Gazza, I can't believe you've got on your high horse like that. My
business is web authoring and hosting, and I know that very many of the
people using this group are one-man-bands like me, engaged in very
similar projects, and have very similar business needs. That's why I
didn't post it to a general newsgroup, particularly an
accountancy-specific one where I suspect they won't understand that the
average small business hobbyist really has no interest in/knowledge of
the accountancy concepts I've seen featured in most of the book-keeping
packages I've seen so far..

I've used this newsgroup on and off for about 7 years, and one of the
many things I've learnt is that the group here is mutually supportive
and sypathetic to each other's needs. Despite that, I didn't want to
irritate people unnecessarily which is, erm, precisely why I prefaced
my question with "OT". What do you think the point of those letters
is?!!

Hurrumph!

I'm not sure how to un-set follow-ups in IE Google Groups, so I'm
having to repost my original message below. Gazza, please just ignore
it:

Hi All
I'm looking for some advice/recommendations on very small business/sole

trader accounting software. Up till now, I've tended to use Excel to
keep track of customers and jobs, but I now want to use something more
sophisticated that will let
me record sales, outgoings, jobs, payment reminders, perhaps invoices,
and so on. Something that would allow me to create forecasts and
budgets would be nice but may be unrealistic at this level.

I'm not after something free, but don't want to spend a lot on
something that is really just a sideline for me. Under £100 if
possible. I also don't want one of these subscription services where
you pay so much per month. Ideally a UK product that understands VAT
etc.

What do people use that they would be happy to recommend?

I've looked at MYOB which is OK, but wondered if there was something
slightly slicker.

Regards
Will

UK_Will mumbled the following on 15/01/2006 19:58:
High horse? Me? I was simply trying to direct you to other potential
sources of solutions for your problem.

Of course, but your post mentioned nothing about your business being web
design/hosting; for all I knew, it could have been on cultivating bonsai
trees, and with a reference to Excel and accountancy software, I didn't
think a web authoring group would be the best source of info.

Again, with no reference to web design in your post, a question about
which software to use for any-sized business would best be answered by
an accountacy newsgroup (although the other thread seems to suggest the
one I picked as an example was not correct in this case). Certainly, if
a sole trader accountant wanted to put together a website, I would
expect them to go to a web design newsgroup to find out which software
to use, and not ask off-topically within the accountacy group. Does
anyone else not follow this logic?

Then my apologies; I didn't recognise the name or email address and
(incorrectly) assumed that you'd got the wrong newsgroup for your query.

I would agree for the most part. Which is why my intention was to
suggest a course of action that may have resulted in a better quality
and/or quantity of possible solutions, not simply to palm you off for
posting in the "wrong" newsgroup.

To take a hardline approach for a moment, it *could* be argued by some
that if a post is deemed to be OT, then it's not being posted in the
right place - if you wanted opinions from specific people in the UNWA
group, then emailing them direct *may* have been better.

Your original post is, of course still there, so reposting is totally
unnecessary.

Although my first reply may have seem a little harsh, few could argue
that it was without intent to help, given the missing details in the
original post.

--
Gazza
Mobile Number Network Checker - http://mnnc.net/
Leovanna Leonbergers - http://leovanna.co.uk/
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