Switching to accountant with Xero/Freeagent experience?

[genjokoan]

Hi Folks,
for three years now I've done my own bookkeeping using Xero. I'm getting a bit fed up of it to be honest and thinking to use an accountant. Does anyone know if it's a big deal to start using an accountant at this stage?

Would be looking for someone expert in Xero, and/or potentially Freeagent. For the latter, I'm curious if it's a better project and how big a hassle it would be to switch.

Cheers,
GK

[Clare@InTouch]

It should be easy to appoint an accountant as long as you make it clear exactly what bits they are taking over so nothing is missed out, and some will be perfectly happy to carry on using Xero too.

Freeagent seems to be more popular among contractors, and as long as you swapped over at the year end point it should be simple.

[Maslins]

FreeAgent is generally considered to be simpler, so arguably better for a contractor business. Obviously moving to FreeAgent and an accountant will be a bigger hurdle than just getting a Xero savvy accountant to hold your hand with that though.

If you're going to switch bookkeeping package, do it from a year end to minimise duplication of data entry.

Shouldn't be a big deal to start using an accountant from 3 years in...though of course that depends on how successfully you've been DIYing things without one. Always a risk they open a can of worms.

[genjokoan]

Thanks!

One thing I recently got stung on was FRS. Freeagent identifies the amount saved using FRS and automatically accounts for it. Xero needs a journal entry. I never realised that so after three years I couldn't figure why I had a large VAT liability on the books.

I'd be curious whether Freeagent - if simpler - is more restrictive. Xero can be quite limiting. For example in the case of a VAT return correction, there's things that Xero just doesn't handle and you have to file the return manually.

Anyway thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to do some serious pondering on whether I want to continue DIY.

[Maslins]

I'd be curious whether Freeagent - if simpler - is more restrictive. Xero can be quite limiting. For example in the case of a VAT return correction, there's things that Xero just doesn't handle and you have to file the return manually.

As a firm we're heavy FreeAgent advocates, but on here I try to be as impartial as I can. I think it's fair to say FreeAgent is very UK focussed, whereas Xero was born in New Zealand and is becoming reasonably big on the world stage. FreeAgent therefore does make your life a bit easier, dealing with certain UK centric things like VAT and niche areas like FRS more readily than Xero. Xero doesn't necessarily know what tax rates are, as of course they're different across the world. I'd suggest this probably means Xero's more flexible though...but potentially in a bad way for a simple UK company.

FreeAgent definitely does cater to the flat rate scheme. If you make an error on a VAT return, typically the done thing is to put through a corresponding adjustment on the next quarter's return. Certain things will become "locked down" once a VAT return covering that period has been submitted, but if (for example) you reclaim VAT on a cost where you shouldn't have and change it after submitting a return, FreeAgent will allow you to do that and filter the adjustment onto the next unsubmitted return.

Have a play with it, see how you get on.