TAS Books for a Dummy

Fopetesl

Registered User
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6
Hello. Recently my book keeper spat the dummy and did an "immediate retirement" since the books are now three months out of date and she did not appreciate being reminded of the fact. No aggressive accusations, just a comment on my part.

Now I am in book keeping limbo.

My now one man band electronics design and manufacturing business has, since 2008, survived on a much lower turnover than previously so at present does not justify a full time book keeper.
I think I have the capability to do the book keeping myself whilst turnover remains low and would appreciate advice as to best course of action.

We run TAS Books V6 with year end completed up to 31/12/2018.

I read the forum post "tas-book-for-dummies.174671" with interest since it suggests it might be a route I could follow. Bits of advice missing such as how to raise and post multi line invoices.

So do I stay with TAS and it's exorbitant support ££s, (paid at the insistence of ex book keeper), or choose a free or more reasonable cost package?
 
I don’t have an answer to your specific question sorry, but a third option would be to outsource your book keeping again, but this time to a firm so you’re not exposed to a single person shutting up shop. It might seem expensive, but is tax deductible and probably cheaper than what you bill your time at? Also, a single mistake on something like missing VAT on an invoice could cost you more than the outsourced book keeper? And of course no need to licence/backup/maintain software yourself.
 
Do you raise invoices using the software or do you prepare invoices in word?
Do you have anyone on payee or is the business a sole trader?
Do you itemise items on the software package?
The more information you give the better.
You don't have to use Tas. Some companies You can buy outright the licence for say Sage(expensive)..you have to challenge them as they prefer yearly fees.
 
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At the end of the day if returns are not submitted on time the buck stops with you. You may be a risk of an audit. The back up and accounts your bookkeeper has are yours so they have to give you a copy/access as well as the hard copy files.
If you have the time to do the bookkeeping you can then pay an accountant to check and upload for you. At least you know the accounts will be right.
 
their is an accounting package here www.manager.io which is free for the desktop, one user version. If your business is simple enough,, this would probably be sufficient as long as you spend some time getting to grips with double-entry accounting. Otherwise you will have to pay someone.

More details on the volume of invoices issued, purchases and payroll would help to get abetter answer. Also, VAT needs, imports/exports
 
Really impressed with speed of responses.
Outsource? Past experience of this method left a sour taste in the mouth. Finding someone reliable from the outset would be an issue.
Nevertheless will keep it in mind.

As for more detail I'll need to dig into year end reports (non from accountant as yet) on TAS.
I guess they are also printed off. Somewhere.
Watch this space.

As a matter of interest I asked TAS about MTD since V6 doesn't support it but they said, "We have just released a module for TAS Books and MTD. The module will be a chargeable module and is a subscription offer for 12 months", as if £800 a year support cost is not enough!
 
You can get someone to set you up on a system and run it yourself.

Software..,Daft money but it depends on your needs and invoice numbers and purchases and turnover to decide if it is worth it. You need to give a bit more information for us to help.

At the moment you can click online to Revenue and enter total vat on sales and total vat on purchases you also enter what vat element you would be charged if you have subcontractors (construction).

If you are importing or exporting the you May need to link to vies.

You manually enter total figures on revenue which does not take too long.

Payroll you need software that links to Revenue as you have to check tax credit's /allowances every time you process payroll.
 
@jpd I had a look at manager.io and it seems a slight issue with MTD though VitalTax(?) seems to handle the issue.

I also need to judge whether it's an issue discarding January's TAS postings, (supposedly up to date), and switching to a new accounting package.
 
Askaboutmoney is mostly an Irish site, so MTD isn't an issue, yet!

If you want to start a new accounting year with a new accounting software, then you just need the closing balances from the previous year so that you can enter the opening balances.

Well, that is apart from customer, suppliers, employees, etc - but that will be true of whatever solution you decide on
 
I hacked into TAS and came up with these figures:
For 2018: Sales invoices 115. Purchase invoices 706.
In 2007 about 10x these numbers.
Does this help?
 
The replies you are getting here are based on a Revenue return in Ireland not UK.

'one man band electronics design and manufacturing business has, since 2008'
Assuming you are a sole trader then do you plan to take on subcontractors or do you plan to continue with just you? Also if you are a sole trader and earning over 100k the last few years you could be better off being a limited company. This depends when you want to stop your business. If you intend to retire soon then you decision might be different. This is where you need to pay an accountant to sit down and see where you are going.

Looking at the number of entries you would need maybe look at another package. €800 would definately be too much and that is just for support.

Have a look at Theasurus, there is a yearly fee but it is an Irish package so suited to the Revenue.
Easy to use.
If you are a limited company then you have to do payroll online through Revenue. Have a look a Brightpay, they are offering this year one employee payroll free. Very easy to use and they have a backup service.

Sage is a package that helps those who are not accountants. You can pay a one off licence and that should cover you for about 5-6years unless they come up with a different package or windows is redesigned and older versions of Sage cannot be updated.

By the way I do not work for any of these companies.
 
Thanks for the advice using Irish packages but I would have the constant worry that some small incompatibility with English requirements would come up and bite me in the proverbial.

I am not a limited company just a sole trader. I was advised some time ago not to go limited. When business picks up I may come back for advice on best way to do it.

FWIW, I rang TAS about their MTD add on. £300/year with no concessions for current support payments. That totals £1115.52 / year.
Too rich for my blood.

They did say if I move to Sage Business Cloud Accounting, (£22/month), they would allow termination of TAS support contract.

So far the most appealing option seems to be manager.io with VitalTax add on.
 
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