As always, and with the beginning of an upturn in the Irish economy, people are again focusing on spending money efficiently to invest in their business. There is of course no better way to do this than invest in IT. This is doubly true when it comes to the IT supporting your financial/accounting and other common business tasks. Being able to automatically generate a P&L account or a balance sheet for a time period or keep track of your debtors and creditors is invaluable. The selection of software offers available can be baffling but we hope to make some sense of that here.
Microsoft used to offer Microsoft Office Accounting as a part of Office but they opted out of that market when it became clear that they could not be the biggest player in it. There are however two major players that offer small businesses a whole host of different options. These are Sage and Big Red Books. Here is some of what they can offer:
- Sage Options
- Sage One Accounts
- Sage Instant Accounts
- Sage One Accounts Extra
- Sage 50 Accounts
- Sage 50 Accounts Plus
- Sage 50 Accounts Professional
- Big Red Book
- Basic
- Plus
- Advanced
- Big Red Cloud
Depending on your business then one or the other might suit you to use better. Make your decision on how many employees you have, how much support you want from Sage or BRB (Big Red Book), who has access, what backups are done, what reports are available, what maintenance/upgrades are required, etc. If you are considering implementing an accounts package in your business or you want to transfer to a new accounts package then please don’t hesitate to contact us for a consultation.
Accounting
Sage One Accounts is for a single user with up to 5 employees. 24/7 Tech Support is included. That costs €7.20 per month. TAS Firstbooks is for a single user with unlimited employees. Workday Tech Support is included as are free product upgrades. There is also an addition with TAS that allows you to manage stock. The next step up from Sage One Accounts is “Sage One Accounts Extra”. This allows for multiple users and 5-20 employees.
Big Red Books has 3 main packages and also Big Red Cloud. Each of the 3 has the capability for 3 companies. They can perform all the expected accounting software tasks. There is a 1 year license and technical support included in the prices. You can access your software online in your online account. All details on Big Red Cloud and price comparisons can be found here .
Link the accounts software with your bank account. Print invoices on headed paper. Email statements to customers/clients. Prepare accounts for inspection by your accountant. Allow certain employees access to the accounts on a role by role basis. Keep track of expenses, stock levels and stock purchases. Make sure not to forget to charge your customers for something you should have! The possibilities are many. The advantages are clear. The choice is up to you, based on your business.
Extra! Extra!
If you liked this article then you may also be interested in reading our article on Payroll Software in Ireland here
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