Best system for farming accounts?

[glow worm]

I'm sure its been on TFF somewhere in the past but I'm looking to pick the collective TFF minds as to the best accounts package for a dairy farmer who is not very good with computers and far from enthusiastic with accounts! They currently use Sage and have done so for many years, and after a painful initiation cope with it pretty well. However, they are now being told that it is an old fashioned system, not suited for a farming business, incapable of producing cash flows or information relevant to a farmer and they are now under lots of pressure to change to a cheaper and better system. Despite offers of training and help with the change over .. at a cost .. the thought of change is very daunting. Comments and help please.

 

[Steevo]

Xero.

Do a search on here and you'll find plenty.

 

[Boysground]

Again Xero end of. If your accountant uses it even better.

Accounts are accounts, it’s easy to to set the headings as you want. Easy to learn and there is lots of online help if needed.

Bg

 

[neilo]

I'm sure its been on TFF somewhere in the past but I'm looking to pick the collective TFF minds as to the best accounts package for a dairy farmer who is not very good with computers and far from enthusiastic with accounts! They currently use Sage and have done so for many years, and after a painful initiation cope with it pretty well. However, they are now being told that it is an old fashioned system, not suited for a farming business, incapable of producing cash flows or information relevant to a farmer and they are now under lots of pressure to change to a cheaper and better system. Despite offers of training and help with the change over .. at a cost .. the thought of change is very daunting. Comments and help please.

Xero or Quickbooks. There’s very little to choose between them, both being intuitive to use and so very logical compared to Sage. Whichever of those the accountant works with would be the best option.

However, if they’re used to Sage, and already have it, why not just stick with it? Are they really likely to use any of the extra features and reports anyway?

 

[glow worm]

Xero or Quickbooks. There’s very little to choose between them, both being intuitive to use and so very logical compared to Sage. Whichever of those the accountant works with would be the best option.

However, if they’re used to Sage, and already have it, why not just stick with it? Are they really likely to use any of the extra features and reports anyway?

Thanks for that. They want a cashflow report that Sage dosnt do and the ability to interrogate entries on a bank statement so that it shows all the components of a cheque say, neatly broken down into nominal codes etc. Does Xero do that and is it really so much better and suited to farmers accounts? The person concerned has only ever used Sage, so knows no different but like the way every entry has an audit trail number as it makes it easy to trace a mis entry / error

 

[Still Farming]

Got to be Very Good Free apps.about somewhere.
As long as HMRC mtd compatible who cares???

 

[neilo]

Thanks for that. They want a cashflow report that Sage dosnt do and the ability to interrogate entries on a bank statement so that it shows all the components of a cheque say, neatly broken down into nominal codes etc. Does Xero do that and is it really so much better and suited to farmers accounts? The person concerned has only ever used Sage, so knows no different but like the way every entry has an audit trail number as it makes it easy to trace a mis entry / error

I have been using Quickbooks since 2012, and don’t see enough difference in Xero to consider changing.

I understand the cloud based versions of both will ‘read’ your bank statements in order to make reconciling easy (can’t get much easier than reading down the paper statement & ticking boxes off on screen though, ime). All very much easier than the old Sage program, which my mother used to use/struggle with continuously.

QB & Xero are both easy to add customised accounts, so more adaptable to all businesses, not just farming.

Did I read somewhere that Sage do a similar cloud based system now too? Might be easier for them to move to, if they are happy with working with Sage. I don’t know anyone that’s using it though.

Sage, Xero & QB all do a free month’s trial, with the last two (& maybe Sage?) being happy to convert data over from other systems for you. Give them all a try and see which they like best?

 

[propoly]

Totally agree Quickbooks or Xero which are both Making Tax Digital compatbile. What you do for living doesn't matter. Accounts are accounts to accountants

 

[Bury the Trash]

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/accounting-software-any-recommendations.206000/

 

[gatepost]

I use Landmark Key prime, it is written for agriculture and diversified business's , I don't know how it compares, but works well for farm accounts, and analysis, if your brave enough!

 

[BDBed]

Kashflow worth a look as well.

 

[chickens and wheat]

improvements to xero
On 18 March 2020, you’ll be able to automate pesky admin tasks and say goodbye to manual data entry. That’s because Hubdoc, which has a retail price of £15 a month, will be included in Starter, Standard and Premium plans for free.

We acquired Hubdoc in 2018 to make Xero even more beautiful. With Hubdoc’s world-class data capture technology as part of your day-to-day toolkit, you can:

• Easily capture bills and receipts – Hubdoc makes it easy to upload bills and receipts using your desktop, mobile device, email or scanner.
• Let us do your data entry – Once documents are uploaded to Hubdoc, the key data is automatically extracted and synced to Xero as accurately coded transactions.
• Enjoy one-click bank reconciliation – Xero then matches these transactions to the bank feed for one-click reconciliation.
• Go paperless – All your documents are searchable and easy to access from anywhere in the world.

By automating admin tasks, you can spend less time managing documents and more time doing what you love.

This Hubdoc page has more information for you now, and we'll be in contact again before March to let you know how to get started with Hubdoc.

Thanks, as always, for using Xero
The Xero team

 

[Boysground]

improvements to xero
On 18 March 2020, you’ll be able to automate pesky admin tasks and say goodbye to manual data entry. That’s because Hubdoc, which has a retail price of £15 a month, will be included in Starter, Standard and Premium plans for free.

We acquired Hubdoc in 2018 to make Xero even more beautiful. With Hubdoc’s world-class data capture technology as part of your day-to-day toolkit, you can:

• Easily capture bills and receipts – Hubdoc makes it easy to upload bills and receipts using your desktop, mobile device, email or scanner.
• Let us do your data entry – Once documents are uploaded to Hubdoc, the key data is automatically extracted and synced to Xero as accurately coded transactions.
• Enjoy one-click bank reconciliation – Xero then matches these transactions to the bank feed for one-click reconciliation.
• Go paperless – All your documents are searchable and easy to access from anywhere in the world.

By automating admin tasks, you can spend less time managing documents and more time doing what you love.

This Hubdoc page has more information for you now, and we'll be in contact again before March to let you know how to get started with Hubdoc.

Thanks, as always, for using Xero
The Xero team

Have been having a chat about this on the Xero thread, I have been using Ezzybills for a while which does work well but with a couple of small glitches. Will be interesting to see if its worth a change.

Bg

 

[GavinJ]

Got to be Very Good Free apps.about somewhere.
As long as HMRC mtd compatible who cares???

Pandle?

 

[Still Farming]

Pandle?

O not heard off.

 

[GavinJ]

O not heard off.

It's a free cloud based system not sure how it compares to others?

 

[D14]

Sum It here as you can make it do what you like. I’m not the main user but can seem to find what I need when the need arises.