Forum

• # 72637
• Wed 29 Jun 2011 06:52 AM

Hi,

My brother-in-law owns his own business and does part of his own accounts - he hates doing this and as you might guess is a potential future client of mine  

However he wants to retain full access to his accounts at all times and to be able to post purchases and see the aged creditors report whenever he wants -so he is thinking of transfering to a cloud system.

While I have played with quickbooks and my home study course comes with a full licence copy of sage instants, I know nothing about cloud systems apart from they can allow access from multiple sites and multiple people.

Could anyone give me more information?

Thanks

Theresa 

Reason for edit: I can't spell :( 

Edited at 29 Jun 2011 06:57 AM GMT

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• # 72649
• Wed 29 Jun 2011 10:16 AM

Hi Theresa,

You can register for a free trial in Kashflow and check will it work for you and your brother-in-law :)
Kashflow is a very easy to use and user friendly cloud software, 
unfortunately, it is quite expensive too but there are plenty of other softwares around too...

Xero
AccountsPortal
FreeAgent
LiquidAccounts
ClearBooks 

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• # 72655
• Wed 29 Jun 2011 11:44 AM

Thanks Aleksandra,

I will follow those up. 

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• # 72659
• Wed 29 Jun 2011 01:30 PM

Hi Teresa,

I like cloud software and have tried few of them. I tried clearbooks and it is not user friendly and the support is not very good in my opinion as you have to refer to previous blogs for each question you may have.

Aleksandra has listed few package below. If i was you i would try them and choose one according to what information your client require. I would recomment Accountsportal: it is user friendly, variety of report, you can import bank statement, perform bank reconciliation and a lot more! it is very cost effective. Payroll is also included. You can set up access to various users and clients. Give it a try.

All the best,

Nathalie

• Provide bookkeeping and virtual accountancy assistance service in English and French @nckaccountancy.
  West Essex Twitter:http://nckaccountancy.co.uk
  E-mail: info@nckaccountancy.co.uk
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• # 72660
• Wed 29 Jun 2011 02:19 PM

Yes, I'd recommend AccountsPortal and Kashflow, but as I mentioned Kashflow costs more than other softwares. 

Btw. Nathalie I loved your beautiful smiling face avatar and I'm sad to see that you've changed it :) 

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• # 72669
• Wed 29 Jun 2011 06:00 PM

Thank you both - I will go back to my brother-in-law with the suggestions - he is a microsoft small business specialist and there is some muttering about joining forces to offer a more complete package.....

Not so convinced myself, would you go to your computer support people for accounts?

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• # 72675
• Wed 29 Jun 2011 10:45 PM

Aleksandra said:

“Yes, I'd recommend AccountsPortal and Kashflow, but as I mentioned Kashflow costs more than other softwares. 

Btw. Nathalie I loved your beautiful smiling face avatar and I'm sad to see that you've changed it :) ”

• Provide bookkeeping and virtual accountancy assistance service in English and French @nckaccountancy.
  West Essex Twitter:http://nckaccountancy.co.uk
  E-mail: info@nckaccountancy.co.uk
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• # 73268
• Thu 28 Jul 2011 04:41 PM

I currently use FreeAgent with one of my clients (a small Ltd company). He's actually in the software industry so he found it & suggested it to me.

It has the ability to upload bank statments straight into it & the fact that it will give projects profitability was a good point for him. It also calculates VAT & his Corporation tax (although his accountant deals with the latter). It gives a nice overview & allows easy access to data as well as visual indications of the state of the business (charts of unpaid invoices & cash flow graphs).

It's also great for me as he's 90mins away, so it means I can do most things from home, with just a monthly visit for filing etc. It was also good timing as his QuickBooks crashed (thankfully we have a recent backup)!

I'd be really interested in hearing about other people's experience with software, as this is a growing field & many types will fit different companies.

Good luck with whatever you choose! Most have 30day free trials to see if it works for you & your client.

• LJM Bookkeeping - lara@ljmbookkeeping.co.uk

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• # 73362
• Mon 01 Aug 2011 12:07 PM

I have recently installed Sage One into one client and it seems to work really well.

It has some limitations and I would not suggest using it if you client want more than a simple P&L, Balance sheet and VAT return as the reports are limited and the CAO is not that friendly to adjust but overall I have been impressed by it.

Kind regards
Stuart

• Forum Moderator, South East & Greater London Regional Chairman
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