Leaving Landmark Accounts for Xero

[Bruce Almighty]

Hi all,

We’ve been using Landmark Accounts for nearly 20 years with my Mother doing the book keeping. It’s done us well but offers more (at a cost) than we really need.

One of us needs to take over from Mother as none of us are getting any younger and is it a good time to switch to Xero ?

We’re a mixed family farm (about 1200 acres) with a turnover over 500k, dairy, arable, sheep & beef as well as diversification.

No full time staff or PAYE.
A few part time contractors.
Advice appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Bob c]

just to put a spanner in works
Have a look at Farm plane Business cloud , be on it18months

 

[Al R]

Ask your accountants what they use and recommend?
We have Xero through the accountants, they can see everything live like we can, I do VAT but when their doing things they can see it infront do them.. mother used to do them here, then the wife did them and now I do them. I phoned accountants about something recently and they had all of the information in real time linked to the bank.

 

[db9go]

We have been with Sum-it fot 8 years + and now gone on to Sum-it 2 and it works very good and the back up very good as well

 

[Clive]

Ask your accountants what they use and recommend?
We have Xero through the accountants, they can see everything live like we can, I do VAT but when their doing things they can see it infront do them.. mother used to do them here, then the wife did them and now I do them. I phoned accountants about something recently and they had all of the information in real time linked to the bank.

accountants are on commission from software suppliers so their advice on this is rarely independent

use the system YOU want to - they will be able to cope

 

[organicguy]

My secretary hates Xerox enough said

 

[Al R]

accountants are on commission from software suppliers so their advice on this is rarely independent

use the system YOU want to - they will be able to cope

True, although if everyone’s life is easier it makes it simpler….

If you ran JD tractors/sprayers/combines and no other makes would you go and put Trimble through them all or use JD’s own system

 

[upnortheast]

Xero here. Cost about £30 / month through accountants.

If you have put invoices on, reconcilled the bank statement & sent off the VAT return (takes 30 seconds ) then all that`s left for the accountant is to log in & do their year end stuff.

Had an hour`s training from the accountant`s boy then straightforward. Maybe a couple of phone calls to accountants & a couple of questions on TFF Xero thread.
Grandson was putting invoices on the other day & he had it figured out in 5 minutes

 

[DrWazzock]

We’ve used qbooks online for about 3 years on the recommendation of our accountant.
It’s more work for us categorising everything, a £200 ish annual software subscription and the accountancy bill has still gone up by inflation plus every year.
So what’s the benefit?

 

[Al R]

Xero here. Cost about £30 / month through accountants.

If you have put invoices on, reconcilled the bank statement & sent off the VAT return (takes 30 seconds ) then all that`s left for the accountant is to log in & do their year end stuff.

Had an hour`s training from the accountant`s boy then straightforward. Maybe a couple of phone calls to accountants & a couple of questions on TFF Xero thread.
Grandson was putting invoices on the other day & he had it figured out in 5 minutes

Do you do Dext? I’ve been asked to start photographing invoices on Dext

 

[ollie989898]

Xero here. Cost about £30 / month through accountants.

If you have put invoices on, reconcilled the bank statement & sent off the VAT return (takes 30 seconds ) then all that`s left for the accountant is to log in & do their year end stuff.

Had an hour`s training from the accountant`s boy then straightforward. Maybe a couple of phone calls to accountants & a couple of questions on TFF Xero thread.
Grandson was putting invoices on the other day & he had it figured out in 5 minutes

For only £30 a month as a subscription it's a no-brainer.

 

[Renaultman]

Xero here. Cost about £30 / month through accountants.

If you have put invoices on, reconcilled the bank statement & sent off the VAT return (takes 30 seconds ) then all that`s left for the accountant is to log in & do their year end stuff.

Had an hour`s training from the accountant`s boy then straightforward. Maybe a couple of phone calls to accountants & a couple of questions on TFF Xero thread.
Grandson was putting invoices on the other day & he had it figured out in 5 minutes

Very similar experience here, 3 years in and find it easy to use.
Help is good, and there is quite a big thread on here with interesting tips and tricks.

 

[Still Farming]

How easy is it to swap MTD online account software providers in reality?

What should you do first with current provider so all saved or moved easily?
If thete such a thing??

 

[upnortheast]

How easy is it to swap MTD online account software providers in reality?

What should you do first with current provider so all saved or moved easily?
If thete such a thing??

Not sure I think most have some sort of import tool
When we started on Xero was able to import all our suppliers / customers details from previous system no probs

 

[Still Farming]

Not sure I think most have some sort of import tool
When we started on Xero was able to import all our suppliers / customers details from previous system no probs

Just thought they be awkward or don't like you leaving maybe?

 

[DrWazzock]

Just thought they be awkward or don't like you leaving maybe?

Get the printer stoked up?

 

[DrWazzock]

Really as a small partnership I can do better with excel. Simply have three columns at end of each entry for category (account) property and partner and another for whether it should go on the vat form at all , for example private drawings. That’s all these fancy programmes do. They do generate invoices but I don’t really need that as most merchants I sell to self bill. I’ve a triplicate book if we need to write an invoice. It doesn’t need a 4G signal, a battery or a password I can never remember and I can sling it back in the pickup, nor does it necessitate ringing a helpline if somethings gone wrong.
You have to ask yourself who these systems benefit? Big companies, yes. Small ones, probably not worth the overhead IMO. But I am very small and simple turning over less than £200k and employing nobody.
Do things still exist to submit the numbers from excel to HMRC? I think I’ll be going down that route. I’m fed up of paying out all over the place for little value.

 

[upnortheast]

Really as a small partnership I can do better with excel. Simply have three columns at end of each entry for category (account) property and partner and another for whether it should go on the vat form at all , for example private drawings. That’s all these fancy programmes do. They do generate invoices but I don’t really need that as most merchants I sell to self bill. I’ve a triplicate book if we need to write an invoice. It doesn’t need a 4G signal, a battery or a password I can never remember and I can sling it back in the pickup, nor does it necessitate ringing a helpline if somethings gone wrong.
You have to ask yourself who these systems benefit? Big companies, yes. Small ones, probably not worth the overhead IMO. But I am very small and simple turning over less than £200k and employing nobody.
Do things still exist to submit the numbers from excel to HMRC? I think I’ll be going down that route. I’m fed up of paying out all over the place for little value.

Need a hell of a big numb Excel spreadsheet to cover all the headings we use . - & we are just a dairy farm with bottled milk diversification

 

[upnortheast]

We’re a mixed family farm (about 1200 acres) with a turnover over 500k, dairy, arable, sheep & beef as well as diversification.

No full time staff or PAYE.

Bloody hell, you must be superman, all that with no full time staff

 

[Bruce Almighty]

Bloody hell, you must be superman, all that with no full time staff

Should have said no employed full time staff.
There’s 3 of us !