SOFTWARE
Considerable progress has been made in recent years concerning the quality, reliability, and level of functionality offered by modern accounting and tax planning software available today.
MAAP has 40-years of successfully implementing accounting software for clients with annual turnovers ranging from £5K to £6m. As you can imagine, the software we recommend for our smaller clients differs significantly to the systems we help install and run for our larger ones.
The HMRC’s latest MTD initiative beginning in April 2026 has incentivised many accounting software houses including Sage, Xero, and Quickbooks, to significantly improve the accounting software solutions they offer today.
There has never been a better time to review what the market has to offer.
If you are a sole-trader or landlord with relevant annual income over £50,000 you have no choice in the matter. Come 6 April 2026, you must begin using one of the many HMRC-approved, proprietary software solutions to comply with the MTD regulations.
You don't necessarily have to invest in software yourself. You could chose to become a MAAP client, and take advantage of our free MAAP Daybook System.
We understand why some taxpayers resent being forced into using specific software. Change is always unsettling, but it may be consoling to learn many of our clients who have already made the transition, discover they wish they had done it sooner. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.
We are also pleased to advise clients on a consulting basis to choose and implement new accounting software. We have many years experience of project managing software implementation programmes for entities of all sizes.
We cannot understate the importance of clients accepting that any new software solution requires a great deal of hard work to get the planning and implementation stages right. No matter what the sales pitch suggests, the hard work and costs do not stop with a successful software installation, a few days of intensive staff training, and a 24-7 helpline to tidy-up any loose ends. If only it happened that way.
The reality often requires more staff to capture, prepare, and present the raw transactional data to the new software system. It will also inevitably require significant changes to the way documents are handled and stored within your existing administrative systems. Get it right, and the investment will pay dividends. Get it wrong just invites financial disaster.
MAAP will ensure you get it right.
Accounting software:
- MAAP Daybook System (Free to clients).MAAP
- Iris Cashbooks (Free to clients). Link.
- Iris Kashbooks Starter (£12.50/m). Link.
- Iris Kashbooks Business (£25.50/m). Link.
- Freeagent Landlord (£10/m). Link.
- Freeagent Sole Trader (£19/m). Link.
- Freeagent Partnership (£27/m). Link.
- Freeagent Company (£33/m). Link.
- Sage Accountant Starter (£18/m). Link.
- Sage 50 Accounts (£103/m). Link.
- Xero Simple for MTD Sole-traders and Landlords (£7/m). Link.
- Xero Ignite {entry-level accounting} (£16/m). Link.
- Xero Grow {simple business} (£33/m). Link.
- Xero Comprehensive {complex business} (£47/m). Link.
- Xero Ultimate {advanced business features} (£59/m). Link.
- Quickbooks Sole Trader {MTD} pound;10/m). Link.
- Quickbooks Simple Start pound;16/m). Link.
- Quickbooks Essentials pound;33/m). Link.
- Quickbooks Plus pound;47/m). Link.
- Quickbooks Advanced (pound;115/m). Link.
The prices quoted in brackets are the regular monthly subscription prices quoted by the suppliers. The prices are stated without VAT, and ignore any initial discounts for new subscribers.
When looking at each option, you must take into account the additional charges made for exceeding the number of useful special features given free within the subscription package chosen.
Most of the above do not include payroll functionality, and where they do, the limited number of employees you can process without incurring extra costs are unrealistically low. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Unless you have a competent payroll operator within your organisation, running a payroll is best left to a qualified external provider such as MAAP.
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Self-employment:
Taxpayer info: