Limited company accounting software

If you’re a limited company without a dedicated accountancy department, limited company accounting software can really help streamline your processes and lighten the administrative load.

Your time is freed-up to invest back into what you do best – your actual work and growing your business.

Take a quick look at the way limited accounting software can help your business and the things to look out for when you’re buying.

What can Limited Company Accounting Software do?

As a limited company, you’ll probably be looking at the top price tiers for limited company software. These are designed for larger companies, or businesses that have more complex accounting situations – like being a limited company.

Each software provider has a slightly different way of packaging their features, but here are some common ones that benefit most limited companies.

Limited Company Accountancy Software time savers

So many admin time savers, like:

• Snap and save receipts.
• Monitor accounts payable and never miss a bill payment deadline.
• Mobile mileage and time tracking.
• Categorise expenses.
• Automatic bank reconciliation.
• Create pay-enabled, branded invoices, with built-in reminders for late payers.
• Track your VAT and see how much you owe in a couple of clicks.
• Manage workplace pensions.
• Easy accountant access.

Limited Company Payroll Software

Most accounting software has a payroll management option, which you can integrate into your wider package, or buy as a standalone piece of software. It makes a lot of sense to include payroll within your limited company accounting software.

You can set up a different level of access for your employees, so they can receive their current payslips and review their whole financial past with you. All on their phone, from the comfort of their couch.

You can have multiple types of employees within your system: part time, full time, freelance contractor. This is particularly important in today’s agile employment market.

Making Tax Digital for VAT

If you’re over the VAT threshold, you need software that’s making tax digital ready. This means that your digital records and online VAT return filing will be fully compliant with HMRC.

You do need to check that the software on HMRC’s ‘recognised’ list. HMRC don’t provide or recommend any particular software. They just list those that are compatible with their system. There are some filtering options within this list, which can speed up the decision making.

Accounting Software helping business decisions

Using limited company accounting software means that all your business data is centralised in one place. The software comes with a range of pre-set reports about your business’s financial health, like cash flow statements and forecasts.

So whenever you’re making any kind of business decision, you can get a quick snapshot of your financial health in a couple of clicks, and base it on real data insights. There’s often the option to create customised reports if you need particular information.

Limited Company legal compliance

Using limited company accounting software in itself doesn’t make you legally compliant. But it does make the process of preparing and filing your company accounts and paying your corporation tax bill much more straightforward.

You’ve got easy access to all the data you need for your profit and loss statement, balance sheet, director’s report and supporting notes. And that’s if you’re required to submit full company accounts.

What makes ‘good’ Limited Company Software?

Before you even start researching the different software that’s available, you need to think about what your business actually needs. That’s your starting point. For example: Do you need an unlimited number of invoices? Do you take payments in different currencies?

It’s easy to get carried away with the promise of a good deal and end up paying for features you’ll never use. So decide on what accounting tasks you’d like it to take off your hands and any features that would be a ‘nice to have’.

There are a few key things to take note of as you compare your limited company software options;

• Does the dashboard make sense? There are some excellent, intuitively designed dashboards available. This is crucial to its ease of use, at the initial learning stage and as you move forward.
• Does it integrate with other business apps? These might be existing apps, like using Shopify or PayPal. Or a connection to an email distribution app that means you can use accountancy app information to segment your audience and create more targeted email campaigns.
• What support is available? Will you have a dedicated account manager? How can you communicate with them – webchat only? Email? Phoneline?

It’s so much more time-efficient to have all your financial data in one place, a couple of clicks away. With cloud-based accountancy software, you can access your information on any device, at any time.

You don’t have to be in the office to file and expense in the right place. And you don’t have to wade through disparate piles of paper to create a useful financial report to help you weigh up your current business decisions.

And you have the reassurance that your accurate, organised records are being constantly updated and are always ready for inspection.