Review of our final accounts and bookkeeping software by Henry Hardoon

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Review by Henry Hardoon

Review by Henry Hardoon of H & H Associates published in the June 1999 issue of Accountancy & Business, the journal of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

VT Accounts from VT Software

Introduction
The VT Accounts suite contains two packages which can be used together or separately.

VT Final Accounts runs in Microsoft Excel and produces professionally formatted statutory, sole trader and partnership accounts from trial balance stage upwards.

VT Transaction is an accounting/bookkeeping package which runs directly in Windows. VT Transaction can be used to record day to day transactions or to process incomplete records.

A trial balance can be entered directly into VT Final Accounts or obtained automatically from VT Transaction.

VT Final Accounts
VT Final Accounts adds a new toolbar to Excel. Clicking on the New Accounts Workbook button displays a screen prompting you to choose the type of accounts you want (large/medium company, small company, sole trader, partnership).

The next screen prompts you to enter the name of the company, the year-end date, the type of accountants/audit report required and a number of other disclosure options. The wording on the balance sheet and throughout the accounts is then automatically altered based on your choices. If you make a mistake, the options selected can be easily changed at any time.

The current year trial balance and comparatives are entered onto a TB sheet. Textual type information such as a list of directors is entered directly into the appropriate part of the accounts.

The AutoHide button hides all rows and notes with nil balances or blank text and the Print Accounts button prints out and correctly numbers all the pages making up the accounts.

VT Transaction
Double clicking on the program icon launches this product. Choosing the New Company command from the File menu enables you to set up a new company or business within minutes based on one of the charts of accounts provided. You can also create your own custom charts of accounts. The accounting period is set up by simply entering the first and last dates of the year or period.

The product is not divided into modules. Instead, all types of transaction (payments, receipts, sales invoices, purchase invoices, journals) can be entered by clicking on the appropriate button on the single toolbar. Sales, purchase and nominal ledger accounts can all be displayed on-screen by clicking on the Query Account button.

A trial balance, profit and loss account and balance sheet can be displayed on-screen by choosing a command from the Query menu. Audit trails and all on screen reports can also be printed.

Robustness
An Excel workbook is used for each company in VT Final Accounts. It is best to use the Excel AutoSave feature to avoid data loss in the event of a power failure.

VT Transaction saves each transaction to disk as soon as it is entered, and each company/business has its own file. In the highly unlikely event of a system failure during the instant a transaction is saved, a warning message is given the next time you open the business. If you don’t have a backup, the file can be sent back to VT Software to be fixed.

Simplicity
The software is simple to operate and can be learnt within two hours. It is logical and therefore easy to understand. The software has good help facilities and user guides, and as a consequence users make very few support calls.

Supplier Stability & Strength
VT Software is owned and run by Philip Hodgson, a Chartered Accountant with good experience in IT. These essential ingredients have ensured that VT Software has developed products that meet the needs of accountants at minimum cost. The software is flexible, functional, and friendly.

Cumulative sales amount to 1800 units, and, including upgrades, 1000 units have been sold in the last twelve months. These figures are large for final accounts production software and exceed that of many more established competitors.

The balance sheet looks very healthy with cash balances in six figures.

Security
In VT Final Accounts, workbooks can be password protected. In VT Transaction, an entire business or just entries and changes up to any specified date can be password protected.

Flexibility
Because VT Final Accounts runs in Excel, a set of accounts can be easily edited to suit individual requirements.

In VT Transaction, any transaction can be edited, and several mis-analysed entries can be transferred in one go to another account by clicking on them and choosing the Transfer Entry command from the Edit menu. Entries can be made to any year or period at any time, and the current year moved backwards or forwards at any time.

Legal Requirements
VT Software prepares the statutory formats in-house and keeps them continuously up to date. They are also subject to peer review by an independent firm of accountants to ensure that the quality of the templates is maintained.

Dual Currency phase & EMU Functionality
VT Transaction does not currently have any EMU specific features, but it can handle multi-currency accounting and currency balances can be retranslated to revised rates at any time.

Thumbs up

Both programs are sold together in a suite costing £199. The annual upgrade cost is £150. The products are very good value for money.
The two products are quick to use and cost effective to implement with good context sensitive help.
A practice can choose which product it wants to use; you do not have to use both. The two programs are free standing.
Training on these products is minimised because VT Final Accounts is very similar to Excel and VT Transaction has good context sensitive help.
A profit and loss account and balance sheet in self-assessment tax return format can be printed out or exported from either product to tax software packages (including Drummohr Tax Assistant, Forbes ProTax, LKA Objective Tax, PTP, QMS, Digita Taxability Pro and Taxpoint).

Product specific

VT Final Accounts

It has an AutoHide facility. This hides lines and notes on the accounts template with nil balances or blank text and re-numbers notes accordingly.
The Prints Accounts button enables all the pages making up the accounts to be correctly numbered and printed out in one go. It also includes options to print a single page or sheet with a specified page number.
The Check Balance Test button checks if the accounts are out of balance or inconsistent and tells you how to correct it. This is automated into the print facility so that you do not waste paper by printing out accounts that do not balance.
The Copy Comparatives From Current Year button sets the comparatives when you do the next year’s accounts. The Policies and Paragraphs button allows you to select the accounting polices required.
The dual column TB can be converted into an extended TB with any number of adjustment columns.
The Insert Financial Row button creates a new row in the printed part of the accounts and automatically links it to a new row in the trial balance.
The Insert New Note facility creates a new note with a choice of formats and automatically re-numbers the other notes.
A number of workbooks can be kept open at any time. This aids audit work.
You can have an unlimited amount of clients and companies.

VT Transaction

The user is not constrained to an accounting period of twelve months. This is a major drawback of some off the shelf packages.
The AutoComplete facility scans past transactions and enables subsequent transactions to be entered with the minimum of keystrokes because the description and accounts details are entered automatically.
The rapid data entry screen allows the user to enter a mixture of receipts and payments directly from bank statements. This and the AutoComplete facility make a powerful combination.
Transactions can be easily edited, or mis-analysed entries quickly transferred to the correct account.
By choosing the Lock Previous Periods command from the File menu, you can ensure that only authorised adjustments are made.
Entries can be made or corrected whilst you are in the middle of a bank reconciliation. A company/business can have an unlimited number of bank accounts.
The sales, purchase and nominal ledgers are fully integrated. Journal entries can be made between any ledger, and any transaction analysed to any ledger.

Thumbs Down

It may be appropriate for the product to carry a hazard warning because the practitioner may be tempted to reduce his review time