Most people pick software on price or on what a friend uses. These are the questions that actually determine whether you'll still be happy in two years.
Does it handle your VAT position? Standard, flat rate, cash accounting, reverse charge, or partial exemption. All the main platforms file under Making Tax Digital, but they don't all handle the edge cases as cleanly.
Do you hold stock? If you do, inventory tends to sit on the higher tiers, and that changes the price you'll actually pay rather than the one on the front page.
How many bank accounts, cards and payment platforms feed in? Stripe, PayPal, Amazon and card terminals all need reconciling, and the quality of those feeds varies more than the core software does.
Who does the day-to-day entry — you or us? If you're living in it daily, the interface matters more than the reporting. If you barely open it, reporting matters more than the interface.
What does the whole stack cost? Accounting software plus receipt capture plus payments, not just the headline subscription.
A worked example
What the stack actually costs
Illustrative figures for a VAT-registered limited company with two bank accounts. Providers change pricing regularly, so check their own sites before committing.
Accounting software, mid-tier, £25 + VAT a month£360 a year
Receipt capture tool, £15 + VAT a month£216 a year
Total, paid by you£576 a year
The same setup with FreeAgent included in a Buzz package£216 a year
The VAT is reclaimable if you're registered, so the real cost is lower again — but the point stands: the subscription you're comparing is rarely the whole bill. FreeAgent comes with every Buzz package, worth up to £330 a year, which removes one line entirely. If Xero suits you better we're a Xero Gold Partner and will set you up there instead, and if you're already on QuickBooks or Sage we'll work in those rather than force a migration you don't need.
The process
How a switch actually runs
1
Pick a changeover date
Almost always the start of a VAT quarter or a financial year. Mid-quarter switches mean reconciling two systems for one return, which is avoidable pain.
2
Agree what comes across
Opening balances and outstanding invoices always. Full transaction history sometimes — it's useful for comparatives, but it isn't free of effort and isn't always worth it.
3
Connect the feeds
Bank accounts, cards, payment platforms and receipt capture, with the chart of accounts set up to report the way you need rather than on the default template.
4
Run one period in parallel
One month or one VAT quarter checked against the old system before the old subscription is cancelled. That's how you find the feed that didn't quite work.
Migration is included when you join Buzz on a package — it isn't a separate project fee.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about software
Which software does Buzz recommend?
It depends on the business, which is why there are comparison pages rather than one answer. FreeAgent is included in every Buzz package and suits sole traders, freelancers, landlords and smaller limited companies. Xero tends to win where there are more transactions, more users, stock, multi-currency or a need for add-on apps — we are a Xero Gold Partner. QuickBooks and Sage are both supported and both have situations where they are the right call, particularly where an existing team already knows one of them well. The wrong reason to change is that someone else likes a different platform.
Are these comparisons sponsored?
No. We hold partner status with Xero and FreeAgent, which is disclosed on the pages themselves, and we are not paid to place or rank any product here. Partner status does create an incentive worth naming: firms tend to recommend the platform they are most efficient in, and we are no exception, because supporting a package we rarely use costs us more. What we do about that is say plainly when a tool is a poor fit for a business, including tools we partner with. Judge the comparisons on whether they mention drawbacks — the sponsored ones never do.
Do I have to switch software to become a client?
No. If your current setup works and the records are clean, we will work in it — that includes QuickBooks, Sage, and in some cases a well-kept spreadsheet where MTD does not yet apply. We suggest a move in three situations: the software is genuinely costing you time, it will not do what Making Tax Digital requires, or you are paying for a tier you have long outgrown or never needed. Switching for its own sake has a real cost in disruption and retraining, and it is not free just because the licence is.
Will I lose my history if I move?
No. Opening balances and open items always come across, and prior-year figures remain available either in the old system or as exported records — you should keep both regardless, since you are required to retain records for six years. Whether to import full transaction history is a judgement we make with you. It is often unnecessary and sometimes actively unhelpful, because importing several years of inconsistent coding carries the problems into the new file. The safer pattern is a clean opening position plus a readable archive of what came before.
Is a receipt capture tool worth paying for?
If you handle more than a handful of purchase invoices a month, almost always. It removes manual typing, cuts coding errors and keeps records in the digital form Making Tax Digital expects, which matters more each year. Below that volume, the receipt capture built into FreeAgent or Xero will do and a separate subscription is waste. The real cost is never the licence — it is whether receipts actually get photographed at the point of purchase. A tool nobody uses is more expensive than no tool. See the comparison of Dext, AutoEntry and Apron.
How much do the software changes cost me if I switch?
The subscription cost is usually the small part. Budget for the migration itself, a fortnight of slower working while people learn the new screens, and a reconciliation that turns something up. Where we are doing the migration, it is quoted as a one-off fee before we start rather than absorbed silently into the monthly figure. Where FreeAgent is the destination, the licence itself is included in your package, which removes one line from the calculation. The honest test is whether the annual time saved exceeds the disruption — for a business with clean records and low volume, often it does not.
What about AI bookkeeping tools that promise to do it all?
The capture and coding suggestions are genuinely good now and improving quickly — the automation in Dext, Apron and the platforms themselves saves real hours. What they do not do is know that the invoice from a builder was for the extension at your house rather than the office, or that the deposit in March was a loan and not sales. Automation removes typing, not judgement, and it is confidently wrong in ways a human is not. Treat any tool promising a hands-off year end with suspicion, and check what it actually does before the subscription auto-renews.
