[Closed] Book-keeping/accounting software

If the you are going to use the accountant who has recommended Sage, use Sage.

I've gone down the only route with an accountancy / software package rolled into one from Crunch.co.uk

There are software only options from clearbooks, freshbooks (free version of this if your needs are simple) and Kashflow.

Depends on the type of reporting really.

Links here - http://geoffjohnson.posterous.com/let-the-dull-bits-begin-which-accounting-soft

Thanks for that Geoff. Clearbooks looks good, anyone any experience of it?

I had a go at the trial and it was great. If I could have found a decent local accountant, I would have signed up to use it.

Sage is very good but some find the learning curve a little steep. If you go the Sage route then I wouldn't imagine you wouldn't need anything more than Instant the Line 50 versions do not offer a great deal more until you start to pay 8x as much.
Quickbooks is very poor and doesn't get you thinking from a financial aspect.
Depending on what business you are starting I could recommend different software solutions to you. You could also look at cloud based solutions such as Iris Openbooks.

Thanks Craig. The business will be a consultancy, limited, 2 directors no other employees and financially very simple so I'm looking for something very straightforward but that will still keep the books in a format that will keep accountoing costs to a minimum.

Jon, when I spoke to accountants when I was looking, a lot of them offered a bespoke spreadhseet which they preferred their client to use - maybe ask them?

hi Jon,

I'm an accountant.
If you want to keep accounting costs to a minimum then use sage. It links straight to the accounts production package nearly all accountants use so makes their life very simple plus all accountants know how to use it so there's no lost time trying to understand a different package, which will be charged for.
The instant version as mentioned above is the best one for you.
It will be a bit daunting at first but if you can speak to someone who uses sage to get a few basics it's actually really easy to use.

Thanks for the advice, very useful. I'll start investigating these packages but it sounds like I need to choose my accountant first and talk to them about it

I'd say Sage is the best one I've ever used and if your accountant uses the same system as you I'd imagine it would be easier for them? I don't know about that bit just guessing

cant stand sage, but its still the "best" one to use because it's the one our accountant uses.