What do accountants want??

O

Obliterate

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Hi,

I am looking into purchasing an accounting package for a small business but first of all I want to make sure it's worth my while.

Why shouldn't I just use Excel? Alot of the packages I've researched say that they create 'information that the accountant wants' quickly but what is it that accountants want? I found a good link (bottom) that seems to give me the answer but is this it?

Do accountants want all of the information in a specific order? ie all cheques together, invoices, DDs together? Or do they want it chronologically by month?

What format do the likes of sage and quickbooks take?

Sorry if this is a daft question btw! I'm just trying to sort it out in my head.

[broken link removed]
 
For a small business, you should be able to get away with Excel
and a smart Excel template. Many accountants will give you a template
they use.

They need a record of all expenditure, and if it was taxed and at what rate.
They also need a record of all sales, and if you charged VAT. From this, they
can work out your VAT3 Returns. Many excel sheets also break things down
in to the categories like "Transport" related costs, "Telephone and Office" etc. But at the year end, they will also need a copy of all your hard copy bank statements to reconcile these with whats in the info you give them.

I guess it depends on your transaction volume, and if you think Excel and you
can handle this in Excel.
 
As an accountant myself, I find it invaluable where clients provide me with an excel sheet containing their bank transactions, either downloaded from online banking or transcribed from bank statements on an ongoing basis.

I would also agree with everything astrosaver says above.
 
Thanks for that guys...it's cleared it up a bit. A friend of mine was using excel for years and upgraded recently to a professional accounting package for small businesses. It sounded great but he's having problems importing his excel data into the new software. I wonder if this is a regular problem...?
 
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