Question

I am aware that there are an increasing number of online accounting services available. The one's I've seen that look interesting include:

• www.clearbooks.co.uk
• www.xero.com
• www.thisispearl.com

On the face of it Clearbooks looks okay, Xero looks very nice. I had a go with Pearl but felt a bit clunky and overly complex.

Anyone used anything and can recommend it?

Answer 1

I met the thisispearl guys at Seedcamp - good guys. Have you checked freeagentcentral.com?

Answer 2

We use, and love, FreeAgent Central (disclaimer: that's my referral link; if you sign up through it, we both get 10% off). The UI is clean and easy to use, the development team are responsive to suggestions and the numbers look about right (which is the important thing, I guess).

Answer 3

I'm one of the founders of FreeAgent so this is clearly going to be biased but...

All the apps you mention are good in their own way, so it really just depends on what you're looking for.

We very much focus on the UK, so we have excellent support for UK accounts, VAT and tax calculations that no other app has, but then they have some stuff that we don't have, so you just have to weigh it up.

We also strive to avoid accounting jargon as much as possible, which our users appreciate.

I'd recommend taking out a free trial on a couple at least, and see what fits your way of working the best.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Thanks for the KashFlow recommendations. I'm the CEO and founder of KashFlow.

Last year we won an independent survey of UK SMEs, beating ALL accounting aps - whether online or off. Needless to say we're a little proud about that.

It's available for free for 60 days with no commitments. And support is free and 24/7 so let us know if you have any questions.

Duane

Answer 5

I also know that Roan runs http://www.freeagentcentral.com/ which i am also considering moving to.

Oh, Sam mentioned that!

Answer 6

We use kashflow, it's not particularly pretty but it does a great job. If you like pretty then there's also freeagentcentral which gets rave reviews.

Answer 7

We've also started using Kashflow to run the business accounts. Mrs M swears by it

Answer 8

If you're looking for accounting software that doesn't give you a headache, give Free Agent a try. Highly recommended and actually fun to use! Very well thought out, feature complete (though some tend to disagree, please follow Roan's advise), fast and pretty.

Answer 9

Does someone that's using FreeAgent want to give me a referral code?