Is there anything that Sage instant accounts can do that VT transaction can't. I have had a look at VT and set up a test company and it seems ok, but I can't help thinking something might bite me on the arse in the future.
Don't know about instant as I've not used it but VT isn't great for stock control.
VT was built by accountants (a chartered firm) for accountants and bookkeepers which is why its a favorite over on Aweb and its steadiluy developing a growing following here. (Started with Bill, think that there were a couple of other before me and this year it seems to be taking off).
I liked the comment that someone made last week that VT seemed too fast and they were sure that they were missing something.
To the best of my knowledge the only thing that you will lose is being restricted to only being able to service one company with your software.
Any answer that people give to this that I disagree with I'll tell you how its done in VT (unless one of the other growing number of users here beats me to it).
Got to pop out to a clients now but chat in a bit,
All the best,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Stock isn't a problem to me and it's only for one partnership so all is good there. I might play a bit more then chat to the accountant and see when the best time to swap over is.
I suppose like most things it does take a bit of getting used to.
Thank you for your reply (although i was pretty damn sure you would)
So I have set up a dummy company and imported a trial balance from sage but income is showing as a minus figure and expenses as a plus figure. Have I got it wrong somehow?
Are you talking about the summary data, ledgers tab on the home screen in which case in order to balance at a glance then the Income shows as negative.
If you are talking about a generated P&L then in the generated reports income should be showing as positive.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I'll have a look when I'm back at work tomorrow, I suppose I'm just looking at it all through sage eyes where I know exactly where to go to extract any information I need. What I am trying to do is do my work and try and replicate my actions in VT. Is there a really comprehensive guide on how to use it in comparison to sage?
-- Edited by Rhianrach on Tuesday 23rd of September 2014 03:28:44 PM
When first learning it I had a trial balance from Sage and the following year end accounts.
I put all of the information into VT that had been put into Sage in order to ensure that the final accounts were the same... Well, not exactly the same as there are some slightly different break downs of details in the notes to the accounts but the amounts should be the same.
First time that I did it on a company with a turnover of £78k I was £14 out.
Took me twice as long trying to track that damn £14 as it took me to build the accounts in VT.
Eventually, after nearly a week and one complete refresh of VT from scratch getting the same results the penny dropped that I had been completely correct in VT but the previous accountants had been out by £14 in Sage.
Definitely one of those "Doh!" moments in life.
To the best of my knowledge there are no guides on how to use VT compared to Sage let alone a comprehensive one.
I think that the best way to appraoch VT is on the back of manual rather than computerised bookkeeping training as its closer to that side of the fence.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I think you are right, sage by comparison seems to do a lot of hand holding. When do you think the best time would be to swap over to a new account system? The 2013/14 books are at the accountants now so I will be running year end and making adjustments soon and was thinking of just importing a trial balance as of the present date and starting to input data on VT from there on, letting the accountant have the back up from sage, and smiling like a looney.
Thinking on, that might mean me having to input any outstanding invoices both income and expenditure and giving the accountant a list of what I have done.
-- Edited by Rhianrach on Tuesday 23rd of September 2014 04:41:00 PM
I think that the issue Sage has is that its not bad software by any stretch of the imagination but it tries to market the same product to both financial professionals and non financial business owners so on our side of the fence we do suffer with software that attempts to make itself idiot proof.
VT very much seems to take the approach that if you are using the software then you are a financial professional so you must know what you are doing.
When setting up a company in VT I always start with the last trial balance from a filed set of accounts and then reenter all of the transactions that have been done since.
I don't charge clients for that but rtather regard it as a loss leader in getting to know the clients business (and also eradicate any peculiarities of the bookkeeping of the previous incumbant).
In your situation you are both and its just changing software. To keep things simple I would still tend to change over at a year end although its very much down to you the approach that you are most comfortable with.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I had a play (admittedly very brief) play with VT Cash Book and VT Transaction + last night.
I'd say that, so far, it's the best alternative I've found for Sage - but there were enough cons that the pros weren't enough for me to switch. I use Sage for my biggest/most complicated clients (and my own stuff) - and being the biggest/most complicated, the cons in VT mean, for those clients, it's just not suitable.
Which is a shame, because I'd really like to get away from Sage!
__________________
Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
I think that the issue Sage has is that its not bad software by any stretch of the imagination but it tries to market the same product to both financial professionals and non financial business owners so on our side of the fence we do suffer with software that attempts to make itself idiot proof.
VT very much seems to take the approach that if you are using the software then you are a financial professional so you must know what you are doing.
When setting up a company in VT I always start with the last trial balance from a filed set of accounts and then reenter all of the transactions that have been done since.
I don't charge clients for that but rtather regard it as a loss leader in getting to know the clients business (and also eradicate any peculiarities of the bookkeeping of the previous incumbant).
In your situation you are both and its just changing software. To keep things simple I would still tend to change over at a year end although its very much down to you the approach that you are most comfortable with.
I think this is where the problem lies, I have way too much work on to start re-entering all the transactions so I would have to wait until next year and use both pieces of software, one for this financial year until it's complete, take the trial balance and input all the new years transactions plus outstanding transactions from the previous year, which to be fair would be way too much work to do on my own, add to that that I don't think I have anywhere near the knowledge to confidently set it up and run it on my own.
-- Edited by Rhianrach on Wednesday 24th of September 2014 09:50:22 AM
I had a play (admittedly very brief) play with VT Cash Book and VT Transaction + last night.
I'd say that, so far, it's the best alternative I've found for Sage - but there were enough cons that the pros weren't enough for me to switch. I use Sage for my biggest/most complicated clients (and my own stuff) - and being the biggest/most complicated, the cons in VT mean, for those clients, it's just not suitable.
Which is a shame, because I'd really like to get away from Sage!
I'm the same Vince, I'd love to get away from sage, purely on cost grounds and VT does look good.
what were the cons that you found? (just in T+ not in Cashbook which is only really free end user data entry and viewing software).
I use VT accounts which comes with the other software bundled with it so the full package may hold the answers to some of the issues that you are having with T+.
Let me know and I'll see if there are answers to any of your concerns (although I know that for something Sage is better suited ).
As a general rule of thumb I would never have service industries on Sage and I would never have a business requiring their software to provide stock control on VT.
Over the next few weeks I may be attempting to put my first divisionalised busiess onto VT so cannot really comment on that one yet if thats one of your concerns.
All the best,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
what were the cons that you found? (just in T+ not in Cashbook which is only really free end user data entry and viewing software).
Rather than answer that immediately, I'll come back to it when I have more time (which will have to be sometime in the next 59 days, so I have a bit of a deadline!) - I'll set up a new faux-company in the software, and post a more comprehensive set of transactions that better represent some of my clients data - and I'll make notes as I do so.
I'm sure I could use VT Transaction+ in some cases (just not those I mentioned) - e.g. the less regular, smaller jobs I do in spreadsheets - so doing the above, which will amount to a longer play, will give me a better feel for the software in general.
I use VT accounts which comes with the other software bundled with it so the full package may hold the answers to some of the issues that you are having with T+.
Unfortunately, VT Accounts will be completely useless to me. From http://www.vtsoftware.co.uk/system/index.htm :
"VT Final accounts requires 32 bit Microsoft Excel 2002 or later (including Excel 2013) for the Windows desktop, running on either a 32 bit or 64 bit PC."
There's no Excel on this computer.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
