Accounting software.

James1968

A bit of a long one this, so bare with me.

I work as a construction site handyman. I work through an agency who tell me which sites I am needed on each week.

I an classed by the agency as self-employed,
The agency uses an umbrella company to pay me. The umbrella company deducts my Tax and NI as if I were a PAYE employee, however, I can submit an expenses sheet each week for mileage, food, tools, etc which they then pay me as tax deductable.

Add to this, the fact that I do do work for my own clients outside of my site duties.

What I want to know before committing to purchasing software to keep an eye on my finances is, can something like Quick Books handle this type of arrangement?.,

buglawton

Have a look at https://www.kashflow.com/
Fully British based and there's an interesting business story behind this company too.

As a one-man band doing his own accounts, Mr Jackson found that he could not get to grips with the "jargon" of the book-keeping software programmes available to small businesses.
So he came up with an idea for a simple accounting system for owner-managers like himself.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19400039

Savvy_Sue

Quickbooks definitely can. Whether you'd want it to is another matter: I'd say that it's probably overkill. Not used kashflow but suspect it would be easier to get to grips with: although QB is meant to be easier to use Sage (another one I've not used) I'd say it requires a fair understanding of basic bookkeeping / accountancy.

Although it strikes me that a well setup Excel spreadsheet could also do what you want.

buglawton

Most accounting software for sole traders is online and can be used from PC or phone app. Phone apps are good for entering receipts and mileage on the go.
They cost in the region of £15-£20/month.

With my rental activities I reckon on 30 or so expense items per year. So I use Dropbox on phone to store receipts and a spreadsheet in Dropbox for an expense list including mileage. It can get a bit ramshackle so tallying everything for the annual tax return is still a chore.

There's one free online bookkeeping offer which gets good reviews so would be a no-risk no-commitment option:
https://uk.pcmag.com/accounting-tax-software/41929/wave

00ec25

what are you after?
software that will do your tax return?
or
software that will do your bookkeeping for both your employee role and your self employed business?

do you need to track and file CIS deductions?

James1968

I don't need to worry about CIS returns as, even though I work mainly on construction sites, I will be a one man operation.

What I need from a software point of view is one that can log income and expenditure and do my Tax Return at year end.

My expenses would be mileage, PPE and tools. Materials are supplied by the developer curtesy of their stores.

At the moment, i am paid via an umbrella company who take care of the Tax, NI and expenses but they charge for this, so if I can do the same thing with software at a lower monthly fee, then I will do it.

Buglawton, I will definately check out that link as it may well suite my needs.

Pennywise

James1968 wrote: »

What I need from a software point of view is one that can log income and expenditure and do my Tax Return at year end.

Most software won't do both as book-keeping is different from tax returns. The only one I know of that does both is Freeagent.