I think that your primary considerations are usability and cost.

Sage whilst often the software of choice for many businesses (generally because they do not realise that there are alternatives) charges per client.

All cloud offerings follow a similar client tax approach.

If your client uses sage then you may have no choice but to use it. Although, you can always choose not to take any client that needs you to use your own software and you cannot change what they need.

As I say, keep an eye on cost and whether it is worth investing in the clients preferred software.

Quickbooks charges per user so one bookkeeper needs buy only one copy of the software to service all of their clients.

Thats the same with VT Transaction+ (the software that my practice uses).

I prefer VT over quickbooks as you feel that you are controlling the software rather than simply being a data entry clerk to it.

Much of your decision will come down to what you are comfortable using. I really wanted to like QB but always found that it compared poorly to VT. My practice does not use Sage at all.

For Payroll software take free trials of 12pay and Moneysoft payroll. Both very reasonably priced for unlimited clients. Both bits of software have strong followings on here.

We have a sticky on here called "Convince me that I don't need Sage" despite the title it gives good arguements and recomendations both ways.

Ultimately the final call is down to what you need for your customer base.

Good luck with the new business. Which area are you covering?

I'm just outside Cannock. The intent was to cover South Staffs and the West midlands but with the exception of one small business my client base is down South and in Scotland as it seems that there's just too much competition for not enough clients around here.

Talk later,

Kind regards,

Shaun.

Hi Shamus

I am situated in the Sandwell area of the Midlands. I do hope i won't be fighting a loosing battle when trying to gain new clients if competition is fierce in my surrounding areas.

At present i do not have any clients. Once i have received business cards/leaflets, i guess that is when the grafting comes in. Am i right in thinking that established bookkeepers may well use more than one accounting package to maximise gaining work? Obviously this wont be the case for me just yet as a starter.

Amanda - Thank you for the information, and of course Shamus.

I am pleased to hear that Amanda. Can i ask for recommendations on who to obtain PII from. Google searches are coming up with Hiscox and Trafalgar, but i am sure there has been mention of another on this site.

 

Thanks

Hi Nicola

competition can be good so dont let it put you off. you are your business no one elses, and if you believe in yourself you will do well. After all does it really matter where your clients are based? Im based in Brierley hill so yes Im one of your competitors but hopefully a friend too. I use my PAYE for payroll and mainly quickbooks for the rest. It really depends what you like. a word of advice test whatever you like, but don go out and buy expensive software until you have your first client. A lot of people like Solar. 

 

Very best of luck in your new business

 

Ah Lainy,

but your not allowing for me just having watched the entirety of sons of Anarchy season 6 following directly after the entirety of Breaking bad so I've got a completely new outlook on dealing with competition. (and never going to be able to look at a two pronged fork in the same way again!).

lol, just joshin. Hope that business is good for you Lainy... Nicola's more on your turf than mine so if there's any drive by shootings, nowt to do with me.

LOL Shaun.  Ok, you're convincing us.  So here's the start of an influx of bookkeepers asking you how to get started in using it.  Also, I spoke with a local accountant recently who says they now only put any new clients onto either VT or Xero so I really should learn it.  From previous posts I guess there is no formal training.  So how do we learn?  I'm coming from the mindset of a (gasp) Sage user and I'm ok in Excel.  So, if I just start working through a set of accounts, what do you think I'm going to find difficult to get my head around?  What are the main differences?  Any advice much appreciated.

Lainy and Nikola, don't be watching any of Shaun's box sets.   Just meet up and have a coffee (or a glass of something).

Best Wishes All

Hel

-- Edited by HellsBells on Sunday 14th of September 2014 01:59:33 PM

-- Edited by HellsBells on Sunday 14th of September 2014 11:34:17 PM

Hi Hel,

I think that hardest thing to get away from in moving to VT is the idea of closing off periods that you have in Sage.

Its really easy to use and pretty self explanatory but its not for people who do not understand manual bookkeeping.

As with most modern software it learns as you type so if you've entered pension £100 into the accounts a few times next time that you get as far as "Pe" it will have filled out the rest of the entry for you with the right accounts and sub accounts.

Probably the most difficult thing that you will encounter is when entering opening balances there is something called opening balance contra which is just a form of suspense account all of the opening balances from the trial balance should leave that as zero.

There are often multiple different ways of doing the same thing. Non of them are incorrect but it was always my fear when first starting with the software that I was doig the right things in the wrong way or at least not the most efficient way.

Oh, don't know if you will miss them or not but nominal codes are a sage thing so if you've memorised them all imagine how much brain space you will be able to free up by not cluttering it up with those anymore... That said, I know that whenever an accounting standard is dropped I miss it as I spent time memorising it. Nominal codes will be like that. They may no longer be of any use to you but you will probably miss them.

And on the brain space thing I seriously think that mine needs a defrag.

All the best,

Shaun.

Hi Hel,

just take regular copies of your .vtr file (I suffix them with yyyymmdd so that I can sequence them easily).

Every company is a seperate .vtr file. You can delete .vtr's from the list on the front screen as its just a list, the underlying file is untouched.

For each client I have a folder and within that folder a sub folder for each year. I store that .vtr file that was used to produce the year end accounts in that sub folder then copy it forwards to a new folder for the new year and use that one for the next twelve months.

regardless of the above though any year can always be recreated just by changing the year that you are processing in the tab at the bottom of the screen.

I keep a seperate fixed asset register for each client in Excel although you don't need to as when you add an asset you just enter the entire depreciation schedule then for the next four years (or whatever the schedule for the asset is).

If you damaged VT itself you just redownload it. The only time that I've done that was when I was having the issue with Sage.

If you enter any data thats wrong you can even just delete the transaction and do it again (non of the messing around that you have to do with Sage).

Once you are used to it you will not want to go back.

Have fun,

Shaun.