Accounts Software

[GriffMG]

Not *exactly* VFP, but maybe one of us has come across something...

A customer just started a tiny offshoot company and asked me if I would develop a system to do his bookkeeping and prep his CT600 (UK tax for companies).
I said it would be an expensive solution to do it that way, and suggested a spreadsheet system I've used in the past (costs about 50/year) called DIY accounts.

Do any of you have anything similar you could recommend - for my own Ltd I use an in-house database for the day to day, then hand over to accountant at year end,
that system is all VFP (hence why I thought maybe one of us use something similar), but it's developed for my business and doesn't do the CT600 (it does do the VAT via MTDSimple).

Any ideas?

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are !good for you. ​

 

[Mike Lewis]

Griff, you haven't given us the most important piece of information: the likely data volumes. The fact that this is a " tiny offshoot company" suggests the volumes will be low, at least to begin with, but they still need to be taken into account.

If that's the case, I would agree with you that he should consider some sort of spreadsheet solution. I've seen this done in several small businesses, and it works well if properly thought out.

You would typically have a page within the workbook for each of the following: purchases (with a separate column for VAT); sales (again with a VAT column); bank account; cash (if applicable); perhaps directors' loan account (if applicable); VAT summary (showing the figures to be copied to VAT100 or the equivalent for MTDSimple); and finally a summary sheet that shows totals of sales and purchases to date. The purchase and sales sheets could have columns to analyse the transactions into cost centres or departments.

The CT600 is another matter. Does not HMRC have a free on-line tool for that? That might involve manually cutting and pasting from the spreadsheet, which is perhaps not ideal, but would still be do-able.

And will this business use a professional account? If so, he or she would almost certainly have their own software for doing the CT600. Your client should be able to simply send them the workbook and they could do the rest (not to mention PAYE and other stuff like that).

I hope you manage to find a good solution. Let us know what you finally decide to recommend.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[GriffMG]

Thanks Mike,

He's talking about a business that has maybe FOUR invoices a month, perhaps TWO expenses, no VAT.
He doesn't want it involved with his other interests at all though, an entirely new company, not part of
his existing organisation.

The DIY accounts spreadsheets might actually be too complex for this! As for developing something new, that
would make no sense at all - so I was just looking for suggestions.

Were it me, I'd probably use the thing I know, but perhaps someone here has heard of something opensource or whatever.


Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are !good for you. ​

 

[Mike Lewis]

Griff, with such very low volumes, is it worth using a computer at all? I can't imagine it would take more than a few minutes to enter the transactions on a sheet of ruled paper, and to tot them up manually at the end of the accounting period. Of course, you know his preferences better than I do, but I would think that even a simple spreadsheet might be over the top in this case.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[GriffMG]

Exactly

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are !good for you. ​

 

[GriffMG]

In fact, you have given me an idea.
I used to be RFO for a local council, they had a really clever (but really simple) spreadsheet.
I'll cook that up for him, boil off all the stuff he doesn't need, change a few headings and he can maintain it himself.

Can't use paper any more Mike, gotta Make Tax Digital B-)

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are !good for you. ​

 

[Mike Lewis]

Sounds like a plan, Griff. Hope it goes well.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[GriffMG]

Thank you

It's the problem being a developer, customers think you can do everything and not all give you value added

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are !good for you. ​

 

[Venkatvc]

There is a popular accounting software here in India, called Tally. It doesn't cost much here.

I think they have solutions for UK too. No idea about their pricing though. Check here:

https://www.tallyaccounts.co.uk/

-------------
Looking for knowledge from anyone, anywhere.

 

[GriffMG]

Thank you I will take a look.

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are !good for you. ​

 

[TamarGranor]

Is there no British equivalent of Quicken/Quickbooks?

Tamar

 

[GriffMG]

I think they are called Quicken and QuickBooks... B-)

Thank you, Mike pushed me in the right direction, the spreadsheet took a couple of hours to customise for him
and it's done and dusted... didn't need an app for something so simple.

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are !good for you. ​

 

[TamarGranor]

@GriffMG, that makes sense, but because you were asking and this seemed to me to be exactly the sort of thing where Quicken or Quickbooks would make sense, I thought perhaps there were no UK versions.

Tamar

 

[GriffMG]

It is the kind of thing you would use them for, but probably only if it was about 10 times the size!

On the off-chance anyone is interested:

https://files.engineering.com/getfi...9d86-eee71ad4af2f&file=Cashbook2018-2019.xlsx

B-)

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are !good for you. ​