What is Reddit's opinion of
Xero?
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If you're looking for an accounting alternative, I'm using: https://www.xero.com/us/
Semi-related, Intuit actively lobbies against simplifying our tax code because TurboTax's success relies on a complicated tax code.
I am an accountant and deal with this sort of thing for clients on a daily basis so can provide some help.
As another few poster have raised the first step is determining that setting up a company is required or the best option. You could also run the business through your own name(sole-trader) and return it for income tax in your personal return.
Key differences - Company Vs sole-trader - Company is a seperate legal entity, sole-tradership is not - Company has increased compliance cost (annual companies office return and tax returns for company) - Companies provide more options regarding investment - If employing staff best to use a company
This link should help you understand these things a bit better: https://www.xero.com/nz/resources/small-business-guides/how-to/how-to-start-a-business/business-structure/?gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid=CjwKCAjw7rWKBhAtEiwAJ3CWLGQ28gV_1F5CrCmJGiIBoBre-F27PhS7I2YguEd6FtExOCPk9ZIR3BoCFY0QAvD_BwE
If you are set on a company these are some key things to consider: - need to set up at the Companies office and pay an annual registration fee - Company will need an IRD # and will need to file an income tax return annually (returns will cover the year ending 31/03) company will pay flat tax of 28% on taxable profit. - in order to take this profit out you will need to pay additional tax to "top it up" to the same as if the profit was in your name - if GST taxable supplies exceed 60k annually the company will need to be GST registered (This also applies to a sole-tradership) - Xero is a great way to handle your book keeping requirements and will also making filing GST returns much easier if necessary
Learn how to use Xero accounting software. YouTube is full of step by step how to guides, it's incredibly simple to use, you'll be able to teach yourself in an afternoon. Brush up on your excel skills and you can do admin for any small business. Create a gumtree add of your self (with a photo), talk about your skills and you'll get work fairly quickly.
You might find it funny that people dont know what toolchain is but I think its important to make it a lot clearer about what is on offer and how people can easily use vechain. The toolchain work app on android has had 100 downloads.. thats nothing. What I expected was something like this - https://www.xero.com/au/pricing-plans/
Thanks. To be totally honest we got confused with what toolchain is but you are right, there is some high level information there. I guess what I was expecting is an application that is actually ready to use and pricing plans available online and ready to go. As someone else mentioned it sounds like this is more with partners to build out at the moment.
edit: something like this - https://www.xero.com/au/pricing-plans/
Just before you start you should look at packages such as Shopify. E-Commerce in a box, pre-integrated & you can just build a custom connector for what I presume is an inventory database ? https://www.xero.com/us/shopify/
Better than re-inventing the wheel :)
frankly first I would ask the execs what ERP they want to switch to
because from there you can insert directly into the database if its an on prem ERP(that can be a monumental task that you can find consultants to do) or the ERP probably accepts flat file import
some ERP vendors offer quickbooks database "upsize" wizards but they only work on the actual quickbooks database and probably can't handle 10 years of data
if they just want to report on it you might be better off finding a data warehousing tool
You definitely need a better system. Waiting a long time to invoice is just asking for trouble. You probably kept some kind of records about what work was done, but he's probably long forgot how involved each project was, so if you spring a large bill on him now for a year's worth of work, he could very well be shocked.
I'd strongly recommend using some kind of invoicing software or service like Freshbooks or Zoho Invoicing. Or you could use a service that does your bookkeeping AND invoicing like Xero.
Next, you need to send him a bill ASAP. Be as detailed as possible, including dates and detailed descriptions of each project with # hours worked and your hourly rate to justify the invoice amount.
If you work with clients on an ongoing basis, I'd also recommend creating project "buckets" for each month, and then closing out and invoicing all work done at the end of the month. Even if you worked on multiple projects, that will allow you to keep invoicing current and will definitely help with cash flow.
Neither, go with Xero instead. It's online-based but much more affordable (and easier to use) than Quickbooks. They also offer a 25% discount for nonprofit companies. I use it for two companies I own, a mid-sized S-corp with several employees and contractors, and a small 2-person consulting company.
GST is compulsory for turnovers over 75k. So do you plan to make over 75k in billings for your business? If yes you need to sign up for GST. You pretty much add GST to all your billings and you can claim the GST from anything you buy for the business in as simple terms as possible.
If you plan to have billings significantly under 75k, you can get away with not charging GST. but you cannot claim GST credits. This may be a better option for you if you are mainly a freelancer as you may not have many GST credits you can claim. As soon as you project you will be anywhere near that 75k you should register for GST straight away as there are penalties if you don't
For more reading:
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Potentially you need to do a BAS quarterly or annually depending on your situation. When you need to submit depends on if you have a bookkeeper or not.
You can decide how to use the money and do not necessarily need to take it out of the business . If you do take it out it is classed as owner's drawings and you will need to pay tax on it. You do not need to pay compulsory super as an owner.
I would sit down with an accountant and have them explain the process to you as well as your obligations etc. you seem very new to this and I think you will learn more from an accountant explaining things to you.
Good luck with your ventures
Neither. Use Xero.
It's awesome. Integrates with tons of web services (Shopify, Amazon, etc), it's extremely easy to create rules to automate it, and the interface is clean and easy to use. Love it.
Wave for basic service oriented / consultant billing, Xero for a more complete accounting package. In my own experience, Xero far exceeds Freshbooks in terms of feature set, and is much better designed than Intuits current offerings.
Xero has a certification program, although I'm not familiar with it, this might be helpful: https://www.xero.com/us/advisors/?country=us&service=bookkeeper&region=USCA&view=list Definitely follow Charlie's advice and watch out for bullshit...
I used to do my own accounts, including doing PAYE on a spreadsheet (oh the horror!) and it's not something I would recommend.
If I were to go back to being self-employed, I'd just subscribe to something like Xero for basic data entry and use a Xero-enabled accountant to handle the statutory stuff. I really hate doing corporation tax returns and year-end accounting myself.
If you want something off-the-shelf, there are plenty of online options that might suit you better, since updates are usually going to come faster to a web-service than a standalone desktop application.
Self-employment tax is about 15%. It's both the employee and employer's portion of the social security, medicare, and fica that's usually taken out of your check. As an employee, you'd see about 7.5% taken out but your employer is paying the other half. As the owner of your side business, you get to pay both halves (yay!).
So to find how much money you should put away for taxes (and how much you should pay quarterly), you would take your estimated net profit for the year, and multiply it by your marginal tax rate (i.e. 28% or 33% etc), add 15.3% for self employment tax (up to $118k in net profit), and then add in your state income tax of 3.75%.
So if you're in the 33% federal income tax bracket, for instance, you'll want to save at least 52% of your net profit for taxes. Best to pay it quarterly or you'll have additional penalties (though small) tacked on. Not so important your first year, but going forward from there you're required to pay 110% of your previous year's tax burden or 90% of the current year's tax burden in quarterly installments.
Absolutely use accounting software like Quickbooks or (my favorite) Xero to keep track of income and expenses. It's so much easier at tax time when everything is organized. Xero has a really affordable starter plan. If you really don't have a lot of expenses, you could keep track of them in a spreadsheet. But at least have a business bank account and don't comingle business and personal expenses.
They're all pretty poor. You'll probably use GNUCash. The only full on Accounting system I've found is that is actually any good is Quasar. What about just using an online accounting system such as MYOB, Xero, Qucikbooks, Kashoo? I've heard good things about Xero. Linux could do with a really good Accounting program.
Agreed, I like Xero and Quickbooks online. They are super user friendly, integrate well, and allow you to customize. Quickbooks uses intuits payroll which is pretty easy to use and their customer service is great. Xero utilizes plugins for payroll: https://www.xero.com/us/add-ons/category/payroll-hr/ Apparently they are rolling their own payroll software out at somepoint in the near future (atleast that is what they told me). The benefit of QB over xero is, generally speaking, more people know it. So if you are bouncing questions off friends/other business owners, you might get more feedback with QB. You can get all the answers you need for xero online though. I know I am in the process of moving clients to xero from qb as I do like it better.
I'm in a professional/intellectual role, and we are implementing this software that cuts down on time requirements for estimators/contract administrators/quantity surveyors/project managers. Reduction in labour requirements through automation of much of the intellectual workload is happening right now aswell.
Accountants are being replaced by this.
And there's much more.
All of the people being pushed out of manual, menial, intellectual jobs compete for those jobs that are remaining meaning there is a supply glut of labour that keeps earnings low. This causes a demand constraint on the economy. A rather strange economic position to be in. No longer limited by supply but demand due to lack of disposable incomes on a rather large portion of the population.
We started out using Excel, but it was a nightmare. A few years ago we switched to Quickbooks and while it's not the easiest software to use, almost every accountant can work with it.
We're looking at switching to Xero (https://www.xero.com/us/) for our accounting starting 1/1. I like that it's 100% online, it integrates with lots of other services, and it's mobile so I can look at reports from my iPad anywhere I am.
Actually, I'm hiring for a plethora of positions as it were. Please take a peek and let me know.
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So that we'll leave and spend our money elsewhere because we have no idea what features are coming?
I understand NDAs and I get keeping major game-changing announcements quiet, but hiding something like this makes no sense. Tech isn't static and giving your customers an idea of where things are going allows them to make informed decisions, often towards sticking with you. Calendly just rolled out an enterprise version that many companies are adopting, but they might not if they know that it would be built into their existing Google plan in a few months.
Contrast the two systems we use every day: Google and Xero
Outside of the limited immediate future disclosure on CCC, I honestly have no idea what's next for Workspace or Google. Xero on the other hand has published a detailed roadmap (https://www.xero.com/ca/partner-programs/partners/next-generation-practice/)
As a result of Google's non-disclosure, we've got annual contracts signed with Calendly, Slack and 365 Apps for Business, and we've implemented Unifi cameras across 5 sites. If I knew this change was coming, I might not have signed the Calendly one, and it's very likely that Google's working on solutions for the other 3 as well. But no information means I can't consider them and had to look elsewhere.
Xero's disclosure on the other hand resulted in us cancelling two major projects that would have gone to other vendors because the features we need will be available in it soon.
Recommend www.ZipBooks.com for most simple, and www.Xero.com for a more capable alternatives.
In any of these cases though, even more valuable to make sure to look up a local cpa/pro to guide you through. ...If you have enough of a business going, then your time is already to precious to not to optimize.
Getting your accountant to set up the file and inviting you as a user with all user rights can save you up to 30% (depending on the accountants status with Xero).
The way you interact with Xero will be the same. You will be able to reconcile accounts, run payroll, generate reports etc. I think the only difference will be that you aren't able to access the subscription settings and some of the organisation settings.
If the time comes that you wish to move accountants, they will transfer ownership of the subscription to you.
I don’t know about the main Xero type accounts through a third party, but you can get Various cutdown “Cashbook” versions of Xero for cheaper rates through accountants and bookkeepers. These basically are Xero but missing some features (Invoicing for example).
See https://www.xero.com/au/features-and-tools/practice-tools/ledger-cashbook/
It sounds like you need a manufacturing and inventory software. Based on the information provided, I would suggest either TradeGecko or Dear Systems, which provide inventory management as well as manufacturing management, plus many other features, including integrations with the accounting apps of Xero & Quickbooks, and shopping apps like eBay, Amazon, Shopify, and many others. Both offer free 14 day trials, giving you the opportunity to test drive and see if they meet your specific needs.
Not sure about any others but when I was on the Xero site today looking at their pricing I saw they have a cheaper ‘payroll only’ option, purely for people looking for STP compliance.
https://www.xero.com/au/pricing/plan-details/#payroll-only
Just saw it’s only for 1-4 employees :/
Cloud based is probably best if you'll be sharing the data with an accountant. And even if you aren't, it's still usually a good idea, seeing they handle the bank account scraping etc automatically.
https://www.saasu.com or https://www.xero.com are both modern cloud accounting systems.
Saasu is cheaper, that's what I use.
I like that it has a compact interface that lets you look at lots of records at once easily... unlike almost every other "modern" web based system that fills your screen with heaps of empty space and has stupidly low pagination limits.
You should consider trialing Xero expenses which lets you capture, record and reimburse yourself or employees who’ve spent their own money while on company business*.*
The work flow is pretty simple and looks like this.
- Expense submitter captures and submit the receipt using their phone, the app will pre-populate a lot of the details for you or you can manually enter in the details, and then submit the expense claim for approval.
- The approver (boss, manager or admin) reviews and approves the expense, which then creates a bill in Xero that can be paid through batch payments (tallying up all the expenses for the month or period).
Then if you want to get a picture of where money is going you can see patterns across categories or by employees, giving you better awareness of spending habits.
Overall, workers are happier because they can easily file expenses and get reimbursed for genuine expenses, admins are happy because they save time collecting expenses from staff and managing the payment runs, and things are digitised for proper record keeping and auditing.
Depending on your market it may be included in your Xero subscription for one user or more, otherwise it costs per active user (i.e. you have 5 staff that use it, but only two use it that month to record and file an expense, in which case you're charged $5 NZD for each user).
You may also want to check out Expensify which integrates with Xero.
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https://www.xero.com/blog/2018/02/ach-payments-available-stripe/
That looks like it lays out the directions to do it. I was able to set it up using those directions on a tester xero/stripe account.
Care to elaborate what a computer couldn't do in accounting? I only took the basic courses needed for my degree.
I don't think I'd be laughing if my job relied on specific rules, numbers, predictions, etc. Computers are good at that. But yes, we obviously are not 100% there yet. But I definitely wouldn't be laughing.
Edit: Don't know how reliable these articles are (and I'll admit I only read the headlines and skimmed the rest):
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/newsletters/2017/oct/artificial-intelligence-changing-accounting.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/impactpartners/2018/04/23/five-point-retirement/#79e3c3f92532 https://www.xero.com/blog/2017/02/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-transform-accounting/
I think all 3 mention how it won't replace humans (they will act as advisors) but as technology increases I don't see why it couldn't
Also, to answer your question about shares... a single-member LLC does not sell shares. It has members of the LLC that own a certain %. As a single-member LLC you will own 100% of the business, according to your Articles of Organization and filings with your Secretary of State. You will just write a check, or deposit cash, to your business bank account and code the transaction as an owner's contribution in your accounting software.
As for accounting software, I recommend Xero. Works great for small businesses, downloads transactions right from your bank account, and is easy to automate.
It doesn't matter what type of business you have, sole proprietor or single-member LLC, you can still deduct all legitimate business expenses. You need to just keep track of them. Open a business checking account, deposit all income from consulting into the account, pay for all business expenses out of the account. Use accounting service like Xero to keep track of income and expenses into different categories. At the end of the year, run a Profit & Loss statement and use your financials to fill out the Schedule C detailing your 1099 income, expenses, and the net profit you will actually be taxed on.
If you still don't have a clue what I'm talking about, it would probably be worth it for you to pay for an hour with an accountant/CPA to let them go over it with you in more detail.
> How did you get to start your own business? If you don't mind me asking. Just want to know how others make that jump.
File for a business license with your state (and also your county and/or city if required) and then start selling a product or service and marketing it to people.
It really is that easy. The marketing is the only part that takes a lot of extra effort at first. And then of course filing the extra tax paperwork every year on top of your personal taxes is annoying, but you can toss that off onto a CPA after you start making good money, and as long as you keep your business records filed properly (use accounting software and always make sure it is fully up to date and fully reconciled with your bank accounts and paper records; if you are starting a small business from scratch something like https://www.xero.com works wonderfully). I choose one day a week (a weekend day if the week was particularly busy) to make sure all my accounting is up to date and reconciled so that I don't create extra work for my CPA later on (or more work for myself when tax season hits).
One of the best things I did was find a professional salesperson and offer him 15% commission for the lifetime of the customer (I offer a service that charges a monthly fee and is decently high-margin, so paying out 15% commissions are nothing to me).
I haven't had to do ANY sales or marketing work and I'm rolling in revenue, and hell so is my sales guy. He hasn't slowed down and is pulling down tens of thousands of dollars a month selling a service that he doesn't have to manage or support.
edit: The other hard part is that starting any business is going to be very slow and low-income for the first few months, maybe even years if you go into a difficult or highly-competitive niche market. You need to start off with a large savings from a previous job, or have a sugar-daddy/sugar-mama that pays all the bills, or be living with your parents still I guess.
Have a look at the Xero Developer portal - that's where all the documentation lives if you want to integrate with Xero. Alternatively you can have a look at the Add-ons directory, if you want to find something that's already integrated.
There are a few really good tools out there to help freelancers separate their business related expenses from their personal ones. You can find one here: https://www.xero.com/us/taxtouch/ Intuit also has one
Xero would be next.
You already try a few I would suggested. So here are the rest and maybe one might work for you.
http://alternativeto.net/software/quickbooks/?platform=linux
Yeah, know what you're saying. A couple of details that might help:
Wave Accounting (www.waveapps.com), is a decent option that's available for free. It can track and auto-update, as well as send invoices, capture receipts, and accept payments. But, it sounds like you'll need more than it can offer (e.g. payroll & estimates).
Freshbooks has more features and in particular allows estimates. Also, it really has a great community for support as well as allowing key financial reports such as a 12-month P&L.
However, in your case, it sounds like you're really going to want to go with quickbooks. If you have employees, need to track the costs of materials, do estimates, and should be looking at doing job-costing, then Quickbooks Online is likely the most suitable.
Strongly recommend going cloud-based vs. desktop based. There's just so many advantages. So, Quickbooks Online vs. older desktop version.
There are a couple of other web-based/could-based options, the most notable being Xero (https://www.xero.com/us/). But, the fact is that they will all cost a few $$. This should not deter you though, they all provide so many time-saving & sanity-saving features that for the few bucks a month will be worth it many times over.
So, let's assume that we all agree with this, as far as it goes. Then, the key question is to find a local accountant/CPA that can (A.) provide some guidance on set-up, and (B.) at least with regard to Quickbooks Online, can get you sign-up discounts / good pricing package.
If you want, maybe check out this link to find a Quickbooks Proadvisor in your area: https://proadvisor.intuit.com/search/index-standalone.html
Xero has a partner program that gives some benefits to signing up clients. You'll find the details here: https://www.xero.com/au/partners/partner-program-table/
MYOB has a similar partner program where if you sign a client up, instead of them paying the retail price, they can pay a discounted price OR you can get them to pay retail and keep the difference.
Reckon also has a partner program.
So all major software developers provide some sort of incentive to push their product. It's our firms policy that we don't recommend a single option over another to any client - but to present the client with the information on all suitable options and let them make the decision.
The thing is, Xero wins out in just about every situation. As /u/MakeMitchRich has said, Xero is just so much easier for us to deal with. Quickbooks has recently launched a fully online package that is substantially cheaper than Xero and has some good features, but it is missing too many necessary features for me to recommend it yet. I can see it being great one day though.
Xero gives us far better control, we can access the client file at any time to assist them, we don't have to worry about backups and versions, the user interface is far more user friendly than any MYOB desktop version and even more so for any Quickbooks/Reckon Accounts desktop package.
Xero really reinforces the need to do proper bank recs, where as I've had clients give me MYOB or Quickbooks files that haven't been reconciled in years. They just become an unusable mess.
I'd be interested to know what the client you are referencing to is doing that you think it wouldn't be suitable for Xero. Xero has so many additional plugins that I'm yet to really find a situation it wouldn't work in.
As someone who's started a few companies, its really not worth the time and aggregation of doing your books yourself. Hand it off and focus on what's important. I tried to do it myself in my first startup and found out quickly that outsourcing it is well worth the cost.
If you use a cloud accounting service like Xero you can find their certified bookkeeping partners here that will setup everything for you and handle the monthly input: https://www.xero.com/us/advisors/
If you have a web-based company with fairly consistent inputs I'd recommend automating your bookkeeping with something like http://subledger.com/
Finally, if you have a lot of expenses that you'll need to manage, you might want to look at automating those through my own app: https://payvy.com
Hope that helps!
Where are you based please? Some regions have an app integrator directory, specifically to help folks find the right app to use with Xero when Xero doesn't quite go as far as you need e.g. https://www.xero.com/uk/partner-programs/app-integrators/ Or you can email who know more about the offerings of our app partners than I do:)
Hey, I'm sorry to see you frustrated by bank feed reliability and your account manager - not good at all! There has been a fair bit of work on bank feeds the past few months (https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/10/supporting-customers-through-bank-feeds-issues/) and we are not trying to get you out of the support queue, we just have a bit of load to work through but of course we don't want you to wait!
If you message me your email address I can find out who your account manager is for feedback :) Thanks.
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short answer: yes you can. Lots of small practices use Xero for their own accounts and you can link directly with HMRC.
your practice account is totally free so best thing would be go here
https://www.xero.com/uk/partner-programme/
and sign up - it doesn't cost you anything
I'm not sure where you're based but we're doing some upgrades to both our open banking feed provider in the UK and Yodlee who provides bank feeds for all other regions, where there is no direct relationship with a bank.
Bank feed status, for known widespread issues > https://www.xero.com/blog/bank-feed-status/
Bank provider updates > https://www.xero.com/blog/2021/10/supporting-customers-through-bank-feeds-issues/
Your manager is right, I think. You can submit a self-assessment tax return at the end of the year (it's technically due on 31 January 2022 if you are submitting online), and your current employer would not be notified.
Regarding the self assessment: the side income from your second job is taxed at the same rate as the income from your full-time job (20%, based on what you have described). However, you can reduce the amount of taxable income because HMRC gives you a £1,000 trading allowance on any side income you earn.
So for example, if you earn £135 / month * 12 = £1,620 over the 2021/22 tax year, your taxable income would only be £1,620 - £1,000 = £620. Your tax bill would then be £620 * 20% = £124.
Filling out a tax return and doing all the forms can get pretty annoying (I'm currently a freelancer myself). You might want to look into some online services that automate the entire process for you, e.g. something like earnr (if you're just starting off) or Xero, if you're looking for something more comprehensive.
You might want to look into Quickbooks or, if you're looking for a free option, Xero. Both systems let you handle account and bookkeeping easily, and that will make it easier to get a feel for what accounting works.
Quickbooks also has an option to hire an accountant through their system, too, so if you get in over your head, you can always get help.
If you're looking for a decent primer on accounting, check out this course on Lynda. I think you can even watch it on a free trial and not have to pay.
Sometimes a "X" can be pronounced as a "Z" like "Xerox" (https://www.xerox.com/) or "Xero" (https://www.xero.com/)
So XNO could be pronounced "ZNO" or "SNO"
Adding the pronunciation question/answer is a little unnecessary and I might remove it
Awesome sub. Thank you! I’ve been toying with the idea of starting something of my own for a while now, but I have absolutely no idea where to start.
I did find Xero’s small business guide, which is helpful (https://www.xero.com/au/resources/small-business-guides/how-to/) but I still have lots of questions around who I would need to engage, how to sort out appropriate insurance and all of those things.
It would be great to pick someone’s brain to understand some of the basics, common pitfalls to look out for, and so on. I hope this community provides the opportunity for people like me to learn from people who’ve done it, and in turn we can give back to people like us in the future!
Hello, is your accountant interested in becoming a Xero partner? :) https://www.xero.com/partners/ The partner-only plans that our advisors have are more cashbook based - where business owners don't need full invoicing etc. However a partner can manage your subscription for you on a full business version and they will likely recover the fee of the subscription even if they charge a monthly (or other regular) service fee. If your accountant is interested in using Xero their practice I hope there's a good outcome for you. Thanks for the question.
If anyone in you immediate family works for a company that uses Xero accounting package they are offering free counselling services.
https://www.xero.com/blog/2019/10/doubling-down-on-mental-health-support-for-kiwi-small-businesses/
Who’s, the cloud provider? If you read most of the T&Cs they say you need to backup and protect your own data, then also say they have no responsibility etc. That’s the concerning part for me.
For example: https://www.xero.com/uk/about/legal/terms/#section-id-security
Data loss: Data loss is an unavoidable risk when using any technology. You’re responsible for maintaining copies of your data entered into our services. For information on how to do that, check out this article on Xero Central.
No compensation: Whatever the cause of any downtime, access issues or data loss, your only recourse is to discontinue using our services.
Xero is quite popular where I am (Australia). They have a subscription here that also contains a projects module: Track Jobs and Projects with Xero Projects | Xero AU (change your region for correct pricing and features) Projects allows you to track labor and expenses across various jobs and has decent mobile integration, meaning you can log in on a phone or tablet while on the job site. I have experience with MYOB and Xero. Of the two I much prefer Xero. I have no Quickbooks experience and I don't know what support they offer for tradies. Most of our tradie clients use it, or they use Xero as well as another third party app that ingrates with Xero.
The likes of Xero have Australian bank feeds and have the functionality to track bills (and invoices, but that's less important if you're just dealing with personal finances).
The base plan is normally $25/mth (currently on discount for $12.50/mth for 3 months), but that only lets you enter 5 bills per month. If you want more the price doubles (normally $50, currently $25 - it gets expenses fairly quickly).
Before you get there, though, it also depends on what you expect when you say 'personal budgeting software'; if you simply want to see where you spent your money and track upcoming bills, then it would work fine. But I use YNAB, which is at its heart an envelope-based-budgeting system, which works entirely differently to what Xero offers.
Yes, you can. Just keep good records.
I use Xero.com for my stuff, it makes VAT returns easy as it captures the transactions at invoicing and purchasing time. One-click filing with HMRC each quarter. https://www.xero.com/uk/pricing/
Xero is the standard when it comes to online cloud accounting software, especially when it comes to a limited company where you'll probably need a balance sheet, and third party integration with Shopify is possible - it could be costly though. But again, you'd be using something any accountant would be happy to get into later on.
Actually, Shopify themselves wrote a list on accounting software platforms and Xero have a list of integrating partners for Shopify on this page - working checking out the costs.
That domain is one we use but this is so NOT Xero language nor staff. I'll forward it to our security team though, I don't see it listed on our security page as yet > https://www.xero.com/blog/security-noticeboard/ Thanks.
If the pdf didn't do anything, you got lucky that your pdf reader auto-blocked the scripts. It was supposed to install a ransomware or something. But then it might have done things silently, especially if your OS is not patched and your user account has administrative privileges.
We’ve been using Xero accounting system for 6+ years at https://www.xero.com/us/ you can create proposals and send invoices which include a link the customers can pay with credit card or ACH from their bank account. You can also link your bank accounts, download each transaction and reconcile your books. Quickbooks is okay, but I found they crank up the prices overtime and extra features, well...cost more. Here is the catch, once you start with a system and put time organizing your business, is very difficult to port over your data to other system and they know very few would leave even if they increase prices.
The majority of us entrepreneurs start businesses and run them from our checking accounts procrastinating accounting for “one day”.’ I did it and paid the price. As one starts doing more work things get more complex and remembering all the details from months or years behind is difficult. One may forget who owes them money or who they owe money to. So I’d encourage not to neglect accounting and schedule time aside every week to reconcile and keep your books in order. Believe me on this, although it seems a waste of time at the beginning, it’s time very well invested. It is an awesome feeling to open your books, go to your dashboard and see the overall situation of your business in a blink of an eye. Also, if the IRS one day knocks your door, you’ll be prepared.
If you don’t know much about accounting, it may be good idea to find a bookkeeper freelancer who can setup your company and provide some guide on how get to yourself going. As the business grows you can outsource this work to bookkeeper you can pay monthly. But you’d need to know the little more than the basics to trust and supervise.
Also, buy yourself a good scanner and scan all receipts, bills, mail, pretty much everything and attach the file to each transaction in your account system.
Hope it helps! Good luck
Not in UK, but the system looks to be similar to Canada: find some .gov website with requlations you will have to follow, usually revenue service agency of the country. Everything you must to do should be there, you can choose the easiest or most difficult way.
Then search for UK bookkeeping (or accountring) and specific topic shows explanations from professional bookkepers, if something is not clear from gov regulations and in short form. For example that you may have a choice to do it as single entry accounting or double entry accounting and what documentation you have to keep. Single entry is much easier and faster.
Xero software looks complicated, but their inventory part shows in the same search. If law requires keep bookkeeping for inventory (raw material, in the process, finished goods, cost of goods sold), you have t do it. If confusing in Xero, try the same on paper or in spreadsheet program to get grip on it. There is no room for assumptions, you have to follow revenue agency requirements.
First year there will be a lot of reading, then it becomes familiar and easier.
If you need a solution to help with your personal bookkeeping (eg you’re an independent contractor for your startup in the early stages), then you can give Benji a try: https://www.betterwithbenji.com
If you’re looking for a solution for your startup then consider Xero as most accountants prefer to work with such a solution: https://www.xero.com/ca/
You could use Wave instead of Xero, but if you’ll be dealing with an accountant, they’d like want you to be able to use Xero (or Quickbooks, but I’m personally not a fan of anything Intuit owns as [I don’t trust them](www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free/)
Xero extracts $700M a year from mostly small businesses. (source: https://www.xero.com/content/dam/xero/pdf/about-us/xero-interim-report-h1-fy2020.pdf ). They can afford to delay the 4% price hike by a couple of months. :-)
I meant to mention bank accounts and bookkeeping. Regardless of LLC, Sole Prop, etc you definitely need a separate bank account for only business income and expenses. That's critical. Then get an online bookkeeping software like Xero or Quickbooks Online to keep track of income and expenses. We use Xero and with some third party apps it integrates really well with lots of channels to help automate bookkeeping. We have rules setup for most common expenses and income types and use A2X Accounting to pull in income / expenses and assign to the correct accounts. It's a life saver come tax time. EIN is a good idea regardless of sole prop or LLC - they only take a few mins to register online.
1099s are legally supposed to be sent by January 31.
If you're going to bother with self-employment, then invest in a decent accounting software like Xero or Quickbooks Online. Then you can just invite your accountant that already does your personal taxes and they can create a Schedule-C for you in no time.
I'll reiterate, it's so much easier to keep business revenue and expenses in a separate bank account, you can just sync that account with Xero or QBO and create rules to categorize income and expenses to the proper accounts. I run two businesses (with thousands of transactions every month) and reconcile my own books in just a few minutes a month.
My accountant only charges me an extra $165 to create the Schedule C for my side business. (my main business is an S-corp so it's a little more involved)
Waveapps.com works. When you send an invoice, the customer can pay by credit card or ACH (or check of course). If they pay by credit card, you pay 3% if by ACH you pay 1%. Wave makes their money by taking a cut of the fee.
I've also heard good things about https://www.xero.com/us/
One of your selection criteria is the bank is 1 of 80 in the full list of the PDF xero au-banks. That should narrow it down a little.
yeah sounds about right. Good on you to ditch the half-a suitecommerce product. With a 20k hike it's probably time to explore your options. You could get someone to do a great implementation of a lot of different software for 20k. What about https://www.xero.com/us/
I strongly recommend keeping track of all revenues (sales) and expenses (cost of goods, marketing, hosting, domain, business license, etc) in an accounting program like Xero or Quickbooks Online. That will help you immensely come tax time because selling items for a loss actually helps lower your net profit by offsetting the profit you made on other sales. You're only taxed on your net income after ALL legitimate business expenses, so keep track of every dollar earned and spent!
> Nope, not true, some VAT implementations allow the government to refund you the ITC even if the corporation makes no revenue as long as there is an expectation of revenue in the future.
On that, i can only share with you the implementation that I am familiar with. If you are familiar with another please share with me this interesting implementation so I may understand how it works?
Can we also say that given there are implementations that you would be similar to what I just listed, not all GST or VAT implementations are applicable to your statement? If so, unless Andrew Yang specifically comes out and disavows the Singapore model which i think is the logical prevalent model around the world (I understand it is the same model that is implemented in Australia from your link) would you retract your statement since it may not be correct and of course re-issue it if he comes up with a wonky one that is not the same as the one you listed in the examples?
From your link in Australia GST
> When you buy something for your business, you’re usually charged GST. If you’re registered for GST, you can claim that back. You do this by claiming a GST tax credit when lodging your business activity statement (BAS). The ATO will balance those credits against the GST you owe when working out your refund or bill.
Claiming back, means no additional amount is paid forward, you only claim that which you already have paid for.
Xero and an accountant aren't mutually exclusive.
Software is only as good as the person using it. It can produce VAT returns / tax returns / accounts, but it only churns out the end result out based on the underlying entries. It has no sense check or someone to ensure the entries are being treated correctly
You still need an accountant to ensure you are compliant across the various taxes - VAT, personal tax, corporation tax, employment law. Not to mention being compliant with the Companies Act and FRS102, which Xero wont know.
And that's just statutory compliance.
Xero wont be able to suggest more tax efficient ways of structuring things. It wont be able to undertake tax planning. It wont know about all the exemptions/allowances. It cant give proactive advice. It cant give you peace of mind. And lots of other things
If you aren't getting the above service, find a different accountant.
Do the bookkeeping and maybe the VAT returns and payroll yourself, but still use an accountant for everything else.
Here is an article from Xero themselves about using an accountant: https://www.xero.com/uk/resources/small-business-guides/accounting/when-to-hire-accountant/
Take a look at Xero, which is QBO’s largest online competitor. It’s an accounting software built with business owners in mind (less accounting jargon, intuitive interface, easy to navigate, etc.). The financials can also be setup in nonprofit format with restricted/unrestricted funds.
Oh wow, I didn’t read further. In that document, it says that order sync is not supported and to upvote the idea in their comment thread. Some people in there recommend Xero. I also saw a few options on CodeCanyon for integration, but I don’t know how well they work (or the Xero option mentioned prior). Best of luck to you though!!
If you need to track your financials, time, costs and profitability a simple solution is Xero Projects. https://www.xero.com/nz/features-and-tools/accounting-software/projects/
I think you need to be on Xero.com to use projects, but you might want to double check that
It is always great to use accounting software such as Xero or Freeagent, I use an accounting company who does it is for me with their own bespoke software
It is would be difficult to write an easy to follow "how to" on a thread. If am lucky I might even get one up vote/karma point for it or a dozen critiques and twice that in down votes. Here are a couple of suggestions about how you could do it:
- Google provided this (approximately 1 minute of work) Xero is just like Wave or Zoho: https://www.xero.com/us/features-and-tools/accounting-software/convert-from-quickbooks/
- Pay someone to do it for you.
Stripe does (mostly) sync with Xero.
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You're looking to initiate Stripe charges based on invoice creation in Xero? That would be fairly simple to execute with a teeny bit of custom software. It doesn't sound like Xero/Stripe do this out-of-the-box, but any decent web developer could wire this up for your quite easily.
I've spent most of the last year working on payment automation for our business. We have a huge number of tiny billables. Right now, our CRM software gathers billable details on each client, builds a very detailed invoice in our CRM, then communicates a simpler invoice to Xero. We don't send the invoices to the client, they use our CRM to browse their charges.
Right now, we use Plaid/Plooto/WePay to collect on those invoices. By the end of the month, we'll be using Stripe to collect directly and mark the Xero invoices as paid.
Actually it is [https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/]($10/month or $120/year) for self employed which allows you to send invoices (although I use SquareUp for that for free) and $20/month or $240/year Simple Start. Those are the regular non-promotional prices. [https://www.xero.com/us/pricing/](I'm looking at $30/month or $360 per year.)
I have to work with what I got. As "cheap" as those are, there have been too many times I'm counting coins just to buy food or asking my mechanic for a bottle of oil today and I'll pay him on Friday. One of the major things I don't like about subscriptions is the moment you lapse in paying (say because you're bank account is at 9.98,) you immediately lose access. That is a nope for me.
Until I can raise the cash [https://quickbooks.intuit.com/desktop/pro/]($220-300) for a desktop version I'll stuck with what I have and will look elsewhere for truly basic help.
Thank you for your suggestions anyways.
I would look at Square Register, it has all the necessary components you mentioned and appears to integrate with Xero... here is a Link from Xero's website about their integration
Have a look at https://www.xero.com/nz/training/accountants-bookkeepers/ and their Xero TV section. You can register for a Xero account account for a trial and play with their demo account to get hands on. You can then go through an online certification process which ensures you've covered the basics.
> Banks don’t have to stop access as sharing your password makes you liable, and you can’t infer because they don’t that means they must be ok with it....
I don’t think you understand. Banks know Pocketbook and other services like it exist. The get bombarded by thousands of authentication requests from their servers each day. It’s not as if those servers are coming from individual IP addresses or from Russia.
Plus: the connection is read only:
> If someone does manage to steal my Pocketbook login information, can they access my accounts to make any transactions?
>No, as Pocketbook provides a strictly “read-only” view of your transaction information. Your online banking usernames and passwords are never displayed after you enter them during your first session.
One of the largest Australian accounting software companies also uses read only connections to your bank:
https://www.xero.com/au/features-and-tools/accounting-software/bank-connections/
Almost all of these services use another company called Yodlee
https://central.xero.com/s/article/Yodlee-feeds-overview
Which is a bank aggregator service which all the major banks across the world allow them to read only index your accounts if you give them your credentials.
Again, if it was a security risk it’s super easy for the banks to block Yodlee’s customers from accessing the information.
But they don’t, why?
We use Xero. Depending on the type of business you're in you may need something more specialized, but Xero works great for us (two businesses, e-commerce company and consulting services company).
Wszystkie programy do rachunkowości mają tworzenie raportów (ang. Reporting, tutaj link do szczegółów: https://www.xero.com/uk/features-and-tools/accounting-software/financial-reporting/ ) i import z różnych banków (ang. Bank Reconciliation, tutaj link do szczegółów: https://www.xero.com/uk/features-and-tools/accounting-software/bank-reconciliation/).
Tutaj szersza lista oprogramowania: https://alternatives.financesonline.com/p/xero/
Let me start this by saying. I currently own another business not detailing but looking to start a auto detailing business up also. I am going to be taking more than a couple of CC payments a month. I would setup a merchant account. My business bank offers some really good rates with mobile options (PNC). Square may get you started but fees are high in the long run. I use Wave for my current business and love it for book keeping. 95% of the time my customers send me a check when I invoice them because they are net 15-30. Credit card fees through wave are super high. I get it. That's how they make their money and I respect that. So I don't complain about it. I like the service for book keeping and quoting.
QB is the industry standard. It works well. But I dislike intuit as a company. That is my personal opinion. But it may be easiest for book keeping and what not. Just look at their rates.
Another option to look at is Xero
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Ultimately, use what works best for you and your customers.
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Good luck with your business venture. Grind Hard.
It was released the end of last year. I anticipate somewhere around the end of this year that they’ll begin charging for it. Here’s the Xero Projects info page. You can also check YouTube for videos of people using it (as with all videos, some are helpful, some not so much). Either way, Xero offers a 30 day trial. Worst case, you don’t like it, cancel, and you’ve only invested a bit of your time. Feel free to send me a message with any questions.
This blog post from February suggests that Xero Projects will add the ability to “inform Payroll timesheets from your Project timesheets [in late 2018]”
Not aware of any other currently available free time tracker that integrates to Xero Payroll, but you should submit the feature request using the little question mark icon in the top right of your Xero navigation.
Hey Swarmonger, you can actually turn off your invoice reminders for invoices that are under a specified amount (i.e $100). Its a tick and value box on the invoice reminder settings page.
See an example of it in this Xero blog post.
Well my guess is that for a place like Colorado, the state didnt make it easy for Xero to integrate or QB Payroll is filing with paper for you. Xero didnt make the payroll system, they acquired it back in 2014. https://www.xero.com/blog/2014/11/payroll-xero-acquires-monchilla/
I guess California has it great with our electronic filing, and payment options. If I understand correctly, your employees will still get paid, but you have to file and send the taxes monthly. Which delegate to a staff member or your CPA to do it.
The timesheet, paystub, and calculations are still done in Xero.
It really depends on what you want to do.
If you purely want to track expenses and not issue invoices or anything then there are plenty of receipt trackers. We use receipt bank which is about £10/month but looking at their website I see they have a new app called 1tap receipts for sole traders which is as little as £15/year. You either take a pic of your receipt with the phone app or you can email online receipts and it will extract the necessary figures for you. They are a UK based company and I have found it incredibly useful and accurate, even with crappy, faded, screwed up receipts that have been kicking round in my parter's pocket for a few weeks.
For finances and payroll we use xero which connects with receipt bank but that is probably overkill for you.
QuickBooks:
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/choose-country/
Xero:
FreshBooks:
If you know what you are doing then Microsoft Excel is still a powerful tool.
We used to use Workflow Max and moved to Accelo due to better handling of retainer jobs
both of them were chosen due to linking with Xero for accounts
This is for a small design agency
Thanks for the recommend! Indeed Xero is for accounting & payroll & you can take a look through the features here: https://www.xero.com/why-xero/ However, as with other SaaS products Xero is a monthly subscription only.
Xero has a partner program for bookkeepers that you may want to check out. You’ll still need to have an account per organisation however.
That's definitely outside my wheelhouse, but I wonder if these guys might do it
https://www.pocketsmith.com/global-personal-finance-software/canada
https://www.xero.com/ca/features-and-tools/accounting-software/bank-connections/
Think of it from his perspective, essentially it's when you sell your client list to another firm, there is a price in here about it
http://www.mabusinessbrokers.com/blog/how-to-sell-a-customer-base-or-customer-list
It's just something to think about, is there anything stopping that client from leaving you after a year? But the other guy still has equity??
I would try and offer something that he wants (security in retirement)? But I don't know the full picture. Maybe he wants to be more involved in your business rather than just (cash flow), does he also give experience as a partner?
Is it really that hard to connect accounting with front-end dev? There are companies that make web-based accounting software, like xero.com and all that blockchain stuff seems to be taking off now (check out etherium, especially. It's not just a currency).
The purpose of having a "business" checking and credit card account is not that they're made for a business, its so you keep your business and personal finances completely separate. If you're a sole proprietor doing business as yourself, then a personal checking (or credit card) account will work fine.
The key is to keep all your business income and expenses organized in accounts separate from your personal finances, so it's easier at the end of the year to compile your income statement and other documents needed to do your taxes.
Ideally, you'd also use an accounting platform too like Xero which would really help in organizing income and expenses and make your job a lot easier at the end of the year - even for a small company. I use Xero for both my large company with employees and a small sole-proprietor consulting company. Their entry level plan is $9/month but they often have special promotions that can bring the cost down. Or you could just use a spreadsheet to track income and expenses.
In your case, since you're relatively serious about these questions and/or farther along the decision process than many, and in looking for these as well as other specifics, it's probably going to be best to go straight to talking to a local CPA/accountant/certified advisor in your area that can discuss exactly how you'd like to configure users/admins/payroll, etc.
These types of discussion also usually cover growth and transitions, as related to those specifics. For instance, you'd like to review the version or pricing edition levels: --->https://www.xero.com/us/pricing/
FWIW, only through the certified advisors/partners can you get the best pricing & discounts for different levels or features such as CRM integration, payroll, and data feeds for tax filing. And of course, they can give info on any available package deals or promos.
Lastly, one other tip, the pricing for any of these things is pretty much always such that it won't make any real impact. For instance, the QBO Plus or Xero Standard-type levels include access for a number of users for like $29.99/mon. or what-not, with 1/2 off or other discounts for first 6-12 mon. Typically also include 5 payroll users or 1099's for free, etc. ...Under almost any normal assumptions, you'll be fine with either option.