doesn't.

The answer to that one is no doubt a lot as I find that with VT I need to also have an Excel file for each client as there is no fixed asset register within VT and the tax figures are not kept between years.

All in all I would highly recommend VT... Just don't expect it to be pretty like Sage or QB.

On the original question about emailing invoices that would be from the functionality within VT Transaction+ rather than VT Accounts.

I've not used that functionality within VT Accounts myself but it is a built in function to email invoices and statements to clients in PDF format.

HTH,

Shaun.

Thanks Shaun, you win one cheesecake, made with real cheese.

Rhianrach · Expert

MarkS wrote:
I use VT to do my final accounts, taxcaln for tax returns and SAGE for bookkeeping.
Would certainly recommend VT if you know what your necessary disclosures are.
Though having used IRIS for 15 years the aim is to eventually move over to it when it is cost effective to do so.
Regards
MarkS

So from a bookkeepers point of view you would use sage. I'm only doing the bookkeeping but want to swerve away from sage so would VT Transactions be the way forward in your opinion?

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Why not try it Steve.

A two month trial of VT Accounts and VT Transaction+ will cost you nothing... But allocate a full week to get your head around it.

Personally I learnt by having a set of accounts that had been produced (using Sage and IRIS) and then worked on VT Transaction+ reentering all of the transactions and pushing through to VT Accounts until I could make my accounts come out (almost) the same as the IRIS version. (the differences being on different breakdowns in the workings rather than the values in the primary statements).

My first attempt with VT ended up in a complete mess to the point where I just scrapped it and started again from scratch. My issue was that I had difficulties getting my head around the use of the Opening Balance Contra entries. I can't help but think that my issues were born from coming to VT from Sage and making assumptions based on previous ways of doing things which now seems more like being an end user of a bit of software than an actual bookkeeper which you very much are with VT Transaction+ as if one doesn't know their double entry you don't have a hope with it.

Once you clear your mind of the Sage way of doing things VT suddenly becomes very intuitive and easy to the point where I would not like to ever go back to using Sage. That said, if I had used Sage all of my life I might not like the VT software.

Any road up, the only difference between the trial versions and the real version of the VT software is that you cannot file the accounts. That aside it is the fully functioning software so next time you have a few days that you could dedicate to picking VT up I would download it and give it a try... As I say though, get VT Accounts, not just VT Transaction+ as until one pushes the figures through to their final destination it's difficult to judge whether what one is doing is as correct as it seems at the time.

All the best,

Shaun..

Right, now where's my cheese cake.

MarkS · Expert

Personally I use SAGE rather than VT for bookkeeping. More out of personal experience than anything else as that is what i have used for 15 years in practice. I am also SAGE accredited and teach SAGE at beginners and intermediate level at a local enterprise company (got a class this wednesday) as well as giving ad hoc 1-2-1 training on it (teaching client on it on Sunday).

At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. Plenty on here use VT for their bookkeeping, some use SAGE, others use QBs and some use the multitude of cloud offerings.

Some people dont like SAGE due to its cost. I have client manager for up to 25 clients. Only use it for about half a dozen or so at the moment but there is another half dozen or so that i am going to use it for shortly. As the client numbers who i use it for increase then the cost per client of using it is going to diminish so will be cost effective for me going forward.

At the end of the day I am probably looking to get somewhere about 100-150 clients that i can work on myself and i expect that maybe a quarter or so of them will need bookkeeping work done. Therefore going to cost me about £40 per client to use which i can easily pass onto the client via my fee.

I hope to learn how VT bookkeeping works in the next 6 months but it is just going to be a case of fitting it in.

I also want to look at a few of the different cloud offerings; xero, kashflow, freebooks, freeagent etc and try them out for 30 days and see how they work so i can recommend them to my clients. At the end of the day an accounts package is an accounts package. They are basically all the same and it is just a case of knowing how to navigate your way around it. For instance one of my clients uses xero. Have never used it but they gave me online access to their accounts. Quite a clever package but in preparing the accounts I was just really interested in the nominal ledger, trial balance, VAT returns and bank recs. Rather than how for instances invoices and processed and paid.

Regards

MarkS

Rhianrach · Expert

Shamus wrote:
Why not try it Steve.

A two month trial of VT Accounts and VT Transaction+ will cost you nothing... But allocate a full week to get your head around it.

Personally I learnt by having a set of accounts that had been produced (using Sage and IRIS) and then worked on VT Transaction+ reentering all of the transactions and pushing through to VT Accounts until I could make my accounts come out (almost) the same as the IRIS version. (the differences being on different breakdowns in the workings rather than the values in the primary statements).

My first attempt with VT ended up in a complete mess to the point where I just scrapped it and started again from scratch. My issue was that I had difficulties getting my head around the use of the Opening Balance Contra entries. I can't help but think that my issues were born from coming to VT from Sage and making assumptions based on previous ways of doing things which now seems more like being an end user of a bit of software than an actual bookkeeper which you very much are with VT Transaction+ as if one doesn't know their double entry you don't have a hope with it.

Once you clear your mind of the Sage way of doing things VT suddenly becomes very intuitive and easy to the point where I would not like to ever go back to using Sage. That said, if I had used Sage all of my life I might not like the VT software.

Any road up, the only difference between the trial versions and the real version of the VT software is that you cannot file the accounts. That aside it is the fully functioning software so next time you have a few days that you could dedicate to picking VT up I would download it and give it a try... As I say though, get VT Accounts, not just VT Transaction+ as until one pushes the figures through to their final destination it's difficult to judge whether what one is doing is as correct as it seems at the time.

All the best,

Shaun..

Right, now where's my cheese cake.

In a perfect world I would just leap in there and give it a shot, but if I make a shift at work then it needs to be permanent due to time constraints. I could always re-install sage at home of course and use their demo data, hmmmmm.

Oh and the cheesecake has been sent royal fail.

Rhianrach · Expert

MarkS wrote:
Personally I use SAGE rather than VT for bookkeeping. More out of personal experience than anything else as that is what i have used for 15 years in practice. I am also SAGE accredited and teach SAGE at beginners and intermediate level at a local enterprise company (got a class this wednesday) as well as giving ad hoc 1-2-1 training on it (teaching client on it on Sunday).
At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. Plenty on here use VT for their bookkeeping, some use SAGE, others use QBs and some use the multitude of cloud offerings.
Some people dont like SAGE due to its cost. I have client manager for up to 25 clients. Only use it for about half a dozen or so at the moment but there is another half dozen or so that i am going to use it for shortly. As the client numbers who i use it for increase then the cost per client of using it is going to diminish so will be cost effective for me going forward.
At the end of the day I am probably looking to get somewhere about 100-150 clients that i can work on myself and i expect that maybe a quarter or so of them will need bookkeeping work done. Therefore going to cost me about £40 per client to use which i can easily pass onto the client via my fee.
I hope to learn how VT bookkeeping works in the next 6 months but it is just going to be a case of fitting it in.
I also want to look at a few of the different cloud offerings; xero, kashflow, freebooks, freeagent etc and try them out for 30 days and see how they work so i can recommend them to my clients. At the end of the day an accounts package is an accounts package. They are basically all the same and it is just a case of knowing how to navigate your way around it. For instance one of my clients uses xero. Have never used it but they gave me online access to their accounts. Quite a clever package but in preparing the accounts I was just really interested in the nominal ledger, trial balance, VAT returns and bank recs. Rather than how for instances invoices and processed and paid.
Regards
MarkS

I think my biggest thing is wanting something similar, there are a few key things in sage that I need in VT. I may just give them a call and see whats what. Of course I also need to talk to the accountant, it affects him somewhat. wink

Amanda · Expert

Sorry Shaun, but QB all the way for me! Love it, try it steve you will be very surprised by it!

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Amanda,

no probs, everyone to the tools that they are happiest with. All that really matters is that the tool gets you to where you and the client need to be with the minimum of fuss and the maximum return on investment.

I'm really happy with VT but no judgement on anyone who prefers different software be that Quickbooks, Sage or any of the cloud offerings.

I know that I give Bob a hard time about Xero but that's only because it's put accross that such is the future which for some it may be but that's not the route that I'm looking to go down... God, I'm being almost reasonable this evening. I must be coming down with something!... Fear not, I'm sure that normal service will be resumed soon!

On the quickbooks front I'm actually looking at installing it mid December now as just too busy at the mo to devote any time to learning it properly.

For clients who use QB (there must be lots out there somewhere as its the top selling retail accounts package) I want to work on integrating their data into VT to produce and file the final accounts with as little messing around with the data migration as possible... Well, that's my Christmas week sorted (unless as usual other things get in the way of my cunning plans).

kind regards,

Shaun.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

actually, just saw that they want £110 to attend so maybe not that great a bargain for non members just for a bit of free software. You also need to make your decision based on the rest of the days events / seminars / networking opportunities.

They are going to be giving away the software at the ICB summit on the 6th / 7th of November in London.

The smallprint from the email was :

Delegates who attend the full day will receive a full single-user copy of QuickBooks Accountant Edition 2013 at no charge. This offer is only available while stocks last and may be discontinued without prior notice. Book now to avoid disappointment.

The software is Not-For-Resale, and is valued at £519. In order to receive the free copy, delegates must attend the entire day in person and complete a voucher authorising Intuit to contact them at a later date, by phone, email or direct mail.

If I had paid £110 to get the software (plus the same again in travel) I would not be happy about it being able to be withdrawn without notice or that there is a limited number of copies to distribute.

Shame that you missed the Intuit roadshow as that was free and you can't get much better value than that.

Shaun.

p.s. just found a handy link on the ICB site : http://www.bookkeepers.org.uk/Shop/Event/The_Bookkeepers_Summit_2012_

-- Edited by Shamus on Saturday 27th of October 2012 04:22:29 PM

Rhianrach · Expert

Amanda wrote:
Sorry Shaun, but QB all the way for me! Love it, try it steve you will be very surprised by it!

I shall have a look, thanks. smile

Rhianrach · Expert

Amanda wrote:
Sorry Shaun, but QB all the way for me! Love it, try it steve you will be very surprised by it!

To be honest it looks great, problem is it's very expensive. If I could get it for the same price as the packages I have now then I would switch in an Instant. I may just ring them and see what they can do.

Amanda · Expert

the accountants version is expensive at just over £500 but the Pro version is all that you will need and its about half that price, but when you work out how many clients you will have on there then its not expensive, as you can have 99 companies, so that's a lot companies if you want to expand your business. I only wish I had that many. lol!!!!!!!!!!

The sage equivalent will cost you a fortune!!!!!!!!!!

If you are looking at Sage Instants then that is set up for one company only, I have it for a couple of clients, but then I have 2 different versions of it on my Laptop.

I've hear good things about Xero but I've yet to try it.

Rhianrach · Expert

Amanda wrote:
the accountants version is expensive at just over £500 but the Pro version is all that you will need and its about half that price, but when you work out how many clients you will have on there then its not expensive, as you can have 99 companies, so that's a lot companies if you want to expand your business. I only wish I had that many. lol!!!!!!!!!!

The sage equivalent will cost you a fortune!!!!!!!!!!

If you are looking at Sage Instants then that is set up for one company only, I have it for a couple of clients, but then I have 2 different versions of it on my Laptop.

I've hear good things about Xero but I've yet to try it.

And there's the rub, I only need a one company version for where I work. I am going to look at what we spend on sage account and payroll and see if I can get pro plus payroll for around the same price.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Why not use 12pay for the payroll? You can download a 30 day trial to check it out.

Also, if you want my free 30 day trial copy of QB Premier + Payroll just PM me your address and I'll pop it in the post to you.

Also if you want a free full copy of the QB 2013 accountant edition (worth £519) Intuit are going to be at the ICB bash giving out free copies in exchange for sitting through one of their presentations (which is actually really good).

kind regards,

Shaun.

Spamkebab · Expert

Where's the ICB bash at?

Rhianrach · Expert

Shamus wrote:
Why not use 12pay for the payroll? You can download a 30 day trial to check it out.

Also, if you want my free 30 day trial copy of QB Premier + Payroll just PM me your address and I'll pop it in the post to you.

Also if you want a free full copy of the QB 2013 accountant edition (worth £519) Intuit are going to be at the ICB bash giving out free copies in exchange for sitting through one of their presentations (which is actually really good).

kind regards,

Shaun.

12 pay is where I want to head to be honest, but when I looked at QB I noticed they do a bundle.

I'm building girly lego at the moment so I'm going to take a look on Monday with my boss, I may well take you up on your offer, it's greatly appreciated, I just need to know where my boss and his accountant want to go. Whatever happens I would like to swerve away from sage, I'm going to go for 12 pay and QB pro if I can.

As the spamster says, where's this ICB deely at?

Spamkebab · Expert

Seems everywhere but here Steve.

Suppose that's what we get for inhabiting small villages.

Rhianrach · Expert

Spamkebab wrote:
Seems everywhere but here Steve.

Suppose that's what we get for inhabiting small villages.

It's shocking how us northerners get tret.

Spamkebab · Expert

I know Steve,

My ultimate aim is to become a working class, flat cap wearing, black pudding eating, ACCA qualified accountant who swears like a coal miner.

That'll learn 'em.

Lol.

-- Edited by Spamkebab on Sunday 28th of October 2012 11:04:30 AM

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

This wouldn't be you, Steve and Tim by any chance would it Neil?

Shaun.

Rhianrach · Expert

But but, that picture got destroyed years ago damn it.

Spamkebab · Expert

Ecky thump!

Sammy76 · Senior Member

I have to say I am a QBs convert now. I love it, and find it incredibly easy to use. Also loving the new reports layout on the new 2013 version. I have lots of 2012& 2013 trial copies, plus a 2012 & 2013 pro for sale.

RuthA · Senior Member

I also love QB, if you're not in a rush then keep an eye out and you'll probably find a bargain for the Pro version on a one day special somewhere - Amazon do it every once in a while and a few days ago Staples had it for £89, but it was for 24 hours only.

Amanda · Expert

Glad to see a few more QB fans out there now!

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Ruth,

pretty sure that these 24 hour things are Intuit sponsored.

This year they have really started hitting the UK market with a vengeance and after attending the Intuit roadshow myself I think that if I were Sage I would be quaking in my shoes.

I notice as well that some of the banks have now moved away from plying new businesses with Sage and are now offering a choice of Quickbooks Pro or Sage 50 with their premier packages and Quickbooks clearlybookkeeping for other small businesses.

Combine with that the Pro advisor program and new Quickbooks certification and I'm thinking that we now have a real two horse race.

kind regards,

Shaun.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

You were just ahead of the rest of the crowd Amanda.

Amanda · Expert

Thanks Shaun, I've been using it for 4 years now!

I know its not everyone's cup of tea but I love it!

Don Tax · Expert

I remember it well. That was the day I was awarded ecky thump black belt and braces and a smaller set for me' ferret. :o)