One tool in particular is an accounting software service that we’ve been working on for the past 18 months – it’s called Clear Books.

Traditional Accounting Software

Traditional accounting software typically provides a fairly archaic solution. Here’s the scene: You have an old windows machine in the corner of your office that has the accounting software installed on it. Your accountant or book keeper comes in every now and then to keep the system up to date. If you want some management accounts to see how your business is doing, you or someone working for you has to log on to that machine and export them. If it snows – your book keeper can’t get to the office and your accounts start gathering dust. If you are at home one evening, and you want to know how much you owe the VAT man – you have to wait until the next day to visit the office. You’ve paid a large amount up front for the privilege of installing the software, and then each year you have to pay to keep it up to date.

Traditional accounting software….

• Comes in a box
• Needs to be installed on a computer
• It can only be accessed from one computer, by one person at a time
• Has a hefty up front cost.

No Accounts Software

Some people don’t like using these old accounting software products, so they opt for an even more labour intensive approach; they get their accountant to physically collect all their invoices, and bank statements (also know as the black bin liner method), so that he can prepare their payroll, VAT and end of year accounts, and then physically deliver them back to them when he’s finished with them. This method typically gives you no ongoing picture of your businesses performance, and you have to rely on bank statements, spreadsheets or just your gut feeling to see you from year to year. Also, if you need to refer to an old document – you normally can’t because they are with your accountant.

Online Accounting

Then there is the new approach. We call this online accounting. In this scenario, the accounting software is accessed via a web browser. You don’t need to install anything on your PC.  You can view your accounts from any computer (PC, Mac, Linux) with an Internet connection. So can your accountant or book keeper, so he/she no longer has to drive to your office. You and your business partners can be accessing the software at the same time, from any where in the world. There are no major up front costs, you just pay a small monthly subscription – and regular software updates are included as part of this. The software automatically generates your VAT returns each quarter, and lets you file them with HMRC with a few clicks of the mouse.

Online accounting software….

• Can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection and a web browser.
• Requires no software installation, updates or upgrades.
• Has a low monthly cost, with no up front fees.

If this sounds like something you want to know more about, you might want to read my 10 reasons to use Clear Books post.

The beta version was launched back in December last year (2008) and since then the software has shed it’s beta label (July ’09) and evolved rapidly, boasting a number of great features and reasons to use Clear Books.

The aim of this revamp was to standardise the page styles throughout and help clarify to new users exactly what Clear Books is and the services that are available, as well as including help and information for existing users.

Although no new content has really been introduced in this version, a number of previously hidden features have been made easily accessible. This includes the Partners and Business Directories and the VAT Calculator.

The re-launch coincides with completing the 100 paying users achievement and use of the new company slogan, “Free Your Time”.

All of those involved are really pleased at reaching this milestone, but we’re not quite there yet. Next on the list is to carry out a similar procedure on the accounts system itself (internal pages).

Displayed below are a couple of the pages which have been dramatically transformed to give you an idea of what things were  like previously and how they are now.

There hasn’t been much on the feedback side so far, but if you like what you see and are interested in using an online accounting product then head over to Clear Books now to find out more.

While this recognition is for the Clear Books product as a whole and not the php-govtalk library, Clear Books itself uses only the php-govtalk libraries to manage the interface between its own internal database and HMRC’s systems and gives a good indication that other products choosing to use the library would also easily achieve recognised status.

For more information on how to use the library to achieve recognition please get in touch with any member of the php-govtalk team.

Clear Books is a feature-rich online account package. Its creators were looking for a way of adding electronic VAT returns to the system to allow its clients to file their VAT 100 declarations without having to use HMRC’s paper forms.  php-govtalk’s HMRC extensions were perfect for the task.  Their implementation currently uses the VAT1 extension but is designed to be easily upgradeable to the VAT extension when HMRC roll out the next generation of their API.

Clear Books is currently going through HMRC’s recognition process for its VAT100 online submission product.  As the XML used by the Clear Books is generated purly by the php-govtalk library and VAT extension this will be a significant milestone in the project’s development.

Once recognition is granted we plan to release a set of sample scripts which can be used to generate the XML logs required by HMRC as part of their recognition process.

While all of our positions are unpaid (except for expenses) they offer great experience working within a young, exciting new media company, the chance to expand the student’s portfolio, as well as the possibility of a paid position if we’re impressed during the internship.

One of the positions we’re advertising is for someone to get involved with the php-govtalk project.  There are loads of different government departments using the GovTalk Message Envelope and we have plans to implement a range of different extensions. We’re looking for someone to take charge of one of the extensions — whichever one looks most interesting to the person in question — and develop it for use as part of our online accounting system Clear Books.  While we will be providing mentoring, support and office space for the developer this position will give the intern a great deal of flexibility, autonomy and responsibility.  It’s a great chance to get involved with an exciting, ground breaking project while building up a working portfolio!

If you’re interested then take a look at the job on the talent pool website.

While all of our positions are unpaid (except for expenses) they offer great experience working within a young, exciting new media company, the chance to expand the student’s portfolio, as well as the possibility of a paid position if we’re impressed during the internship.

One of the positions we’re advertising is for someone to get involved with the php-govtalk project.  There are loads of different government departments using the GovTalk Message Envelope and we have plans to implement a range of different extensions. We’re looking for someone to take charge of one of the extensions — whichever one looks most interesting to the person in question — and develop it for use as part of our online accounting system Clear Books.  While we will be providing mentoring, support and office space for the developer this position will give the intern a great deal of flexibility, autonomy and responsibility.  It’s a great chance to get involved with an exciting, ground breaking project while building up a working portfolio!

If you’re interested then take a look at the position on the talent pool website.

Invoicing

• PDF Invoice generation, with “2 click” e-mailing to customers. Clear Books makes it easy to create invoices, automatically calculating VAT and any discounts you want to apply. You can then send them to clients with the built in e-mail tool (or print them and send via snail mail).

• Auto-reminder e-mails for unpaid invoices. The system can be set up to send out regular e-mails to remind clients of any unpaid invoices that are outstanding, which encourages them to pay more promptly.
• Online Client Statements. Client’s can be sent a link to a secure area where they can see a realtime statement of their paid and unpaid invoices. They can also save or print any of their past invoices.

Bank Import

• Upload your bank statements. There’s no need to type in your bank statement entries. Simply download a CSV from your online banking and upload to the system. Clear Books works with all major banks. No more typos!
• Intelligent import system. The system learns common items that appear on your bank statement and automatically classifies them for you with the correct supplier/customer, accounting category and VAT rate.

Web Based / Collaboration

… most traditional accounting applications are designed to run on a single PC stuck in a corner of an office somewhere, whereas Clearbooks is:

• Accessible from Anywhere. Let’s you access from anywhere in the world with an Internet Connection and a Web Browser. If you wanted to check your financial position from home, or when away on holiday – no problem!
• Multi-user. Multiple users can be simultaneously logged in. Great if you want to each do your own credit card statements, or be working on the system at the same time. Invite your accountant to collaborate with you, so they can offer tips and advice as you go.
• Platform independent. You can access from your Mac, Windows or Linux machine.

Reporting

• Financial Reports. We have full profit loss, balance sheet and cash flow reports, so you can keep on top of your businesses performance and financial position. These are broken down into monthly sub totals, and also displayed on a variety of graphs. The reports are automatically generated as you import your bank statements and raise invoices to clients – in fact, it’s so easy you’ll wonder where it’s been all your life!
  
• 5 minute VAT returns. Clear books will automatically generate a VAT return when needed, and it even shows you exactly what to fill out in every box of the form.

Those are my 10 favourite reasons to use Clear Books, there are many more. If you haven’t already, you should sign up and see for yourself. We are currently running a promotion where you can get our premium plan for 6 months at £5 per month instead of the normal £15 – but hurry there are only 8 offers left!

Clear Books Limited has been formed as a 50/50 joint venture company between Fubra Limited and Tim Fouracre. Tim has been a friend of mine since we both studied our A-Levels together at Farnborough Sixth Form College from 1998 – 2000. He went to University to study maths while I was starting Fubra with Brendan. When he graduated in 2003, he came to work for us for a year before leaving to train to become an accountant with KPMG. He also ran a small business in his spare time building a network of websites including an accountants directory.

Once Tim had qualified as chartered accountant he decided it was time to go to work in the city as an investment banker, and a year later – we head hunted him as the perfect person to work with us on a new accounting system.

In June this year I got speaking to Tim about the lack of online accounting systems. We desperately wanted one for our own accounts, but the market seemed quite new and relatively under-developed. I had previously built a small invoicing system for my brothers’ company, but it wasn’t a double entry accounts system. Tim had been working on a basic double entry accounts system for his mum’s dance school – but it didn’t do invoicing. So we decided to merge the two ideas together and bring Tim on full time to work on it… and so Clear Books was born.

Tim is ideally suited to this project. An accountant, an entrepeneur and a programmer – all rolled in to one. And I’m delighted to say that he hasn’t let us down. Just 4 months after he started full time on the project, we are now ready to launch Clear Books in beta mode.

I’m also delighted to say that we’re offering a free accounts software for charities. It can be quite daunting for a new charity to work out all the forms they need to file with the Charities Commission. Clear Books makes this process significantly easier!