Tide Accounting - interested in your experiences of accounting software

RetSol

I have a Tide business bank account and am considering signing up for Tide Accounting which claims to "Sort out your taxes without the need for an accountant".

I know that there is other similar software out there such as Quickbooks but I am thinking of going with Tide Accounting for the sake of simplicity.

I have a small private psychotherapy practice so my needs are pretty straightforward. I just want something to take the hard work out of compiling my accounts and my self-assessment tax return.

One issue which concerns me is about keeping records for the 6 years required by HMRC.  What happens if I leave Tide?  Will the records remain available?

I would be interested to hear others' experiences of Tide Accounting and other similar applications.

Savvy_Sue

Can't speak specifically to Tide, but before signing up to anything you need to look ahead.

We changed payroll provider a couple of times. On each change it was essential to make sure we'd got local copies of information we might need in future. Tide will have a way of you doing this ...

SensibleSarah

I keep spreadsheet books/accounts alongside any software that I use - just for my own peace of mind that if their website is down on a certain day, or something drastic happens, I have a back up record going back as long as I have been trading of all transactions and expenses etc. 

SVaz

I use freeagent as it comes free with my Mettle business acct. or rather my Wife uses it to do my books.
I can export all details very easily,  which was done after the end of the tax year,  all kept in a file on my laptop but can also be printed off should the need arise.  

RetSol

SVaz said:

I use freeagent as it comes free with my Mettle business acct. or rather my Wife uses it to do my books.
I can export all details very easily,  which was done after the end of the tax year,  all kept in a file on my laptop but can also be printed off should the need arise.  

Thank you, that's helpful. 

I am trying to find out from them if Quick Books does the same. 

koru

I've also been using Freeagent, free with Mettle account, and it seems to work well so far.

As well as doing tax for the company, it will produce statutory micro accounts for filing with Companies House, which should give a nice saving of accountant's fees. I'll see what the year end accounts look like and then judge if it seems to comply with Companies Act requirements.

I would not necessarily encourage others to manage without an accountant. I did study accounting a long time ago, which makes me a bit more willing to give it a go myself. Also, my company is about as simple as you can get, so there aren't any difficult accounting issues. And I'm the only shareholder and employee, so in practice the only persons who care about the accounts are me and HMRC. I'm confident the accounts will show the right taxable profits, so HMRC should be happy.