Reviews of accountancy systems
If you haven't already, you might find it helpful to read our guide to choosing an accounting system, which includes advice on whether a manual or computer-based system is best for you.
Manual systems
Analysis books
Available from most stationers and costing around £20 these can easily be set up to provide a good book keeping system but you should get help from your accountant. A bit of advice at the start will save you a lot of time and money later on. You may need some help to reconcile your bank account and prepare your VAT return at first. But once you have seen how these are done for the first few months you will be able to do them yourself.
Simplex D
Available from better business stationers and costing around £20. Designed for small retail or cash based businesses, this system is much too complex and difficult to operate for most people. Mistakes can easily be made and can be very time consuming and costly to put right. We flinch every time that someone tells us they are using this system!
Computer systems
Other computer-based systems are available but most accountants will not be familiar with them. Be careful; you could be putting yourself at a real disadvantage by choosing an unconventional system.
PC Cashflow Manager
PC Cashflow Manager is the ideal PC based program for the small business. It's just like using a manual cashbook except that it does all the sums for you. And it helps you to take care of your bank reconciliation and your VAT return
This is by far the best package that we have ever seen for record keeping for a small business. It's easy to learn and extremely easy to use. We cannot see any way that record keeping could be made easier than this.
That's why we're distributing it. Click here for more information
Quicken
Available from most home computer shops. This system tries to make accounting simple by using different jargon but just adds more confusion. Gives the impression of being very easy to correct mistakes by deleting the wrong entry but in doing so can cause enormous problems for your accountant. Does not have sales and purchase ledgers. We feel that this system is really not suitable for keeping business records.
Quick Books
A much improved version of Quicken with proper sales and purchase ledgers. This system can produce lots of pretty reports very quickly. Still suffers from the problem of being too easy to delete records. You need to be very disciplined if you are going to use this system.
Sage Instant
The most widely used system available. Easily upgraded for any size of business. Nearly all accountants are familiar with this system. Not quite as flexible as Quick Books but your accountant will prefer it. It does things in a conventional accounting way, which might sometimes seem a little long-winded but are much better in the long run. Sage have their own telephone support system although it can take a long time to get through. There is an upgrade path through Sage Line 50, Sage Line 100, Sage Line 200, Sage Line 500, where the numbers reflect roughly the number of employees in an organisation that the software is suitable for.
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