Hi Michele,

many thanks for moving the post.

welcome to the forum, hope that you really enjoy posting here. At times its very much the office experience whilst working on your own.

looking forwards to chatting,

kindest regards,

Shaun.

Debates Jo! Tis but witty banter... Nice change of signature.... Shiny

Thank you both for the lovely introduction. What software package to do currently use and how do you deal with a new client with software your not familiar with, I use VT.

Michelle (Foxy) - are you sure its not just you with another BKN moniker. the other Jo is really me. Ok - kidding!

Michele (Plus) - both Michelle and I use Sage, mostly. I have access to QuickBooks (desktop) although its on an old PC and I never use it. Ive just had a play with Sageone on trial - dont like it. easy I guess to use for clients, but also very easy for them to make a mess! Plus it doesnt seem to be good for quick inputting, although maybe thats just me at the moment not being used to it. But I wouldnt use it as its Cloud (see Cloud threads)

Shaun uses VT. Its one I will be looking at next given the ever increasing price of Sage and the move towards PAYG.

Oooo - was that Sage 16 on perpetual licence then, or just for 12 months? Wonder if they have done an about turn on that then.

Remember last year when then said that the client manage was ONLY available on subscription when I phone them but you manged to get in on the last licence cos you had been an existing customer. Im using multi company professional version and some clients have their own so at the mo Im ok, but when I start going after more clients I will most definately be looking at VT. Should start my training now really.

I highly recommend VT, the website doesn't do it any favours but the product is excellent.

No belittling taken Michelle, I know that you at least tried it but didn't take to it (some do, some don't).

I have found that people coming from Sage do find VT more difficult to come to grips with as its as though one first has to unlearn Sage such as the idea of closing off periods, nominal codes and needing to journal accruals and prepayments.

Personally before using VT I did use Sage and my view is that it was not as good as VT for many types of clients. That said, VT does not have stock control which Sage does so if I were advising a client who was a box stacker and shifter I would not advise VT Transaction+ (although I would still quite happily process their Sage books through VT Accounts).

I agree totally with Michele that the VT website doesn't do them any favours.

I wouldn't say that the Excel comparison is completely fair for VT Transaction+ although VT Accounts is as you state a VT add on.

Would I call you a snob? No, Sage isnt exactly IRIS or SAP. Many people who can afford Sage still choose VT, not based on price but just that it's the closest thing I personally know of you you controlling the software rather than simply feeling like the end user working around the software... Hope that makes sense.

Lets try an analogy. Think the difference between driving a Chevelle SS compared to driving something like a far more refined Hyundai I40 which tries to do the thinking for you but leaves you feeling less in control. That I feel for me is the real key difference in that with VT I am getting the software to do what I want it to rather than Sagewhich can often feel as though you are working around it to get to where you want to be.

So no, you're not a snob. You just like one bit of software, others like another. I certainly would not say that Sage is any better than VT.

As a rule of thumb when advising clients on software I would go with :

Teachers, doctors, IT professionals, Website designers, Therapists, generally all service industries : VT Transaction+ and VT Accounts
Manufacturing : Sage + VT Accounts

Just my view on things.

All the best,

Shaun.

NOTE : The above spawned an excellent discussion about Sage vs VT which has been moved to the following seperate thread for both ease of reference and to stop taking over a welcome thread :

http://www.book-keepers.org.uk/t60990122/vt-discussion-vt-stm/

 

-- Edited by Shamus on Thursday 8th of October 2015 05:18:30 PM

Hi Shaun, thanks so much for taking the time to go through all that! Perhaps the coding issue can be worked round by having a number at the beginning of the name? Does it let you determine the code name, or are they pre-determined?

Not that VT would be suitable for this job, but just to address why I need code numbers over text..

I have a client who is a charity. They do their own bookkeeping on Sage 2012 and employed me to build and maintain the structure/reports of it. (They are due new software, and I cant move from Sage until I give them a better option that I can support). They have two offices, and like to see PL's for each. They also have PLs for different managers, who need to hone in on certain areas.. such as their NHS contract performance for each office. I don't usually go for departments in Sage, as I find building a nominal list structure that separates absolutely everything, is much easier to re-craft in as many different ways as you like. Departments are a little more restrictive in that you cant give the transaction two department codes. (can VT do that, though? That would be ace!). They have a huge payroll journal, so that gets memorised (and it has to be, because there are nominal sub codes for each employee, their own Ers NIC, their mileage, travel, crumbs you name it! They wanted the lot showing!! - this is because each employee's costs subsequently gets apportioned off and its easier to do when its broken down. The coding is MAHoosive.. over 100 sales codes alone, and up to 7 digits. They love it thank god, and I have set it up so that the bookkeeper doesn't have to do any more work than she needs to, especially where codes are concerned.. it follows the usual sage structure as far as possible.. so all repairs and maintenance start with 78, for example.. that gets her roughly where she needs to go! They were copying everything into spreadsheets, as well as sage, before!! I think if the nominal list was only names, it would be very difficult to keep track off, as presumably they are in alphabetical order?? And, do you have to start typing the name, to get it to come up? That might be a pain given all the names that would need to be remembered on this job!

Will add VT BK to my list of priorities to review in March! You never know, I might find some fun work arounds. Thanks again for a great reply, really helps :)

Wow you guys certainly thrashed that one out!

Hi Michelle,

it will take a little time to answer all of the points. Will try to get a full answer sorted out today but cannot guarantee it. (and I may have to break the answer down into segments)

just off on the school run now but will chat later,

kindest regards,

Shaun.

p.s. I may end up creating a new thread for this. I cannot move individual postes but I will copy and past them in. that way we can start pulling together a VT point of reference.

I'll also look at the other VT advice posts and make sure that they have something in the title where a single search will find all of the important VT threads. (not those just advising people on software but those with the "how to" bits in them).