Accounting software, chosen and connected
We pick the ledger, connect your other systems to it and switch off the duplicates, so each figure is entered once.
- One ledger, with everything else connected to it
- Xero or FreeAgent, whichever suits you
- Bank feeds and receipt capture
- Your trade apps connected and checked
- Who does what, written down
Accounting software and integrations
In most small businesses the problem is integration: an accounting package, a card machine, a booking system and a spreadsheet, none of which talk to each other, and a person spending two days a month typing the same figures into all four.
The work is deciding what the record of truth is, connecting everything else to it, and switching off the things that duplicate it.
How we set up your software
- 1Look at what you actually run
We review every system you use, including spreadsheets.
- 2
- 3Connect the bank and the card machine
Read-only feeds, so transactions arrive daily and nothing is keyed twice.
- 4Automate the paperwork
Receipt capture from your phone, supplier bills read automatically, sales invoices raised in the same place the bookkeeping lives.
- 5Connect the trade-specific tools
Job management, EPOS, e-commerce, stock, time recording. Whatever your industry runs on, if it has a ledger connector we use it.
- 6Write down who does what
Each system gets a named owner, written down, so the setup does not drift back to spreadsheets.
What changes
- Data entry
- Bank feeds and receipt capture remove most manual keying, which is where errors come from as well as time.
- How current the numbers are
- Books that are days behind rather than months behind mean the management accounts are worth reading.
- The year end
- A clean, connected year is a materially smaller job, and that shows up in what it costs to do.
- Making Tax Digital
- Digital records with a digital link is a legal requirement for VAT now and for income tax from April 2026.
- What you can see
- Debtors, cash and margin on a screen instead of in a folder.
Key figures
All excluding VAT, from the vendors’ own published pricing, checked 8 September 2026.
2026/27 figures. See key tax dates and the calculators for the full picture.
Choosing between Xero and FreeAgent
- Your bank
- If you hold a business account with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank — or Mettle with one transaction a month — FreeAgent is free for as long as you keep it. For a simple company that saves £330 a year.
- Stock, projects or multi-currency means Xero
- FreeAgent handles day-to-day bookkeeping well. For tracking stock, costing projects at scale, invoicing in another currency or running a payroll of any size, Xero is the better choice.
- Transaction volume
- A £300,000 consultancy with forty transactions a month is a simpler file than a £120,000 shop with two thousand. The volume decides how much the software has to automate, and therefore which one.
- The apps your trade actually runs on
- Job management, EPOS, e-commerce, stock, time recording. We check that the connector posts to the ledger correctly before recommending it.
- What you are already on
- If your current setup works and the records are clean, we leave it alone and work in it. We recommend a migration only when it saves more than it costs.
Common problems with accounting systems
- Two systems that disagree
- The ledger and a spreadsheet, or a job system nobody reconciles to the accounts. Somebody then has to reconcile them at the year end, which adds to the cost.
- Bank rules that miscode exceptions
- Bank rules handle repeated identical transactions well and miscode the exceptions in ways that look plausible, so a clean-looking ledger still needs checking.
- An app connected but never checked
- A connector that posts to the wrong nominal, or posts gross where it should post net, will do so silently for a year. The first sign is a margin that has moved for no reason anybody can explain.
- No named owner
- A stack with no named owner drifts back to spreadsheets within a couple of quarters, usually starting with one person who found a workaround and never mentioned it.
What people ask about software and systems
Which is better, Xero or FreeAgent?
It depends on the business. FreeAgent suits sole traders, contractors and simpler limited companies, and comes free with some business bank accounts. Xero handles stock, projects, multi-currency and larger transaction volumes better. We are partners for both and recommend whichever suits your business.
Do I have to change software to work with you?
No. We will tell you if what you are on is costing you more in bookkeeping time than a migration would. Some packages make a clean year end genuinely harder.
How long does a migration take?
A straightforward one is a few weeks including a parallel period, and is best timed at a year end or a VAT quarter end. The conversions that go wrong are the ones done mid-quarter in a hurry.
Is there a separate charge for this?
Setting the stack up as part of onboarding is included. A migration from a system with years of history in it is quoted separately, because it is real work.
What about the apps for my trade?
Most of them connect. Tell us what you run and we will check that the connector posts to the ledger correctly before recommending it.
