Software Package

J.Ryan

A client has asked me to recommend an accounting package for book-keeping for the group of companies.

The main requirements are;

Multi Currency
Multi Company
Able to produce invoices
Able to produce statements
Mainstream package with good support
Able to handle a large number of bank accounts


and cost is also a factor.


The current package isn't bad, but is restricted in that it only allows 1 unallocated receipt per debtor, which is a problem when he is receiving round sum payments on account every month.


It also needs to be easy to use because I'll have to learn it quickly to teach him how to use it.

starfish30

Sage 50 Accounts Professional will do all of the below, including multiple payments on account to allocate later. Quickbooks Premier should do what you want also, although the foreign currency has only come back in Quickbooks this year so I'm not sure if the previous bugs were sorted our or not, I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, and i'm not sure about the multiple payments on account.

I've used Sage 50 Accounts Professional a good bit, its has multi company, nominal ledger, the reports and reports customisation is great, and the foreign currency is good, but not perfect. The foreign currency automatically works out loss or gain on exchange rates between posting and receipts (or posting and payments), also deals with as many foreign bank accounts as you want, and converts back to euro for the accounts (there is a revaluation wizard for revaluing bank accounts before month end) and what is really great I find is that you can pull aged debt or creditor or other reports in the foreign currency which is great for talking to the client. But.. you can only pay sterling invoices through a sterling bank account, dollar with dollar bank account etc., which is a pain, but fine for me as I just set up a dummy dollar bank account when I didn't physically have one, and I do a bank transfer over before my bank rec at end of month. you also can't consolidate multiple companies with different base currencies..., I get around this by using the excel integrated reporting..., to be honest, any software I could find that could do this were too expensive for me.

Herbalist

Sage 50 Accounts Professional could be an option for you. It is available with a multi company licence, will look after Foreign currency, will allow you to create print or email invoices and statements and has an award winning support team available to help you.

Like starfish correctly said there are limits to the foreign currency functionality - each customer or supplier can only be set up and deal with you in one currency and you must pay or recieve your customers / supplier in the base currency you chose for them.