Accounting software - FA/Sage/etc

[parallelmonogamist]

Hi folks,

I read a lot about FreeAgent around here but wonder what it is that makes it worth an extra £20 above Quickbooks for example...

Does it replace an accountant? If not, what do people use it for that's worth the £20?

Thanks in advance,

P.

[Scratch It]

I have nothing to add to help sorry.

But wtf is a parallel monogamist?

[parallelmonogamist]

But wtf is a parallel monogamist?

Heh, just something dad said to me ages ago along the lines of "When I was young I was a kind of serial monogamist, but you...."
Days long gone. :-)

[Maslins]

I read a lot about FreeAgent around here but wonder what it is that makes it worth an extra £20 above Quickbooks for example...

Does it replace an accountant? If not, what do people use it for that's worth the £20?

Some people will use it instead of an accountant, it'll certainly make DIYing a lot easier, but you definitely need to know what you're doing to DIY without getting in a mess, FreeAgent or otherwise. I'd suggest most Ltd Co owners would probably use it in addition to an accountant.

Like most bits of software, it's there to try to make your life easier. Quickbooks may well be cheaper. Pen and paper is cheaper still.

I believe FreeAgent's currently the only bookkeeping package that can do payroll submissions. Most except for the most basic can do VAT submissions these days.

Have a look at the website and perhaps start a free trial, see what you think.

[parallelmonogamist]

Thanks Maslins,

Clearly pen and paper is cheaper, I'm trying to ascertain whether the extra features are worth the extra cost, and without having to go through a long eval of each. Sure, I'm trying to stand on others' shoulders/taking a shortcut/however you want to put it, but that's what these boards are for.

QB and Sage do payroll and VAT submissions and obviously all day to day bookkeeping; the only things of worth that they don't appear to do is annual reporting, corp tax. The reason for my question is to see how people use FA and if they use an accountant since that would appear to cover all the required output for HMRC. Probably most do still use accountants as they should offer advice as well, which leads me to the thought that FA's probably not worth it. I would like to be convinced either way.

[colinrobinson]

happy user

Hi folks,

I read a lot about FreeAgent around here but wonder what it is that makes it worth an extra £20 above Quickbooks for example...

Does it replace an accountant? If not, what do people use it for that's worth the £20?

Thanks in advance,

P.

I've been using free agent for three years now. I find its great software for contractors it fits the market well is very intuitive and accurate to use. I export its data to excel send it to the accountant, he's very happy with its output and doesn't charge me much to formulate into a formal set of accounts.

tracks key tax dates, expenses, etc even warning me when I've exceeded mileage limits. I like the recurring expenses feature. say mileage 300 a week and it will autocreate for duration of contract. also links well to both my business accounts with barclays data services. gets my recommendation. the smart payment to user feature is great for the contractors payroll/dividend split

but as with any online make sure you keep a data export (backup) in case the service goes off line permanently leaving you stumped.

[JonNorris@Crunch]

I believe FreeAgent's currently the only bookkeeping package that can do payroll submissions.

We do - but obviously with Crunch you have the accountant bundled in too so the price is a bit higher.

[philip@wellwoodhoyle]

The difference with FAC against Sage or QB is that it is far easier for a non-accountant to use, such as the simple entry screen for out of pocket expenses and automatic calculation of mileage claims. It also calculates corporation tax on the fly so gives a running total of amount available to pay out as dividends. Sage and QB don't do automatic corporation tax calculations so you'd have to constantly be doing manual calculations and entering tax as a journal to get a comparable dividend availability figure in them. So, on the one side, it's ease of use and on the other is far better reporting of taxes and distributable reserves. Depending on which Sage or QB version you're comparing against FAC automatically calculates the flat rate scheme for VAT - some other systems don't. Also don't forget that it now includes payroll and RTI submissions which you'd have to pay extra for in Sage or QB. I'd be hard pushed to recommend anything other than FAC to any contractor or freelancer clients.

[bathingape]

Thinking of eventually moving to FreeAgent. I would already have been there if it wasn't for the SJD spreadsheet which is brilliant.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

A very happy FreeAgent user. Worth every penny, or would be if I paid for it.

It has a few flaws; its corporation tax calculation isn't 100% accurate for numerous reasons (doesn't support deferred taxation or handle small pool allowances properly) but it's close enough. Accountant prepares accounts and does final calculation and adjustments can be journaled into FreeAgent.

It also didn't support the reverse charge for VAT on services from non-UK suppliers until very recently and its current implementation isn't perfect (eg you have to select EC Supplier to apply the reverse charge even if the supplier is outside the EC).

I'm also hoping improvements are made to handling disposal of assets which is currently tedious and requires journals. Changes are on their way I believe.

Finally, if you have more than one shareholder, it's debateable whether it's dividend paperwork is correct (it generates multiple sets of minutes for what should be one dividend, split between shareholders - as if they were two completely separate dividends). FreeAgent claim HMRC have said this is fine, my accountant is dubious and prefers to generate his own paperwork.

But these are relatively minor quibbles.