Self employed online book keeping and accounting

[mowerman]

Hi, I run my own business and have done for several years now and I have always looked after my books myself and had them signed off by an accountant at the end of every year and then filed my returns online.
However, he has now retired and I have continued to carry on in the same vein and just filed my returns on my own.

Now, that generates a hell of a lot of paperwork and a lot of monthly / yearly totting up and mounds of receipts to trawl through as I always inevitably leave it until after Christmas to start the process.

The question I'm asking is, has anyone got any experience of using an online accounting system such as quick books etc.
It seems very easy to use, you can print out monthly and yearly reports and it even works out depreciation, income tax and national insurance contributions.
The cost is less than £200 a year and for me that represents great value.

Has anyone got any personal experience of these apps or accounting programs and what are the pros and cons?

Thanks in advance

James

 

[neoaliphant]

I use quickbooks online,its only £1 a month from my accountants as they get a deal from quickbooks
its very easy to use
less paperwork as you attach pdfs directly to each expense,or use the app to scan in paper ones

with any accounting, best to keepdoing receipts as you go along
the automatic bank feed makes this very easy and is far more accurate that way
you lose out a lot if you let it pileup,and theres no need to ,just makes it less efficient

 

[Dreadhead]

I'd be interested in checking this out as I've only been self employed a couple of years now, do my own books and file my own returns, but haven't used accountants yet either so it's a whole other world for me where i'm out of my depth

 

[neoaliphant]

Dreadhead,its really easy to do invoices aswell, and trivialtokeep track of expenses,andshows you instantly how your money is working for you

 

[neoaliphant]

dont forget the £2 a day for selfemployed subsistence if you makeyour own lunches!!!

 

[Dreadhead]

Dreadhead,its really easy to do invoices aswell, and trivialtokeep track of expenses,andshows you instantly how your money is working for you

aye nice one. so far i just keep a simple cash accounting spreadhseet on excel. money in, money out, with expenses broken down a little bit and each transaction has an ID code which links to paypal receipt. Not sure how full proof it is yet as an audit come bring it all crumbling down haha

 

[Bodge]

I have been using Wave accounting for nearly a year now and have found it useful. I issue invoices to some of my clients and cash sales to others. It works with an android app so once you've spent time setting everything up on the pc you can issue invoices on the spot, send via email from the app or download them as a pdf and send with other documents in an email. If you wish you can really use it to the full and link it with a bank account and credit card. www.waveapps.com
Best of all its free for small business use. It may not work for everyone but it works for me. It is slightly time consuming setting it up but worth it for me. I used to make invoices up from a template on DTP software (pageplus) at the end of the day (night time) but now can do them whilst eating a sandwich or with the customer.
I dont really use the report functions but they look ok at first glance.

 

[mowerman]

Thanks for all your replies guys. I think I am going to give quick books a trial.
I will run it alongside my paper system until the end of the financial year and see how it compares.
I like the fact that I can link it to my business account and it gives cash flow in real time and can be used on my phone when I'm out and about.
If I remember then I will post how I got on in the same thread.

 

[neoaliphant]

big tip here
if you want to combine personal finance and business use, which you can do easily

put all personal use as a subset of drawings

and perhaps create classes,and then all business use can be assigned to business class

 

[mrcharly]

I used to be self employed and used quickbooks.
Tips I can remember from way back then; be clear that you are working on a 'cash accounting basis'. That means that your accounts are run on the basis of when money actually enters/leaves the bank, not when invoices/bills are issued.

Whenever you get a receipt that you need to enter into the system, stuff it in an envelope that is dated for the the period. I did my accounting on a calendar month basis, so I had an envelope for each month, just put the receipts in the right envelope. This made it much easier when I had to to a splurge of entering bills paid into the system.

I was VAT registered, so making sure I did things on time was really important. Quickbooks meant I could print out a VAT return and post it off with the check, rather than filling in a form. So much easier.

 

[neoaliphant]

With quickbooks,make it much easier to dopaperless as well, just attach the pdfs to each expense,dont need many printed receipts then,