VAT software for small business

[Highland Mule]

Curious, how do all these packages cope with an employee expenses claim that has three different line items all with differing vat rates (0%, 5% & 20%) on it? Came across this recently and wasn’t impressed how FreeAgent handled it. They all had to be paid to employee, all passed on to client and all written off on a client invoice that had further in house items as well.

 

[Exfarmer]

I have now been running parallel books for 3 weeks thanks to using the trial pack of Xero, which I will definitely be upgrading in a few days.
Must say Xero is very easy once you take the plunge and hook the bank up to it, Ran it for a week by uploading off excel and was surprised when I upgraded it recognised the existing transactions etc.
Reconciliation is dead easy and attaching copies of invoices to the relevant file a piece of cake, especially if they have been emailed
I am a little surprised that it would appear some here, do not store the paper copy, thought it was a legal requirement for 6 years. I too would be concerned not to have a hard copy in case of any major internet issue.
The other concern I would have is with it being so easy , to do automatic paying, do people check the invoices hard enough? especially entering through an App such as DEXT , when you only see these things on a phone do you really get to look at the small print?
What about Contra's? Are all credits recognised ? are all invoices charged to the correct account?
When there are so many farmers with very little knowledge of book work and have always had one pile of bills to pay and the rest gets left to the accountant , will they be able to handle this?
Must confess when I started farming that was how we carried on VAT did at least make us start a ledger but marrying an experienced book keeper was a smart move on my behalf

 

[MCook]

I bought QB myself, several years ago, before MTD became compulsory and to practise on. I find it too complicated for what I want, and a faff. It also changes format frequently, with unwanted screens to go through. KISS.

And it's OK 'your accountant having regular access to your data', providing he / she doesn't fiddle and try to force a balance, with no info to back that up and without telling you.. Ours did - or the lass teaching us how to use MTD did.

I have enough hassle getting my own figures to balance, but if someone else is fiddling, without my input, up with that i will not put.

If you own the programme, you can delete an accountant who can't behave. And I did. Buy it on the accountant's tab, and he becomes the 'master administrator' and if you want to change, I think you'd have to change MTD supplier.

Famers say Xero is simpler for them to use.

I can't comment on other accountants behaviour, but a decent one should be communicating with their client, not working against them. If an accountant registers you, you can ask them to transfer the account to either yourself or a new accountant, if necessary. The accountant is not allowed to refuse you access to your own data.

I much prefer Xero to QBO and I would agree that it is easier to use, once the user is shown how to use it.

 

[MCook]

I have now been running parallel books for 3 weeks thanks to using the trial pack of Xero, which I will definitely be upgrading in a few days.
Must say Xero is very easy once you take the plunge and hook the bank up to it, Ran it for a week by uploading off excel and was surprised when I upgraded it recognised the existing transactions etc.
Reconciliation is dead easy and attaching copies of invoices to the relevant file a piece of cake, especially if they have been emailed
I am a little surprised that it would appear some here, do not store the paper copy, thought it was a legal requirement for 6 years. I too would be concerned not to have a hard copy in case of any major internet issue.
The other concern I would have is with it being so easy , to do automatic paying, do people check the invoices hard enough? especially entering through an App such as DEXT , when you only see these things on a phone do you really get to look at the small print?
What about Contra's? Are all credits recognised ? are all invoices charged to the correct account?
When there are so many farmers with very little knowledge of book work and have always had one pile of bills to pay and the rest gets left to the accountant , will they be able to handle this?
Must confess when I started farming that was how we carried on VAT did at least make us start a ledger but marrying an experienced book keeper was a smart move on my behalf

I think that is a key point. Once using Xero to its' full extent i.e. bank feed set up, using Dext or similar for invoicing, it is much easier and more useful than many other packages, but if it is only used to manually reconcile your bank every quarter, people will not see the benefits of it.

The quality of documents stored via Dext is very good and hopefully users would still go through a payment run in the same detail before approving any payments. The fact documents can all be stored online really does help with space saving for keeping records per HMRC requirements.

 

[bobk]

I'm quite happy doing returns on the back of a fag packet , MTD won't change anything

 

[Clive]

Curious, how do all these packages cope with an employee expenses claim that has three different line items all with differing vat rates (0%, 5% & 20%) on it? Came across this recently and wasn’t impressed how FreeAgent handled it. They all had to be paid to employee, all passed on to client and all written off on a client invoice that had further in house items as well.

xero has an expenses module that does all that - employees get an app to make upload of receipts and claims easy - covers vat rates and mileage allowances/ keeps track of limits etc

similar to the time sheet and holiday booking app - saves entering any of that manually or making mistakes doing so

 

[Clive]

I have now been running parallel books for 3 weeks thanks to using the trial pack of Xero, which I will definitely be upgrading in a few days.
Must say Xero is very easy once you take the plunge and hook the bank up to it, Ran it for a week by uploading off excel and was surprised when I upgraded it recognised the existing transactions etc.
Reconciliation is dead easy and attaching copies of invoices to the relevant file a piece of cake, especially if they have been emailed
I am a little surprised that it would appear some here, do not store the paper copy, thought it was a legal requirement for 6 years. I too would be concerned not to have a hard copy in case of any major internet issue.
The other concern I would have is with it being so easy , to do automatic paying, do people check the invoices hard enough? especially entering through an App such as DEXT , when you only see these things on a phone do you really get to look at the small print?
What about Contra's? Are all credits recognised ? are all invoices charged to the correct account?
When there are so many farmers with very little knowledge of book work and have always had one pile of bills to pay and the rest gets left to the accountant , will they be able to handle this?
Must confess when I started farming that was how we carried on VAT did at least make us start a ledger but marrying an experienced book keeper was a smart move on my behalf

90% of our invoices come as email and 100% of ours go out as email …….. thousands saved in stamps alone !

there is no legal requirement for paper invoices


i could print any invoice for HMRC at any time …….. but why would they want me to ?

 

[Chae1]

I don't pay any invoices through Xero. Just login to banking app and transfer money.

Never heard of Dext.

 

[Chris F]

Curious, how do all these packages cope with an employee expenses claim that has three different line items all with differing vat rates (0%, 5% & 20%) on it? Came across this recently and wasn’t impressed how FreeAgent handled it. They all had to be paid to employee, all passed on to client and all written off on a client invoice that had further in house items as well.

That’s really easy in xero. Plus it deals with 12.5 as well

 

[Highland Mule]

xero has an expenses module that does all that - employees get an app to make upload of receipts and claims easy - covers vat rates and mileage allowances/ keeps track of limits etc

similar to the time sheet and holiday booking app - saves entering any of that manually or making mistakes doing so

So does FreeAgent, but it didn’t like variable vat rates, and obviously has potential for employee errors too.

 

[Highland Mule]

That’s really easy in xero. Plus it deals with 12.5 as well

On the same claim form? And can they be passed on to client at same rates/ costs?

 

[Chris F]

On the same claim form? And can they be passed on to client at same rates/ costs?

Yes on same claim for. Can separate out lines and vat rates. And yes. You can allocate to a client account. But a single claim form for a single client I believe.

 

[Highland Mule]

Yes on same claim for. Can separate out lines and vat rates. And yes. You can allocate to a client account. But a single claim form for a single client I believe.

Easier in Excel, I suspect.

 

[Chris F]

Easier in Excel, I suspect.

Main issue is checking each one. As lots of room for input error.

 

[Exfarmer]

90% of our invoices come as email and 100% of ours go out as email …….. thousands saved in stamps alone !

there is no legal requirement for paper invoices


i could print any invoice for HMRC at any time …….. but why would they want me to ?

Not disputing, but every time I have had an inspection they have wanted to see paper invoices. Not had an inspection in a while though, which is probably tempting fate

 

[MF-ANDY]

Anyone know of a free bridging software from excel that will do flat rate vat?

 

[Elliot]

Try this one https://123sheets.com/

 

[MF-ANDY]

Try this one https://123sheets.com/

Gone with this. Will see how it goes.

 

[Cowabunga]

Not disputing, but every time I have had an inspection they have wanted to see paper invoices. Not had an inspection in a while though, which is probably tempting fate

PDF is essentially a paper invoice, digitally stored and able to be printed on paper any time. If the inspector isn’t capable of going through a file of pdf’s then he isn’t very likely to be able to read paper ones either.

 

[Cowabunga]

Anyone know of a free bridging software from excel that will do flat rate vat?

Bridging software just transfers whatever figures you have from wherever you input them to HMRC in a format they can handle. The bridging software does no calculating other than that can be done to fill its boxes. No different at all to filling in the old paper form really.