Blog | Tax Returns Stoke/VAT Returns/Auditing/Book Keeping/Tax Services/Accounts Preperation

16 July

Quickbooks - what have they done to it?
We have been using Quickbooks ourselves for many years and recommending it to clients, as we always regarded it as more understandable for non bookkeepers.

Over the years our faith in it has been eroded by various things like the level of support given, the frequent upgrades, which are unnecesary for most users, and the lack of support for older versions. Most users only use the basic bookkeeping functions which never change, so why must you be forced to pay for upgrades you don't need?

The final straw for me is the incompatabilty of older versions with Vista, which is a problem we are having. Despite paying for online support we were not informed that the basic problem is that it is not compatable and spent hours on the phone trying to get it to work. They do not seem to care about this problem but just say upgrade to the latest version, at £400 or whatever, why should I, we are quite happy with what we already have.

To compound our displeasure, has anyone read the reviews of the new version? most people seem to be ready to give up with it as it does not function properly at even a basic level.

We are noe in a quandry in that we don't rate Sage very highly either, especially for clients use.

02:30 GMT | Read comments(0)

17 July

Is online banking safe?

I attended a seminar in Birmingham on the internet for accountants.

One of the speakers there was Steve Gould, an internet security expert and journalist.

He was the first person charged with computer hacking in the U.K., but subsequently cleared.

As part of his talk he said that he would not use the online banking system, eventhough he is a Techie. He maintains that the so-called secure

online banking system is not at all. Hackers can remotely decode you transactions without any trouble.

I will certainly think twice about using it in the future

David Matley

04:31 GMT | Read comments(0)

09 May

Are your records good enough?

A little heralded part of the new Finance Bill has come to light, which may have a big impact on the self-employed and small limited companies.

The Inland Revenue is giving itself the power to visit taxpayers premises to inspect their business records.

Why is this any different to what goes on now? at the moment you don't particularly have to keep great records, you can just take all your invoices and bank statements to your accountant and they will knock you out a set of accounts, the Inland Revenue never see the actual records and in most cases they are accepted at face value.

Under this new system if they visit you during the year and find that your records are not too good, you may well find yourself subject to an investigation when your accounts go in.

What can you do about it? either get your accountant to show you how to keep better records, or if you are too busy, get your accountant or bookkeeper to keep your records for you.

02:37 GMT | Read comments(0)

D Matley and Co Chartered Accountants in Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire

Always striving to be the best