Comments on: FreeAgent Accounting software: a year in the life

By: James

James — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 23:53:49 +0000

Im not sure why sole traders want the unnecessary extras that clog up the pages and confuse the user all together. Sole traders should look for the simplest option, I tried and tested many of these accounting systems, and my choice out of all of them was http://www.contraccount.com. It has all of the invoicing features required as well as straightforward and simple layout for accounting tasks.
Many of these systems have limits, Contraccounts has none. For a self employed builder such as my self, Contraccounts is definitely the way to go, as it contains only the tools you need.

By: Maslins

Maslins — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:29:13 +0000

Sage may still be the market leader, but not because it’s the best. The main reason is simply lethargy/fear of the unknown on the part of business owners, bookkeepers and accountants.

I strongly recommend people wavering to give FreeAgent’s 30 day free trial a go. Give it a try and I doubt you’ll stick with Sage/complex spreadsheets.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:59:59 +0000

Hi Kevin,
I know you are a flash/php fan, so another online accounting app that you may be interested in is http://www.accountsportal.com – its written in flex with a php backend.

30 days free trial and only £8 / month thereafter.

By: Edward Fraser

Edward Fraser — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:23:37 +0000

Take a look a Xero- http://www.xero.com . It seems to be similar to Free Agent in some ways but you can create batch payment download files to send to your bank. There is an API that could be very useful to online businesses and also it can Intergrate directly with your PayPal statements and accept bank feeds directly from HSBC. Pitty I closed my HSBC business account quoting bad IT facilities as my main reason for closeing my accounts just one months before this feature went live!

By: greogry

greogry — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:42:59 +0000

We are a taxi company Hummingbird Cars in London. We provide Airport Transfer service from all london airports.
We are new in the business and we require to buy a good accounting software. Can anyone please advice which software will be suitable for us as we are a small business and also which one will be relaiable and affordable.

http://www.hummingbirdcars.com

Thank you

By: Matt Fenn

Matt Fenn — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:24:42 +0000

For online accounting, estimates, invoicing etc. Moobiz http://www.moobiz.com is worth a look, pricing also starts at £15/month.

You also get project management including to-dos, file management etc and a CRM.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:34:11 +0000

To be honest, I would rather have a download version of this program. I am not a fan of having information such as accounting online.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:44:37 +0000

Steve: yes I know what you mean but I live in hope that things will move on with time, especially in small businesses where the business owner needs to be closer to the day to day accounts. Maybe Sage will wake up and smell the coffee and develop an easy to use online service of their own. Aha ha.

John: I think there’s a vested interest for both accountants and Sage in keeping the quid pro quo. It was a genuine paradigm shift for me to to use a piece of accounting software that is as easy to use as all other software.
Fortunately my accountant is more flexible than many and accepts the data in the format I provide.

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:36:37 +0000

@Chris: No Sage software isn’t open but is extensible. For a start you have the ODBC driver that gets installed with Line 50. Whilst this is read only its great for easy access to the data. Then if you want to write data you need the SDK, its quite extensive and well documented but of course you do need to pay for the privelege!

I myself did an alpha prototype of Line 50 in a web browser, you can see it at http://sage50web.domorewithsage.com

By: Steve Cassidy

Steve Cassidy — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:02:20 +0000

I’ve been furtling with both MoneyDance, and Accountz. MoneyDance is quite a nice piece of work, but very US-centric.

Sage actually are now so deeply embedded in UK business that it’s practically a CV item to “know your sage” if you are a book-keeper. Not that this is a good thing…