The Lemon Fool

Can anyone recommend either a decent Excel template or very cheap software to knock up some initial accounts for a very simple business with a low transaction level?

The business does property leasing, so there are rents collected monthly, interest paid on funding, expenses such as monthly insurance and tenant security deposits taken. There are no purchases and sales, no inventory and no employees, just a director. At any one time there are on average two or three tenants.

I want to quickly get perhaps a General Ledger up to see how things look while we are evaluating what accounting software to purchase for the longer term.

Can accountants/bookkeepers also advise whether, given the type of business, I should just do the accounts on cash basis or is accrual basis better? I'm a newbie to both...

TIA.

GS

I suggest taking a look at Quick File. I ran my own small consultancy business on it. For basic book keeping etc it is completely free of charge. It's quite intuitive to set up and best of all, the community support is very good if you have a question. HTH.

Link - https://www.quickfile.co.uk/

BullDog wrote:I suggest taking a look at Quick File. I ran my own small consultancy business on it. For basic book keeping etc it is completely free of charge. It's quite intuitive to set up and best of all, the community support is very good if you have a question. HTH.

Link - https://www.quickfile.co.uk/

Thanks BullDog, I had a look at QuickFile last night. One or two reservations:

1. It's highly UK-centric while my business is based overseas. I maybe should have made that clear.
2. The interface on the face of it looks a bit clunky. Am I missing something? I entered the property purchase and initial capital from our conveyancer's invoice and it took quite some time to figure out the nuances. I suppose adding transactions directly in the bank accounts is more straightforward?
3. I'm a bit skittish about cloud-only services. Do you know if it's easy to import backup data to other packages like Sage/Quickbooks etc when the time comes?

In other respects it seems to meet my initial bookkeeping needs -- comprehensive and nicely implemented.

GS

Have a look at VT.

GoSeigen wrote:

BullDog wrote:I suggest taking a look at Quick File. I ran my own small consultancy business on it. For basic book keeping etc it is completely free of charge. It's quite intuitive to set up and best of all, the community support is very good if you have a question. HTH.

Link - https://www.quickfile.co.uk/

Thanks BullDog, I had a look at QuickFile last night. One or two reservations:

1. It's highly UK-centric while my business is based overseas. I maybe should have made that clear.
2. The interface on the face of it looks a bit clunky. Am I missing something? I entered the property purchase and initial capital from our conveyancer's invoice and it took quite some time to figure out the nuances. I suppose adding transactions directly in the bank accounts is more straightforward?
3. I'm a bit skittish about cloud-only services. Do you know if it's easy to import backup data to other packages like Sage/Quickbooks etc when the time comes?

In other respects it seems to meet my initial bookkeeping needs -- comprehensive and nicely implemented.

GS

When I was using it, I found the user dashboard to be pretty good, but I suppose everyone has a different definition of clunky!
Actually, I think it might be worth you asking those questions at the support forum and/or taking a look at the knowledge base. I didn't have to do either of those things when running my small consultancy business. Sorry I can't be of more help.

BullDog wrote:

GoSeigen wrote:

BullDog wrote:I suggest taking a look at Quick File. I ran my own small consultancy business on it. For basic book keeping etc it is completely free of charge. It's quite intuitive to set up and best of all, the community support is very good if you have a question. HTH.

Link - https://www.quickfile.co.uk/

Thanks BullDog, I had a look at QuickFile last night. One or two reservations:

1. It's highly UK-centric while my business is based overseas. I maybe should have made that clear.
2. The interface on the face of it looks a bit clunky. Am I missing something? I entered the property purchase and initial capital from our conveyancer's invoice and it took quite some time to figure out the nuances. I suppose adding transactions directly in the bank accounts is more straightforward?
3. I'm a bit skittish about cloud-only services. Do you know if it's easy to import backup data to other packages like Sage/Quickbooks etc when the time comes?

In other respects it seems to meet my initial bookkeeping needs -- comprehensive and nicely implemented.

GS

When I was using it, I found the user dashboard to be pretty good, but I suppose everyone has a different definition of clunky!
Actually, I think it might be worth you asking those questions at the support forum and/or taking a look at the knowledge base. I didn't have to do either of those things when running my small consultancy business. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Just to give a simple example, perhaps you can help: today I tried to set up a monthly recurring transaction for the rent from a property. Seems it had to be done with a recurring invoice, but I am also doing transactions going back a few months and I could not find any way to start the recurring invoice from a past date.

But have to say I think being stuck with GBP only is going to be an insurmountable problem.

GS

GoSeigen wrote:

BullDog wrote:

GoSeigen wrote:

BullDog wrote:I suggest taking a look at Quick File. I ran my own small consultancy business on it. For basic book keeping etc it is completely free of charge. It's quite intuitive to set up and best of all, the community support is very good if you have a question. HTH.

Link - https://www.quickfile.co.uk/

Thanks BullDog, I had a look at QuickFile last night. One or two reservations:

1. It's highly UK-centric while my business is based overseas. I maybe should have made that clear.
2. The interface on the face of it looks a bit clunky. Am I missing something? I entered the property purchase and initial capital from our conveyancer's invoice and it took quite some time to figure out the nuances. I suppose adding transactions directly in the bank accounts is more straightforward?
3. I'm a bit skittish about cloud-only services. Do you know if it's easy to import backup data to other packages like Sage/Quickbooks etc when the time comes?

In other respects it seems to meet my initial bookkeeping needs -- comprehensive and nicely implemented.

GS

When I was using it, I found the user dashboard to be pretty good, but I suppose everyone has a different definition of clunky!
Actually, I think it might be worth you asking those questions at the support forum and/or taking a look at the knowledge base. I didn't have to do either of those things when running my small consultancy business. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Just to give a simple example, perhaps you can help: today I tried to set up a monthly recurring transaction for the rent from a property. Seems it had to be done with a recurring invoice, but I am also doing transactions going back a few months and I could not find any way to start the recurring invoice from a past date.

But have to say I think being stuck with GBP only is going to be an insurmountable problem.

GS

I see. To keep things simple what I did was - My business would invoice in Euros (for example) and be paid in Euros. The invoice sent to the client(s) was from outside of Quickfile, using an XL template and the print to pdf function. I used Wise (formerly Transferwise) as my business bank account. I transferred everything on receipt within Wise into GBP. Within Quickfile I raised a dummy GBP invoice that I did not send to the client. All my transactions within Quickfile were in GBP. All the FX stuff was done outside the book keeping package. I realise this was for a small consultancy with few transactions and so was easy to manage. Everything wwas accounted for in GBP, start to finish. Perhaps you have far more FX issues than I had. Still might be worth seeing what other Quickfile users are doing before you write the system off? Hope that helps you.

BullDog wrote:

GoSeigen wrote:

BullDog wrote:

GoSeigen wrote:Thanks BullDog, I had a look at QuickFile last night. One or two reservations:

1. It's highly UK-centric while my business is based overseas. I maybe should have made that clear.
2. The interface on the face of it looks a bit clunky. Am I missing something? I entered the property purchase and initial capital from our conveyancer's invoice and it took quite some time to figure out the nuances. I suppose adding transactions directly in the bank accounts is more straightforward?
3. I'm a bit skittish about cloud-only services. Do you know if it's easy to import backup data to other packages like Sage/Quickbooks etc when the time comes?

In other respects it seems to meet my initial bookkeeping needs -- comprehensive and nicely implemented.

GS

When I was using it, I found the user dashboard to be pretty good, but I suppose everyone has a different definition of clunky!
Actually, I think it might be worth you asking those questions at the support forum and/or taking a look at the knowledge base. I didn't have to do either of those things when running my small consultancy business. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Just to give a simple example, perhaps you can help: today I tried to set up a monthly recurring transaction for the rent from a property. Seems it had to be done with a recurring invoice, but I am also doing transactions going back a few months and I could not find any way to start the recurring invoice from a past date.

But have to say I think being stuck with GBP only is going to be an insurmountable problem.

GS

I see. To keep things simple what I did was - My business would invoice in Euros (for example) and be paid in Euros. The invoice sent to the client(s) was from outside of Quickfile, using an XL template and the print to pdf function. I used Wise (formerly Transferwise) as my business bank account. I transferred everything on receipt within Wise into GBP. Within Quickfile I raised a dummy GBP invoice that I did not send to the client. All my transactions within Quickfile were in GBP. All the FX stuff was done outside the book keeping package. I realise this was for a small consultancy with few transactions and so was easy to manage. Everything wwas accounted for in GBP, start to finish. Perhaps you have far more FX issues than I had. Still might be worth seeing what other Quickfile users are doing before you write the system off? Hope that helps you.

To be honest I could just use the package and pretend the pound signs are my local currency signs, and it would work fine. By doing that I think I'd be foregoing other useful functionality both in QuickFile and in other software I could be using instead. That is a decision for the future though and I thank you for the heads up. I don't think I'd have come across it otherwise.

Many people around here use Sage and I'd like to try it but I am hugely put off by the fact that even their home page won't display properly in my browser (Firefox) -- showing only the menu items at the top -- whereas 98% of other sites I access seem to have learned how to use markup in the short 30 years of its existence! Can anyone suggest what the problem might be. I haven't tried other browsers yet, but a private window didn't help, nor did deleting cookies etc.

GS

GoSeigen wrote:

BullDog wrote:

GoSeigen wrote:

BullDog wrote:

GoSeigen wrote:Thanks BullDog, I had a look at QuickFile last night. One or two reservations:

1. It's highly UK-centric while my business is based overseas. I maybe should have made that clear.
2. The interface on the face of it looks a bit clunky. Am I missing something? I entered the property purchase and initial capital from our conveyancer's invoice and it took quite some time to figure out the nuances. I suppose adding transactions directly in the bank accounts is more straightforward?
3. I'm a bit skittish about cloud-only services. Do you know if it's easy to import backup data to other packages like Sage/Quickbooks etc when the time comes?

In other respects it seems to meet my initial bookkeeping needs -- comprehensive and nicely implemented.

GS

When I was using it, I found the user dashboard to be pretty good, but I suppose everyone has a different definition of clunky!
Actually, I think it might be worth you asking those questions at the support forum and/or taking a look at the knowledge base. I didn't have to do either of those things when running my small consultancy business. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Just to give a simple example, perhaps you can help: today I tried to set up a monthly recurring transaction for the rent from a property. Seems it had to be done with a recurring invoice, but I am also doing transactions going back a few months and I could not find any way to start the recurring invoice from a past date.

But have to say I think being stuck with GBP only is going to be an insurmountable problem.

GS

I see. To keep things simple what I did was - My business would invoice in Euros (for example) and be paid in Euros. The invoice sent to the client(s) was from outside of Quickfile, using an XL template and the print to pdf function. I used Wise (formerly Transferwise) as my business bank account. I transferred everything on receipt within Wise into GBP. Within Quickfile I raised a dummy GBP invoice that I did not send to the client. All my transactions within Quickfile were in GBP. All the FX stuff was done outside the book keeping package. I realise this was for a small consultancy with few transactions and so was easy to manage. Everything wwas accounted for in GBP, start to finish. Perhaps you have far more FX issues than I had. Still might be worth seeing what other Quickfile users are doing before you write the system off? Hope that helps you.

To be honest I could just use the package and pretend the pound signs are my local currency signs, and it would work fine. By doing that I think I'd be foregoing other useful functionality both in QuickFile and in other software I could be using instead. That is a decision for the future though and I thank you for the heads up. I don't think I'd have come across it otherwise.

Many people around here use Sage and I'd like to try it but I am hugely put off by the fact that even their home page won't display properly in my browser (Firefox) -- showing only the menu items at the top -- whereas 98% of other sites I access seem to have learned how to use markup in the short 30 years of its existence! Can anyone suggest what the problem might be. I haven't tried other browsers yet, but a private window didn't help, nor did deleting cookies etc.

GS

Very glad to be at least partially of assistance. A bit left field maybe, if you have a business bank account with NatWest, you are entitled to a free subscription to a package called FreeAgent. Now, that absolutely does fully support FX in multiple currencies etc..... I was a bit hesitant and recommended Quickfile over FreeAgent, but it's probably more suited to your needs. FreeAgent was targeted originally at the freelance community (where I first came across it) but I see absolutely no reason why it wouldn't be suitable for your needs. Normally there's a monthly subscription. But it comes for free with NatWest business accounts. Hope that helps, even if only a bit.

I had a look at Wave https://www.waveapps.com/ a while back but decided it was overkill for what I needed (went with Harvest as it was just invoicing for a couple of contracts at a time)

Might be worth a look

Maybe gnucash can do it? https://www.gnucash.org/

From website: "GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows."

"Feature Highlights

Double-Entry Accounting
Stock/Bond/Mutual Fund Accounts
Small-Business Accounting
Reports, Graphs
QIF/OFX/HBCI Import, Transaction Matching
Scheduled Transactions
Financial Calculations"

GoSeigen wrote:Can anyone recommend either a decent Excel template or very cheap software to knock up some initial accounts for a very simple business with a low transaction level?

The business does property leasing, so there are rents collected monthly, interest paid on funding, expenses such as monthly insurance and tenant security deposits taken. There are no purchases and sales, no inventory and no employees, just a director. At any one time there are on average two or three tenants.

I want to quickly get perhaps a General Ledger up to see how things look while we are evaluating what accounting software to purchase for the longer term.

Can accountants/bookkeepers also advise whether, given the type of business, I should just do the accounts on cash basis or is accrual basis better? I'm a newbie to both...

TIA.

GS

If a company, as suggested, cash basis is not appropriate, companies must prepare accounts using accruals basis.

https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-c ... cash-basis

You will not like this comment but step one ought to be going to see an accountant to take advice on whether property within a company is even a good idea, the record keeping is important but using the right entity is far more important and its choice will depend upon you/your family's etc particular circumstances and objectives. (Gave up practice in 2019 so no skin in the game, this is genuinely disinterested advice)

Charlottesquare wrote:

GoSeigen wrote:Can anyone recommend either a decent Excel template or very cheap software to knock up some initial accounts for a very simple business with a low transaction level?

The business does property leasing, so there are rents collected monthly, interest paid on funding, expenses such as monthly insurance and tenant security deposits taken. There are no purchases and sales, no inventory and no employees, just a director. At any one time there are on average two or three tenants.

I want to quickly get perhaps a General Ledger up to see how things look while we are evaluating what accounting software to purchase for the longer term.

Can accountants/bookkeepers also advise whether, given the type of business, I should just do the accounts on cash basis or is accrual basis better? I'm a newbie to both...

TIA.

GS

If a company, as suggested, cash basis is not appropriate, companies must prepare accounts using accruals basis.

https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-c ... cash-basis

You will not like this comment but step one ought to be going to see an accountant to take advice on whether property within a company is even a good idea, the record keeping is important but using the right entity is far more important and its choice will depend upon you/your family's etc particular circumstances and objectives. (Gave up practice in 2019 so no skin in the game, this is genuinely disinterested advice)

Thanks Charlottesquare. We did briefly discuss this with an accountant. It's a mixed commercial residential property and the paperwork was simpler through a company so that's where we started. I'd be interested in your view of the downsides from your long experience. Bear in mind that the property is not in the UK, the company is also not a UK company (but similar to UK law). I wouldn't really relish transferring the assets into our own names at this stage...

Some feedback on the software -- I stuck with quickfile as suggested by BullDog which worked ok once I found the way to do things. I just did everything as if it was pound sterling then used the numbers but with the local currency sign. Fortunately there is decent export functionality so I can always import the data into another package if I wish to.

Thanks for the tips.

GS

GoSeigen wrote:Many people around here use Sage and I'd like to try it but I am hugely put off by the fact that even their home page won't display properly in my browser (Firefox)

It displays fine for me in Firefox 102.

GoSeigen wrote:

Charlottesquare wrote:

GoSeigen wrote:Can anyone recommend either a decent Excel template or very cheap software to knock up some initial accounts for a very simple business with a low transaction level?

The business does property leasing, so there are rents collected monthly, interest paid on funding, expenses such as monthly insurance and tenant security deposits taken. There are no purchases and sales, no inventory and no employees, just a director. At any one time there are on average two or three tenants.

I want to quickly get perhaps a General Ledger up to see how things look while we are evaluating what accounting software to purchase for the longer term.

Can accountants/bookkeepers also advise whether, given the type of business, I should just do the accounts on cash basis or is accrual basis better? I'm a newbie to both...

TIA.

GS

If a company, as suggested, cash basis is not appropriate, companies must prepare accounts using accruals basis.

https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-c ... cash-basis

You will not like this comment but step one ought to be going to see an accountant to take advice on whether property within a company is even a good idea, the record keeping is important but using the right entity is far more important and its choice will depend upon you/your family's etc particular circumstances and objectives. (Gave up practice in 2019 so no skin in the game, this is genuinely disinterested advice)

Thanks Charlottesquare. We did briefly discuss this with an accountant. It's a mixed commercial residential property and the paperwork was simpler through a company so that's where we started. I'd be interested in your view of the downsides from your long experience. Bear in mind that the property is not in the UK, the company is also not a UK company (but similar to UK law). I wouldn't really relish transferring the assets into our own names at this stage...

Some feedback on the software -- I stuck with quickfile as suggested by BullDog which worked ok once I found the way to do things. I just did everything as if it was pound sterling then used the numbers but with the local currency sign. Fortunately there is decent export functionality so I can always import the data into another package if I wish to.

Thanks for the tips.

GS

Did not appreciate geography of property/company, if not UK property or company check with accountants/solicitors locally .

If it were UK, the only area on which I can really comment, my reservations re property in the UK within companies tend to be re double tax if selling up- CT then either IT or CGT, ATED charges, ADS re LBTT and often greater difficulty borrowing/increased costs, plus increased compliance costs re a company. If say a large part of your estate is the shares of a private company your estate can also have issues raising cash to pay IHT whereas if property outwith a company family say borrow against bare property and cash is in their hands to settle the IHT bill.

One plus is of course possibly delaying MTD compliance obligation as companies following MTD will be 2026 earliest but really not sold on benefits of companies and investment property holding.