Online Accounting Software

Do you need to buy bookkeeping software as well as have an accountant? As a contractor, you might be asking yourself if you need to purchase an online or offline accounting package as well as appointing an accountant.

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Many software packages are packed with attractive user-friendly screens and a huge array of fancy functions designed to meet every need. Before you take the plunge and enter your bank details, let’s look at exactly what you need to do each month.

The breakdown is as follows:

Invoicing

Every time you complete a payment period, usually weekly or monthly, you must submit an invoice before payment can be made.

This simply means emailing your client or agency an invoice and then recording it on a spreadsheet.

Expenses

As a contractor, it’s unlikely you’ll have as many expenses as a larger company, which many of the feature-rich online accounting software packages are designed for.

For you, it will simply be a case of recording your expenses in a spreadsheet, ensuring you keep your receipts.

Payroll

You can run this yourself, however, payroll can become complicated so may take up a considerable amount of time.

We would recommend getting your accountant to organise your payroll, this is included as part of our fixed fee service.

Banking

This simply means recording the money that comes in when you get paid by your client or agency.

As most clients pay when they say they will, payment isn’t often a thing you’ll have to worry about.

All in all, you just have to record all these items somewhere, which is why we simply advise our clients to use the free software we have developed. It has been designed with contractors in mind, with the features you need.

So back to our earlier question, do you need both bookkeeping software and an accountant? The simple answer is, no you don’t. We provide all clients with our software, FreeAgent.

If you’d like to discuss things in more detail, please get in touch with our experts.

Contact Caroola

We've been providing expert accountancy advice and helping contractors to focus on doing what they do best since 1992.