i am thinking of sage or quickbooks but don't know which is best or if there is any other good software - i need something comprehensive but easy to use. be grateful if anyone can point me in the right direction.

Either of those is pretty good.

The main thing is to ensure that you have a book-keeping process in place to ensure that you use teh software properly.

It also depends upon your line of business - I do freelance IT development and such and keep my books in....well....books...:)

This is because I have relatively few transactions and it just wasn't worth the hassle of setting up an accounts system to cope with, say, 3 invoices a month, even if they were reasonably high value invoices.

If you're a limited company / VAT registered then just make sure that you can run the softwrae to a degree needed to get the data out that you need to complete the paperwork.

Alternatively, if you're thinking of getting an accountant, it may be worth holding fire and asking them if they have preferences.

Joe

I think Lloyds TSB give a way some accounting software with their business accounts which is really easy to use (I got it from my accountant).

If you have a good accountant and are relatively good with Excel you can setup your won accounting spreadsheets and your accountant will deal with the rest at the end of the year.

thank you both for your input, much appreciated.

I could do with a package that deals with VAT, also generates quotes into invoices

I used quickbooks 2002 let me know if you are interested in buying? could practice - no longer required

mosbro, thanks, have sent you pm

Quickbooks is really lame.
Sage is good.
MYOB is really good and cheaper and includes payroll.
MYOB - mind your own business.

Problem with quickbooks is its too americanised

I'd also recommend Sage.

Sage costs a fair amount of money, Quickbooks comes free on the front of magazines.

There is a good reason for this, Sage is a professional piece of software that will do all of your accounts, tax returns, invoicing and anything else you can think of. It does it so well that anyone who needs software to rely on use Sage.

I know someone who uses Quickbooks, it was free and it's not particularly good for anything more than some basic tracking of monies.