Simple Accounting / Budgeting Software

Alexand3r

Hi Money Saving Forum,

I have just recently joined MSE.com so please don't flame me if this is a topic that has already been discussed.

The topic in question is relates to my need to manage my money more efficiently as i have recently just finished university and am now self-employed. I have taken all of the correct steps registering with HRMC etc. but would like to do most of my book keeping and manage my money.

I have scanned through a topic regarding Microsoft money and many other software but have concluded that a personal excel spreadsheet is the answer. My downfall is that i am not overly confident with excel and wondered if anyone from this community has a good basic template that they use to manage their own money.

If anyone would like to advise me or help me out just post a reply on here or pm me

Which brings me to my next subject (don't worry this is the last one i promise), As i mentioned i would like to do my own simple accounting and have found a piece of software from solaraccounts.co.uk and thought i would post on here to see if anyone has any experience with this software and how effective it is for a newly started buisness / sole trader.

Thanks for your time reading this and apolagies if i have posted a duplicate or in the wrong area.

Cheers!

Alex

Gromitt

I thought about doing that, but time is money and all that and in the end I gave up and installed Moneydance. Importing QIF files from my bank and throwing them at the software was far easier.

If you don't want to pay for it there are plenty of free alternatives, such as Gnu Cash.

Alexand3r

Gromitt wrote: »

If you don't want to pay for it there are plenty of free alternatives, such as Gnu Cash.

I've just downloaded a program called Solar Accounts for invoicing etc. which is a 60 day trial and obviously if it works then i would imagine i'd continue paying for that service. However i will give that Gnu Cash a try!

Much appreciated.

firstinflight

Seconded for Gnu Cash, it's a great bit of software (and free!). I think it does probably require a bit of basic accounting knowledge to get the best out of it though.

lcurrall

Hi there - Solar accounts is a good product but it really does depend what you are looking for in terms of requirements. There are many great accounting software products on the market all aimed at slightly different needs.

We have created a comparison website called
comparesoftwareforbusiness.co.uk in order to help people find the perfect accounting sofware to match their needs. We have many of the industries leading products to easily compare including Solar Accounts.

Give it a go - hope it helps
Thanks
Louise

david_hellier

Hi,

There are some free mse type excel sheets on www.d-an-g.co.uk

MagicRich

Hi. I use Money Manager from Moneysoft. You can import QIF bank statements, and they do a free trial.

Deepfatfriar

Hi I have used Quicken for 16 years.

You can get the last UK version on Ebay for about £20.

It comes with instructions for Vista,XP and Windows 7.

A really great product in my view.

Gromitt

Quicken is great as long as you don't use version 5 or later, as these versions have removed the QIF import feature that most banks use for downloading transactions.

dtsazza

I can second (third?) Gnucash. It's not the prettiest software ever but it works very well and has all the functionality I've needed (including multiple graphs/charts of expenses, etc.).

It does take a few days to get your head around double-entry accounting. However, now that I've got the hang of it I don't think I could use a single-entry accounting program again - it would be far too limiting to only assign a single category to every transaction, and lose the ability to have "holding accounts" for money you have on behalf of someone else (e.g. flatmates' contributions to future bills), etc. Several times I've entered a complex transaction and thought about how that just wouldn't be possible to represent accurately in something like Quicken.

YMMV though - if you just want a way to assign categories to debit card purchases and draw pie charts of them at month-end, double-entry accounting might be overkill.

Marigold81

For accounting software for small businesses, I cannot recommend FreeAgent enough. I have been using it for the past 2 years for my limited company, and it's quite frankly amazing. I use it to track time spent on projects, create and invoices, track expenses, manage payslips. It spits out your balance sheet and P&L, and also tells you exactly what to put on your tax returns (corporation tax or self-assessment depending on what sort of business you have), and also VAT if necessary. You can upload your bank statements and it reconciles everything for you. They have options for sole traders and limited companies, so you only pay for what you need.
I probably sound like I have a vested interest in them, but I don't - I've just found it really helpful.
I've done accounting in a more manual way in the past and it was hideous. Every time a deadline came round I'd be up all night with piles of bits of paper, trying to make things balance. What I'm looking for at the moment is a similar system where I can do personal accounting, as unfortunately I'm far less organised about that!
Several of my friends use a similar tool called Xero, but I think they have found it to be slightly more clunky than FreeAgent.
Hope that's some help - there is a 30 day free trial so you can see what I mean!