Best Accounting Software for Non Accountant for Filing The Return

LDinesh on 07/07/2022 - 15:51

I am looking for accounting software like Xero
Purpose is
1. Invoicing, quotes
2. can integrate with the bank or take CSV files
3. software can do tax returns, able to handle sole traders/small company, no accountant needed for yearly return.
4. cheap software (one-time fees or yearly reasonable amount).
5. I was doing all my expenses, and sales on an excel sheet and using an accountant to submit the returns but now it increased his price by 3 times to just filing the return.
6. I think filing a return should not be hard if one can put them in spreadsheets. it's just I did it by myself but I want to explore options and get away from accountants.

I have done a bit of research and found Xero and Myob are expensive and addictive products, also seeing cashbook complete looks good and one-time fees. but this is my assumption with my limited knowledge as I never used it. Kindly give your advice

Thank you

General Discussion

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  • CheapAzChips on 07/07/2022 - 23:02
    +3

    A few to try free or cheap(-er than Xero):

  • Alan6984 on 07/07/2022 - 17:03
    +2

    Xero is good if you are a really small / micro business - one man band tradie for example. Bottom end is about $50 / month I think?

    MYOB is superior if you are bigger and / or have inventory, plus it has a killer benefit over Xero (unless something has changed recently) which is that you can 'backup' your data locally, open the copy, try something out (using your actual data), and if it goes wrong, it doesn't matter at all. If it works, then replicate in MYOB online. With Xero, you can only use their demo version for that, which won't have your data in it, and is therefore nowhere near as useful.

    Both do bank feeds, so no difference there.

    I haven't used Cash Book Complete so I cannot comment on that.

    Almost every accounting system in the last twenty-five years allow you to upload CSV files. I'm sure there are exceptions, but they would be rare I think.

    The cheapest option (we are here after all!) would be to use an open source system - there are stacks out there. However, you would need to do a lot more configuration to get them up and running, and much less chance that it will do bank feeds and / or online filing with IRD.

    If you are comfortable using Excel, and you know what you are doing, you could just stick with that - no marginal cost if you already have Excel, and presumably it has been working for some time. The only downside is that you have to file your returns manually, but GST is only maybe a dozen fields to enter (once you have the info ready in Excel which is where the compliance costs really lie), once every two months (or less), plus your annual Income Tax Return but only once a year, and if your accountant is really only filing the return (rather than doing anything more for you), then that would only take 30 mins or so too.

    HTH,

    Alan.

  • samiam on 08/07/2022 - 07:46
    +2

    Not sure if this will fit all your criteria but check out https://hnry.co.nz/

  • AleBeerenhoff on 08/07/2022 - 07:52
    +2

    My wife uses Xero for her Sole Trader business. Its just so easy tbh, and much like the concept of paying the accountant for their expertise, the Xero subs are paying for their vast experience in making accounting simple. The apps just work and make things so easy that you find yourself hardly spending any time doing those things at all and doing them anywhere. Our model is pretty simple/basic - only a few customers, a few inventory items, automated/repeating invoices, and expenses - so YMMV but having it on Xero has been great to reduce our cognitive and time load in this space.

  • boldbilly on 08/07/2022 - 11:22
    +2

    I used cashbook complete a million years ago and really liked it. It was dead simple, but so am I.

    It seems to have a 90 day free trial, so why not give it a try and see if you like it.

    PS: It's NZ made, so knows about local legal stuff

  • prags on 14/07/2022 - 10:35
    +1

    I have used Xero, MYOB and Reckon amongst others. For what you are after, I can recommend Reckon. For $10/month, its a very good value. You can add modules as per your need. You'll may still need to do some journals for year end. As long as you are comfortable doing that.

    • Dinesh on 15/07/2022 - 16:28

      thank you Prags. apricate your feedback.

  • Dinesh on 07/07/2022 - 17:22

    I created a few sheets in one excel workbook, one has all the income, the other has all the expenses, home office expenses and bank interests. I think what he does is drop them into his system, and give me the one draft copy of what the return will look like and once I say yes then he submits. I do not know what else I should expect from an accountant?

    • CheapAzChips on 07/07/2022 - 23:12

      To be fair, just like a specialist surgeon or senior solicitor you don't pay a good accountant for their time, you pay them for their expertise. So if their expertise is the ins and outs of taxation and captial gains and you're asking for (basically what amounts to) data entry then of course you're going to feel overcharged. We had that with an earlier accountant who charged more every year until our bill was almost $3000 for two simple tax returns and a rental property. Needless to say we have left them, but the old accountant we dealt with knew everything there was to know about accounting, and was up with all the latest developments in tax law.

      • Alan6984 on 07/07/2022 - 23:39
        +1

        Totally agree with that!

        If I have a client that asks me how long it took to do something that was complex, I often answer something like, 'Thirty years'.

        :-)

        • Dinesh on 08/07/2022 - 16:11

          agree :) in my case, my accountant is just filing the return. my account is not complex. It's just I want to be 100% sure I do not miss anything.

          • Alan6984 on 08/07/2022 - 16:29
            +1

            @Dinesh: The 'insurance policy' approach is also completely valid.

            If you end up in a 'discussion' with the IRD, and you used an accountant who got it wrong (or did not spot something), IRD might be more understanding, than if you did it yourself - no guarantees of course!

            However, they have quite a bit of discretion regarding penalties.

  • Moo92 on 19/07/2022 - 07:43

    Does anyone know the cheapest or free software that also does live bank feeds? Too many juggling between Bank accounts and would be easier if it was all streamlined. Thanks

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