The big 3

Our team of specialists have learned the ins and outs of the software packages on the market and we’ve narrowed it down to the top three we feel have the best offering for owner managers (but don’t take our word for it)

Xero

“I’m spending too long on manual entry and not enough time looking at the figures”

That was the story of our client, an Installation Service Business who had (like many) historically used Sage to complete their accounts. We suggested a switch to Xero to streamline their reporting, using Xero bank feeds and rules to speed up the management accounts turnaround time, and overall increase productivity.

We then began to look at other processes we might be able to speed up. Xero connects to an app called ServiceM8, that helps trade contractors and field service businesses improve on-site management of jobs and staff. We installed this on every engineer’s device, so that they’d be able to invoice instantly, freeing up the finance staff to focus on those all-important management accounts.

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MTD for ITSA woman using xero on phone

QuickBooks

“We’ve got a lot stock but no efficient way to keep track”

Our client, an Agriculture Supplier, were still using spreadsheets to buy and sell stock and were struggling to track inventory. QuickBooks was found to be the best option for their needs, due to its efficient stock tracking capabilities.

We moved them over to QuickBooks so that their inventory quantities would be automatically updated, and they could keep on top of customer orders.

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man using quickbooks on his computer

Sage 50

“It’s an adjustment nightmare”

Sage has been the market leader for accounting software for decades, long before the years of cloud innovation. As a move from their desktop-based software, Sage offer Sage50 Cloud to compete with the on-the-go capabilities of new accounting solutions.

We recently helped a client to transition from a large, complicated accounting software that wasn’t allowing them to make the adjustments they needed. Where QuickBooks, for example, may work well for small businesses with limited financial knowledge Sage50 could be beneficial for larger more complex businesses.

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woman using sage on computer

The others

There are hundreds of other accounting software packages beside ‘the big 3’. There are packages targeted at really big companies where there are significant costs involves, packages for really small companies which are popular with start-ups and are fairly cheap (usually for a reason and will cost you more in the long run) and industry specific packages.

Some of the programmers for industry-based packages have realised that it’s much easier to create an interface between their package and Xero. This is why there are now hundreds of Xero add-ons. There may be one bit of software out there for you which does the job and links with Xero as well.

Whatever you have, we are able to help

The fundamentals of any accounts package are based around the trial balance which is a summary of everything which has happened in your financial system. Understanding the trial balance is key to getting your bit of software doing what you needed to do and that is where we can help.