Rated #3 Best UK Online Accountant
Overall Rating:
9.1
Ease Of Setup = 9.1
Value For Money = 9.0
Customer Support = 9.4
Expertise = 9.0
PROS:
- Pay a simple fixed monthly fee – not hourly rates
- Access your accounts on the go with daily updates of your cashflow
- Get expert advice from the entire team
CONS:
- No face-to-face meetings
- Prices not shown on website
No matter how big or small your company is, bookkeeping is essential for your peace of mind. Thankfully, there are plenty of solutions for today’s business owner.
After exploring your bookkeeping options, you have decided on outsourcing your bookkeeping. This can help ensure that no mistakes will be made and all your receipts, invoices and expenses will be dealt with accurately and professionally. As a bonus, you feel covered in case of an audit.
Now, you need to find the right accounting firm for you. There are many accounting firms in Britain which cater to businesses’ various needs.
We recently conducted a More Than Accountants review to explore whether they can save you time and money as it promises to do. Here’s what we found out!
Recommended – Top-Rated Online Accountant:
At A Glance
More Than Accountants offer a monthly fee which covers all your business needs when it comes to accounting.
This fee covers all the bookkeeping and accounting tasks your business needs, including support and unlimited access to your accountant.
Their packages include bookkeeping, monthly management accounts review, payroll, VAT returns, company accounts, self-assessments, and the software packages you will be using.
Fees
Our More Than Accountants review has found there are no set fees, nor any set packages. You supply your information online and get a quote which comprises of exactly what your business needs to have its accountancy duties covered.
The online questionnaire asks for the following information:
- Annual turnover,
- monthly transactions through the bank,
- whether payroll is required or not, and
- number of employees
Your quote is then tailored to exactly what you need, helping cut your accounting costs. Indeed, several online reviews posted on the website mention saving a fortune thanks to the monthly fees packages. However, this may not apply to all companies, as it depends on the company’s size and turnover.
Advantages
A monthly fee
Your monthly fee is specifically set for you and covers your business’s particular needs.
The main advantage of this approach is that you get a monthly fee which covers exactly what your company needs. You will not pay for something you are not using.
For instance, some accounting firms might offer set packages which include payroll. If your company doesn’t employ personnel, you will find yourself paying for something you do not need.
Online accounting
All accounting is handled online. This can be helpful because you can access your account anywhere, as long as you have an Internet connection.
There are many benefits to a business in using an online bookkeeping or accountancy service. Being able to access your data 24/7 is one of them.
Even though you probably won’t do your bookkeeping from a beach during your summer holidays, it’s nice to have access to your account from anywhere, anytime.
You can upload invoices and receipts during business trips. Or you can look at your cash flow or your outstanding payments during the weekend. This kind of access can give entrepreneurs and business people a sense of control of their accounting process.
Online access is available to desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.
While we didn’t test all of these devices, customer reviews on the official business website often mention how easy it is to use the mobile apps and to upload expenses and receipts.
Cash flow
Cash flow is crucial because you need to know how your business is doing and how much money you have in the bank.
More Than Accountants offer daily updates of your bank accounts and show you your cash flow in real time. This gives you an instant idea of how many payments and expenses you made during a week or month and where your bank account stands.
The software available from More Than Accountants also allows you to create and send invoices fast.
Additionally, you can send invoice reminders to your clients for outstanding payments. Sending automatic reminders will probably be a big help in that area if you spend a lot of your time chasing clients to ask for payments.
Expertise and advice from More Than Accountants
While conducting our More Than Accountants review, it became clear that the company tries to live up to its name by making their entire team available to you for any questions you may have. However, you will also have a dedicated accountant to your account.
If your accountant is out of office, this does not mean that you will have to wait for them. You can get in touch with any other accountant in the firm. Since all the team from More Than Accountants has access to your account, anyone can help you out.
This is the best approach we can think of. Having a dedicated accountant is helpful because they will know your business and your accounts in depth. But the availability of the whole team at any moment means that you can have expert advice throughout the day.
Likewise, a successful business aims to grow and expand. More Than Accountants offer specialist accountants who will give you advice regarding expansion, funding, internet marketing, and other opportunities that could help your business.
Online reviews posted on the official website assert that businesses get professional, helpful, and friendly advice.
Disadvantages
You do not have a face-to-face relationship
More Than Accountants is not a brick-and-mortar accounting office. If you want to have face-to-face contact with your accountants, this could be a problem. Everything is done online, through email or via phone calls.
Most businesses are accustomed to online services, so this shouldn’t be a problem for most. However, some business owners may find it unsettling.
While there are FAQs, online guides, and videos that should help you in case you are perplexed about your account, you cannot have an accountant over at your office explaining things to you.
If personal contact is an absolute must for you, this may be a problem.
They don’t give you a price until you fill in the questionnaire
The website does not give a price range regarding the packages they offer, as these are customized to your exact needs.
They do state that prices are reasonable and affordable. However, you need to complete an online questionnaire in order to get a quote for your business; the quote will cover everything your business needs.
This is the flip side of the company’s flexibility. While it is unavoidable given the fact they don’t sell ready packages, you may want to have a broad estimate of how much a package might cost before supplying your information.
Think of it in terms of buying a car: car owners may know that their finances cannot extend to buy a Jaguar. So, when shopping for a new car, they will not look at the Jaguar dealership at all, but will opt straight for a cheaper alternative.
Value For Money
Unlimited support
Your fixed monthly fees cover unlimited support.
This means that you can call and email your accounting team as many times as you like to ask questions, get advice, or sort out invoices and receipts. You will not need to look at your watch every time you make a phone call or send an email.
This is helpful because it gives business people peace of mind and the assurance that no matter what comes up, they have the freedom to contact their accounting firm.
The company website states that email response time is up to 3 hours, which is pretty reasonable.
Free subscriptions to software packages
At the time of conducting our More Than Accountants review, we found that their unlimited package includes free subscriptions to the popular Xero accounting software and the Receipt Bank software.
Many online bookkeeping services are using Xero accounting software for its simple language accounting knowledge to use it. This is free if you use a More Than Accountants package and amounts to a monthly saving of £47 if these two software packages were bought individually.
Unlimited training
There is unlimited training offered with the More Than Accountants packages.
People who refuse to use a manual may consider this superfluous. However, most people need some training to understand how software packages work, how to print invoices, or forward receipts and expenses to their accountant.
Even if you already know all that, unlimited training is also practical in case a new team member joins your company and needs to learn how to work the books.
Available throughout the UK
More Than Accountants being an online accounting firm, they offer their services throughout the UK.
Their cloud software is available to all UK businesses, be it sole traders or limited companies.
More Than Accountants Reviews From Customers:
I highly recommend more than accountants! Very Professional and truly helpful. This is the first time in 30 years of business that I truly feel I’m in safe hands! Thanks Guys
5-Star review from Pauleen Soderqvist via Google Reviews
Excellent customer support. We highly recommend More Than Accountants. From initial set up of the new Xero account package to ongoing support, Daniel and his team have been extremely helpful supporting our company every set of the way.
5-Star review from Penny Bennett via Google Reviews
Moved accountants a few months now, the transition was smooth, everyone we have spoken with has been amazing, they make accounting effortless and are with you every step of the way, the package they offer is second to none and at a reasonable rate, highly recommend, they make accounting simple.
5-Star review from Mrs Lammie via Google Reviews
How It Works
The process is pretty straightforward: You supply online your company information and needs and get a quote.
If the quote satisfies you, you set up your account with More Than Accountants.
The account is usually set up within a week, even if you are switching from another accountant. You then pay the agreed monthly fee and you can start working with More Than Accountants right away.
You can get in touch with your dedicated accountant or another member of the team by email or phone.
Is it safe?
One of the biggest things we wanted to check during our More Than Accountants review was the safety and security aspect of their service.
Having all your financial and accounting data in the cloud might trouble you in case someone breaches the company’s firewalls and gains access to your data.
However, most companies use on-premise solutions which are far more vulnerable to hacking or loss of data than dedicated services.
More Than Accountants specify that they have installed multiple layers of security, something that makes sense given the sensitive nature of their business. They also use two-step authentication when you access your account as well as data encryption and secure data centres. This makes it safer from most on-premise computers.
Using a cloud-based solution also means fewer costs for securing your on-premise servers from unauthorized access.
Security company InfoSEC has conducted a thorough analysis of the pros and cons of cloud solutions vs. on-premise ones, from a security point of view. They concluded that cloud solutions are usually safer, and it lets companies focus on their primary business:
“It’s difficult to run a data centre, and it’s not the primary business for most organizations… while many have associated the cloud with convenience, it’s clear that it’s also becoming better known for the security it can provide.”
Conclusion
Our More Than Accountants review has revealed this is an online bookkeeping and accounting firm which offers a customized, 24/7 service to their clients.
Their business is centred on the concept of paying one monthly fee to have all of your accounting and bookkeeping done for you.
Unlimited training, support and contact with a team of accountants are attractive added bonuses to their packages.
The most important disadvantage is that of the faceless nature of their business. A good accountant can help your business succeed. So, it makes sense that some business owners may be put off by an online bookkeeping service’s lack of brick-and-mortar offices. These people will prefer having face-to-face communication with their accountant.
On the other hand, many services available to businesses, including HMRC, Gmail, Microsoft, etc. are also faceless. And online bookkeeping services do offer significant advantages.
Despite a few minor drawbacks, if you are starting a business or thinking about moving your accounts to an online bookkeeping service, More Than Accountants is an option worth exploring.
Top-Rated Online Accountants:
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£24.50/mo | Excellent | 9.4 | Read Review | Visit Website | |
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Variable | Good | 9.1 | Read Review | Visit Website |