Accounting Software..?

Hubud

Hi all,

Having been out of work for a few months now I have a chance to (finally) get some work, perhaps, on a contract basis. Basically I'd be self-employed and used as a sub-contractor by a particular organisation.

Anyway, money's rather tight at the minute so I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions on some suitable - preferably free - accounting software? I really just want to be able to keep track of tax / NI / expense records etc with something a little more elegant than spreadsheets.

Thanks in advance!

xapprenticex

Sage is only £30 a month? Otherwise just use excel imo, you may be able to get a free template, elegance is vanity.

Otherwise, use google and see what free software people recommend. Never used the free ones.

boliston

quickbooks is very good - you can get an older version off ebay for peanuts although if you are using windows 10 you might need to run it in windows 7 compatibility mode.

Hubud

Sadly I don't have £30 a month spare for such things at the moment. I've run a few searches online, there is a vast myriad of options so I was hoping someone may have used one or two and be able to offer a "use this..." or an "avoid xxxx as though it were a rabid leper...". I've never gone down the self-employed route before so it's a little daunting, for now.

Mattygroves2

I'd use a spreadsheet if you're a simple business with a few customers and a few suppliers. All you need to know is your profit at the end of the year so you can do your tax return - assuming you are going to be a sole trader rather than a company.

makeyourdaddyproud

I'm pretty sure there is an free Excel based template out there that will more than satisfy your requirements.

The best ones will have macros to control and verify info put in; some will even have simple forms.

Leave the £30 subscriptions to the big boys.

getmore4less

You can probably get MSMoney to do a lot of what you want (it is great for the personal stuff, expenses) but it won't know about the tax NI you may need to model that.

I modeled PAYE in a spreadsheet for umbrella work problay ook about 3hrs to set up and get the HMRC tables coded , then a few tweeks to make the expenses work properly.

I found it useful for getting to grips with the TAX NI properly variable weeks pay and part year, as it happened the umbrella were getting it wrong.

A mixture of MSmoney for the day to day tracking accounting and a custom spreadsheet for the stuff needed by HMRC

MSMoney has good builtin reporting for getting the data out for your spreadsheet that does the tax/NI

wess_lawson

If you are very good at excel formulas then you can use it by excel. Quickboooks, sage, xero are pricey good options but if you want a free one then I recommend online bookkeeping software ZipBooks. Its very professional.

Pennywise

VT cash book is free - you can download it from https://www.vtsoftware.co.uk. Very popular amongst book-keepers as it's a quick and simple way to record your in's and out's. Basically a step up from a spreadsheet.

In reply to the other post, you can do A LOT better than get Sage if you've got £30 to spare per month. In particular, Freeagent is about half that price for a sole trader and is a fully featured accounting system which will even deal with unpaid invoices (required if you're not using simplified cash basis for your tax returns), and even prepare/submit your annual self assessment tax return too.

paddyrg

Wow - I've used Excel just fine for a couple of million quid projects I was working on - it has a lot going for it. It's hugely compatible, you understand what's happening where with credits, debits etc. You don't need anything fancy, just clarity, consistency and accuracy, then hand it over to your accountant at year end.

You could also look at Crunch who offer a managed service.

xapprenticex

I think op is sorted now.