Clear Books Review – Do They Deliver What They Promise?

Rated #10 Best UK Accounting Software

Overall Rating:

8.5

Ease Of Use = 7.0

Value For Money = 9.2

Customer Support = 8.7

Features = 9.0

Clear Books review – an online accounting software that aims to help both small business and accounting practices through its many flexible features.

This objective review aims to find out if their claims hold true or not.

At a Glance

The simplest way to describe Quick Books would be to say that it provides easy accounting for small businesses as well as bookkeeping for accounting practices that need to work faster and more accurately.

Clear Books has automated reporting tools that will help accountants perform data collection, data entry as well as reporting much faster. 

But it also offers automatic bank feeds, invoicing, and financial reporting to small businesses that need to streamline and become more efficient.

Clear Books also claims that if, as a user you are a small business who becomes large while using the software, you will be MTD compliant automatically. 

As a result, all you have to do as a user of Clear Books is choose the right package for you and your needs. And the software has two packages to offer that can be bought per month, per year or for two years.

What Features Do Clear Books Support?

Browsing the official website, which is very well constructed and which provides a wealth of information, and performing the Clear Books review, it became apparent that the software comes with so many features that it would be impossible to mention them all here.

So we’ve chosen a selection of the most interesting ones for your consideration:

• Auto import bank transactions
• Create invoices
• Create payment reminders
• Stay on top of bills and purchases
• Create management reports
• Track VAT and report MTD VAT returns to HMRC
• Manage CIS requirements
• Track stock levels
• Create dividend payments

Clear Books also offers extras if you have a paid account with them that will help make your accounting tasks even easier. Some examples include converting data from other providers or the possibility to liaise with your accountant.

Please visit the Clear Books website to get the full lowdown of the features and extras they can offer for your business.

Fees

When it comes to pricing, this accounting software is very easy to understand. Clear Books essentially offers two types of subscriptions, as follows. 

The Small plan is £7.50/mo for your first three months, before rasing to to £15 per month. It will provide you access to features such as bill tracking, reports, bank feeds and uploads, project accounting, and invoice and quote creator.

The Medium plan is £31/mo (£15.50 for the first three months!) and it has all the features of the Small plan plus some added ones such as CIS, MTD VAT, budgets and purchase orders. There’s also a Large plan, which is £41 a month (£20.50 for the first three months) which gives you access to all core and advanced features.

An important thing to note here is that even though these are the standard prices, you will get a 10% and, respectively, 20% discount if you decide to get a subscription for a whole year or for two years.

Therefore, the price for a month for the Small subscription becomes £12 and the one for the Medium plan becomes £24.80, and so on. 

You will also receive a 50% discount for the first three months when you subscribe for Clear Books, no matter what plan you go for. Keep in mind that you have to choose a plan within the first 30 days after you register.

The pricing for accountant firms is a bit different. Clear Books offers three packages here. One of them is the Practice Edition and, as the name suggests, it will only allow you to connect an account on the platform to enter data and practice your craft. It will cost you £9.00/mo per client. 

The other options are the Small, Medium and the Large. They are both Full Practice and allow Client Access, and offer the same respective features as the Small, Medium and Large packages mentioned above. As per the cost, you are advised to call and request a price. However, you can try them for free and see if they are what you are looking for as an accountant.

Clear Books Reviews From Customers:

Clear Books has an Excellent 4.6 rating on Trustpilot, with 70% of customers giving it a 5 star review.

Some of the negative reviews mention a steep learning curve with certain features, stating that they struggled to grasp them and felt that the software was geared towards accountants rather than small businesses. There are also a few instances of struggling to cancel a subscription payment.

However, these are a very few amount of reviews, with most of the reviews praising the customer service, which is fast, responsive, and has helped customers get used to the software and answer any questions that they have.

In addition, there are a handful of testimonials and customer case studies on the Clear Books website, which give a great outline of how other small businesses have used Clear Book to help with business accounting.

The software itself does everything I need it to do and more. There have been numerous occasions I have called the support team for help both with errors on my part and learning about Clear Books itself and their expertise have been brilliant. Most of the calls have been answered immediately and those where messages have been left are returned within hours and always on the same day.

5-Star review from Sarah Christie via Trustpilot

We have now been using clear books for a month we are very happy with the software. We are impressed with the online support. The customer service is excellent with extremely quick response times to any queries we may have.

5-Star review from Ian White via Trustpilot

Using Sage Accounts for 25 years, I needed to source a more cost effective alternative. I shortlisted 4 providers and selected Clearbooks. I was impressed initially by the reason behind this software being created. Having used Clearbooks for over a year it was an excellent decision. Prompt post sales care who were patient and helpful, plus I find the online help great too. The software is very well priced, simple and effective. I especially like the ease of importing bank statements and applying transactions. Our accountant was initially reticent as had no previous experience with Clearbooks but on using the Accountants access they advised they found the software very simple to navigate. I highly recommend Clearbooks for small businesses.

5-Star review from Lesley Woo via Trustpilot

Clear Books TV Advert

The Advantages

It’s time to draw this Clear Books review to a halt, and count the advantages of using the software. And there are quite a few.

First off, there’s the price. Clear Books has a low price point compared to other online accounting pieces of software on the market. The Small plan, as they call it, is only £15. That even becomes £12 if you purchase two years in advance, and only £7.50 for the first three months. Some might call this a bargain.

Second of all, the fact that Clear Books is aimed both at small businesses and at accounting practices is also a pro. This means that the platform is highly specialised and can cater both to specialists and companies who simply need an easier way to get through the daily tasks of accounting.

Another advantage of using Clear Books is the fact that they are HMRC recognised and tested. Not only that, but all the software they use is MTD compliant. Clear Books is also registered with the Financial Conduct Authority for being an Account Information Services Provider.

All this accreditation should assure you that they are a trustworthy company that can handle your data and ease your workload.

You might also like to know that Clear Books has been on the UK market for a long time. Since 2008, to be more exact, since founder Tim Fouracre sought to transform his accounting app into a service aimed at helping small businesses.

The Disadvantages

This Clear Books review is an honest one, so we will list some disadvantages here, but they are not that many. 

Most users report that the software’s interface is not very intuitive, which makes the platform in itself a bit difficult to navigate. However, once you’ve been a user for a while and you have gotten used to it, this should not be a problem any longer. 

The software is also a bit lacking when it comes to the diversity of its packages. Clear Books only offers two options to choose from, the Small and the Large, if you are a business. However, they are cheaper than other pieces of software and they come with handy features.

Clear Books Review – Summary

Since we have arrived at the end of the Clear Books Review, it’s time to see what conclusions we can draw. The accounting software is a good choice both for small businesses and for accountants mainly because of its price point.

However, it doesn’t offer as many features as other online accounting platforms nor is it as easy to navigate and intuitive as they are. 

Still, the idea that they cater to both these categories, the many awards they have won, plus the fact that the software is HMRC recognised and tested, allows us to recommend it to you.

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