Accounting Software for Small Business

Posts Tagged ‘Review’

Payroll Software Strengths

An essential feature of the payroll solution is the inclusion of an employee details worksheet in which simple details are entered for each employee such as name and address, income tax code, national insurance number and relevant dates which satisfies the requirements of small businesses operating a paye scheme. The payroll software then uses these details particularly of income tax code and national insurance dates to calculate the income tax and national insurance deductions. Once the employee details have been entered running a paye system couldnt be easier.

The payroll software pre-enters each employees name on the payroll each week or month and simply entering the employee gross pay triggers the payroll to automatically calculate income tax and national insurance contributions including the employers national insurance contribution using the standard income tax and national insurance tables which are embedded within the files supplied with the payroll software system.

Having calculated the net pay the payroll software then goes that extra step and automatically completes the time consuming paye deduction sheets, all arranged in the same appearance as the official inland revenue deductions sheet for recording income tax and national insurance deductions. In addition also included in the employee paye section are copies of the employee P60 certificate, P45 if required and the P14 which is a summary of the pay, income tax and national insurance contributions made by each employee. This feature of the payroll software is extremely valuable in saving employers using the small business payroll solution a great deal of time in paye administration.

Many payroll software systems require the purchase of payslip stationery. The DIY Accounting payroll software is different in this respect. First of all the payslips are all generated automatically from the information in the payroll file which shows the weekly or monthly gross and net pay, income tax and national insurance and the gross numbers to date. The Payslips all preset on payslip templates can be printed at any time on normal A4 copy paper being another money saving feature of the paye solution.

The income tax and national insurance deducted throughout the financial year are automatically collected by the payroll software on an excel copy of the Employers Annual return, the P35. An excel copy in the same format as the inland revenue form which can be simply printed out enabling the payroll figures to then be entered and filed online for employers to both avoid late penalties and receive the online tax free bonus available.

The DIY Accounting Payroll Software is easily integrated into the DIY Accounting Software solutions for both self employed and limited companies when the payroll software files are saved in the same folder as the accounting files providing a complete accountancy solution for clients.

Payroll Software Weaknesses

The DIY Accounting payroll system does not deal with income tax K codes. The income tax code K is used infrequently being applicable to those employees whose taxable expenses exceed the income tax allowance and is often never seen by most employers.

Employer statutory sick pay and maternity leave require to be entered manually. A small price to pay since the statutory payments are not frequent and easily looked up on the employers CD-Rom as required.

The quoted package sizes of 5 employees, 10 employees and 20 employees include all employees during the year including new starters and leavers and it is important then to obtain a package likely to be in excess of the total number of expected employees to avoid changing the payroll solution during the financial year.

Pricing

At £14.99 the small business payroll software for up to 5 employees including starters and leavers is almost a giveaway price with many competitive products priced much higher. The 10 employee payroll version is £19.99 and the 20 employee payroll version just £24.99. Considering the paye administrative work the payroll systems save. The packages are not upgraded each year with employers purchasing the new package each financial year.

Conclusion

Exceptionally good value, the payroll system is very quick and easy to use and produces exactly what every employer requires from a small business payroll solution. Accurate income tax and national insurance contribution calculations, significant reduction in paye administration time, regular payslips for each employee, compliance with paye administrative requirements and the satisfaction and valuable tax free bonus prize of producing the payroll on time.

Accounting is one of the most vital processes in any business. To say the least, it is even more important than manufacturing goods and selling them. Flow of revenues and expenditures ultimately decides the fate of a business as does its proper management. The requirements of every business may vary, but the general requirements of a business like collection, classification and analysis of financial data is what constitutes the crux of accounting.

Nowadays, it is becoming a norm to purchase accounting software before starting a business. You can find accounting software for both small business as well as large businesses. In fact, a whole basket of accounting software programs is there to choose from. Depending on the type of business you have and how you run it, you have to choose the accounting software that compliments your business, instead of being a limiting force to it.

Before reviewing any accounting software, it is important to classify the market of accounting software in the following manner:

a) Small business/personal accounting software is targeted at home users. Such software are simple, easy to use and inexpensive. They perform simple functions such as management of budgets quite at ease.

b) Low end accounting software is known for its ‘single entry’ products. It serves a single national market quite easily.

c) Mid market accounting software for mid-level businesses serve multiple national accountancy standards. You can do accounting in numerous currencies.

d) High end accounting software is also known as Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software. These expensive solutions cater to the needs of huge organizations.

Since the mid 1990s, with the entry of Microsoft and Sage, accounting software market has simply evolved. In fact, it is simply increasing at a break-neck pace. There are various good accounting software in the above categories of accounting software. Selecting the best one is not that easy.

In the small business/personal accounting section, the best accounting software would doubtlessly be the Intuit’s QuickBooks Accounting Software pro edition for small business. This accounting software has all the accounting features necessary for small businesses. QuickBooks Small Business 2006/ 7, through its time-saving features and improved functionality aids management of business. By applying online accounts management of bank statements, this software easily helps in integrating bank records in a smart way. With this software, you can rule your growing business accounts effortlessly and productively.

One excellent software, targeted at the low-end accounting software market is Sage MAS 90 ERP/MAS 200 ERP. This software is also applicable in mid-market accounting software market. This software encompasses different worthy solutions. Some of them are e-commerce, payroll, financial reporting, customer relationship management, core accounting and much more. This is an award-winning accounting software. With key processes like bill of materials, inventory management and job costing, it aids in the management of business. The advanced version MAS 200 ERP has the extra function of a client/server platform. It is known for its scalability and reliability.

In the high end accounting software market, several excellent accounting software, from some well known manufacturers like Microsoft and Sage are competing with each other for the market pie. No doubt, selecting the best one is difficult. Still, I would go with the ACCPAC Advantage Series which is known for its world-class multi-tiered functionalities. ACCPAC accounting software is perfect in the sense that it allows a business to tune its functionalities according to the needs. The ACCPAC Advantage Series is available in three editions- Enterprise Edition, Corporate Edition and Small Business Edition.

The Sage ACCPAC ERP system/Enterprise edition helps you to increase the productivity of your entire enterprise with end-to-end solutions, such as CRM. This high end software provides integrated set of end-to-end business management applications. Like other Sage software, this accounting software is known for its seamless integration, reliability and high performance which a large organization desires for keeping its competitive advantage over its rivals.

Last year I downloaded a great and inexpensive small business bookkeeping software to my computer.  It was simple and easy to use and I spent about a week entering all my receipts.  It was a relief to finally be getting my bookkeeping done so I would be ready for tax time.  Then soon after, to my dismay my computer died, and because I had not created a back up, all that work went down the drain.  I was so discouraged that I couldn’t even think about doing it again.

Sometime later I took a class on Quickbooks.  Finally, I was going to catch up on this much needed task of entering and categorizing my receipts.  I went  to two four-hour classes and got a great overview of the system but like most courses, I put the paperwork on the shelf and it’s still there today.  It was just too overwhelming and because I am a one-woman company, I didn’t want to take away from operating my business to do bookkeeping.

Then not long ago I thought I’d give it another try. That is when I googled free online bookkeeping for small business.  I was not going to use a computer based program again for fear that I lose all my hard work.  That’s when I discovered Outright. A free online bookkeeping system that is simple to use and understand.  But that’s not the best part, Outright has partnered with Shoeboxed to bring business owners the very best online bookkeeping system possible.  When I discovered Shoeboxed I just started praising God, literally.

With a Shoeboxed account, you combined your receipts each month, place them in a large self-address envelope and send them to the company..  There is no need to categorize or separate them.  Shoeboxed takes your receipts and runs them through a scanning machine that reads the name, date, amount, and also identifies the category of the receipt and then uploads it to your free Outright account.  Not only that, the machine scans each receipt so that after it is uploaded to Outright, you can click on the receipt to view it.  If for some reason that Shoeboxed couldn’t figure out the category, you can do it manually with a drop down button.

There are four pricing options. The fees are very reasonable as well starting at $9.95 per month to submit 50 receipts. But if you are like me and have accumulated a lot of receipts, with an annual plan that begins at $19.95 you can send in 150 receipts monthly and 250 of your catch up receipts. For a slightly higher rate you can send in more.

In addition to this awesome service, they have live customer support, a real human being you can call for help or  answer questions and they are always polite and courtesy.

A 30-day free trail of the service is available. I believe this service is going to revolutionize the bookkeeping and account practices for small business owners and I highly recommend Shoeboxed for your small business bookkeeping needs.  Learn more about ShoeBoxed and Outright.

Accounting Software Strengths

Easy to use by non accountants requiring no previous accounting knowledge and is basically a list of sales and a list of purchases on preset excel spreadsheets. Each workbook is arranged as 12 monthly spreadsheets with preset columns and uses an entry code letter to analyse both sales and expenditure.

Cash and bank spreadsheets are included as optional extras for those businesses that require them with a built in automated bank reconciliation. Entering bank transactions and a bank reconciliation has been arranged so the bank statements can be listed and when the statement total is entered the bank reconciliation is automated.

Monthly profit and loss account also includes a financial health check based upon an automated tax forecast to enable businesses to monitor their financial performance. By entering drawings the package then compares the net profit made with the likely tax liability plus the drawings.

Quarterly vat returns are generated for vat registered business and is also suitable for non vat registered business. Producing a vat rteurn is very easy. Simply click the vat file to open and click the date required from the drop down box and the vat return is produced.

The vat calculations can be disabled by non vat registered small businesses by simply changing the standard vat rate from 17.5 to zero making the accounting software suitable for both vat registered and non vat registered businesses.

The accounting package includes a stand alone sales invoice generator which requires invoices generated to be manually input into the sales sheet.

Capital allowances are automnated on the fixed asset schedule by simpoly listing assets bought. Depreciation is also automatically calculated with preset percentages that can be changed as required.

A major benefit of using this small business bookkeeping software is the templates are arranged in such a way to automatically generate an excel copy of the self assessment tax return. The excel self assessment tax return is arranged in the same layout as the official inland revenue form with the same box numbers making it easy to copy the figures from one to the other for submission.

Accounting Software Weaknesses

The Self-employed accounting software UK is based upon single entry of transactions and does not produce a balance sheet which is an optional requirement for self employed and therefore not a problem for the vast majority of businesses. DIY Accounting actually recommend clients who are self employed and wish to produce a balance sheet to use their Limited Company accounts package which does produce a balance sheet being based not on single entry but on double entry principles. The small business accounting software is suitable for a single tax year, the latest being 2007-08 and does not cater for accounting periods other than April to April. There are benefits in anyone self employed adopting the standard April to April financial year as this avoids tax allowances from two separate years being a feature of the accounts. When used by small businesses using the cash accounting system the bookkeeping entries to the sales and purchase sheets must be entered according to the dates money is paid or received rather than the dates invoices were issued. At the end of the financial year any invoices not yet entered require to be listed to adjust the final profit and loss account figures. This a major disadvantage if using the vat cash accounting scheme rather than the Accounting Software being reviewed.

Very Low Priced

At £12.99 the accounting software is basically available for loose change and will save many businesses the need to employ an accountant potentially saving hundreds of pounds in professional fees. For the financial year 2006-07 the basic package for non vat registered business is available at just £9.99 and the standard accounting software for vat registered small business is £12.99.

Other Features

The product has a stock control feature to monitor any stock losses. The small business accounting software contains a wages interface that fully integrates the DIY Accounting Payroll Software when those files are saved into the same folder as the accounting software files. A major advantage of the package is that being on excel spreadsheet all transactions can be seen, no hidden databases, and easily changed as required. The sales and purchase spreadsheets include columns for entering CIS tax deductions and payments and the certificate numbers. The CIS tax being then automatically entered on the self assessment tax return. it is essential that users have a version of excel from 1998 onwards installed to use the program which is written on excel spreadsheets. The accounting software also works fine with an Open Source spreadsheet package.

Conclusion: to Buy or not to Buy

Exceptionally good value, very easy to use and produces exactly what every small business requires, automated accounts requiring no bookkeeping skills and no previous accounting experience with the valuable end product of a fully automated self assessment tax return.

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