Open Source/Free or low cost accounting software recommendations

[krytonsheep]

Good accountants are free, as are good software packages such as FreeAgent, since they save you time and your time is money.

Bad accountants and software, however, can be very expensive...

Must admit I'm curious as to why you need a company for £10k a year.

+1. I've learnt the hard way, don't mess about doing things you don't need to be doing in an effort to save a few quid. It's always more time/cost efficient to use a good accountant and takes up a lot less cognitive load.

[nozmeister]

Take a look at quickfile

[LondonManc]

Business bank account | No monthly fees - Starling Bank

They integrate to your accounting package and have the FSCS backing.

[NotAllThere]

PS: Have liked/upvoted for all the helpful posts out here

[ladymuck]

Good accountants are free, as are good software packages such as FreeAgent, since they save you time and your time is money.

Bad accountants and software, however, can be very expensive...

Must admit I'm curious as to why you need a company for £10k a year.

I'm guessing there's a 'not' missing from the first sentence...

[ladymuck]

PAYE can be done using the free HMRC tools, if you're going to run a PAYE scheme.

You won't need to worry about VAT as your turnover is well under the threshold.

Are you expecting load of micro payments going through the bank, which is why you want it automated? I presume your bank doesn't offer a statement export to csv that you could plug into the SJD spreadsheet? It probably wouldn't be all that difficult to write a macro to handle it.

And...is it really worth incorporating for £10k? What's up with a sole trader set up?

[Fred Bloggs]

I'm guessing there's a 'not' missing from the first sentence...

Exactly my experience too. The myth of a proactive accountant doing anything other than feeding your Ltd Co business through a sausage machine is alive and well it seems.

[malvolio]

I'm guessing there's a 'not' missing from the first sentence...

Ermm.. No - what am I missing?

Perhaps do the sums properly. If it takes five hours a month over the year to log all the various banking entries, work out your payroll, work out your VAT return and prepare your company accounts, as well as the year end stuff and generally keeping track of your profits margins, tax liabilities and committed expenditure, then at an average rate that's costing you around £250 (or £500 if you are a proper cost accountant and add in the free time you are wasting while doing these chores). The average accountant is around £100 a month.

And what if there is an error, or HMRC make a cock-up (not that ever happens)? My accountants have resolved issues with HMRC in less than a a day; I've spent longer than that trying to talk to someone.

Plus I'm not an accountant (at least, not since 1978) and have no desire to be doing all the reading to keep up to date with an ever-changing tax landscape. I'll leave it to the experts thanks.

[ladymuck]

Ermm.. No - what am I missing?

Perhaps do the sums properly. If it takes five hours a month over the year to log all the various banking entries, work out your payroll, work out your VAT return and prepare your company accounts, as well as the year end stuff and generally keeping track of your profits margins, tax liabilities and committed expenditure, then at an average rate that's costing you around £250 (or £500 if you are a proper cost accountant and add in the free time you are wasting while doing these chores). The average accountant is around £100 a month.

And what if there is an error, or HMRC make a cock-up (not that ever happens)? My accountants have resolved issues with HMRC in less than a a day; I've spent longer than that trying to talk to someone.

Plus I'm not an accountant (at least, not since 1978) and have no desire to be doing all the reading to keep up to date with an ever-changing tax landscape. I'll leave it to the experts thanks.

You said

Good accountants are free, as are good software packages such as FreeAgent, since they save you time and your time is money.

I just wondered if you meant

Good accountants are not free, as are good software packages such as FreeAgent, since they save you time and your time is money.

But if you did find an excellent accountant, who supplies FreeAgent, all for the princely sum of nothing then please send me their phone number

[LondonManc]

Time to take "attention to detail" off malvolio's cv.....