Alternatives to Sage for Accounting

santiagobravo

Are there any free alternatives to Sage for Accounting purposes? im thinking about using excel but this will probably start to get harder to manage over time.

In general, which software programs are really useful for a small business?

Thanks

S.

Horace

KashFlow is pretty good although I am not sure if it is free. I do know that it is easy to use having used it at a clients once.

There are many accounting products on the market eg. quickbooks etc and I know that some banks offer business accounting software as part of their banking package to enable you to do your own accounts.

Regshoe

Without knowing what your full requirements are it's hard to be sure what would be best for you. I'm just setting up as an accountant for SMEs and I will be using VT Accounts and reccomending that my clients use it where appropriate. If you are going to use an accountant then it is worth knowing what system they use - as using the same one could save their time and potentially reduce your fees.

VT do a free Cashbook version of their software: http://www.vtsoftware.co.uk/

Using Excel is not always appropriate, though for my own accounts I think I could quite easily manage. If you provide professional services rather than products and therefore have low numbers of both income and expenditure then you may well be able to manage in Excel (e.g. I expect to have 50-100 expense items and probably less than 50 items of income in my first year, not exactly a big spreadsheet!)

santiagobravo

sorry should have been more clear as to my requirements

I will be using this for a small business (primarily online sales). I just need something that will help me track my sales, outgoings etc. And maybe reports

heretolearn_2

We recommend Quickbooks to our clients - simple to learn, user friendly, non-accountants can do well with it but it still has all the functionality that Sage has. It's a whole lot cheaper too.

Ballymackeonan

I'd second VT Cashbook, it's very straightforward.

Or TAS does a free download, a fully functional accounts system, except that it doesn't produce invoices, but fine for a fairly basic online sales system.

JohnChaundeler

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.