Any users on here? Now that ltd company accounts don’t have to be done by an accountant, I’m considering binning mine (Crunch) and just using one of the online accountancy packages.

Crunch are rubbish for tax advice anyway, so I’m only really paying for the interface and their attempt at mobile is woeful.

So any users/experiences/gotachas of freeagent, quickbooks or kashflow?

Ta

Freeagent is really intuative, like it a lot.

Sage is better for bigger companies.

My heart sinks wheneverI see a client uses Xero, hate it, but their sales pitch is great so unfortunately getting more common.

I use FreeAgent and it’s bloody brilliant, although I still have an accountant on retainer for things like personal tax returns and generally saving my sanity by speaking to HMRC for me.

The best thing in FreeAgent for me is it instantly lets you know exactly where you stand in terms of incoming and outgoing cash, upcoming tax requirements and distributable profit, although everything it does is a breath of fresh air compared to the files and folders and literal reams of paperwork and hours on the phone I needed to deal with 10 years ago.

I’m an accountant and I have clients using Sage Accounts, Sage One, QuickBooks and Xero. When demonstrating the packages to new users, most prefer Quickbooks to the others. I have no preference other than I dislike Sage One and think the Xero pricing is too expensive compared to the competitors

OP, you’re right gut in that you don’t need an accountant to do your accounts but you will need the knowledge to file them at Companies House and with the corporation tax return to HMRC. If you’re not happy with your accountant, shop around for another as making mistakes can cost you a lot of time to correct and  money in penalties for what you may save by doing it yourself. None of the software above will submit your accounts or returns.

We use FreeAgent & I really like it. Comes free with NatWest business banking.

Freeagent is really intuative, like it a lot.

Sage is better for bigger companies.

My heart sinks wheneverI see a client uses Xero, hate it, but their sales pitch is great so unfortunately getting more common.

If you are a one man band then freeagent is definitely the logical way to go.

I’d classify the Sage and Xero advice the other way around from these though – in my experience Sage is created for people who think like accountants, grew up with accountancy systems on black and green screens or want to resell packages to their clients and keep them locked in.    I did look at Kashflow sometime ago – as the name suggests that will be more important if your Cashflow drives your business, and is made up of many suppliers and customers.

Thanks for the pointers.

Even though I have Crunch, I still effectively submit vat, payroll and Corp tax notifications and payments.

Im going to trial FreeAgent and see how it goes.

My heart sinks wheneverI see a client uses Xero, hate it, but their sales pitch is great so unfortunately getting more common

Xero works OK for simple stuff. Very handy for expenses tracking. Not good for direct expenses invoicing. Its dashboard and reconciliation process is neat and simple. And, aside from direct expenses, its invoicing is fine for limited numbers of clients. Its extras (PAYE, project assignments…) are devious. Its help files could be a lot better. And its absence of a built-in category for dividends is bizarre. And it could be a lot better at exporting data. Worth a look if your needs are simple.