One of the most important things for any new business owner is getting the accounts working correctly from the start. As such i have been researching the different solutions currently out there.
Sage
The most immediate annoyance was the fact it only runs on windows as a mac user this put me off straight away , the second being i would need to install the actual software on my machine. Meaning if my laptop / PC died i could lose all my financial records.
Secondly it seemed more designed for accountants to use due to the hugh selection of functions it can perform making it too large a learning process , rather than designed for someone like myself, that just want to keep a decent track of things to hand over to my accountant.
Price: €156.00 (Excl. VAT) once off , additional charges for updates
Bigredbook
A nice simple solution with easy to use interface, however not as comprehensive as i would like , and far to expensive at €45 per month. However they do have a Dublin office should you require any support.
Price: €45.00 per month (Excl. VAT)
Excel
As a speadsheet , excel is unrivalled around the world to a point where it’s taken for granted , however i have rarely come across anyone that can fully utlise the full potential of the excel software. It’s a powerful program that gives you all the tools you need to manage your accounts. The downside being the amount of work intially needed to set – up everything, as well as the manual work involved in the day to day updating
Price: Comes Free with most PC’s
Xero
Xero is a web based accountancy package , that has a very clean and polished interface. Allows for the easy import of bank statements as well as reconciling your payments with your bank statements and exporting these spreadsheets to excel to be printed off and handed to your accountant.
I was very impressed with this solution and the fact it was web based meant i could easily manage my accounts on the go , as they have a nice iphone app as well.
see www.xero.com for more.
Price: €13 per month (New Zealand based so no VAT )