Andica Self Assessment Professional

Andica isn't a well-known name in the world of self-assessment, but despite its bargain-basement price, this is a polished offering.

Andica's single-user software contains the main SA100 form plus all supplementary pages, including those not covered by the Inland Revenue's own online software submission tool. If you're entering returns for other members of your family, the five-user version - for a couple of pounds extra - is good value.

The neat layout, complete with handy progress indicator, compares favourably to both ProTax and TaxCalc, and feels much less cramped. Like its rivals, Andica offers 128-bit encryption between the host PC and the Inland Revenue site. When filling in the return, though, Andica's approach grates in a couple of areas. First, mandatory fields aren't clearly flagged, so you're only warned that you need to fill them in when you attempt to move to the next page. We'd also like a more obvious method by which to add supplementary pages.

Other than this, Andica is a decent piece of software. While more experienced users may miss the level of import options offered in ProTax or TaxCalc's ability to compare like-with-like entries over previous years, Andica is ideal for first-time filers.

Author: Tom Gorham