How do you do your accounts?

Re: How do you do your accounts?

Ian Mostyn — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:39:49 GMT

I discovered Payroo when I took over payroll for my kids playgroup. Spending £200+ was not an option so I used payroo for 12 months with them, found it easier and migrated work over 12 months ago. Certainly don't regret it, especially as a tight Yorkshireman!

Ian

Re: How do you do your accounts?

Andrew Henfrey — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:39:25 GMT

I haven't heard of payroo.com before. Certainly could be useful!

I have used Line 50 before and can think of very little in Line 50 which is not present in Instant Accounts, as long as you don't want more than one access computer (use Instant Account Plus then). If your accountant is a SAGE licensed bureau they should be able to use data from any SAGE package. I stopped inputting myself several years ago as I figured it was more cost effective to have an administator/office person to so this than mayself. I still go in and check figures monthly though and always make sure VAT is correctly accounted.

Andrew

Re: How do you do your accounts?

Ian Mostyn — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:02:39 GMT

[quote user="Andrew Henfrey"]For payroll I do use our accountant as the cost (about £650 per year) is not excessive for 12 employees and to do it yourself means a new version of SAGE (or other) each year to cover government changes to tax thresholds, etc. They also take care of P60s, P35s, P11Ds, SMP, SSP and do the online submission on time! I just have to provide the information for the pay each month.[/quote]

Why? www.payroo.com is free - I have used it for 2 years now. I have 14 employees to deal with and it takes me about 30 minutes per month including the BACS payments. It is updated every year and I can do all my other forms on-line. For companies under 10 (I think), on-line submission is free, for all other companies it is less than £1 per employee, far cheaper than Sage or an accountant. It is also very simple - just input the number of hours, any overtime / student loans / childcare vouchers and the rest is done automatically. When I used to use Sage, I made the software last 2 years before legislation changes got too much to cope with.

For the accounts, I use Sage line 50 and have used the same version for 4 tax years. I input the invoices and as I have 2 branches, we have 2 customers. My accountant does the P&L and our tax returns and hopefully saves us some tax. It takes me about 2 hours per week. I know I could get a book-keeper but it allows me to keep a close eye on the practice. I am very familiar with all our costs and earnings. I asked my accountant about changing packages but they are most familiar with Line 50. To use another version would cost me more in accountants fees and does allow me to get more information than with the basic package. I started out with Instant Accounts and migrated up as the business grew.

Ian

Re: How do you do your accounts?

Andrew Henfrey — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:37:54 GMT

You don't need the excessive expense of Sage Line 50 as Sage Instant Accounts does almost the same at about 20% of the cost. Ask your accountant which program they recommend/use.

If you have a vet system computer package then all the accounts software needs to do is a supplier list and VAT accounting, as you have only one customer (your practice). The P&L, etc will be in all other systems.

For payroll I do use our accountant as the cost (about £650 per year) is not excessive for 12 employees and to do it yourself means a new version of SAGE (or other) each year to cover government changes to tax thresholds, etc. They also take care of P60s, P35s, P11Ds, SMP, SSP and do the online submission on time! I just have to provide the information for the pay each month.

Re: How do you do your accounts?

PATRICK MARSHALL — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:00:41 GMT

4 FTE VS companion animal and equine turnover circa £1m.

Sage 50 with bookeeper 1/2-1 day a week (£25/hr), I give him all the invoices etc marked up with allocation (4-8 hrs per month), all invoices paid by direct debit or by BACS by me, P&L monthly and balance sheet every 3 months.

Accounts done to trial balance sent to accountants - whose real job is to act as tax minimisers and business consultants.

Simple

Re: How do you do your accounts?

Rex — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:25:39 GMT

We have a bookeeper and use Sage Line 50, she does everything for a fraction of the cost of the accountant, one half day a week. Just use the accountant for the year end returns.