Accounts

[leesutton]

Does any body have a copy of a spread sheet i can lookat as an idea to do my own for my accounts, I wont be copying it just need some ideas on what info it should contain.

guys in advance.

lee

[Guest]

Buy Sage, jobs done.

[arfur mo]

hi,

before you can use a spreadsheet especially designed by others, you will need to understand basic double entry book keeping. there a many books available on this.

if you don't want this learning curve (and who does?) then i'd recommend Intuits Quickbooks or M.Y.O.B. they work like a word processor, any mistakes are easily corrected with all the background ledgers and audit trials taken care of automatically.

beleive me, unless you are good at spread sheet construction and linking, cell slicing etc. as well as basic accounting its well worth the money.

you can get older versions fairly cheaply on Ebay or Amazon to play with.

regs

alan

[whistle]

pm sent lee

[leesutton]

pm sent lee

for that andy spot on

lee

[gupster]

basic double entry book keeping??

[arfur mo]

basic double entry book keeping??

what did you want to know about it? you have 2 basic ledgers inputs and outputs, after that yuou on your own

i'm not an accountant, i am fairly proficient in spread sheets. beleive me it is far easier to use a package especialy if or going to be VAT registered and on the Cash Accounting VAT Scheme (which i am).

The Inspector likes reports and bits of papaer to play with, give them these in copious quantity and a nice cuppa and they are usually as happy as larry. if you faff about trying to build reports on the lam you will be deeper investigated, because he/she will think your system is 'creaky' and want to make sure the goverment is not missing out because of it.

big bit of advice - never ever treat VAT inspectors as morons, barr one who acctually was, they have been an excellent help and full of good advice and tips, they see lots of different companie's and where they have gone wrong, so fluff them up with your respect and wanting to learn from them the best ways to conduct yourself, never portray you think they are a bunch of wanna be traffic wardens no matter how mutch you may think they are.

i use Quickbooks Pro, others suggest Sage. i used Sage as my first package in the past and found it unforgiving but that was some time ago. if say you invoiced the wrong client, or allocated a cheque to a supplier instead of a client ain a 2am accounts session, back tracking through journals and counter entries in ledgers was imo far more difficult than it needed to be. you can do the same in QB or M.Y.O.B. with no fuss, void the payment and re-enter correctly it job done as all journals and audit trails are done in the background.

a big call on any accounting software is not just the mistakes 'it' makes but the one's you make, and how much effort is required when corrections are made, and spotting them.

my wife is a trained and qualified Sage Finacial Controller known as Line 50 (the big defacto package) instructor, she is also the chief accountant for her firm. beleive me, we have some battles over which is best software - i'm always right as you would know from this forum .

regs

alan

[james.wilson]

well my 2p. I can develop applications for windows and linux, i can make most control panels do things they were never digined for, but i cannot get my head round sage!, we run line 50 at work and it is loved by the people taht use it day in day out, but its just looks over complicated and not very intuative to the non acocuntant. I think its the best and is market leader i think, but for the small business where time learning how to use an accounts package is time not installing/ earning, id try a fewe and go for the one that made sense as i used it without the manual. 1 developer i used to work with told me, great software doesnt need a manual as it should work how the operator thinks it should!, great for small packages but accounts is a bit different. But how many apps do you use evry day and have never read a book on? I need to read the sage books!!!

[arfur mo]

leesutton, if you are going with Quickbooks let me know. We have a spare legitimate copy of Quickbooks going.

Pm for details.

spare copy? you not likey quickey bookey then?

there is a great forum for quickbooks, far cheaper than any support package and some brilliant user on there too - i get on there someties

regs

alan

[leesutton]

leesutton, if you are going with Quickbooks let me know. We have a spare legitimate copy of Quickbooks going.

Pm for details.

for the offer but i have purchased a copy of sage business package as we have just started a new apprentice and are looking for another so it does all the figures and a built in database......

once again.

lee