"Ian White" wrote in message
...
Stuart Noble wrote:
Gav wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Hi

Can anyone recommend a PC based accounts package for the self employed?

Looking for simple. I don't carry any stock to speak of, customer
buys it, I fit it. I don't employ anyone, I don't have any cash flow
issues (payment at completion of job).

Just want to keep track of ingoings & outgoings for the tax man & keep
an eye on the business.


just been playing about in MS office 12 and they actually have a set of
templates for buisness use, if ya want em email me or get yourself a
copy of office 12

As far as Medway Handyman is concerned, I don't think the tax man is going
to be interested in the fine detail. If your figures are within what the
Revenue regard as average for that type of work, they shouldn't bother
you. Money in, money out, materials, expenses. Scribble them in your diary
and think about making the money rather than accounting for it.
Sure, you can design your own accounts package in Access or Excel but I
wouldn't bother buying them just for that. The templates are pretty
elementary and getting anywhere near the functionality of Quickbooks etc
would be a major undertaking for a beginner.


A good option for an absolute beginner in DIY book-keeping would be to use
simple paper-based accounts for a while, to get some hands-on experience
of calculating how the money comes and goes. Once you have developed a
system that suits your business, it is then very much easier to move it
over to Excel.



--
Ian White

My advice is as seasoned Quickbooks user is to use it from day 1, it is a
simple package to get to grips with and can be used as the business grows.

Steve Dawson

Eric The Viking wrote:

From what I've seen of accounts packages none of them have a facility for
tracking mileage as you describe - you would need to use a separate
dedicated program for this.

I have just upgraded from Quickbooks 6.0 which I've been using since
1999 to Quickbooks 2004 (which I bought 2 years ago and couldn't face
the upheaval of switching mid way through a year.)

And discover that Quickbooks 2004 (pro) does have a mileage tracker.

One should be able to get an e-bay copy of it for a reasonable price I'd
have thought.

--
http://gymratz.co.uk - Best Gym Equipment & Bodybuilding Supplements UK.
http://trade-price-supplements.co.uk - TRADE PRICED SUPPLEMENTS for ALL!
http://fitness-equipment-uk.com - UK's No.1 Fitness Equipment Suppliers.
http://Water-Rower.co.uk - Worlds best prices on the Worlds best Rower.

Eric The Viking wrote:
Just down loaded a trial copy of Cash is King which sems to be what I
want.


Can you post the URL? Wouldn't mind taking a look :-)

http://www.foursoftware.co.uk/index.jsp


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
. uk...
Eric The Viking wrote:
Just down loaded a trial copy of Cash is King which sems to be what I
want.


Can you post the URL? Wouldn't mind taking a look :-)

http://www.foursoftware.co.uk/index.jsp

FIFTY POUNDS A YEAR?

phew!

I wonder what's the payback time ;-)

Mary Fisher wrote:
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
. uk...

Eric The Viking wrote:

Just down loaded a trial copy of Cash is King which sems to be what I
want.


Can you post the URL? Wouldn't mind taking a look :-)

http://www.foursoftware.co.uk/index.jsp


FIFTY POUNDS A YEAR?

phew!

I wonder what's the payback time ;-)



If you get into the habit of using one bank account for everything
related to the business, your monthly statements *are* your books and
you don't have to lift a finger or pay a penny.

"Stuart Noble" wrote in message
...
Mary Fisher wrote:
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
. uk...

Eric The Viking wrote:

Just down loaded a trial copy of Cash is King which sems to be what I
want.


Can you post the URL? Wouldn't mind taking a look :-)

http://www.foursoftware.co.uk/index.jsp


FIFTY POUNDS A YEAR?

phew!

I wonder what's the payback time ;-)

If you get into the habit of using one bank account for everything related
to the business, your monthly statements *are* your books and you don't
have to lift a finger or pay a penny.

Indeed, but it's interesting to see daily in/outgoings and, for me, the
breakdown of expenses and income. Smart Accounts does that - according to
what I want and controlled by me. I love looking at the pie and other charts
:-)

There are features others may like but I don't need them. A simple in/out
and categorised system is all I need or want, it cost me about £20 some
years ago and nothing since. I could use it for multiple accounts but I
don't.

It's good.

Mary

Mary Fisher wrote:
"Stuart Noble" wrote in message
...

Mary Fisher wrote:

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
. co.uk...


Eric The Viking wrote:


Just down loaded a trial copy of Cash is King which sems to be what I
want.


Can you post the URL? Wouldn't mind taking a look :-)

http://www.foursoftware.co.uk/index.jsp


FIFTY POUNDS A YEAR?

phew!

I wonder what's the payback time ;-)

If you get into the habit of using one bank account for everything related
to the business, your monthly statements *are* your books and you don't
have to lift a finger or pay a penny.


Indeed, but it's interesting to see daily in/outgoings and, for me, the
breakdown of expenses and income. Smart Accounts does that - according to
what I want and controlled by me. I love looking at the pie and other charts
:-)

There are features others may like but I don't need them. A simple in/out
and categorised system is all I need or want, it cost me about £20 some
years ago and nothing since. I could use it for multiple accounts but I
don't.

It's good.

Mary



I paste all my online bank statements into Excel so I can look at it any
way I choose. This has the advantage that I never have to manually enter
anything. Shame I didn't get time to organise such an elegant system
when I was actually making some money :-)

"Owain" wrote in message
...
Mary Fisher wrote:
FIFTY POUNDS A YEAR?
phew!
I wonder what's the payback time ;-)

I suppose one forgotten and uncollected invoice could easily be five or
six times that.

Getting the figures wrong and being penalised or prosecuted by the tax
authorities could be many times worse.

Well yes, but there are less expensive solutions!

Mary

Owain

Can you come round and do use a job, and forget about the invoice.

If you are running a business and not know about a uncollected invoice
of £250, you should be ashamed of yourself.

So you are doing the tax man out of his 3 pennyworth, by not
collecting.

I suppose you put it down to bad debt at the end of the year. Or are
you that bad that you have a sales that has not been closed ??




On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:36:47 +0100, Owain
wrote:

Mary Fisher wrote:
FIFTY POUNDS A YEAR?
phew!
I wonder what's the payback time ;-)

I suppose one forgotten and uncollected invoice could easily be five or
six times that.

Getting the figures wrong and being penalised or prosecuted by the tax
authorities could be many times worse.

Owain

In article ,
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Can anyone recommend a PC based accounts package for the self employed?

Looking for simple. I don't carry any stock to speak of, customer buys
it, I fit it. I don't employ anyone, I don't have any cash flow issues
(payment at completion of job).

Just want to keep track of ingoings & outgoings for the tax man & keep
an eye on the business.

I use Prophet3 which is for an Acorn machine and designed for non
accountants. I believe it's now been ported to PC - or perhaps some of
their other products (Personal Accounts Home Business) are written from
the same direction. And it's a UK company you can easily access for help.

http://www.accountz.com/

--
*Do paediatricians play miniature golf on Wednesdays?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

The message
from Owain contains these words:

If you are running a business and not know about a uncollected invoice
of £250, you should be ashamed of yourself.

That's what accounting systems are for...

Yeah, but a notebook with invoices ticked off as they're paid will work
just as well for that particular problem.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi

Can anyone recommend a PC based accounts package for the self employed?

I use MYOB, it's very good for the money.

Steve Firth wrote:

I use MYOB, it's very good for the money.

:¬)

One would hope so.

--
http://gymratz.co.uk - Best Gym Equipment & Bodybuilding Supplements UK.
http://trade-price-supplements.co.uk - TRADE PRICED SUPPLEMENTS for ALL!
http://fitness-equipment-uk.com - UK's No.1 Fitness Equipment Suppliers.
http://Water-Rower.co.uk - Worlds best prices on the Worlds best Rower.

The Medway Handyman Wrote:
Hi

Can anyone recommend a PC based accounts package for the self
employed?

Looking for simple. I don't carry any stock to speak of, customer
buys it,
I fit it. I don't employ anyone, I don't have any cash flow issues
(payment
at completion of job).

Just want to keep track of ingoings & outgoings for the tax man & keep
an
eye on the business.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

If you use a computerised package make sure you can delete and alter
transactions without leaving a trace.


--
Nick H

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:27:08 +0100, Steve Firth wrote:

I use MYOB, it's very good for the money.

Which one do you use???

In message , Nick H
writes

The Medway Handyman Wrote:
Hi

Can anyone recommend a PC based accounts package for the self
employed?

Looking for simple. I don't carry any stock to speak of, customer
buys it,
I fit it. I don't employ anyone, I don't have any cash flow issues
(payment
at completion of job).

Just want to keep track of ingoings & outgoings for the tax man & keep
an
eye on the business.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

If you use a computerised package make sure you can delete and alter
transactions without leaving a trace.


You naughty, naughty boi

Of course, this would also mean you would have to pretend that you
didn't make backups

--
geoff

Nick H wrote:

If you use a computerised package make sure you can delete and alter
transactions without leaving a trace.

What do you mean? Hide things from the tax man? Heaven forbid!


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

Nick H wrote in
:


The Medway Handyman Wrote:
Hi

Can anyone recommend a PC based accounts package for the self
employed?

Looking for simple. I don't carry any stock to speak of, customer
buys it,
I fit it. I don't employ anyone, I don't have any cash flow issues
(payment
at completion of job).

Just want to keep track of ingoings & outgoings for the tax man & keep
an
eye on the business.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

If you use a computerised package make sure you can delete and alter
transactions without leaving a trace.

If you CAN delete and alter transactions without leaving a trace then it
is a rubbish accounting package.
I spead as an accountant, auditor and teacher.


Terry

The message
from Terry contains these words:

I spead as an accountant, auditor and teacher.

But not a typist?

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.