Software and App Partners
The appliance of science – or making life easier with a little application!
There are some really smart people out there writing some really, really smart applications to help you with your bookkeeping – we use some of them ourselves and we are always happy to recommend and assist our clients in doing the same.
The following list isn’t exhaustive, but many of these we have personal experience of, and we know where their strengths and weaknesses lie.
We’ll not only recommend suitable software; we can often help you get the very best out of your investment in it with advice and training.
Accounting Programs
Xero
An online accounting program that can be used for many aspects of your businesses financial needs; Preparing quotes, stock management, fixed asset register and depreciation etc.
Clients either subscribe to Xero themselves and grant us access, or they ask us to subscribe and we charge them a monthly fee as part of their retainer. Xero is very helpful because it can do everything you need, and it has the added functionality of a mobile app. The financial reporting is also very good - we use it in our own company!
Quickbooks
This is an online accounting program and the monthly subscription is less than Xero but still a very good program to use. It is mobile friendly and easy to understand.
FreeAgent
This is a free online accounting software developed in Scotland and works well for quick preparation of accounts. It be used for smaller account preparation because it doesn’t publish the currency.
WAVE
Best for: Sole proprietors and small businesses.Wave offers a full accounting program for free. Wave allows you to manage accounts receivable, generate financial statements, and connect an unlimited number of credit cards and bank accounts. The only downside is that it doesn’t allow you to track accounts payable - the money a business owes to its suppliers or creditors.
Sage Online
Online accounting program that is less expensive than Xero and works better for consulting companies in our opinion!
ZOHO Books
Best for: Everyone with less than 5000 transactions a month
Zoho books is a great accounting program and can do everything you expect of your accounting program. The extra bit we love is that it has a time-tracking functionality that is included in your subscription. The pricing is reasonable as well and in general ZOHO is easy to understand. With the professional plan you have inventory tracking tools available and the accounting program integrates with other ZOHO programs. There isn’t a payroll service add-on at the moment and it also doesn’t allow you to do fixed asset management features like depreciation etc.
Payroll Programs
MoneySoft
This is the desktop payroll program that we use in Anlo. The program is easy to understand, and the payroll reports are informative and descriptive. It is also easy to prepare your monthly RTI submissions and all your returns can be submitted straight to HMRC.
Xero Payroll
An online payroll program that links into your Xero Accounting package. It is very easy to understand and does everything a payroll program needs to do
Financial Statement Preparation Programs and Auditing Software
TaxCalc
We use TaxCalc to prepare self-assessments, Company Tax returns and Partnership Tax returns as well as annual financial accounts. It can connect with HMRC and all submissions can be done through this third-party software. It can also be used to submit Companies House submissions and is overall just very useful. Highly recommended!
Hubdocs
Free data extraction program included in Xero Starter, Standard and Premium plans as long as it's connected to your Xero subscription.
Autoentry
This is an online program that helps business owners and accountants not have to process every expense manually. Invoices, statements from suppliers and customers can be emails to Autoentry and then Autoentry used ‘fingerprinting’ to extract information from the documents to determine things like supplier name, date, amount, VAT amount. It also uses AI to remember suppliers so that you don’t have to allocate this every time and it remembers.
Datamolino
This is an online program that helps business owners and accountants not have to process every expense manually. Invoices, statements from suppliers and customers can be emails to Datamolino and then Datamolino used ‘fingerprinting’ to extract information from the documents to determine things like supplier name, date, amount, VAT amount. It also uses AI to remember suppliers so that you don’t have to allocate this every time and it remembers.
Other Programs
Float
This is an excellent cash flow management tool and it helps businesses prepare budgets and make better decisions. It integrates with Quickbooks and Xero. It links directly with your accounting program and updates as you update your accounting records.
Futrli
This is an excellent projection tool for income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements and it helps businesses prepare budgets and make better decisions. It integrates with Quickbooks and Xero and it allows you to prepare scenario planning and compare outcomes. The price is quite steep but worth it if you need to prepare forecasts accurately and their customer support is really good.
Sumup
This is a card payment facility that can be used to take card payments from customers. It can be used in a shop or whilst travelling and it only needs internet to work. The reporting is very good, and it is user friendly.