Accounting software

MrsScrubbuster

New Member
We are considering new accounting software this year and I wondered if anyone had tried sum-IT/farmplan or would recommend any other software. Ideally would like the usual invoicing, VAT and tax but would also be useful to track the contracting and sheep businesses, we currently use quickbooks but not to its full potential
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
Don't touch farmplan. I used it for the best part of 20 years. It's expensive and dated now. I started with xero almost a year ago and it's a breath of fresh air. Easy to use, easy to learn. I spent a morning with my accountant learning the basics after that there is lots of online information for every problem you can think of. IIRC farmplan training is £600 a day.

Xero is all in the cloud so backups are not an issue. My accountant has a login code so he can see the same as me when I call. They can access it whenever they like.

It's really worth considering. Lots of other users on here so also a good place to ask questions.

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JJT

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Cumbria
We have farmland at the moment but looking to change to xero. Farmplan way too expensive and not particularly easy to use. Going to the accountants Next Week to see a demo of xero. Good to know you get on with it @Boysground. I believe you can import bank statements into it and it will auto reconcile them in xero?
 

jbl

Member
Location
North Wales
Changed to xero last April, and it's the best thing I've done. Was on QuickBooks with a bookkeeper coming two mornings a month and now doing it myself with xero.

I now can track my different enterprises easily and view them on the P&L, which is interesting.

Onestly try xero, you won't regret it
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Changed to xero last April, and it's the best thing I've done. Was on QuickBooks with a bookkeeper coming two mornings a month and now doing it myself with xero.

I now can track my different enterprises easily and view them on the P&L, which is interesting.

Onestly try xero, you won't regret it

What does Xero offer that QuickBooks doesn't?:scratchhead: I had Quickbooks SimpleStart when I started out on my own here, and upgraded to QuickBooks Pro 6 months ago. I really can't fault it, and certainly can't see why I'd need a book keeper. P&L analysis is available on all but the cheapie QuickBooks, along with a million other reports that I'm unlikely to ever look at. VAT takes me about 5 minutes each month and online reconciling or cloud based program is available, if I wanted it (which I don't).

What advantage would I get from buying into the more expensive Xero package? Genuine question, as always looking for better/cheaper/easier options to do most things.:)
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
We have farmland at the moment but looking to change to xero. Farmplan way too expensive and not particularly easy to use. Going to the accountants Next Week to see a demo of xero. Good to know you get on with it @Boysground. I believe you can import bank statements into it and it will auto reconcile them in xero?

Yes you can import bank statements. You can either import a statement yourself from your online banking or use the bank feed system. this partly depends on which bank you use. I use Lloyds so the bank feed works. You can set up different security but I have it set so that the bank requires the security number from my card reader for the feed to work. I enter this and the statement appears in Xero. I try to do this once a week to keep everything up to date. I use the faster payments system, with it set up so each company I pay appears as one line on the statement. You can set xero to recognise this and it will match it with the payment you enter in xero when you pay the bill. Then all you have to do is check the entry is correct and hit OK, job done.

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chickens and wheat

Member
Mixed Farmer
Talking to our accountant Friday ,farmplan arnt yet prepared for the new quarterly tax returns, infact he said he called them to chat about this and they had no idea,
What ever system you choose make sure its prepped for this change
 
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chickens and wheat

Member
Mixed Farmer
"The new digital record keeping requirement and quarterly return rules will not now apply to landlords or unincorporated businesses such as sole traders, partnerships and associations that earn less than £10,000 a year.

Unincorporated businesses and landlords earning over £10,000 and up to a yet-to-determined threshold will be able to defer for a year."
 

JJT

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Cumbria
Those of you that use xero, how do you do stock control? Had a look at xero at our accountants last week, and this looked to be something we would miss going from farmplan business manager to xero. Also our bank website won't auto link in with xero, although I am told they are hoping it will sometime in the next few months.
 

Bruce Almighty

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Warwickshire
We've had Landmark Key Accounts since 2004, they're now telling us we need to upgrade to Key Prime for about £800 and training is around £500 for a day plus travelling.
Annual support + end of year half day has been around £1,000 pa

I'm tempted to switch to Xero or Quick Books, but where will I find business support / farm secretary in Warwickshire that can help us make the move ?

Mother still does the books but she's 75 & it's time I took over
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
Those of you that use xero, how do you do stock control? Had a look at xero at our accountants last week, and this looked to be something we would miss going from farmplan business manager to xero. Also our bank website won't auto link in with xero, although I am told they are hoping it will sometime in the next few months.

I don't do stock control through my accountson. Use my crop software for chemicals. So I don't know how it can be done.

You should be able to manually import a statement from any banks Web page. This is how I started as Lloyds didn't do bank feeds. TBH it makes no difference which you use.

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JJT

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Cumbria
I don't do stock control through my accountson. Use my crop software for chemicals. So I don't know how it can be done.

You should be able to manually import a statement from any banks Web page. This is how I started as Lloyds didn't do bank feeds. TBH it makes no difference which you use.

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OK, what crops software do you use? Yeah we could import statements. But at the moment we use farmland to create bacs payments and export them to the bank website and do it that way. so we wouldn't really be gaining much unless we could get back feeds.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Farmplan is rubbish - it was out of date a decade ago

Best thing we ever did was stop using it

Cloud accounts on a sub are the way forward, Xero, kashflow, quickbooks etc

I use Xero for several business now and love it
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Those of you that use xero, how do you do stock control? Had a look at xero at our accountants last week, and this looked to be something we would miss going from farmplan business manager to xero. Also our bank website won't auto link in with xero, although I am told they are hoping it will sometime in the next few months.

Gatekeeper does farm stock control

Use a Xero adon for another business that has stock so it's all quite possible
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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