Replacement For TAS Basics

**fuzzypenguin** · 14 April 2016, 08:56

Originally posted by fatdaz View Post

I'm a one-man band LTD company IT consultancy and I've been using TAS Basics to do my accounts for the last 6 years. I've really got on with it . I've used it to do all of my limited day to day bookkeeping myself (limited to a handful of invoices a month and maybe 20-30 outgoing payments) and I've really got on with it and it's been easy to provide the annual data to an accountant to do the year end stuff. Unfortunately TAS have been acquired by Sage and it seems that they're killing off the TAS product. I have an intrinsic dislike / distrust of online "cloud" based offerings so I'd rather look at a desktop product with a one-off upfront purchase price but I don't want to pay multiple hundreds of pounds for a bloated package that does way more than I need. I was thinking of QuickBooks desktop or Sage Instant but both of these seem to be being phased out in favour of monthly subscriptions to an online service.

Is there a suitable desktop package or am I going to have to bite the bullet and use an online offering?

Thanks in advance

FD

You might have to bite the bullet I'm afraid. This is the way that a lot of business software is moving now, as it is a better revenue scheme for the publishers - little and often, rather than sell the product and then the user can use the same software for years. I would ask your accountant which one(s) they use / support and then try the free trial versions and see which one you prefer. Personally I like clearbooks, but that's just my personal preference.

**Fred Bloggs** · 14 April 2016, 08:58

Originally posted by fuzzypenguin View Post

You might have to bite the bullet I'm afraid. This is the way that a lot of business software is moving now, as it is a better revenue scheme for the publishers - little and often, rather than sell the product and then the user can use the same software for years. I would ask your accountant which one(s) they use / support and then try the free trial versions and see which one you prefer. Personally I like clearbooks, but that's just my personal preference.

I believe you're right.

**northernladuk** · 14 April 2016, 09:03

Isn't disliking/distrusting cloud as an IT contractor going to be a bit of a problem in the not so far off future?

**jonnieboy** · 14 April 2016, 11:32

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

Isn't disliking/distrusting cloud as an IT contractor going to be a bit of a problem in the not so far off future?

Only for a few years until things go full-circle again...

**philip@wellwoodhoyle** · 14 April 2016, 12:35

Have a look at www.vtsoftware.co.uk who do an excellent book-keeping desktop system for a one off cost of £125. They also do a free "cash book" version without the sales/purchase ledgers which is easy to download and try out. If you just want something to record your in's and out's and keep track of your sales invoices, then it's probably just what you need. Doesn't have the fancy bells & whistles or award winning GUI's but it certainly does it's job.

**fatdaz** · 17 April 2016, 11:53

Originally posted by jonnieboy View Post

Only for a few years until things go full-circle again...

My thoughts exactly

Helping customers embrace "the cloud" if that's what they want to do isn't the same as putting all of my own data in someone else's hands.

**fatdaz** · 17 April 2016, 11:55

Thanks for all the replies. I'm currently trialling Kashflow but I'll take a look at VRS

Replacement For TAS Basics