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- Fellow PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 43 posts
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Hi
I have used Sage50 for years as an employed bookkeeper for a Ltd company - but will be branching out alone soon.
I will be taking on a couple of Sole Traders - one of which is VAT registered - and one not.
Obv Sage50 is fine for a Ltd co and also prob applicable to anyone VAT registered.
But is Sage overkill for basic sole traders? Or not as I use it, have it and know it inside out?
Is it pointless to invest in more basic software? Or should I be looking at an Excel based solution perhaps?
Any comments appreciated.
Thanks
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- Fellow PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 336 posts
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Hi,
I was recommended VT Transaction+ by another ICB member, so I downloaded the 2 month free trial and it is brilliant. I work on Sage at my part-time work, and for one client, and VT Transaction+ for my business at home and I much prefer VT. Most of my clients are small sole traders. On VT you can have as many business accounts on it as you like for £125 plus VAT per year.
Hope this helps.
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- Member PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 117 posts
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Hi Penguin
Sage is OK for a business of a certain size and can be useful for stock control. But I really wouldn't bother with it otherwise - costly, awkward, data entry is slow etc.
The only reason a lot of clients use it is because they think they have to as it is the industry leader. I do work with Sage but only if the client had it first.
You will never look back from VT+, and the £125 is a one-off if you can do without the support (Called them twice in 5 years)
Yes, Sage is overkill!
Regards
Andrew
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- Member PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 66 posts
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Hi Everyone!
Can anyone tell me if VT+ is supported to do the VAT FLS (flat rate scheme)?
I have loaded the free copy - which is quite eay to pick up but I can't see that the FLS can be done but probally I have missed something or can only do it with a registered copy.
Any comments would be appreciated!
Paul
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You can do it. If you look at the manual from page 49 on it explains how best to achieve it. Heres a link to the manual: http://www.vtsoftware.co.uk/support/tranplusguide.pdf
Kris
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- Member PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 97 posts
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I just downloded the trial of VT Transcation + and VT Cashbook on Sunday after a couple of months of investigating software. This is to try to familiarise myself with the working of it in the hope I finally get my first client soon and can get off to a flying start.
It definitely looks like a good option from the investigations I have carried out into the likeso f Quickbooks, Sage, Business AccountZ etc.
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- Fellow PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 43 posts
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Great - thanks for your comments - had a look at VT site - and looks promising - esp now you've said it is a one off - and the annual payment is support only. If you don't get support - do you get any updates - or does that not happen much? Got my level 2 manual exam on thurs - so I'll lool at it after then.
thanks!
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It's horses for courses, in my opion. I try to use VT wherever possible because data entry is so much easier and for sole traders it integrates really well with my tax software. But, for more sophisticated businesses then I think the reporting side of Sage is much stronger. I've never found a way to run a complete aged debtors / creditors in VT without printing statements one at a time (I'd love to know if there's something I'm missing).
Unfortunately I think you need both.
Edited at 24 Jan 2012 05:41 PM GMT
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- Member PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 66 posts
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kjmccullochsaid:
“You can do it. If you look at the manual from page 49 on it explains how best to achieve it. Heres a link to the manual: http://www.vtsoftware.co.uk/support/tranplusguide.pdf
Kris”
Thank you Kris for the information and link. It was most useful.
Paul
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Hi All
I think this all comes down to personal preferences.
I tend to use a mixture of Manual, Sage, Quickbooks and Excel depending on what will work most effecintly with the client and their needs.
I do use sage to run a couple of small cash book clients (at their insistance) howver all I use is the bank payments and receipts routines so it is not much quicker than Excel.
Kind regards
Stuart
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