This blog post takes a brief look at some of the new accounting software on the market and forthcoming 2019 accounts legislation changes. A number of exciting legislative changes are in development or planned for the year ahead and many of these will revolutionise accounting solutions services for businesses and individuals over the years to come.

First off, this quick guide to accounts software for startups or smaller businesses may help your decision-making process if you're planning to upgrade existing financial solutions:

1. Quickbooks

Quickbooks is a leader in the field of small business accounts software. It's available for Mac or Windows, but the company also offers a cloud-based subscription service. Cloud solutions are an ideal way to keep up to speed with all the latest software upgrades and users will also find that it is far easier to work remotely with cloud accounting software in place. What's more, with an online accounting solution you can opt for the affordable package that is most suited to your requirements.

2. Xero

Xero is a cloud-only accounts package which offers live chat 24/7 to handle any support issues. This package offers clients over 600 integrations, including inventory, payroll and invoicing. It's also ideal for costing the time and money allocated to different projects, to ensure financial accounting is accurate.

3. Wave

Wave is a totally free accounts package. It may not offer all the features of the paid software, but it's a useful package for startups and includes a complementary invoicing programme.

2019 Accounting Legislation Change

The big financial accounting change for 2019 is the government's requirement for most VAT-registered businesses to make digital VAT returns from 1 April 2019. The only real exceptions to this requirement are larger organisations, like NHS health trusts and city councils, as their VAT solutions are more complex. Notwithstanding this, these larger business organisations will also be required to make digital VAT returns from October 1st 2019.

This alteration to VAT returns is part of a UK-wide initiative to make tax digital and further developments are due from April 2020.

We're excited about all these changes to accounting returns, as we feel that this Making Tax Digital initiative will eventually make it easier for businesses and individuals to make tax returns, including VAT returns, self-assessment returns and corporation tax returns. The initial stages of digital taxes rollout may be problematic for consumers who are more used to dealing with accounts manually, but once everyone is working on a digital basis it will be quicker and easier to access official records and real-time data and make regular financial returns.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with the experts at David Howard to find out more or discuss the accounting solutions services most suited to your requirements.