http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/ en http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification PHP/5.2.9 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/cloud-accounting-continuity-service Cloud accounting software such as Xero, KashFlow and FreeAgent is really taking off at the moment. Small business owners (and their accountants) see great benefits in keeping their accounts online, rather than using desktop software. Of course, many prefer the traditional on-premise approach. One reason for this, which is becoming an increasing concern it seems, is what happens when a business no longer needs to keep accounts - when trading ceases. The business owner has a legal requirement to keep the "books" available for inspection by HMRC for about 6 years. However, understandably, the online accounting provider only wants to provide access to their service whilst the customer keeps paying their monthly charge. From the business owner's point of view, they baulk at paying for years for a service they no longer need (they effectively need just "read-only" access). To see that this is a hot topic one needs only to look at recent forum posts such as this one or this one. The ability to export data from the online system into, say Excel, does not solve the problem. Not all transactions can be exported and, even where most can, Excel does not provide the information in a usable format in the same way as the "live" system did. In recent weeks we have been approach by several people suggesting that Ledgerscope could be the solution to this dilemma. The idea is that, for the online accounting systems we support (currently Xero but more coming soon) Ledgerscope acts as an effective backup of the business's accounting data - and we provide a live interface which makes the data almost as accessible as it was in the original source software. Reports such as Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Aged Debtors and Aged Creditors can be viewed in Ledgerscope easily. We don't have a monthly charge. Our pricing is based on a one-off charge per set of accounts data uploaded to us, so there is no extra cost during the six year period when records must be retained. If there is, indeed, demand for Ledgerscope to provide this "backup" service then we would happily consider it. Over to our business owner readers: would you be interested in such a service? Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/cloud-accounting-continuity-service http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/yes-we-can-handle-that We are living through exciting times, as, for the first time since the eighties, small business owners are able to choose from a huge number of bookkeeping software offerings. This is, of course, a result of the recent explosion of the online software delivery model (sometimes called 'software as a service", or "Saas'). I have read in various places that there are estimated to be at least 50 online bookkeeping packages for today's small business owner to choose from. Compare this to the situation that existed between, say, 1990 and 2008 when, realistically, we operated in a Sage or QuickBooks world. There are profound implications for accountancy practices and those practitioners who worked through the challenges presented by the introduction of the PC will recognise the same factors at work. It's practically impossible and financially non-viable for the typical independent firm to train and retain accountancy staff capable of supporting and working with 50 different flavours of software. Then there is the problem of managing all of the different subscriptions, licences and logins. So, choices have to be made. But which (software) horses do you want to place your bets on? Which will come through the inevitable shake-up, of weeding out and consolidation, on top? Are we yet in a position to guess which offerings will be around for the long-term? Also, consider the profile of the next generation of clients. These are individuals brought up in the Internet age, used to instant, always on services like Facebook and capable of sourcing whatever they need via Google. I believe that these new clients are going to find bookkeeping software that suits them, and then find an accountant to work with. The days of the client meekly agreeing to use Sage, because it suits their new accountant are almost gone. Ledgerscope is uniquely positioned to help accountancy firms deal with clients using many different packages. No need to purchase licences for all of the different software types. No problems managing upgrades and version numbers for each software. No need to train staff to work with multiple systems. Ledgerscope will allow accountancy firms to work with client accounting data in the same, consistent way, regardless of which bookkeeping software it came from. Your staff will love it, and so will your bottom line. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/yes-we-can-handle-that http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/doing-things-a-different-way-is-not-automation-in-my-book When I saw the headline "Paperless practice: Automating the tax workload" on Accounting Web I was intrigued. After reading the article I was disappointed. Wikipedia suggests that to automate means: "To replace or enhance human labour with machines". In the 21st Century "machines" can be taken to emcompass information technology, both hardware and software. Working in a paperless way does "enhance" human labour but does not "replace" it - and surely completely replacing human effort is a far more exciting (and profitable) goal to be aiming at? Ledgerscope does both. It allows accountancy firms to work in a more efficient, modern way but it also replaces human effort in the key task of reviewing client accounting data. By performing all of the important checks, so that the accountant doesn't have to, Ledgerscope automates the process. To me, automation means relieving humans of the task, not just giving them a better way to do it. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/doing-things-a-different-way-is-not-automation-in-my-book http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/we-have-the-technology This weekend I saw many messages on Twitter from accountants working all weekend. This is something that only happens in January in the UK and is caused by the fact that self-assessment tax returns must be filed before 31st January. This means that many accountants end up working evenings and weekends to try to avoid late filing penalties. Returning to my desk this morning (luckily I am no longer part of the January madness) I read a blog posting by Kevin Salter, on the ICAEW's IT Counts site. Kevin is rightly exhorting accountants to think about how they might do things differently next year, and goes on to suggest how more efficient use of technology is the answer. His advice will produce incremental efficiency gains for accountants - but nothing like the gains to be achieved by using Ledgerscope. You see, the fact is that completing and filing tax returns is not a time-consuming job - once the numbers to be reported are available. The true problem faced by accountants in January is producing client year end accounts quickly enough to provide the numbers to go on the tax return. What accountants need is something to help them get client accounts turned around much, much more quickly. What they need is Ledgerscope. Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/we-have-the-technology http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/the-joys-of-on-premise-software Much of my working life over the past few years has been spent working almost exclusively with online software. Here at Ledgerscope, we use Google Apps for email and collaboration, Xero for accounting, Capsule CRM and Mailchimp for sales and looking after customers and Get Satisfaction for technical support. These are just the main "cloud" services we use on a daily basis. Of course, Ledgerscope is a cloud service too. To make our product work best for accountancy firms we had to recognise from the outset that Sage and QuickBooks are still important software packages, used by many businesses in the UK and, as far as QuickBooks is concerned, worldwide. These are "on-premise" packages not cloud ones. The way that on-premise software is deployed can vary greatly from one firm to another. Maybe the firm has just stand-alone PCs, maybe all software is installed on a server or, perhaps, the firm uses a "hosted" configuration - where software is installed on a virtual server somewhere in a datacentre. Our data extraction technology can handle all of these situations easily but it took considerable time and development resource which isn't needed when working with online software. Frustrations like this are one of the reasons that cloud software has taken off in the dramatic way that it has. For us, working with online accounting packages such as Xero, KashFlow and FreeAgent is much easier, but as long as Sage and QuickBooks are still important to accountants, we will continue to support them. Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/the-joys-of-on-premise-software http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/a-january-get-out-of-jail-card This is a time of year when many accountancy practices, especially sole practitioners, are feeling the strain of the 31st January self-assessment tax return deadline. No matter how organised a practice is, there are always those clients who seem pathologically incapable of thinking about the information their accountant needs until it is almost too late. Organising the collection or delivery of records and then processing them into a meaningful set of accounts in the busiest month of the year is usually too big an ask. Many accountants therefore refuse to undertake new work in January and warn the client to expect a late filing penalty. Of course, the client can't really complain but I know of many cases where the result is that the practice eventually loses the client's business - usually just before the next January deadline. It doesn't have to be this way. Assuming that the client uses one of the popular accounting software options, Ledgerscope can make the difference.  By automating the collection and then critical review of the client's accounting data, Ledgerscope can help the accountant turn around the job in hours, maybe even minutes. Since we allow all new customers to try three year end accounts jobs for free, it may be that a practice can deal with its problem clients within our free trial and therefore at no cost. The result is a happy client that stays with the practice. For most most accountants in practice, right now the last thing they have on their mind is setting aside a little time to investigate new software for their own use.  I believe that a little time invested in looking at Ledgerscope now will mean much more time saved: in this month when time is so precious. Why wait until February when your need is greatest now? To sign up for our free trial click here (no credit card required). Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/a-january-get-out-of-jail-card http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/calling-all-xero-or-kashflow-users We are currently beavering away at Ledgerscope's integration with Xero and KashFlow. If you're an accountant that currently uses these packages then we think you'll like what we've developed. We're looking for early users of the system to give us feedback - we'll make it as hassle-free as possible for you to be involved. Interested? Please email Adrian on info@ledgerscope.com or contact via Twitter @ledgerscope. Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/calling-all-xero-or-kashflow-users http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/ledgerscope-made-for-rock-stars Interesting article on accounting web that focuses on Guy Pearson 'The Rock Star Accountant'. So what does it take to be given this glitzy title? It's not tight trousers or a swagger (although to be fair Guy could easily have both - it's not easy to tell from the photo). What he does have though is a real instinct for giving clients something more. The numbers are a given - any accountant worth his salt can do this and any client with any business instinct is going to demand more from their accountant than this anyway. This is the accountant in the role of mentor, advisor, maybe even (gulp) proactive business friend. Now this isn't new, the industry is awash with dynamic people, supporting clients and adding value to their businesses. What I think is new though is the ability for the heavy and time consuming process element to be replaced by automated approaches - and crucially for this to be ok. As this is my blog I think I can shamelessly do a shout out to our own Rock Star (ex) Accountant, Adrian Pearson (no relation to Guy, it's a small odd world). He too recognised a couple of years ago that this is the way the industry needs to go. He'd already embraced the automation of the first stage of the accounts process - getting clients to use online bookkeeping software such as Xero, Kashflow etc, and equally the final stage of publishing the final accounts using software such as IRIS. But it was the gap in the middle that really bothered him. The getting from the client's numbers to the final accounts. Now every accountant has their own way of doing this - electronic spreadsheets, piles of paper, a special pen, outsourcing abroad, delegation (hooray), but whatever technique it can take hours for this part. Does the accountant really need to be quite so stuck in the process? That's how Ledgerscope was born, out of the frustration that surely there should be a better way of doing this. So I second Guy's declaration that 'The big thing over the next 5 years will be automation and the focus on the value add, not the process'. I know, because we're doing it right now. So if you're a rock star too then why not give Ledgerscope a go with our free trial. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/ledgerscope-made-for-rock-stars http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/whats-ledgerscope-all-about- Here's a quick overview of what Ledgerscope can do. Why not sign up for a free trial? Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/whats-ledgerscope-all-about- http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/hold-the-end-credits Now we've finished the development of Ledgerscope, what next? A few relaxing drinks and some time off? The big thing for us is that Ledgerscope is not something that will ever be 'finished'. It's something that we will continue to develop and grow. We know we have something really special here, something that genuinely saves accountants time and increases profitability. We started the journey with the target of setting Ledgerscope up to support two main software packages that accountants are using - Sage and QuickBooks. Now it's live we're looking at other software packages we want to support. We'd love to hear which bookkeeping software you'd like us to look at next. Just fill in our survey here or tell us. Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/hold-the-end-credits http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/golden-rules-for-our-software-development When designing a piece of software from scratch, the role of the development team is usually two-fold: to decide what the software is going to do, and then to work out how it's going to do it. With Ledgerscope, we had the luxury of being given very clear directions about functionality. It's absolutely true to say that Ledgerscope is designed by accountants, for accountants! Our vision for Ledgerscope is simple: to make life as easy as possible for the user. So, we put together a list of five criteria that we feel are priorities in software design and used these as the basis for the architecture decisions we made. 1. Ease of access Being web-based means Ledgerscope can be accessed from any computer in the world with a web browser, allowing you to work wherever and whenever suits you. It also means that you don't need to worry about updates: you will always be running the latest version of the software. 2. Security Our servers are hosted and maintained by Microsoft and access to the systems is restricted to staff who have had thorough security checks carried out. We also encrypt all of the communication between you and our servers using bank-level security. 3. Performance Ledgerscope is written in Microsoft Silverlight and runs on top of fast servers in Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud. This means that we can always provide you with a snappy user experience no matter how fast your computer is or which web browser you are using. 4. Reliability We've chosen Microsoft as our hosting provider for their experience in keeping critical systems online. We also have a custom set of monitoring tools that will enable us to keep Ledgerscope running smoothly, and regular backups are taken to ensure the integrity of your data. 5. Flexibility We set up the charging system for Ledgerscope on a pay-as-you-go basis so you only ever pay for what you need. As for support, we offer the 24/7 convenience of an online community where you'll find a growing list of FAQs as well as the facility to ask your own questions. Obviously there's a lot more to Ledgerscope than these five key areas, and we're going to continue to make improvements to the software, as well as adding new features such as supported accountancy packages. We hope that the way we've designed Ledgerscope makes using it an enjoyable experience and look forward to hearing any feedback you have while using it. Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.ledgerscope.com/blog/golden-rules-for-our-software-development