The Framers Forum

I got into picture framing by buying an existing business a couple of years ago. On my accountants advice I started using the Sage Start Accounting package to do my bookkeeping and accounts.

It's bloody awful. Really clunky. Not remotely intuitive. Slow and cumbersome to use.

Can anyone recommend some decent accounting software for running a small one man business?

I just use a spreadsheet and submit a ‘cash book’ to my accountant. I tried sage one which was overkill. Keep it simple.

I use Xero and find it perfect for my needs. Very simple to get your head around following by initial setup where you might need a few pointers from your accountant on setting up your ‘chart of account’ and where to allocate each transaction too. Beyond that it’s child’s play really. I used to do my books once a month on a spreadsheet and it would take me hours and hours. Now, I reconcile my books once a day first thing when getting to work and it takes about 5 minutes a day. Any invoices I send are tracked by the software and chases are automatically made whenever I diarise them. It takes the embarrassment out of chassis g payments from regulars as it’s clearly automated and I find I get paid quicker.

Xero also comes with the program and app Hubdoc for free. This is a bank of invoices and receipts which you can ask suppliers to email invoices too automatically or you can quickly forward by email or take a quick photo in the app and submit that way. Hubdoc reads the invoice in full and once a supplier is fully setup you can completely automate the process so you literally have to do nothing!! Ideal!!

Support is great with and whole world of resources sbd a community like this one keen to help. You wouldn’t go far wrong in adopting the Xero package. I pay about £30 a month for it and my accountant says it saves me more than that in charges he’d make if I stuck to the old double entry spreadsheet system.

i use wave accounting which is free, it works really well for my needs and i can invite my accountant in when he needs to go through things.

another consideration, but it means changing banks, is to go with natwest who offer a free accounting package to customers.

I use an Excel spreadsheet and a daily cash book. It's pretty easy to understand and is simple to use!

I use FreeAgent which is free if you have a nat west or RBS business account (I actually pay for it though)

It does everything I need including VAT and payroll and sends the info to HMRC. I also use it to produce my year end accounts for HMRC and companies house.